Baby May Become Organ Donor

A baby boy born with most of his brain missing will be used as an organ donor if he is declared brain-dead by next Thursday night, a hospital spokeswoman said Friday.

The boy, identified only as Baby D, was born at an unidentified Southern California hospital Thursday and transferred that evening to Loma Linda University Medical Center, said Anita Rockwell, a spokeswoman for the center about 60 miles east of Los Angeles.

Baby D was born with anencephaly, a defect in which most of the brain is missing and which almost always leads to death within days or weeks.

“His parents want to donate their baby’s organs when brain death occurs,” Rockwell said.

Dr. Joyce Peabody, Loma Linda’s chief of neonatology, said Baby D was resting comfortably Friday afternoon and receiving nutrition and water as needed.

Under Loma Linda’s policy of the preserving anencephalics’ organs for possible donation, Baby D will be placed on a respirator if needed and kept alive for up to seven days or until he meets medical criteria for brain death.

If Baby D is declared brain-dead within the seven days, the hospital will notify organ procurement agencies nationwide that his organs are available for transplants. If he is not brain dead within seven days, he will be allowed to die.

Loma Linda’s seven-day limit aims to address ethical concerns raised by some who say that doomed anencephalics should not be kept alive indefinitely merely so their organs can be donated.

Loma Linda University gained worldwide attention in 1984 when Dr. Leonard Bailey, frustrated at the lack of heart donors for babies with fatal heart defects, transplanted a baboon’s heart into a girl known as Baby Fae, who died 20 days later.

Bailey, whose baboon transplant was sharply criticized by many doctors, subsequently urged the use of anencephalics as donors of hearts and other organs.

Baby D is the fourth anencephalic newborn accepted as a possible organ donor at the hospital.