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| Monday, 28 November 2011 11:12 |
The tragedy of abortion
A woman who was expecting twins - and was 32 weeks pregnant - was told that one of the babies had a heart defect. Doctors told her that the baby would have to have numerous operations, if it survived. The Herald Sun reported that, "A Victorian mother, pregnant with twin boys she had already named, had made the agonising decision to abort one of the babies on doctors' advice." The doctor, at the Royal Women's Hospital in Melbourne, aborted the 'WRONG' baby - the healthy child. Then the other baby was killed as well. For the woman, this is indeed a sad situation. As her friend said, "She went to the hospital with two babies and now she has none. And she had the heartache of giving birth to her sick baby. She's traumatised." Any abortion takes a life and is a tragedy. For women who choose to abort one of their babies (for health reasons or because they don't want that many children) there is the emotional problem of having to tell the surviving child that their sibling was aborted... Selective abortions, late-term abortions and this current situation highlight what Victoria's abortion law really allows - and show why it is one of the worst abortion laws in the world. But the big questions remain...WHY do doctors recommend 'selective abortion', killing off what they deem to be unhealthy or disabled (or 'excess') children? Michael Cook, of Bioedge, notes: "As British bioethics writer Peter Saunders points out, the case illustrates the conundrums raised by the notion of “the wanted child”." Peter Saunders writes, "It is interesting that the killing of an ‘unwanted’ child with special needs in the womb is regarded as ‘normal’ whilst the killing of a ‘wanted’ normal child is seen as a tragedy and worthy of international news coverage. And yet if the ‘abnormal’ baby had actually been born, doctors would presumably have done everything possible to provide what treatment or care they could. Of course if the second ‘normal’ child had also been ‘unwanted’ then the story would not have warranted a mention. Abortion of ‘unwanted’ ‘normal’ babies takes place over 40 million times every year around the world.” Medical bungle at Royal Women's Hospital kills healthy fetus Wrong twin aborted in Australian mix-up Hospital kills 'wrong' twin in selective abortion - both babies now dead It's time to act!Please write to... |
The horror of Victoria's abortion law became even more apparent last week.