THE RIGHT TO LIFE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 212, 7 August 1937, Page 9

THE RIGHT TO LIFE

CURIOUS CASE IN U.S.A. A MOTHER DIES. BABY BORN AFTERWARDS. (United Press Association —By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) Received August 7, 10.25 a.in. PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 5.

In a most unusual medical-legal case, hospital authorities obtained a Court order to perform a Caesarean ejnration on Mrs Mary Boccawsini, aged 27 years, wife of a former labourer, immediately after her death. She was unconscious and was given 15 hours to live owing to tubercular meningitis, but the physicians were convinced that the infant could l-e delivered during the eight minutes before the dead woman’s circulation ceased.

Her husband had earlier refused permission, hut he later consented. The Court ruled that the fluid had the right to life and property, though, yet unborn. Tho woman died at an early hour m the morning, 'the Caesarean operation was performed a lew seconds aKerward, the baby being delivered alive. The baby is a girl and is expected to live, although she weighs oiny 41b and is breathing with difficulty and it has been found necessary to place her in an oxygen tent. The mother’s temperature at the instant of death was 109.4 degrees and the physicians marvelled that the baby was not parboiled, but they do not fear tuberculosis infection from the mother.