Page "Anencephaly" Paragraph 10

There are at least three different arguments in support of or against donation of anencephalic organs based on utilitarian, Kantian, and pro-life views.

Utilitarians believe that the choice that benefits the most amount of people is the most ethical choice.

In the case of organ donation, since anencephalics aren't sentient and can never experience either pain or pleasure, using their organs to maximize the happiness of society through saving the lives of other infants is the logical and ethical choice ( rather than letting both infants die ).

The Kantian view follows that ethics should be based on duty and principle rather than end goals, and that moral imperatives are revealed by universalizing a moral decision.

And since, if all anencephalic infants were to have their organs donated to other infants at birth, there would be no obviously societally detrimental effects while instead improving / saving the lives of that many more infants, we have the moral imperative to do so.

Finally, the pro-life position is against organ donation in this case on the religious grounds that human life begins at conception.

Thus anencephalics have the right to life, regardless of their non-sentience.