Posted on 05/08/2007 11:20:22 AM PDT by Scotswife
The abortion debate brought home He and his wife have always been pro-choice; recently, they were forced to make the Choice. By Dan Neil May 6, 2007
MY WIFE AND I just had an abortion. Two, actually. We walked into a doctor's office in downtown Los Angeles with four thriving fetuses — two girls and two boys — and walked out an hour later with just the girls, whom we will name, if we're lucky enough to keep them, Rosalind and Vivian. Rosalind is my mother's name.
We didn't want to. We didn't mean to. We didn't do anything wrong, which is to say, we did everything right. Four years ago, when Tina and I set out on this journey to have children, such a circumstance was unimaginable. And yet there I was, holding her hand, watching the ultrasound as a needle with potassium chloride found its mark, stopping the heart of one male fetus, then the other, hidden in my wife's suffering belly....
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
That’s easy to say when you haven’t already had two expensive IVF cycles fail to produce a single viable pregnancy, and have reached the stage where finances preclude multiple additional tries. The chance of getting viable quadruplets in this case was extremely small, while the chance of getting zero again was extremely large.
This article has now become #1 on my Free Republic "ugly" list.
One can only hope that LAT readers who favor such "choice" and read this article with expectant fervor will be as repulsed.
“Egads! I am afraid to read further. IF they didn’t want a pregnancy with more than two babies they should have implanted just TWO embryos and they wouldn’t have KILLED their other two children.”
exactly, but apparantly this is common practice.
“The author needs to learn to read before writing.”
These folks aren’t interested in facts - they just want to “make a point.”
And this is a guy struggling for justification.
And yet.....
this thread is getting more replies than the 1st one.
Funny how that works.
But many FReepers may often miss the first thread, and so when a duplicate one posts.....
More the merrier.
What was described is murder pure and simple. I don’t see how they can live with themselves.
“The net result, however, is two very much wanted babies who otherwise would never have come into the world.”
Don’t stop there...the “result” is also two dead boys.
“Two of them are human enough to be named and two are insignificant enough to be killed.”
Good observation!
Yes...absolutely typical of the liberal thought process.
No they didn't. They knew they were attempting to create life, with a very small possibility of creating even one, and an even smaller possibility of creating more than the mother could carry to term or near-term. I don't think most of the posters on this thread grasp what the statistical success rates for IVF are in a woman who has already failed two cycles, and is probably in her 40s or at least late 30s (given that the husband was 47). Not knowing her age, I can only guesstimate based on rates for her likely age range, but she probably had less than a 10% chance of even getting ONE viable fetus from 5 transferred in (less than 5% if she was over 40). Despite improving technology, there is still a small but significant loss rate associated with freezing, and given their dismal results in their first two cycles, it's not surprising that they didn't want to risk freeze/thaw damage to the additional embryos.
“Indeed. A 2 year old who doesn’t display all the symptoms of ADHD urgently needs evaluation by a pediatric development specialist, to determine the cause of the child’s severely abnormal development pattern.”
Ahhh!!! We agree on something! :)
5 were implanted and only 1 died, in a lot of cases only 1 survives. God blesses his children, and we throw those blessings away.
This man should think about the mother of "The 7 from Heaven" four does not seem such a big number then.
“Good grief...he is talking about introducing his daughters to the abortionist one day. This guy is really sick.”
“Roz! Viv! Here’s the nice lady who saved your lives by stopping your brothers’ hearts”
just warms the heart don’t it?
That CAN'T be for real!
In all likelihood, it was the same doctor who handled the IVF procedure that accounts for the girls existence.
>> and then felt no guilt while stopping their hearts.
He’s certainly feeling guilty and often reflects about the two boys he was partially responsible for destroying; a burden to carry to the grave. He’s clearly uncomfortable with the decision and is looking for affirmation.
sorry about the duplicate!
I must’ve happened to post during heavier traffic.
And the end justifies the means.
It is possible that implanting 4 embryos could lead to only one child due natural abortion (as in the case of my brother and his wife).
Are they boys and girls, or fetuses?
At the time they are implanted, it is not known if the embryos are male or female. That still can't be determined until 20 weeks or so. Since this mother was already experiencing severe symptoms for which she had been hospitalized, it stands to reason that she may not have been able to carry even 2 children to term, let alone 4 babies. This gives these kids the best chance for survival...if they can stay in the womb as long as possible and be raised by two parents. Why risk stroke or dying in child birth after trying so hard to become parents in the first place?
Just for the record...I AM pro-life, but abortion is going to happen anyway, legal or not. It should be sterile and as medically safe as modern medicine can make it. Yes partial birth abortion is especially gruesome, and I'm glad the ban was upheld. There are other ways to "selectively reduce" a pregnancy. I didn't get the impression that the author of this article was taking it lightly. It's no secret that our laws have not kept up with medicine. Abortion is a very complex issue, with no easy answers.
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