Zone1 A child afflicted with anencephalia, with no ability to think, breathe on their own, feel pain, to ever become self-aware, etc. is a "person."

[Chuz Life]

If the parents want an abortion I'm OK with that. If the child is already born I'd say let nature take its course.

Is that what the OP is asking about?

 

[Chuz Life]

A slow death costing millions isnt a good idea

Like so many other human beings/ persons aren't also on a slow path to death. Many - self inflicted.

 

[JoeB131]

It's a living human being. Regardless of any absense of feelings, emotions, and/or senses.

It wasn't their choice to be born, or be born like that.

If the parents want to take care of the kid until it dies, then let them do so. DO NOT be asking for help, because it's not anybody else's fault that they couldn't be bothered to get a simple DNA test before screwing each other, to see what kind of kid they would potentially have.

I'm not sure that a DNA test could predict this kind of abnormality was a potential.

What's more likely is that this COULD be detected by an ultrasound, the kind of news no expectant parents would ever want to hear.

The best course of action at that point is abortion, of course, to the sane part of the world that isn't trying to appease imaginary sky pixies.

 

[Chuz Life]

I'm not sure that a DNA test could predict this kind of abnormality was a potential.

What's more likely is that this COULD be detected by an ultrasound, the kind of news no expectant parents would ever want to hear.

The best course of action at that point is abortion, of course, to the sane part of the world that isn't trying to appease imaginary sky pixies.

Rather than repeat myself to present my response to this, I'll just link to it.

Zone1 Post in thread 'A child afflicted with anencephalia, with no ability to think, breathe on their own, feel pain, to ever become self-aware, etc. is a "person."'

Aug 9, 2025

I personally would let them slip away at birth in the most reverential way and manner possible .
However , I appreciate that this might represent arrogance and me trying to out-think Universe .
In which case I could be creating negative Kama for myself which will need later resolution .

A complex subject.

Okay, first of all, wow!

The question in the OP and Poll is very simple, and it is intended to hopefully make the point that neither legal personhood, nor "natural personhood" requires "sapience, sentience, or an ability to breathe on one's own, an ability...

• Chuz Life

 

[Hafar1014]

Like so many other human beings/ persons aren't also on a slow path to death. Many - self inflicted.

Anencephaly is not a person and never can be

 

[Hafar1014]

So the laws that legally recognize and treat them as persons are wrong and must be overturned, in your opinion?

Its not a person. Letting it live is an act of cruelty

 

[Chuz Life]

Anencephaly is not a person and never can be

The courts have consistently ruled otherwise.

 

[Chuz Life]

Its not a person. Letting it live is an act of cruelty

To WHO?

 

[Mr Natural]

To WHO?

The child.

 

[Dragonlady]

Doctors know what functions and abilities different regions of the brain are associated with. When those parts of the brain are missing entirely, the impairment is not only obvious in the present it is also indicative of the prognosis of the child, too.

The fact that the anencephalic child will never regenerate the missing portions of their brain and how that compares to a child only a few weeks younger, who has no more "autonomous" brain function presently, but, if left alone and not interfered with, typically WILL. I thought, might be obvious.



Are they just as "entitled to the equal protection of our laws" as any other child is, though?

I say they are and must be. And I apply that to my reasoning for why children in the womb are entitled to the same.

Obviously, some here completely disagree.

Why would you require the woman to carry this fetus to term, only to have it die within hours? This is utterly heartless and soul-less as you have no idea of the trauma and risk you are inflicting on the family, awaiting its birth.

The woman has the right not to suffer as well. But you don't care what happens to her, or her family.

 

[toobfreak]

When an infant has anencephaly the brain doesnt exist only a brain stem. There is no mind. It can never be a person

I understand all of that, but there are degrees. I do not know the specifics of this child's individual case. Obviously he will never lead a normal life by a million miles, but now that he was not left to die naturally on the delivery table and was kept alive, he deserves the chance at life to live as long as he can and aspire naturally, which might only be days, weeks or months, but you never know.

 

[Dragonlady]

I understand all of that, but there are degrees. I do not know the specifics of this child's individual case. Obviously he will never lead a normal life by a million miles, but now that he was not left to die naturally on the delivery table and was kept alive, he deserves the chance at life to live as long as he can and aspire naturally, which might only be days, weeks or months, but you never know.

There are NOT "degrees". These children do not survive - EVER. Other than organ donation, there is no value in forcing women to carry these infants to term, and great risk in their doing so.

Unless you're prepared to pay the costs of the pregnancy, the confinement, and the funeral, it's none of your business what happens to these pregnancies. It takes a woman two years to recover from a pregnancy. To force a woman to endure the hardships of pregnancy and childbirth to give birth to a dying infant is beyond cruel.

But to you the woman, her husband and children are NOTHING. Someone for you to force into your idea of "morality".

 

[EvilCat Breath]

Anencephaly is not a person and never can be

It's a person.

Suppose some civic minded person entered the room where the anecephalitic person lay in bed. Being a caring civic minded person, he or she disconnected the machines and lovingly pressed a pillow over the patient's face.

Is this murder? Yes, of course, it's a person.

 

[Chuz Life]

When an infant has anencephaly the brain doesnt exist only a brain stem. There is no mind. It can never be a person

So, the laws that legally recognize and treat them as persons are wrong and must be overturned, in your opinion?

Anencephaly is not a person and never can be

Its not a person. Letting it live is an act of cruelty

To WHO?

The child.

Please explain how a child that has no capacity for thought, self awareness, sentience, sapience, etc. can have any idea at all that they are being harmed in any way.

This should be interesting.

Also, watch out for the second edge on that sword.

 

[Chuz Life]

Please explain how a child that has no capacity for thought, self awareness, sentience, sapience, etc. can have any idea at all that they are being harmed in any way.

This should be interesting.

Also, watch out for the second edge on that sword.

I ran out of time to edit it in, but this exchange reminded me of this video I discovered a long time ago.

 

[toobfreak]

There are NOT "degrees".

That is odd, I'm no medical expert, but the article I read up on the affliction stated that this or that /usually/ happened. So it sounded like to me there is some variation in these cases to some degree, and not every one of them were copybook cases.

What I considered was that even just the brain stem and perhaps some portion of the mid-brain, considering just the physical size of it in contrast to the size of the brains of many small mammals, that if they had a case where the child survived, that there might be some small possibility of the brain rewiring itself just a little and regaining some tiny degree of improvement. But if none of them ever get that chance, we will never know if or how far.

But to you the woman, her husband and children are NOTHING. Someone for you to force into your idea of "morality".

Blow it out your ass. Don't you dare attack me in the CDZ telling me what you think I think, want or feel. I'm not trying to force anyone to do anything, the problem is that in a sane universe, the woman should already want to do the right thing herself, but Progressivism has corrosively masked its decay on society as "progress."

 

[JoeB131]

Rather than repeat myself to present my response to this, I'll just link to it.

You'd make a woman carry a baby for the full nine months just to watch it die within days of birth, incuring thousands of dollars in debt for the doctors to go through the motions, because fetuses are people, all praise the fetus. We got it. You are a fanatic. We've established that.

 

[Hafar1014]

I understand all of that, but there are degrees. I do not know the specifics of this child's individual case. Obviously he will never lead a normal life by a million miles, but now that he was not left to die naturally on the delivery table and was kept alive, he deserves the chance at life to live as long as he can and aspire naturally, which might only be days, weeks or months, but you never know.

There is no brain

 

[JoeB131]

Its not a person. Letting it live is an act of cruelty

To WHO?

Well, to the parents, to start with.

to the Child as well, since it's going to die gasping for air within days of birth.

 

[JoeB131]

I ran out of time to edit it in, but this exchange reminded me of this video I discovered a long time ago.

Why?

People have sued their doctors for "Wrongful births", that a doctor should have anticipated their disability before they were born (with abortion being the likely alternative treatment.)

wilsonlaw.com/blog/50-million-verdict-awarded-in-wrongful-birth-case/

In this case, the father had a rare genetic defect in his family line – his cousin was found to have a defect known as an unbalanced chromosome translocation. As a result, any children he would have would be at risk – and he and his wife were told that there would be a 50/50 chance of such a defect occurring in their own children. Given this alarming news, the couple closely followed all medical recommendations, including genetic counseling and testing. When the man’s wife became pregnant, medical professionals told the couple that genetic tests pronounced their child as normal.

Unfortunately, this was not the case. As soon as their son was born, it became apparent that he had the genetic defect, and was born with severe mental and physical disabilities as a result. Valley Medical Center and Laboratory Corporation of America (LabCorp) became the responsible parties.