Brazil’s bishops celebrated a new resolution of the Federal Medical Council (CFM) determining that doctors cannot induce cardiac arrest on an unborn child with more than 22 weeks of pregnancy. The norm, however, is being challenged by prosecutors and legislators and may not last too long.
On March 21, CFM published the resolution 2378/2024, which states that physicians are not allowed to perform a procedure known as foetal asystole after 22 weeks of pregnancy, a moment in which the viability of the baby’s life out of the mother’s womb is considered to be significant.
Foetal asystole is usually produced with an injection of potassium chloride inside the unborn child’s heart. Dead, the foetus is then taken out from the mother’s uterus.