Adriana Smith, a 30-year-old nurse and mother, was about 9 weeks pregnant in February when doctors declared her brain dead in an emergency.

But Smith's mother, April Newquake, Tell Atlanta TV station WXIA Since then, doctors at Emory University Hospital have kept her organs working until the fetus can give birth, citing Georgia laws prohibiting detection of fetal heart activity after fetal heart activity, or about six weeks of pregnancy.

Smith is now around 22 weeks pregnant and has been around for more than 90 days.

"My grandson may be blind and may not be able to walk, and we don't know if he will be alive once he has him," Newkilk told WXIA last week. "And I'm not saying we'll choose to terminate her pregnancy. I mean we should have a choice."

Cases raise legal issues

Democratic Senator Nabilah Islam Parkes wrote a letter to Georgia Republican Attorney General Chris Carr asking how Georgia's abortion law can be applied in this case.

"Let me be simple: this is a weird twist of medical ethics and human decency," Islam Parkes wrote. "Any law in Georgia can be interpreted as requiring the artificial maintenance of a brain-dead woman's body as a fetal incubator, which is not only medically unsound, but also inhumane."

The law, known as the Life Act, was nearly passed and signed into law by Gov. Brian Kemp in 2019, but it did not take effect until the U.S. Supreme Court overturned it Roe vs. Wade In 2022. Legal challenges to Georgia’s abortion law are still underway through state courts.

"There is no need in the Life Act to maintain life support after brain death," Carl's office responded in a statement. "Eliminating life support is not the purpose of ending pregnancy."

Emory Healthcare seems to have come to a different conclusion. The hospital has not addressed the attorney general’s legal opinion and has not responded to repeated requests for comment, but the health system did provide statements to several media outlets last week.

“Emory Healthcare uses consensus from clinical experts, medical literature and legal guidance to support our providers as they make personalized treatment recommendations under Georgia’s abortion law and all other applicable laws,” the health system wrote. “Our priority remains the safety and well-being of the patients we serve.”

Mary Ziegler, a law professor at Davis University in California, said this disconnect is not uncommonroe ERA, state healthcare providers with abortion laws that restrict sexual abortion laws become more risk-averse. In many states, laws under the law may be subject to criminal penalties.

"The situation in Georgia is an example," Ziegler said, "No problem, keep going," you let the doctor and his attorney read the law and say, 'We're not sure, we're not sure."

Ziegler also noted that the deaths of two other black women in Georgia, Amber Thurman and Candi Miller, have attracted national attention. ProPublica Report Last year, the national panel ruled that their deaths were preventable and could be the result of slowing down or reluctance to provide abortion care due to Georgia law. Top Republicans in Georgia have objected to whether the state's abortion law plays any role.

These cases also highlight Georgia's Maternal mortality crisis Disproportionately affecting black women.

Debate on personality

Ziegler said that in the case of Adriana Smith, one of the reasons Emory might explain Georgia law in this way is because a provision in the abortion law defines what is called "fetal personality."

The idea that the fetal personality is the embryo and the fetus is human and has legal rights. In Georgia, for example, residents can require the fetus to be relied on state taxes.

Ziegler, author Book Personality, the new civil war reproduction, It is said that the fetal personality has Long-term is the goal Anti-abortion exercise.

Sen. Ed Setzler, a Republican who sponsors Georgia's 2019 abortion law, said in a statement that he believes Emory correctly interprets the law.

"I think it's perfectly appropriate for the hospital to do everything possible to save the life of a child," Seitzler wrote in a statement to the Associated Press. "I think it's an unusual situation, but I think it highlights the value of innocent human life. I think the hospital is behaving normally."

After the collapse Roe v Wadeexisting state personality laws can be enforced, resulting in intention and unexpected consequences, such as in the Georgia case. Ziegler said the debate could open up a series of new legal issues for new legal issues in areas such as Vettero's fertilization, census or child support.

As these cases stimulate more legal challenges, the problem may Finally landing In the U.S. Supreme Court.