On the Use of Anencephalic Infants as Organ Donors

Abstract

Two physicians argue against changing the Uniform Determination of Death Act and the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act to allow procurement of transplantable organs from infants with anencephaly who do not meet the legal criteria for brain death. Medearis and Lewis believe that the potential supply of organs from anencephalic infants has been overestimated, that anencephaly can be misdiagnosed, and that allowing organs to be taken from live anencephalics, thereby killing them, would set a dangerous precedent. They also warn of the need to protect a woman with an anencephalic fetus from pressure either to abort or to carry to term and donate the infant's organs. The authors call for more studies on anencephalic infants (such as the one reported by Peabody, et al. in this issue of the