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Incompatible with life

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The term incompatible with life is used in circumstances of injury or developmental disorder that are considered to render life impossible.

Injury and death

Examples of the former include injuries such as decapitation or gross dismemberment. Other circumstances that are regarded as self-evidently incompatible with life include traumatic hemicorporectomy, decomposition, incineration, hypostasis and rigor mortis; in these circumstances, paramedics and other similar workers may be allowed to regard a person as dead in the absence of a physician.[1][2]

Fetal abnormality

The latter includes very severe developmental disorders in which essential structures or biological functions necessary for the preservation of life are not formed; they may result in spontaneous abortion, stillbirth, or neonatal death. Examples of conditions generally considered incompatible with life include Potter's syndrome and anencephaly.[3] Where disorders incompatible with life are found before birth, patients may elect to have an induced abortion.[4]

The definition of which conditions are incompatible with life can change as medicine advances, such as where medical techniques have made it possible for some people born with some conditions generally regarded as incompatible with life such as Potter's syndome to survive.[5][6] There have even been extremely rare cases of short-term survival into infancy with conditions as severe as anencephaly.[7] However, others remain beyond help.

References

  1. ^ "Recognition of Life Extinct by Ambulance Clinicians" (PDF). warwick.ac.uk. October 2006.
  2. ^ Hopson, Laura R.; Hirsh, Emily; Delgado, Joao; Domeier, Robert M.; McSwain, Norman E. Jr; Krohmer, Jon (January 2003). "Guidelines for Withholding or Termination of Resuscitation in Prehospital Traumatic Cardiopulmonary Arrest: Joint Position Statement of the National Association of EMS Physicians and the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma". Journal of the American College of Surgeons. 196 (1): 106. doi:10.1016/S1072-7515(02)01668-X. ISSN 1879-1190.
  3. ^ Wilkinson, Dominic; de Crespigny, Lachlan; Xafis, Vicki (October 2014). "Ethical language and decision-making for prenatally diagnosed lethal malformations". Seminars in Fetal & Neonatal Medicine. 19 (5): 306–311. doi:10.1016/j.siny.2014.08.007. ISSN 1744-165X. PMC 4339700. PMID 25200733.
  4. ^ Costa, Lúcia de Lourdes Ferreira da; Hardy, Ellen; Osis, Maria José Duarte; Faúndes, Anibal (2005). "Termination of Pregnancy for Fetal Abnormality Incompatible with Life: Women's Experiences in Brazil". Reproductive Health Matters. 13 (26): 139–146. ISSN 0968-8080.
  5. ^ "Herrera Beutler's 'miracle baby' gets kidney". The Columbian. 2023-10-10. Retrieved 2023-10-14.
  6. ^ "Survival of Rep. Herrera Beutler's child a celebrated case study". The Seattle Times. 2014-08-23. Retrieved 2023-10-14.
  7. ^ Dickman, Holly; Fletke, Kyle; Redfern, Roberta E (2016-10-31). "Prolonged unassisted survival in an infant with anencephaly". BMJ Case Reports. 2016: bcr2016215986. doi:10.1136/bcr-2016-215986. ISSN 1757-790X. PMC 5093842. PMID 27799226.

See also


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