Hydrancephalic babies – candidates for organ donation?

Harvesting organs for a baby with anenchpaly is the subject of debate between the great halachic authorities of our generation. Rav Yitzchak Zylberstein shilta writes that it is permissible to harvest organs from a baby with anencephaly. (See Sefer Asia XIII, pp. 48-49.) On the other hand, Rav Shlomo Zalman Aurbach zt"l prohibits this. (See Nishmat Avraham, ed. 2007, vol. I (Orach Chaim), siman 330, note 23(2)., pp 50-54, and Sefer Assis XIII, pp. 50-54.)

 

On the other hand, everyone agrees that it is not permissible to harvest organs from a baby with hydrancephalus, because the skull is complete.