High incidence of anencephaly and legal rights

ABSTRACT

This work reports a high incidence of anencephaly in a small Brazilian town (Santos Dumont, MG), analyzes its impact on the local population, and studies the legal rights of this population to protect itself from the financial burden and human suffering that this "epidemic" of anencephaly has caused. From 1983 through 1992, 49 per cent more anencephalic infants were delivered in Santos Dumont than would be expected from the incidence of 11,000 births for the general population. There were 10,712 births from 1983 to 1992 in a single maternity hospital, and 16 of these births were anencephalic infants, representing 1.491,000. The occurrence of anencephaly varied with mother's agem and an incidence of 1.9 in 1,000 infants was found for women ranging in age from 20 to 29 years. In addition, 4 of 5 anencephalic infants were females, and 2 of 3 anencephalic infants were stillborn. No genetic or environmental factors were identified to account for this extremely high incidence of anencephaly in this population of about 50,000.