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.
DISCUSSION ABOUT:
Babies with club feet aborted (England)
The Culture of Death must be stopped.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To be included in or removed from the MORAL ABSOLUTES PINGLIST, please FReepMail wagglebee.
Pro-Life Ping.
Wow. I had club feet as a baby- had to wear little casts the first 8 weeks of my life. To this day when I go jogging, my right foot still points outward at about 20 degrees. Other than this very minor affliction, I've had a full and very healthy life.
I had clubbed feet. Easily corrected.
Heck, that's nothing. Babies get aborted in this country simply because their parents are Democrats.
There goes Lord Byron
Astoundingly callous and selfish parents who off their kids due to minor problems. I have begun to believe in the slippery slope.
If they knew about several hundred years ago. then we might never have had Lord Byron and his works.
And Dudley Moore.
And then people who love to quote any statistic that makes America look bad, state that the UK has better health care than the US. Partly, I suppose, because they don't have to "waste" any health funds on babies with orthopedic deformities. Disgusting!
How long, O, Lord?
Babies are routinely aborted for simply being conceived at an impromptu time like a birthday coming up, middle school/highschool graduation, sexual promiscuity, bad hang nail, job promotion, wrong hunk knocked me up, makes me too fat, etc, etc, etc.
Gee, wasn't Beethoven deaf?
And what about Steven Hawkings?
I'm sure if someone really tries, we could find countless other examples of people with disabilities who have been gifted in other areas and made great contributions to humanity. How shallow to want physical perfection above all else.
FMCDH(BNITS)
Next up, aborting babies with hangnails.
Why haven't we heard any outrage from the Catholic Cardinals and Bishops?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.