An 18-week-pregnant woman in Ireland was taken off life support after a court deemed her fetus had no realistic prospects of survival.
The unidentified woman in her late 20s was declared clinically dead three weeks ago, but her doctors refused to turn off her life support that regulated her oxygen, blood flow, nutrition and waste collection because of Ireland's strict anti-abortion laws, reported The Associated Press.
The patient was hospitalized after she fell and hit her head. She is married and has two young children.
The woman's family, including her husband who is the father of her fetus, have been asking doctors to take her off of life support after she was declared clinically dead.
Seven doctors testified in court saying the fetus could not survive for the extra two months of development needed to be delivered safely. The woman's body was called a lethal environment for the fetus by the doctors in court, as it's full of infections, fungal growths, fever and high blood pressure, according to The AP.
In court, the judges ruled that the fetus is facing "a 'perfect storm' from which it has no realistic prospect of emerging alive. It has nothing but distress and death in prospect."
The court also said it's wrong to continue to deprive a woman "of dignity in death and subject her father, her partner and her young children to unimaginable distress in a futile exercise which commenced only because of fears held by treating medical specialists of potential legal consequences."
The 29-page ruling is especially notable because Ireland has the strictest abortion policy in Europe - likely due to the large Roman Catholic population in the country.
