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" In a landmark case in Ireland&amp;#039;s anti-abortion laws, it has been ruled that the life support of brain-dead pregnant woman shall be turned off.  After suffering a severe head trauma, an unnamed woman in her 20s was declared brain dead. She was also within the first twenty weeks of pregnancy, which meant that doctors forbade turning off her life support machine, due to Ireland&amp;#039;s anti-abortion laws. They argued that turning off the woman&amp;#039;s life support would constitute and abortion. The woman&amp;#039;s family, meanwhile, have strongly expressed their desire to let her die peacefully, without the use of a life support machine. They argue she is being kept alive for the sole purpose of using her body as a vessel for her child, which they describe as unethical.  This controversial case was brought to Dublin&amp;#039;s high court this Tuesday, three weeks since the woman was first declared brain dead. On the side of the unborn child, who were against turning off life support, lawyers stated that to justify turning off the life support, there must be absolutely no possibility of the child surviving.  After hearing doctors say that the chance of the child being born alive were &amp;quot;virtually nonexistent&amp;quot;, and that the situation could result only in &amp;quot;distress and death&amp;quot;, it was decided that it would be lawful, in this case, to turn off the woman&amp;#039;s life support.  To &amp;quot;maintain and continue&amp;quot; the life support, said the judge, would &amp;quot;deprive her of dignity in death. It would 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.&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.cosmopolitan.co.uk/reports/news/a32188/pregnant-life-support-turned-off/>