Poll: Your child is born without a brain. Would you raise it regardless?

[Duck Soup]

Actually this has happened in my family, I'm sorry to say, or at least something similar. My nephew was born with Hydranencephaly so he had part of his brain but not all. We know he could hear, taste, and feel but we don't know if he could see. The doctor told us he would only live a year if we're lucky. He lived 4 months and I wouldn't trade the time we had with him for the world. But we were pretty much just keeping him comfortable until he died and if we had known ahead of time that there was a problem the mother might have aborted. But I'm glad we didn't know. They were the craziest 4 months of my life but I am so glad that I got to love that kid for as long as I did.

So I don't know if that's really an answer but I thought I would share.

 

[Shock and Awe]

Seeing as only having a Brain Stem would make it have no thoughts, emotion, or anything its barely fucking human. Its just a body that manages to somehow not die. I'd euthanize it.

 

[TheRussian]

Does he have conscious thought?

Well, since the consciousness is activity of electrical signals in the brain, the answer is no. Letting him die would be both ethical and the right thing to do.

 

[Lucyfer86]

Kill it, plain and simple.
Can't imagine anyone insisting to let it live.

 

[Mr.Squishy]

No way in hell I'm raising snookie 2.0
No, seriously though, if it has no chance of being a person, but rather a human-shaped blob of flesh, I'd just not bother. And that's before taking into account my dislike of children.

 

[roushutsu]

I don't think I'd have it in me to say "No, kill this child." I'd probably be like the mother in the video, acknowledge that this child wouldn't live for very long but do my best to make him smile while he's still here.

 

[Yopaz]

This happens every now and then and "raising" such a kid just wont happen. This kid lived 3 years, most die within months.

Because of this I can't give an answer. I would not kill it, but raising it would mean that I actually trained it to do and act in a certain way. Since it can't learn, nor perform anything that isn't controlled by the autonomous nerve system I consider raising it to be impossible.

 

[Soods]

And this is why I will adopt my children if I ever wish to have kids.
OT: I would kill it for it would never have any reason for staying alive and would just be a burden to everyone else.

 

[Fiad]

I would not. If I was in that state I know I would not want to live. It is not something I would wish on anyone else either.

 

[GloatingSwine]

Anencephalic babies rarely live more than a few days anyway, so this is a non-issue. I would ensure that those days were as comfortable as possible, though that would be actually carried out by a hospital.

 

[Anatoli Ossai]

There Are two questions that need to be answered .
What is it that makes us Human? And What is the Value of a Life? The medical term for the Baby's condition is Anencephaly. And we see it at the hospital infrequently. Philosophically, what is a person who cannot recognize themselves as alive or dead, awake or asleep and is powered only by a heartbeat and expensive medication. you are and to be callous a bag of meat and chemicals unable generate memories and recognize your own species let alone yourself. You look human on the outside but maybe that's enough for some people. Mothers are fascinating

The second questions the value. The utility. cost vs effect. In colloquial terms "Is the juice worth the squeeze". Depending on your religion or abscence of , or just interpretation of social morality, this question has multiple answers.

If i were a hospital dictator-esque CEO i would deny care to that lifeform and channels funds towards children who have a chance

If i were Religious, i might bite the bullet and see how far it goes

If i were a sociopath , I'd stifle it in its sleep, because it isn't murder if it isn't human

 

[JediMB]

whilst i find it a little disturbing that people are referring to the person as "it" rather than "him" or "her"

A person is defined by his or her mind. Without a brain there is no such thing.

Or at least that's how I see it.

 

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

I would give it to science.

It isn't a human. It's a lump of human shaped flesh.

So yes. FOR SCIENCE.

 

[Omega07]

For me this is a no-brainer (no pun intended)... i would put it down because the... being is not really alive if it is not capable of sentient thought, and thus it is unconsciously suffering... now, i probably have to explain my point of view here:

a) it is limited to basical functions at most, and some primitive reactions (due to spinal cord still being where it should be - if it`s not, then you`re just a hunk of dead flesh) thus it is at the level of basic life forms.

b) if it`s at the level of basic life forms - a human body is way too complex for it

c) in my opinion everything that is out of your capability to control causes you harm or suffering (even if you don`t know it) and thus a human body for a primitive mind is just a burden

so yeah... not keeping the poor little... thing...

 

[Bestival]

I would give it to a gorilla mother. She'd either try to adopt it as her own, which would be fun to watch... Or kill and/or eat it, which will probably also be fun to watch.

...

...

... For science?

 

[mattttherman3]

The child is basically an empty husk is what you're saying? How is this even a question? HOW DOES THAT CHILD EVEN EXIST?! Sad but no real logical reason to keep this husk alive. It truly is an unfortunate reality. Maybe give it to science for experimentation or something, maybe they could clone it a brain.

 

[Blood Brain Barrier]

I don't agree with you. I don't remember trees fucking up the world and making it a living hell. Even the workings of a single cell are far more complex and intricate than what conscious thought is capable of. We aren't clever by any means, we just think we are.

Can you define the way you use the word intelligent like I asked you to?

So you can look up the word in the dictionary and tell me you're right, while totally ignoring my explanation of what I meant? Nah. I know this forum all too well.

 

[Baron von Blitztank]

Does the child get superpowers in return?
No? Then provided the mother is fine with the choice then I'm all up for ending it's misery. It'll be kinder for both of us.