Live babies being born after abortions
By Rebecca Smith, Evening Standard Health Reporter
22 June 2004
Leading doctors today called for a major overhaul to avoid babies being born alive after abortions.
Pregnancy expert Professor Stuart Campbell has demanded rules should be tightened after it was revealed that at least nine babies are known to have survived terminations in recent years.
He said injections that were supposed to end their lives in the womb failed to do so - and he called for stricter regulations to be enforced on the methods of abortion.
Professor 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.
Some consultants only give the injection in abortions after 22 weeks. Others, he claims, do not use it at all.
Professor Campbell, who worked as an obstetrician at St George's Hospital-Tooting, and pioneered 4D scanning of babies in the womb at the Create Health Centre for Reproduction and Advanced Technology in London, said: "It is really unfair on the nurses and the parents to see the baby making some sort of movement after birth.
"If after 18 weeks you just induce labour (without an injection first) a large number would be born with a heartbeat and most of them will survive with a heartbeat and will make movements.
"Certainly from 18 weeks they should inject the heart to stop it from beating, but not everyone does this. Guidance should be given by the Royal College.
"There are cases where the injection does not work but this is very rare."
One baby with Down's Syndrome was to be aborted at a hospital in the home counties but lived. It was transferred to St George's Hospital, where it received neonatal intensive care and survived. It is believed to have been adopted.
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".
He said that if a baby were to be born alive and viable then it must be given medical help but there was a "grey area" where babies born in this manner at 22 or 23 weeks were on the cusp of being able to survive. Only 17 per cent of babies born normally at 23 weeks survive.
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."
Guidance issued by the Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecologists states that a legal abortion must not be allowed to result in a live birth.
But Professor Campbell says it does not make clear at what stage it is necessary to stop the heartbeat before abortion.
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"It is really unfair on the nurses and the parents to see the baby making some sort of movement after birth."
Interesting. The way they justify abortion, this "baby" isn't really a baby... it's a thing. Certainly not a human being. And if that is so, why should they be upset by seeing the fetus moving? If they have morally justified the abortion, as they say they have, they should feel no guilt at seeing the baby move, correct? And yet it is unfair because they DO feel guilty when they see the baby move, which illustrates how morally bankrupt their position on abortion really is.
Quote:
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."
How disgusting is this statement? I would like to see Aught Six and the rest of you abortion cronies justify this statement. Say what you want about the fetus in the womb not being a viable human being, but this is essentially admitting to murder.
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If they couldn't handle the truth, they would have to ban me I guess.
If there is a way to say that a baby that has been born alive, regardless of what its chances of survival are, is just allowed to die is anything but murder, I'd like to hear it.
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RE: I found this interesting (Re: Abortion)
Ben,
Where did you pull this article from...
I ask because as I've stated here before, in Europe in general, abortion is a means of birth control. We may view it as immoral, unearthly, disgusting...to "them", it is a simple way of life. I think many of the doctors have stopped caring, as there's a few oaths/laws which dictate they must obey/follow their patient's requests to the utmost...even when an unborn is involved.
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"The first requisite of a good citizen in this republic of ours is that he shall be able and willing to pull his own weight." Theodore Roosevelt
Is it possible to call this anything other than murder? NO.
if the babies are born alive, ending that life actively is not abortion, its not a medical excersice, it can only be called murder. Anyways, inducing labour and then alowing babies to die from "natural" causes? get real, that would be the same as allowing a child to starve to death and then claim that is a natural cause of death..
I was taught to believe that a medical doctors first duty is to preserve life, not to end it or harm it. Perhaps I'm wrong.
But actively ending the life of anyone is called murder in my book, no matter if one chooses to call it abortion or euthanasia or whatever.
These so called doctors are playing horrible games with the most innocent, and I can't realy believe anyone who practices this kind of "medicine" is sane. They're playing games with both life and civilization and corrupting both. Would you trust your life to a doctor who can kill new-borns?
How disgusting is this statement? I would like to see Aught Six and the rest of you abortion cronies justify this statement. Say what you want about the fetus in the womb not being a viable human being, but this is essentially admitting to murder.
It is indeed pretty disgusting. Being health professionals, if they're going to abort a fetus, they need to do it in a thorough and timely manner. There is no excuse for not making sure the fetus is dead before removal.
I found this interesting (Re: Abortion)
