THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 9, 1995 TAG: 9507080604
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DEBRA GORDON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 82 lines
Tina Hartley has three children. Two are outside playing. One resides permanently in her heart.
That child is Hannah. She died 10 years ago, a half-hour before she was born, which, everyone told Hartley, was a blessing.
Hannah was anencephalic. She had no brain and was missing parts of her skull and head. Even if she'd been born alive, she would have died within a few hours or days.
In recent weeks, the scar tissue Hartley had grown over her emotional wound has begun to get raw again.
Anencephaly is in the news.
The American Medical Association recently took the position that parents of anencephalic newborns should be allowed to donate their children's organs while the children are still clinically alive.
Anencephalics' organs deteriorate as their health fades, so harvesting after their hearts have stopped naturally is not feasible.
Under current law, the AMA-suggested procedure would be considered murder.
The television show ``Chicago Hope'' picked up the issue with a story about an anencephalic baby and the ethical dilemma of donating its organs.
Hartley, a Virginia Beach resident, watched that program, her teeth clenched in anger as she heard doctors refer to the child as a ``headless baby.''
``It hurt,'' she said.
Her husband told her to call the TV station and express her opinion, but she hesitated. ``It's very hard when you feel like you're the only one out there fighting for their dignity.''
Hartley opposes the AMA's position. When Hannah was born, people said to her, ``Wouldn't it be neat if you could donate her organs?'' And Hartley said no.
``She was a little girl who was fighting for her life. She came into this world with problems; she should be allowed to leave in one piece and have as much dignity as possible. And to me, donating the organs is murder.''
Don't get her wrong: Hartley supports organ donations. But not from anencephalic babies.
``They should be recognized as a child just like any other child . . . The way a lot of the medical profession looks at these children is that they aren't really people. They're little organ donors and that's it. These babies are just as human as anybody else.''
She didn't call the TV station, but when she saw an article about the AMA's position in last Sunday's Virginian-Pilot/ Ledger-Star, Hartley decided to speak up.
She was one of 41 people who called a special phone line that the newspaper set up to record comments on the issue. She was in the minority. Twenty-six of the callers supported the AMA's position; 15 opposed it.
Said Margaret Kraus, of Virginia Beach: ``It would be a blessing if these babies' organs could be harvested. If something good could come out of this tragedy. And that's what it is if you have this kind of a baby.''
But Carol McAdoo of Virginia Beach said she thought anencephalic organ donation would be an anathema. ``We should not even be considering the merits of murder; we are becoming a nation of moral degenerates if we support such a policy of ghoulish murder.''
Hartley understands the intellectual arguments behind the AMA's position. ``I can see that it is a neat way to look at it, that part of the child can go on living.'' But when she brings it down to her own personal level, when she thinks about Hannah, that's where her support stops.
She views the discussion as a continuation of the disrespectful way doctors treated her when they learned she was carrying an anencephalic baby.
It was her eighth month - too late for an abortion. And as the doctors poked and prodded her, talking of ``nonviable'' babies and ``nonpersons,'' she had to bite her lip to keep from screaming.
``This is a child,'' she wanted to shout. ``This is my child.''
Hartley went on to have another daughter, who's now 8. And she has a 12-year-old son. They both know about their sister Hannah.
When he was little, her son used to look up at the night sky, searching in the stars for his sister.
He'd been told that one of those stars was a candle. Held by Hannah, who was now an angel. by CNB