Supreme Court judges decriminalization of anencephalic abortion on Wednesday

[Luizao876]

Quote:Ministers of the STF (Supreme Court) must decide on Wednesday (11) if the abortion of anencephalic - fetuses with total or partial absence of the brain - may or may not be considered a crime. The session, which will be transmitted by UOL, will start at 9am to have any chance of being completed on the same day. In practice, the ministers will discuss what is life - the future Chief Justice Carlos Ayres Britto, the judgment will be a "watershed."

The action came to the Supreme Court in 2004, at the suggestion of the National Confederation of Health Workers (CNTS). The organization defends abortion when there is brain malformation with no chance of long survival for the child. For religious groups, including the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (CNBB), the most important principle is that life should terminate only in a natural way.

But there is controversy that the anencephalic infant, does live - if only briefly. Jurists, which authorize the termination of such pregnancies for over 20 years, legally claim that life ends at brain death. It is only after this that the transplants are authorized and shutdown of equipment. The anencephalic never come to have a cerebral life. That is why even the experts are opposed to the use of the term "abortion" - prefer to use "pregnancy termination" or "earlier delivery."

Critics of this see it as an attempt to open the door to all kinds of abortion, as argued by feminist organizations, including within the Catholic Church. According to a survey by Datafolha in 2004, 67% of São Paulo population was favorable to terminate pregnancies of babies with anencephaly.

The rapporteur is the Minister Marco Aurelio Mello, who has already expressed several times in favor of the measure. It will be the last great judgment of the Court under the chairmanship of Minister Cezar Peluso, who will retire compulsorily in September, when he reaches the age limit of 70 years of age. Ayres Britto will succeed from the day April 19.


It is also the second most important issue on the agenda this year, which should still have in the coming months the trial of the Mensalão scandal.

What is anencephaly

Anencephaly caused by a defect in neural tube (the structure that gives rise to the brain and spinal cord). It can arise between the 21th and 26th day of gestation. The diagnosis is made in the prenatal period, from 12 weeks gestation, initially by means of ultrasonography. Medical authorities say that Brazil has about one case for every 700 babies born.


The vast majority of children born without a brain die moments later. In addition to carrying a baby in the womb probably doomed to live for a few minutes, mothers still have to deal with the bureaucracy of registering the birth and death on the same day. Some judges have already made such abortions. The lawyer of CNTS in action, Luis Roberto Barroso, classifies anencephalic pregnancy as "torture with his mother."

Critics of abortion of babies in this situation cited a 2008 case in Patrocínio Paulista, São Paulo. Marcela de Jesus Ferreira survived one year and eight months because the absence of the brain was not complete and because his mother, Cacilda Galante Ferrari, refused to terminate the pregnancy.

I think that this kind of abortion should be descriminalized. Because, you can't really expect that babies with this problem could live during the pregnancy, and even if he survives, he will surely die in a few months, or with luck, one year. Only religious nutheads wants that kids with this problem has to live and simply die after some time.

[Efs]

Well it's one step closer to complete legalisation but still not there.

[Sociopath]

Hit yourself in the stomach, claim it was an accident, then tell the doctor the abortion is justified because if the baby births it will have a fuckload of physiological/metal problems and is probably deformed and removing it wouldn't matter because of it.