Pro-life actor Nick Cannon’s infant son has died from a brain tumour at just five months old.
The American actor’s seventh child, baby Zen Scott, died on 5 December. Zen had the condition hydrocephalus, where fluid builds up in the cavities of the brain and increases the size of the ventricles, putting pressure on the brain.
Zen’s father explained that he and Zen’s mother noticed at about two months old that his head seemed large and suspected that he might have developed a sinus issue.
Cannon said: “I always noticed he had a cough and so I wanted to check it out. He had this interesting breathing and by the time he was two months, he had this nice sized head too – a Cannon head”.
“We didn’t think anything of it. But I wanted to take him to the doctor for his sinus and breathing. We thought it would be routine”.
Instead, the baby had to have brain surgery and a shunt put in place to drain the fluid. From there, Cannon said, things just got worse.
“You can’t heal until you feel”.
Cannon told his audience: “This weekend, I made a valid effort to spend the most quality time with Zen. We woke up on Sunday and went to the ocean with him and Alyssa, and then I had to fly back to New York for the show”.
“I got a call on my way to the airport to head back to Zen”.
Cannon then recounted how he held his son for the last time on the weekend, saying: “You can’t heal until you feel”.
Congenital hydrocephalus affects one or two of every 1,000 babies born in the United States, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine.
24 babies aborted for having hydrocephalus
It is sometimes possible to diagnose hydrocephalus prenatally and if done so, in the UK at least, it is legal to have an abortion up until the moment the child is born. In England and Wales in 2020, there were 24 abortions in which hydrocephalus was mentioned as a reason for the abortion. 5 of these were performed after 24 weeks gestation.
In 1999, a baby diagnosed with hydrocephalus while in his mother’s womb was born free of the condition two months after doctors operated on his brain during a landmark open-womb surgical procedure.
Right To Life UK spokesperson, Catherine Robinson, said: “The death of Zen Scott is a tragedy. Just because his life was short though, does not mean that it was not beautiful or worthwhile. In England and Wales, an average of almost one baby every fortnight was aborted because they had the same condition. This is a great sadness. Zen’s life mattered, and those babies whose lives are ended in the womb by abortion matter too”.
