London - An American mother will carry her terminally-ill baby to full term so she can donate the girl’s organs.
Keri and Royce Young, from Oklahoma, found out their baby had fatal anencephaly when they went for an ultra-sound scan at 19 weeks.
“She has perfect feet and perfect hands. She has perfect kidneys, perfect lungs and a perfect liver. Sadly, she doesn’t have a perfect brain,” she wrote on Facebook. “We found out she has anencephaly and is terminal.”
The birth defect, in which the baby is born without a fully developed brain, is fatal within hours of birth. Their baby is due around May 7.
“Faced with terrible options we have decided to continue the pregnancy so Eva, which literally means life, can grow strong and give life to multiple people through organ donation,” Young added.
“This was not an easy decision. For the next 20 weeks I will feel her kick, have hiccups and we’ll be able to hear her perfect heart beating, all while knowing we’ll only get a few short hours with her when she’s born."