A chance at life

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LINDSAY MAST, HOST: It’s Thursday, the 10th of July.

Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Lindsay Mast.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown.

First up on The World and Everything in It…when life and death collide.

In February, 30-year-old Adriana Smith was declared brain dead. Doctors at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta kept her on life support because she was nine weeks pregnant.

On June 13th, doctors delivered Smith’s baby via c-section. Four days later, they removed Smith’s ventilator.

MAST: The tragedy of Smith’s death and the good news of her baby’s arrival have been met with outrage. That’s because there’s a troubling question at the heart of this story: should Smith have been allowed to die earlier?

Here’s WORLD’s Anna Johansen Brown.

ANNA JOHANSEN BROWN: Inside the cream-colored sanctuary of Fairfield Baptist Church, mourners filed past Adriana Smith’s open casket. It was June 28th. Pink and white flowers flanked the coffin, contrasting with the large black speakers onstage.

SOUND: [FUNERAL]

Fairfield senior pastor Eric Vickers:

VICKERS: I want to be honest about where we are this afternoon. As the city, as the state, as the nation, and even as the world is watching. We are living in critical and perilous times. And Adriana has become a martyr for our times.

Many pro-abortion advocates are also calling Smith a martyr because she wasn’t allowed to die sooner. According to Georgia’s LIFE Act, doctors can’t abort preborn babies after detecting a heartbeat, usually around six weeks. Some have said that’s why Smith had to stay on a respirator. In a YouTube video, hospice nurse Julie McFadden explained the logic:

MCFADDEN: So although Adriana’s family would like to possibly take her off life support, due to this law, medical professionals are legally not allowed to do that.

Emory hospital apparently told Smith’s family they wanted to avoid violating Georgia’s abortion restrictions and other relevant laws. But, it’s overly simplistic to argue that Georgia’s LIFE Act legally forced the hospital’s hand. Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr told news outlet 11Alive:

11ALIVE: There is nothing in the LIFE Act that requires medical professionals to keep a woman on life support after brain death, removing life-support is not an action with the purpose to terminate a pregnancy.

John Mize is the CEO of Americans United for Life. He says pointing to the state’s abortion restriction is a mischaracterization.

MIZE: When the rare circumstance of when a woman suffers a pregnancy complication in a pro-life state, that the abortion advocates are always prepared to re-victimize these women and their families on national media, attempting to twist narratives to make it appear as if pro-life laws are to blame.

Many states require physicians to keep pregnant patients on life support. But these laws have to do with end-of-life care, not abortion.

In Georgia, doctors can override a woman’s wishes regarding life support if she is found to be pregnant, and they can save her unborn child.

GIBBS: Generally, when there is no advance directive, the protocol should be to save life.

David Gibbs is president and general counsel of the National Center for Life and Liberty. He says it’s not fair to take aim at or give credit to Georgia’s LIFE Act. In fact:

GIBBS: I will go so far as to say, I don’t think the pro-life law had anything to do with whether that baby’s alive. I think the doctors made a decision that there was no clear directive from the mother to end the babies life…

But some people say the circumstance violated Smith’s autonomy for a different reason. And this is where the second argument for Smith’s martyrdom comes in: some advocates think it wasn’t fair to keep Smith on a ventilator just because she was pregnant. U.S. Representative Ayanna Pressley from Massachusetts:

PRESSLEY: But because Adriana was nine weeks pregnant, about a month past a missed period, Adriana’s body has been turned into an incubator. An incubator with no medical rationale, no ethical reason, and no compassion.

These kinds of arguments are behind a movement to let women refuse life-sustaining care no matter what. In 2021, Colorado authorized women to refuse life support during pregnancy. Beginning July 27th, women in Washington state may do the same. There’s a similar bill going through the Michigan legislature and a related lawsuit in Kansas.

The issue of refusing care came up at Adriana Smith’s funeral. After Scripture readings and a bluesy rendition of His Eye Is on the Sparrow, a Georgia lawmaker read a resolution which she called “Adriana’s Law.” State Representative Park Cannon:

CANNON: Whereas the advance directive protection contained in Georgia’s advance directive statute should be upheld, to ensure that a patient’s end-of-life wishes regardless of pregnancy take precedence over fetal personhood clauses.

But Smith might have wanted to give her baby a shot at survival. Here’s John Mize again.

MIZE: But there wasn't an advanced directive that the child be terminated. So who’s to say that the mom wouldn’t have wanted her child to be brought to term given her circumstances? And that’s the complexity in the gray area.

Mize believes the hospital rightly chose to keep Smith on life support until her baby could be delivered. But he said doctors should have at least brought Smith’s family into the decision-making process. Audio from 11Alive’s interview with Smith’s mother April Newkirk:

NEWKIRK: I’m not saying we would have chosen to terminate her pregnancy. But I’m saying we should have had a choice.

General counsel David Gibbs believes the safe delivery of Smith’s baby vindicates the hospital.

GIBBS: And they made the decision that this was a viable baby in our care and we are going to save its life. And I think it was a right decision. I think it was a brave decision. I also think it's within their code of ethics. I mean, doctors are to, under the Hippocratic oath, preserve and protect innocent life. And in this case, I really believe that they did the right thing.

For WORLD, I’m Anna Johansen Brown.

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