Posted on 08/15/2006 8:44:42 PM PDT by Scarchin
Excuse me?
Indian premier calls for end to killing of unborn girls
Aug 15 1:07 PM US/Eastern
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called on parents in India to stop seeing girls as an economic liability and to end the practice of killing unborn female foetuses.
Singh's appeal on India's 59th Independence Day came four days after the grisly discovery of 25 female foetuses from a private clinic in northern Punjab state, which has the country's lowest sex ratio due to rampant female foeticide.
"We must end the crime of female foeticide. We must eliminate gender disparity," Singh said in an address to the nation.
"We have a dream of an India in which every woman can feel safe, secure and empowered. Where our mothers, sisters and daughters are assured a life of dignity and personal security," he added.
A study by British medical journal The Lancet said this year that India may have lost 10 million unborn girls in the past 20 years, but Indian experts say the figure is not more than five million.
Under Indian law, tests to find out the gender of an unborn baby are illegal if not done for medical reasons, but the practice continues in what activists say is a flourishing multi-million dollar business.
Premier Singh urged parents not to neglect their girl children. "It should be ensured that every young woman is educated and skilled and capable of guiding a new generation," he said. Punjab state has 798 girls for every 1,000 boys under the age of six while the national average is 927 -- still well below the worldwide average of 1,050 female babies. Girls in India are often considered a liability as parents have to put away large sums of money for dowries at the time of their marriage. Centuries of tradition also demand that couples produce at least one male child to carry on the family name. Many grooms demand dowry well beyond the means of families of their spouse -- demands which often result in the killing of newly-married women. According to the National Crime Records Bureau, India in 2004 posted 19 dowry-related deaths every day but women's organisations say the actual figure is 10 times higher.
Your's was a very kindly post, and I appreciate your kindness and loving heart. I would not dream of attempting to argue against your faith. All I can say is I don't have the faith you do.
Exactly. This world is filled with such senseless cruelty, it's hard not to ask why.
Sorry, I misunderstood. I thought you were assuming the child had already been abandoned at the hospital. I know India has real problems with infanticide and I agree wholeheartedly with your judgment on that matter.
Thanks. Good luck in your course and keep your heart open for inspiration. I know you are a sincere soul.
No...you are right...I DID have a feeling that this little one had been abandoned. She will not live long. But I thought it was ironic that even HEALTHY girls are being aborted here AND there.
My granddaughter who I have never met had trisomey18. The doctors said she was incompatable with life. I never heard that term before, Maybe I am stupid, I just don't understand those words. She was stillborn. My son and daughter-in-law still cry, and I cry with them. Little Ella Grace would have been a year old this past July. She was buried on my birthday.
Absolutely. Abortion is the Moloch and holocaust of this generation and civilized society will someday be as ashamed of it as Germans are now of the original Holocaust.
You have touched me tonight with your caring.
Thanks!
http://blog.wired.com/oneeyed_child/ (all pictures are here)
Warning: Some may find these images disturbing.
The mother of a one-eyed child born in Chennai, India, in early August might have been given an experimental anti-cancer drug, according to an internal hospital report seen by Wired News. However, the report does not say how or why the mother might have been given the drug. The birth defect could have any number of causes, including a rare, but natural, chromosomal disorder.
De nada. Sleep well.
I wonder why if breathing is a problem they did not trach her.
I hope she is getting wrapped in a blanket and cuddled by someone not matter what her condition is.
Just my guess but "no" as the optic nerve may be deformed and the brain being deformed so severly too.
But God only knows.
Prayers offered up for wisdom for the physicians and hospital staff.
That little girl all alone is exactly what struck me as being frightening. I also know that God loves this little one. He loved Her so much that He gave His life and now lives for us. Hopefully one of His people will come to her and show her Christ's love.
It is painful to see a family desert someone who needs even more love than usual. When God created the world, He did not intend things to work this way, but situations like this happen everyday in a fallen world. Human beings will never be able to correct this character defect on their own. It is the way of fallen people to fail one another.
But God never fails. He provides for even the weakest and most helpless. Sometimes the greatest thing He provides is the opportunity for those of us who are called by His name to step up and live up to our name. I hope Christians there will see this and do what they can for this little one.
Please accept my sincere condolences on the loss of your granddaughter. Thanks for sharing your story with us.
You asked, "Would you have given birth?" Without a pre-natal test, such as amniocentesis, how would the parents know their child had such severe deformities? I commend anyone who can truthfully say that, knowing their unborn child will be born with these exact same problems, they still want the baby to be born and are dedicated to caring for the child for however long he/she lives.
The only picture I saw of this baby invokes pure sadness.
No baby should be deposited on a cold, flat table with not one other human being in sight. Cruelty caught on camera.
If I understood one poster who sounded like he/she had some knowledge of the subject, this baby will not live long. Frankly, I hope that's true. Even if we believe that we will become perfect after this earthly life (that's if God will be so loving and kind to overlook our sins), I can only think that this little baby's life on earth will be torturous. Who would want it?
BTW, I am against abortion in almost every circumstance, but I have a hard time when it comes to a tragedy such as this, or forcing a 12-year old rape victim to carry and give birth, for example. Call me wishy-washy if you choose.
For those who were kind enough to pray for me last year, they will remember I was experiencing a late-in-life, complicated pregnancy. The extended series of sonograms spelled doom for my son - 67% chance of severe genetic abnormalities, 25% chance of being still born, 33% chance of heart problems, mental retardation, etc., etc. My husband and I braced ourselves for the loss of all our funds, and the sale of our house, if need be, to pay off the anticipated medical bills.
Our outlook was simple. God gave life to our child, and we were his parents. He was ours to love and protect, guide and instruct. We loved him, and were ready to face any challenges for him and with him.
We also knew what we were getting ourselves into. My nephew had an underdeveloped cerebellum and his short life drastically changed the lives of everyone around him.
As it turned out, my son is perfect - healthy, smart, delightful, happy, and handsome. Still, there is no guarantee any of my children will stay that way - illness or injury can ravage any of us at any time. Do we discard people because they aren't perfect? Do we love them less?
Not in my home!
When Six Months Is a Lifetime
By Linda A. Prussen-Razzano
Featured Rightgrrl April 1999
April 14, 1999
In March of 1993, my brother, Richard, and his wife, Linda, eagerly awaited the birth of their second child, Eric. They already had a precocious, intelligent, and lovely two-year old daughter, Heather. We expected Linda to deliver Eric with her usual savior faire; as a top level gymnast and gymnastic coach, she was in prime condition. I remember her jokingly advising that her knee surgery "was more painful" than Heather's delivery; moreover, her pre-natal check-ups and pregnancy were seamless.
Sadly, we were wrong.
I can still remember my mother calling me at work. Her greeting, while affectionate, was tinged with somberness. "Linda had the baby."
The anticipated level of joy was noticeably missing from her voice. "Mom, what's wrong?" I gulped, swallowing the lump of anxiety rising in my throat.
"It's not good, honey," she murmured, choked. As she proceeded to tell me the details, my boss, Anthony, looked on in growing concern. By the time I hung up, I could no longer contain the tears. Little explanation was required. My effusive face said it all.
Linda had been well past her due date, so the doctors induced labor. The delivery was traumatic. Eric was 9 lb. 10 ounces at birth; because of his large size and Linda's forced dilation, the doctors broke his shoulder bone pulling him out. For some 45 minutes, Linda received stitches to stop the hemorrhaging. My usually unflappable brother was externally composed, but I could smell the coppery tinge of confusion and anxiety when I stood close to him.
Almost immediately after being born, Eric began to seizure. The doctors rushed him from the room, several staff members fighting to keep him alive. By the time I got to the hospital, he was in the Neo-Natal ICU, tubes and needles sticking out of his plump baby limbs. They originally thought he had a brain tumor; however, the doctors later confirmed that the lump was not a tumor.
Eric had an underdeveloped cerebellum. Because of this condition, all his little body's involuntary functions were not regulated. He suffered from apnea, both awake and asleep; he needed a respirator; he was unable to coordinate his suck, swallow, and breathe reflex. He had seizures, reflux, and diabetes insipidus. He was fed through a tube in his stomach. All totaled, he spent three months of his life in the hospital.
Linda, Rich, my mother, and Linda's mother all learned baby CPR. Linda registered her house with the local fire department for emergency power in the event of an outage and fought with insurance companies to cover the thousands of dollars in bills. Linda and Rich submerged themselves in literature on technologically dependent children. Heather named her new baby brother "Baldhead," and patiently tried to understand the difference between "sick" and "very ill."
My father had been away on business for several weeks while Eric was in the hospital. I can still remember sitting on the couch in the livingroom, talking with him about Eric's condition. My mother, who spent countless hours at the hospital, came in, sat down, and wept openly, fearful that he would spend the rest of his life in some sort of medical facility.
"Oh, Gail, it's not that bad," Dad insisted dismissively. As a staunch, often indomitable authoritarian, very little could unbalance my father. He undoubtedly presumed my sensitive mother was exaggerating.
"You come with me, John. You come with me to the hospital and see for yourself!" Mom insisted. She needed his strength, his reassurance; she needed his understanding…she was battling for her grandson's life.
When they returned a short time later, my father sat down on the couch, his face pale, shaken, and defeated. I could hear the tears in his voice long before they rolled down his cheeks. His words were chillingly solemn and full of despair. "If that little boy comes home, he will come home in a box."
Happily, we were wrong.
Linda and Rich didn't just want their son to live, they wanted to give him a life. Away from the hospital, he began to blossom. They took him everywhere…to the beaches at Fire Island, to an Indian Pow-Wow, to the dinosaur museum at Sands Point, to my bridal shower. They let him feel the grass under his belly, smell the flowers of the summer, taste the salt in the ocean air. We got to hold him, to kiss him, to have him rest his head against our chests and instinctively settled against our hearts. I saw, with my own eyes, how courageously he fought for every minute of life and how eagerly he returned our love.
I was at work when the call came that evening of September 13, 1993. Sitting amongst my bosses, married just over a month, I didn't think it odd that my husband would call. "That newlywed hubby of yours wants you home," my other boss, John, teased as he handed me the telephone.
"Honey, are you sitting down?" my husband asked.
"Yes," I assured him.
"I have some bad news."
Since we had been having trouble with the bank and merging our two accounts, this was the first thought that popped into my head. "Okay…."
Ironically, I didn't expect it. It took me totally, completely by awful surprise. The thought was always there, somewhere in the shadows of my mind, that Eric might not be with us for very long; I vainly believed that I had armored my heart against loving him too much.
Every year, I think to myself, he would be "this many" years old now if he had lived. He would be "this big" if he had lived. He would be so many things if he had lived. To this day, I still cry when I talk about him.
I used to be pro-choice. I used to think that an unborn baby was a fetus. I used to think that a severely deformed child would be better off not being born. I used to think I knew what life was all about; that I had experienced enough "living" to take these kinds of moral stances.
Eric proved me wrong.
****
Sometimes, children like this are brought into the world to change the hearts of the people around them. That is their mission; that is their purpose. And they can do it in a way that is 1000 times more effective than any adult could.
My daughter was 2 months premature, and while I very much wanted to be with her every minute, the needs of my toddler son and logistics (I couldn't drive due to my surgery, the hospital was 30 minutes away, our nearest family was 1,700 miles away - lost of obstacles, but we did the best we could) prevented me from spending more than just a few hours a day with her.
I poured as much love into her as I could during our time together, and her stats jumped after every visit. I burned up the phone lines around the clock checking on her, and didn't put her down for days after we got her home.
Don't judge too much by 1 photo.
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