Brain Death Pregnancy and Dignity: Ethical Issues Between “Brain Death” and the Fetus

In this article, we analyze the bioethical issue of brain-dead pregnancy, both from the perspective of its implications for the brain death criterion and with reference to the ethical question of maintaining life support measures for brain-dead pregnant women with the aim of delivering a fetus. In doing so, we will demonstrate that, after having addressed the main critical positions, brain death cannot be considered the death of a human being because its justification (the brain as the body’s “critical organ”) has ceased to exist. “Brain-death survivors” (Shewmon) demonstrate levels of bodily integration even in the absence of the brain’s contribution. We will also evaluate the ethical consequences of carrying a brain-dead patient to term, a procedure to which we give our ethical assent. In doing so, we will be guided by the principle of dignity.