Posted on 05/28/2006 6:15:32 PM PDT by wagglebee
MORE than 20 babies have been aborted in advanced pregnancy because scans showed that they had club feet, a deformity readily corrected by surgery or physiotherapy.
According to figures from the Office for National Statistics covering the years from 1996 to 2004, a further four babies were aborted because they had webbed fingers or extra digits, which are also corrected by simple surgery. All the terminations took place late in pregnancy, after 20 weeks.
Last year, according to campaigners, a healthy baby was aborted in the sixth month at a hospital in southeast England after ultrasound images indicated part of its foot was missing.
News of the terminations has reignited the debate over how scanning and gene technology may enable the creation of “designer babies”. In 2002 it emerged that a baby had been aborted late — at 28 weeks — after scans found that it had a cleft palate, another readily corrected condition.
Some parents, doctors and charities are increasingly worried by what they see as a tendency to widen the definition of “serious handicap”. The handicap provision, which does not exist in most other countries, permits abortions to be carried out until birth. It was intended to save women from the trauma of giving birth to babies likely to die in infancy.
Club foot is one of the most common birth defects in Britain. About one in 1,000 babies is affected, meaning that 600 to 700 infants are born with the condition every year. It results in the feet pointing downwards and inwards, and in severe cases can cause foot deformity and a limp.
However, it is relatively easy to correct and in recent years techniques of splints, plaster casts and boots to set the foot into the correct position have replaced the need for surgery.Club foot is occasionally connected with serious but rare chromosomal defects, although specialists point out that these can also be screened out before birth with additional tests.
Despite the ease with which it can be treated, the perception that club foot is a serious birth defect has remained among some parents and doctors.
“It was strongly suggested that we consider abortion after they found our baby had a club foot,” said David Wildgrove, 41, a computer programmer from Sheffield, whose son Alexander was born in 1996. “I was appalled. We resisted, the problem was treated and he now runs around and plays football with everyone else.”
Pippa Spriggs from Cambridge, whose son Isaac will celebrate his second birthday in July, was also dismayed when a scan halfway through the pregnancy revealed that her baby had the defect.
“Abortion certainly was not openly advised, but it was made clear to me it was available,” she said. “In fact he has been treated and the condition has not slowed him down at all.”
Others take a different view and decide not to accept the risk of an imperfect baby. Sue Banton, who founded the group Steps for parents of children with foot disorders, was troubled that a home counties couple last year decided to terminate their baby, despite counselling to reassure them it would have a worthwhile life even with a section of foot missing.
“We gave them other families to talk to, but they just didn’t want to know. The baby was aborted just before the 25th week,” she said.
“It is terrible. I know lots of perfectly nice people with this condition, and you just can’t imagine them not being here.”
One doctor in the north of England who did not want to be named, said a recent case in his hospital had involved the discovery of a hand missing from a foetus scanned at 20 weeks. “The father did not want the pregnancy to proceed because of his perception that the child would not be able to do all the usual things like sport,” said the doctor.
This is wonderful news, says Marcy Bloom.
She never considered aborting and the beautiful child is doing great. She's had the surgeries and as I understand will have no future complications.
It’s amazing how humans have become “product” that can be discarded if not just right and at the right time and under the right circumstances.
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This 'modern' expedience mindset would probably have had me aborted, what with being the conception from a forced sexual act and then catching polio at age two ... of course, the polio thingy would have been hard for them to predict and take action to forestall in the womb, but just think how much they can prevent if we ever develop 'time viewing'! Besides, who to stop the onrush to go from offing the unborn alive little ones to offing the year olds with inconvenient defects? Such enlightenment!
You mean besides all of the pro-life work the Catholic Church does, and its advocacy in general against abortion? Good grief.
And Josef Goebbels.
It's so clear now: to prevent wasting so much on prenatal tests and such, the medical 'profession' can just wait until the children are born, check them for the things the parents don't want in a child, and off them if something unwanted pops up in the first year. Think of the savings! Don't the champions of abortion on demand -the democrats- repeatedly claim abortion is for unwanted pregnancies? Why waste all that money doing prenatal tests? I wonder, Boxer and her coven are probably trying to think up ways of selling that very notion to the public don'tchaknow.
Here's a bump.
This should make the reading of Somerset Maugham's "Of Human Bondage"
a bit more interesting for future generations.
When they find the protagonist has a club foot, they'll all say "what is that?".
what in the hell is wrong with these parents?
Will England learn once her cities are burning and her fields and woods and rivers are ruined?
Troy Aikman and Kristi Yamaguchi both had clubed feet, I'm thinking they don't exact regret being born.
Judgment day will come and there are those who will have to answer to God, in the presence of the child(ren) they destroyed.
I was born with perfectly formed limbs and I still can't play sports. As for jogging... I do that when chased by something *really* dangerous! ;-)
My son was also born "perfect". Nine years later he developed Type 1 diabetes and Celiac disease.
These people just don't get it. There are no guarantees with children. Your kid could be born perfect in every way then get his brains knocked out or his neck broken playing those beloved sports and spend the rest of his life sitting in a wheelchair. Or he could get a blood clot in his leg after a long flight and have a stroke.
Worse yet. He could grow up to become a real jerk! Honestly, I think mental and personality handicaps are much worse than any physical ones.
No. One becomes a parent once that child is conceived. Once you are a parent, you are bound to protect, nourish and teach that person with everything you have. Everything you do should be for the welfare of that child. Killing them is so rarely the best option that it's a safe bet that almost none of us will ever have to make that decision.
These people are simply so lazy that they meet every potential hurdle with a "lay down and die" attitude.
I was informed my first born would likely have birth defects because of medication I'd had to take during the first trimester (I didn't know I was pregnant at the time). My ex suggested abortion... which horrified me.
My son did indeed have a birth defect.......4 congenital missing teeth. I gives me chills today...just to think of the wonderful life which would have been sacrificed on that altar of convenience....if I'd given in.
Heck, that's nothing. Babies get aborted in this country simply because their parents are Democrats.
In this country, abortion is birth control. They abort perfectly normal beautiful babies here.
Great post Marie. Still working on getting the bentofiamine.
Many happy gluten-free days to your son!
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