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Topic: Anencephalic

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	TheFetus.net - Anencephalics as organ donors -Mary Z. Pelias, PhD, JD
		On the other hand, authors who support the use of anencephalics as organ donors have suggested that the UDDA could be modified to include anencephalic infants as a third category of the legally dead, so that healthy vital organs may be removed from these infants before the decline or cessation of vital functions18.
		The question of using anencephalics as vital organ donors focuses on the specific ethical conflict between the utilitarian concept of using one person to benefit another and the Kantian concept of valuing each person as an end in himself, not as a means to another end, such as the well-being of someone else2.
		Now that some anencephalics may become suitable organ donors, some parents are faced with another option, and for some parents the prospect of donating the organs of their dying infant offers solace in a futile and bleak circumstanceøa chance, as some parents have stated, to give some import to the brief life of their infant8.
	www.thefetus.net /page.php?id=81 (1727 words)

	AMA (Professionalism) E-2.162 Anencephalic Neonates as Organ Donors
		Anencephalic neonates are thought to be unique from other brain-damaged beings because of a lack of past consciousness with no potential for future consciousness.
		Physicians may provide anencephalic neonates with ventilator assistance and other medical therapies that are necessary to sustain organ perfusion and viability until such time as a determination of death can be made in accordance with accepted medical standards, relevant law, and regional organ procurement organization policy.
		Retrieval and transplantation of the organs of anencephalic infants are ethically permissible only after such determination of death is made, and only in accordance with the Council's guidelines for transplantation.
	www.ama-assn.org /ama/pub/category/8450.html (122 words)

	Anencephalic Newborns as Organ Donors
		If anencephalic infants are to be viewed as a valuable source of organs for transplantation, questions arise as to the strategies to adopt for the collection of viable organs and the difficulties these create.
		Since the anencephalic lacks a functional cortex, he or she could be regarded under this definition as dead, and a suitable organ donor, even while the body 'lives on' by virtue of technological support devices.
		Considering the anencephalic child to be a non-person reduces their sole utility to a source of organs for transplantation.
	www.alsa.asn.au /files/acj/1996/hinds.html (3387 words)

	Anencephaly - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		The maternal serum alpha-fetoprotein (AFP screening) and detailed fetal ultrasound can be useful for screening for neural tube defects such as spina bifida or anencephaly.
		In almost all cases anencephalic infants are not aggressively resuscitated since there is no chance of the infant ever achieving a conscious existence.
		About 95% of women who learn that they will have an anencephalic baby choose to have an abortion.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Anencephaly (766 words)

	Catholic Culture : Document Library : Moral Principles Concerning Infants with Anencephaly
		The anencephalic child, during his or her probably brief life after birth, should be given the comfort and palliative care appropriate to all the dying.
		Consequently, delivery before viability of an anencephalic infant cannot be justified by the use of the principle of double effect, as the delivery of the infant in this case constitutes a direct killing of the foetus.
		Third, even though the anencephalic infant often does not live beyond a few hours or days, he or she is still a member of the human family and must be assured "comfort care" such as warmth, air, sanitary conditions and bonding with the parents if they wish.
	www.catholicculture.org /docs/doc_view.cfm?recnum=542 (2530 words)

	LLU Center for Christian Bioethics Update 11-2, revisit
		Anencephalic neonates face a certain and usually imminent death, and since they lack the ability to ever have consciousness, many parents have sought to give some meaning to their personal tragedy through organ donation.
		The anencephalic infant lacks any cerebral hemispheres, possessing only a brain stem, which is the site of certain reflex actions such as breathing, sucking and spontaneous movements of the arms or legs.
		Allowing parents of anencephalic infants to donate their child's organs would, therefore, not make it imperative for the family to do so, but would allow them to make some sense of their personal tragedy by giving life to four or five other infants.
	www.llu.edu /llu/bioethics/llethup112c.htm (1013 words)

	Infant Persons
		The anencephalic neo-nate is not capable of consciousness or sentience, as those clearly rest in areas of the brain that are absent.
		The distinction between anencephalic babies and babies with other serious disorders and diseases is made at the outset, as these babies are not normally offered more than "comfort care." They are kept warm and fed, but not kept alive on ventilators or offered life-extending surgeries for any other abnormalities they might have.
		However, because even the brainstem is rudimentary in an anencephalic baby, the few days or weeks which pass until the baby meets the criteria for brain death will usually deteriorate these organs to the point of becoming unusable for transplants, as the organs have generally not been oxygenated sufficiently.
	www.miracosta.edu /home/lmoon/infantpersons.html (3088 words)

	The Center for Bioethics and Culture Network :. Article Display
		Specifically, they justify the killing of anencephalic neonates [newborns with most of their scalp, skull and brain missing] for the benefit of other children needing organs.
		A recent paper from an organ transplant center seeks to expand those who are recognized as brain dead so that their organs would be available for transplants.
		Anencephalic infants are human beings entitled to respect like all human beings and no one should have the right to take their lives for any reason.
	www.thecbc.org /redesigned/research_display.php?id=56 (781 words)

	Mary Ann Palese Chandler - When Species Collide: An Analysis of the Use of Anencephalic Infants and Non-Human Animals ...
		It is arguable that the main obstacle in the path of utilizing organs from anencephalic infants prior to brain death is the inability to legally transform their existence to something less than "human." It is this "non-human" rationale that is used to justify the use of animals in organ transplantation.
		Most anencephalic infants are stillborn either because of death in-utero, or because of the inability of the exposed brain to withstand the pressure of passing through the birth canal.
		As the anencephalic infant goes through the process of dying it suffers from deprivation of oxygen as the respiratory functions begin to fail.
	law.richmond.edu /rjolpi/Issues_Archived/1998_Fall_Biomedical_Ethics/PALESE_FIN.html (11408 words)

	Andreas Teuber: "Casenote: Personhood and Death"
		Those opposed to the view that anencephalics are nonpersons without a right to life point out that this line of reasoning is premised upon the assumption that anencephalic infants are nonsentient, a controverted issue.
		If the anencephalic infant is a person, then a law that declares her dead by virtue of her deformity obviously denies her the protection of the right to live that is afforded to every other person.
		Sixty percent of the live born anencephalics are too small to provide transplantable organs, leaving the annual number of potential anencephalic donors at 122.
	courses.dce.harvard.edu /~phils7/casenote.html (18680 words)

	About LLUAHSC: Legacy (book) chapter 4 (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-25)
		Anencephalic infants are born with most of the brain missing.
		She was one of the more than 50 percent of all anencephalic infants who are born dead; her heart could not be used.
		If anencephalic infants receive customary care, their solid organs usually undergo irreversible hypoxic injury during the process of dying and become unsuitable for donation by the time of death.
	www.llu.edu /info/legacy/legacy5.html (3653 words)

	Anencephaly
		There is, however, no cure for anencephaly, and many physicians recommend aborting the fetus in order to reduce the risk of potential complications that might result from continuing the pregnancy, and in an attempt to alleviate anxiety on the part of the mother and family.
		For example, some moralists have argued that because the higher brain is absent the anencephalic is not a person, and therefore has no moral claim to the right to life.
		Since an anencephalic fetus would normally not in and of itself constitute a pathological condition of the mother, this application of the principle of double effect would only apply when there are additional complications of the pregnancy that pose a proportionately serious threat to the health and life of the mother.
	www.ascensionhealth.org /ethics/public/issues/anencephaly.asp (1018 words)

	Morning Light Ministry - Hope in Turmoil (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-25)
		The combination of certain factors show that the anencephalic is a human being: the infant is generated from human parents, possesses the complete human genome, and functions as an integrated organism.
		Given that the anencephalic infant is an innocent human being, the commonly recommended option of elective abortion is intrinsically evil and morally unacceptable under all circumstances.
		Given the inestimable human dignity of the anencephalic child, the uterine environment in which he or she lives is not useless since it is supporting nothing other than a fully human individual.
	morninglightministry.org /churchteaching.html (5727 words)

	TheFetus.net - Anencephalic fetuses as organ donors -Edward A. Mearns MD, Robert Roger Lebel, MD, Robin L. Gold, MD, ...
		Thus, the availability of organs from anencephalic newborns for donation is limited, as function often falls below acceptable levels when the infants die with hypoxic injury to organs.
		is founded on the fact that the anencephalic infant lacks integrative cerebral functions and faces imminent somatic demise; the conclusion is that such an infant cannot be considered alive.
		From this it follows that parents should be free to donate the organs of their anencephalic infants as soon as the fundamental malformation is diagnosed.
	www.thefetus.net /page.php?id=82 (1305 words)

	The Turkish Journal of Pediatrics
		It is important, therefore, to evaluate possible morphological differences in the hearts of anencephalic cases.
		In this study, muscle fibers were studied in 10 anencephalic and 10 normal fetuses (27-35 weeks) and the results were compared.
		There was statistically no significant difference between the anencephalic and normal fetus groups and the sex groups.
	tjp.dergisi.org /text.php3?id=12 (243 words)

	Andreas Teuber: Florida Supreme Court (1992)
		Likewise, anencephalic infants may reflexively avoid painful stimuli where the brain stem is functioning and thus is able [**11] to command an inmate, unconscious withdrawal response; but the infants presumably lack the capacity to suffer.
		There appears to be general agreement that anencephalics usually have ceased to be suitable organ donors by the time they meet all the criteria for "whole brain death," i.e., the complete absence of brain-stem function.
		Others note that prenatal screening now is substantially reducing the number of anencephalics born each year in the United States and that, consequently, anencephalics are unlikely to be a significant source of organs as tame passes.
	people.brandeis.edu /~teuber/philtacp.html (4026 words)

	3. ANENCEPHALIC BABIES (sample)
		Organs cannot, however, be removed from individuals who are alive, and anencephalic babies, though born dying, are not dead.
		Thus, the debates have raged about whether it is appropriate to make an exception exclusively with anencephalic infants, changing the definition of "dead" in their case so that needed organs can be removed in time to be of use.
		She lived longer than most anencephalic babies, but she died of a heart attack when she was 2.5 years old.
	www3.georgetown.edu /research/nrcbl/hsbioethics/units/unit1_3.html (1186 words)

	ANENCEPHALY SUPPORT FOUNDATION - Management of a Pregnancy (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-25)
		The alleged benefit to result from induction of labor under such circumstances is to relieve the mother of the psychological trauma of having to carry a grossly abnormal fetus throughout the full term of her pregnancy.
		The mother's knowledge that the anencephalic child is alive within her is alleged to be the principal cause of her anxiety and the delivery and subsequent inevitable death of the child is proposed as the source of relief from this anxiety.
		The anencephalic is not truly brain absent of course, since brain stem function is present during the short survival period.
	www.asfhelp.com /asf/management_of_a_pregnancy (1713 words)

	Use of anencephalic newborns as organ donors
		The potential to save the lives of infants dying from cardiac, renal and liver disease, and the desire to give meaning and benefit to the anencephalic infant’s family were presented as justification for changes in the medical standards and the law concerning death and organ donation from anencephalic infants (6,7).
		The study authors concluded that anencephalic infants could not be used as organ donors without legal and medical changes to regulate brain death and organ donation.
		As a result, the number of anencephalic infants born at term has decreased so much that the potential benefit from attempts to use their organs for transplantation is minimal (17-20).
	www.cps.ca /english/statements/B/b05-01.htm (1817 words)

	Parasitic twin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		It continues to survive as a parasite even past birth by forming an umbilical cord-like structure that leeches its twin's blood supply until it grows so large that it starts to harm the host, at which point doctors usually intervene.
		Invariably the parasitic fetus is anencephalic (without a brain) and lacks internal organs, and as such is unable to survive on its own, though it may have almost human (albeit underdeveloped and bizarre) features such as limbs, digits, hair, nails and teeth.
		Fetus in fetu is such a rare condition that only some 90 cases worldwide have ever been reported.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Inclusion_twin (478 words)

	[No title] (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-25)
		Disturbing clusters of anencephalic births in Texas in 1995, showed them that toxins in the environment might play a role in the defects of the central nervous system.
		The legal problem with allowing anencephalic infants to become organ donors is that they are alive and deserve a chance at life, although it will be a dramatically short one.
		There are few exceptions that would make such an impact in others lives, as the ability for parents of anencephalic newborns to donate the organs of the children who are unable to survive.
	www.shore.ctc.edu /eng102/jade.htm (1792 words)

	Wife of sailor battles U.S. over abortion
		Two-thirds of anencephalic fetuses carried to term are born without a heartbeat and fewer than 2 percent survive longer than seven days, he said.
		Easterling said it is standard to offer a woman who learns she is carrying an anencephalic baby counseling and a range of options that include abortion.
		In its appeal, the government said that "although anencephaly is ultimately fatal," some anencephalic babies have lasted a few months, and in one noted case more than two years.
	seattlepi.nwsource.com /local/217156_janedoe23.html (1600 words)

	Commentary on Anencephaly Document
		Pastoral care personnel, with the assistance of a hospital's ethics committee, can be a supportive presence to both the family and medical community in confronting the complex emotions involved in caring for anencephalic infants.
		The death of a child is indeed one of the most difficult losses to mourn, and file Church Should be sensitive to this in providing for the Christian burial of deceased anencephalic infants.
		Because this intervention in the pregnancy of an anencephalic infant results in a direct killing of an innocent human being, the only suitable and ethical response is to allow the infant to reach viability, to baptize the infant immediately upon birth (Ethical and Religious Directives, n.
	www.ewtn.com /library/PROLIFE/bcdanen2.htm (1736 words)

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