An autopsy has revealed that a 19-year-old Down Syndrome woman who died following a late-term abortion at a leading late-term abortion clinic was stripped of her corneas shortly after death. "The eyes are absent secondary to organ procurement (corneal donation)," says the document. The death of Christin Gilbert, a Texas resident whose family brought her to the Kansas clinic of Dr George Tiller, has become a cause c?lebre for the anti-abortion movement.

Although Tiller and his staff were originally cleared by the state medical authorities, activists have succeeded in convoking a grand jury investigation through a citizen petition. Apart from the inflammatory abortion issue, the Gilbert case raises thorny questions about the scope of informed consent for disabled adults. Christin was unable to consent to sex, unable to consent to the abortion and unable to consent to organ harvesting. But they still happened.

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Michael Cook

Michael Cook edits BioEdge, a bioethics newsletter, and MercatorNet, an on-line magazine whose focus is human dignity. He writes from Sydney, Australia.

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