When you think you've heard everything about the sliminess of the attitudes of some doctors, something else comes along to blanch your skin and drop the pit of your stomach even further.
Leading doctors today called for a major overhaul to avoid babies being born alive after abortions.As I mentioned previously, I try to stay away from abortion conversations as a whole. But what happened to the vaunted Hippocratic Oath? Blog brother Avery put it succinctly: "At Least Our Ob/Gyn Was Human..." Posted by mhking at October 7, 2004 10:18 AMProfessor Campbell said that all abortions carried out after 18 weeks of pregnancy should include an injection, followed by drugs, to induce labour and a stillborn child.
Next week a motion is being tabled at the British Medical Association conference that babies should be entitled to all the intensive care that babies born prematurely receive. Consultant obstetrician-Jim Thornton said in the past babies were born alive after abortion more regularly but "people didn't make a fuss and pretended not to realise the baby was born alive".
Professor Thornton, of City Hospital, Nottingham, said: "Once it is born, you can't kill the baby but the law doesn't say anything about to what degree you resuscitate it.
"The way it is dealt with is by sensible doctors and sensible nurses keeping it under their hat and allowing the baby to pass away peacefully."
Professor Campbell does not believe that a baby born in this way should be kept alive at all costs.
"What paediatricians do is spend resources keeping a baby that is going to die, alive. It is absolute nonsense. It does show that is up to us (obstetricians) to make sure the baby is not moving."
I dislike abortion itself but believe the choice of women in this area should not be infringed upon becuae religious and unreligious people don't personally like it. If the baby to be aborted was mine however i would sing a diff tune.
The stuff in your post is stunning and awful if true. If a baby that has been aborted then is born alive it should be cared for. If the abortion didnt work TOUGH!!!!!! surely it is against the hypocratic oath to allow a baby to die because it was supposed to be dead when born.
Posted by: young-white-and-liberal at October 7, 2004 10:25 AMI'm so glad the doctors' names are public, that will help me to know to avoid them.
Posted by: Lola at October 7, 2004 12:53 PMYW&L,
So, for you, the only difference is that the child comes out dead, vs. comes out alive. That's the demarcation line.
Who decides this line? Why at that point? Why 18 weeks, vs 17.5?
This is the problem with the pro-choice position - it's entirely an arbitrary, subjective choice what is considered viable, human life. This is why the anti-abortion people have the logical upper hand - for those folks, life begins at conception, and a line need not be drawn.
TV (Harry)
Posted by: Inspector Callahan at October 7, 2004 03:21 PMNo it is not the only difference for me.
My position on abortion is this.
1. Personally i do not like it. If i were a prospective father and the mother wanted an abortion i would give her anything she wanted for as long as she wanted to not have an abortion.
However if there are genuine grounds for an abortion then OK and here's why.
2. There is debate as to what point in a pregnancy a foetus is a person. As far as I am concerned it is in the 2nd or 3rd trimester and someone who rdeads the bible every day of his life can argue otherwise till the cows come home. The seed of an oak tree is not an oak tree it is a seed and therefore a POTENTIAL tree. A foetus of 3 weeks is a POTENTIAL person as far as i am concerned.
3. If the life or health of the woman is in danger if she goes through with a pregnancy then I am sorry the life of the person already alive comes first.
4. As a bloke i am never going to be in the position of a pregnant woman therefore it is not up to me or any other man for that matter to tell a woman she HAS to have a baby.
5. What about a woman who has been raped?
Despite this i cannot believe that any doctor would kill a baby that has been born alive after an abortion. thats just sick.
I believe in a womans right to choose and the bible is no where close to being an acceptable or legitimate argument to the contrary. That said i would try everything to persudae ther mother of my future children to not have an abortion. ultimately it is and SHOULD be the womans choice.
Posted by: young-white-and-liberal at October 7, 2004 04:21 PMMy line of demarcation is the mother's health. If the pregnancy is a serious health risk to mom, psychological as well (but serious, not she just doesn't feel so hot) the I agree with the right to abortion. A woman shouldn't have to go through pregnancy knowing she is going to die or suffer serious life long health consequences.
But just because she doesn't want it? If the baby is alive then mom has nothing to do with it anymore; help the child.
Posted by: Rachel Ann at October 7, 2004 04:29 PMThat sums it up better than i put it.
Posted by: young-white-and-liberal at October 7, 2004 06:28 PM