Rose-Marie Chaperon

The Ethical Issue With Encephalic Babies and Organ Donation



Posted: Saturday, August 27, 2011

by Rose-Marie Chaperon
Chaperon Consulting, LLC

Conceiving a child with anencephaly can bring up some ethical issues that parents might not have ever previously considered in their lives and while deciding to get conceive. Or, even if they have considered the issues, these issues may not have been truly meaningful to them until they were forced to confront them through an anencephalic pregnancy or after birth.

Although previously, I may have agreed that anencephalic babies are considered to be brain dead, I stand corrected in my previous argument. Anencephalic babies are thus not technically brain dead. Yet there is general consensus that heroic measures should not be used to keep them alive. In fact, anencephaly may be one of the few medical conditions that all doctors agree is futile to treat and the prognosis is death.

There are some ethical issues when it comes to donating organs of an anencephalic child. A few parents want to donate the organs in other for their pregnancy to have had a meaning, a few parents want the facility to do all it can to keep the baby alive and later a few of these parents will donate the organs. There is one ethical issue with donating organs of these children; organs cannot be harvested in these infants unless they are declared legally dead.

In my opinion the courts should make an exception in these cases and declare these children as “legally dead”, this will allow enough time to harvest the organs. Other issues the courts should also consider is to allow physicians to report known cases of encephalic pregnancies, by doing so, family court can work with the pregnant mothers to be in assisting them in terminating the pregnancy. In my opinion this falls under the duty of reasonable care which requires a pregnant woman whose fetus is affected by anencephaly to let her pregnancy go to term, or whether it is ethically permissible to induce early delivery or abort once the diagnosis has been made.

Encephalic babies can be served as really good source of organ donations for other infants requiring transplantation. If I were a parent with an encephalic child, I would confront these controversies and establish a justifiable balance between my infant well-being and that which is medically, legally, and morally ethical. I would donate the organs of my child to save other children. In the best interest of my child it would be to accept the fact that my child is an encephalic child and the prognosis is death. Finally in the best interest of society is to do some good with my child’s organ. The other side of my argument is that I am not a mother, I do not really know how I would feel if I was in that situation, therefore, my opinion is only speculative it is not based on any previous experience.
Rose-Marie Chaperon also works as a Director of Revenue Cycle for healthcare operations. Rose-Marie's experience is process improvement and redesigning patient access and patient financial services areas. Rose Marie is an exceptional A/R guru and has held many Business Office and Patient Financial Services positions throughout her twenty-year tenure in revenue cycle. She is a very proactive leader and the kind of person who can direct a group of people towards their goals. Rose Marie has experience with a variety of software systems and led three hospitals through a system conversion during her assignments there. Rose-Marie is a Certified Healthcare Access Manager (CHAM). Rose-Marie can be reached via e-mail: rosechaperon@hotmail.com or rchaperon@shenahaiti.org

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