The use of anencephalic organs: historical and ethical dimensions.
The condition of newborn infants with anencephaly, a neural tube defect, is incurable and uniformly fatal. Although physicians reached a consensus two decades ago on the appropriateness of using these infants' organs, ethical and legal questioning has since challenged the grounds on which medical authorities justified transplantation. Advocates have proposed three conceptual strategies to warrant procuring anencephalics' organs: redefining death, excluding the infants from possessing personhood, and intubating and ventilating them while keeping a vigil for brain death. Each of these conceptual schemes has arguable shortcomings in its construction, however; as such, the case for using anencephalic infants as sources of organs has yet to be conclusively demonstrated.
Churchill
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LR
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill 27599-7240.
Pinkus
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RL
D000757:Anencephaly; D001926:Brain Death / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D002651:Child Advocacy; D026689:Ethical Analysis; D028663:Ethical Theory; D004992:Ethics, Medical; D005544:Forecasting; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D028681:Moral Obligations; D033282:Parental Consent; D010290:Parents; D028723:Personhood; D028743:Professional Misconduct; D013997:Time Factors; D014019:Tissue Donors; D009927:Tissue and Organ Procurement / Q000266:history / Q000592:standards*; D014481:United States