Abstract

Maternal somatic support after brain death occurs when a brain-dead patient is pregnant and her body is kept alive to deliver a fetus. The moral controversy cracks into two different extreme parties which one praised the worthiness on the dignity of dying mother and the other insists the rights to life of the unborn child. In other words, the moral status of the brain-dead mother and that of the fetus are of ethical question. This paper aims to resolve the conflicting point-of-views in the matter of maternal somatic support, suggesting that the key factor should be placed on mother-child relationship rather creating a separated clash between the two.