## Facts

- During the eighth month of pregnancy, the parents learned their child would be born with anencephaly, a congenital condition that is universally fatal and precludes consciousness.
- The newborn’s skull was largely absent, leaving brain-stem tissue exposed except for bandaging and creating a significant risk of infection.
- Although the child lacked a functioning cerebrum, the brain stem could sustain autonomic functions such as heartbeat and limited respiration for a short time.
- The parents sought a judicial declaration that the newborn was legally dead at or shortly after birth so the child’s organs, including heart and liver, could be donated to other infants.
- The hospital and treating providers refused to declare death because the child did not satisfy Florida’s statutory definition of death and organ removal could create civil and criminal liability.
- The trial court denied relief, ruling that legal death could not be declared while brain-stem function continued under section 382.009(1), Florida Statutes (1991).

## Issues

1. Whether an anencephalic newborn may be considered “dead” for organ-donation purposes solely by reason of anencephaly, despite continuing cardiopulmonary and brain-stem function.
2. Whether Florida courts may expand the statutory definition of death to include a category such as “higher-brain” or “anencephalic” death.

## Decision

- The Florida Supreme Court answered the certified question in the negative and left the trial court’s denial in place.
- The Court held that, under existing Florida law, anencephaly alone does not satisfy the statutory definition of death.
- Because some brain-stem function persisted, the newborn was not legally dead, and organ procurement before statutory death criteria were met was not authorized.

## Legal Principles

- Florida’s statutory death definition recognized death by irreversible cessation of circulatory and respiratory functions, and separately permitted “whole-brain death” only upon irreversible cessation of all brain functions, including the brain stem, when circulation is artificially maintained.
- Loss of consciousness or absence of higher cerebral function is not, by itself, a legal standard for death under the statute.
- Courts may not create a new category of “legal death” to facilitate organ donation when the legislature has adopted a specific definition; changes to the death standard are for legislative action after public debate.

## Conclusion

The court held that an anencephalic newborn is not legally dead for organ-donation purposes while heartbeat and brain-stem function continue, and it declined to judicially expand Florida’s statutory definition of death to include “higher-brain” or “anencephalic” death.


In re T.A.C.P., 609 So. 2d 588 (Fla. 1992)