Joseph Farrugia, Victoria
Killing the wrong baby
An Australian woman is going to have twins. She is told by doctors that one of her babies had a congenital heart defect that – “if he survived” – would require numerous operations. The woman decides to abort the sick baby.
However, the doctors, instead of killing the ill baby, “inject” the “wrong twin”. The hospital issues an apology. It is a “terrible tragedy”, they say. They soften the tragedy by helping the woman have “an emergency Caesarean to end the life of the sick foetus”. (Source BBC website, November 24).
Advert
Popular Stories
In Discussion
Advert
11 Comments
Post comment
Please sign in or create your Account to post comments.
P. Vincenti
Dec 1st 2011, 10:44
Cahn and Osstermann conclude that the moral of the story is simply that doctors make mistakes.
Had they been any of these two babies, they would not be here to enlighten us with their wisdom.
Patrick Mulholland
Nov 30th 2011, 19:30
Some info regarding murder (abortion) of babies (2005) in the US:
According to the Alan Guttmacher Institute (a pro-choice organization), 93.5 percent of the abortions every year are done for reasons other than health, rape or incest. Their survey shows women have abortions for the following reasons:
25 % “not ready for a(nother) child/timing is wrong”
23 % “can’t afford a baby now”
19 % “have completed my childbearing/have other people depending on me/children are grown”
8 % “don’t want to be a single mother/am having relationship problems”
7 % “don’t feel mature enough to raise a(nother) child/feel too young”
4% “would interfere with education or career plans”
>0.5% “husband or partner wants me to have an abortion”
>0.5% “parents want me to have an abortion”
>0.5% “don’t want people to know I had sex or got pregnant”
Less than 8 percent of abortions every year are done for reasons of health, rape or incest:
4 % “physical problem with my health”
3 % “possible problems affecting the health of the fetus”
>0.5 % “was a victim of rape”
>0.5 % “became pregnant as a result of incest”
Abortion = MURDER
Kenneth Cassar
Nov 30th 2011, 10:41
And your point is?
Patrick Mulholland
Nov 30th 2011, 19:22
MURDER
P. Vincenti
Nov 30th 2011, 19:42
What is bizarre is that you have to ask the question you posed in the first place.
If you really need help comprehending what is wrong with this situation it is either as you have not understood the letter or worse still, you actually have understood it.
Gerry Cowie
Nov 29th 2011, 22:30
Yes, doctors often make the mistake of aborting unborn human beings as a kind of operation on the woman bearing the child. They make the mistake of treating life as a commodity, going against their hippocratic oath. They take a willing and full part in the extermination of unborn children.
There are plenty of stories of people who have been told they might have sick babies, somehow giving them a reason to kill their children before birth, only to find that there was never actually anything wrong. Yes, doctors make mistakes, but many of them need never occur!
Carmelo Aquilina
Nov 29th 2011, 12:16
...and the Maltese Church would rather let two conjoined twins from Gozo die rather than save the life of one... go figure !
P. Vincenti
Dec 1st 2011, 12:01
Mr Aquilina. This has nothing to do with the case you mentioned.
Here, the parents have chosen to eliminate one of the siblings before birth just because it may have a medical condition.
It would still have continued to live had it been born and judging by the MISTAKE made by the doctor in killing the child that did not have the condition, I would not be surprised if the child in question would have been born with no condition at all. This is not at all unusual in my experience. Doctors misdiagnose all the time unfortunately. They are far from perfect.
I am especially perturbed at the total disregard to human life when the hospital then went and offered a complimentary abortion as compensation. Revolting!
Mr Eric Gahn
Nov 29th 2011, 10:04
And the morale of the story is? Doctors make mistakes?
Simon Oosterman
Nov 29th 2011, 15:26
Well said.
James Galea
Nov 29th 2011, 22:00
Which was the mistake ?- killing the first baby or trying to make it better by killing the second one too ?
btw - in the context within which you use it, the word is 'moral' not 'morale'