Posted on 12/13/2010 7:49:43 PM PST by Free ThinkerNY
Like so many other couples these days, the Toronto-area business executive and her husband put off having children for years as they built successful careers. Both parents were in their 40s and their first son just over a year old when this spring the woman became pregnant a second time. Seven weeks in, an ultrasound revealed the Burlington, Ont., resident was carrying twins. It came as a complete shock, said the mother, who asked not to be named. Were both career people. If we were going to have three children two years apart, someone else was going to be raising our kids. ... All of a sudden our lives as we know them and as we like to lead them, are not going to happen.
She soon discovered another option: Doctors could reduce the pregnancy from twins to a singleton through a little-known procedure that eliminates selected fetuses and has become increasingly common in the past two decades amid a boom in the number of multiple pregnancies.
Selective reductions are typically carried out for women pregnant with triplets or greater, where the risk of harm or death climbs sharply with each additional fetus. The Ontario couple is part of what some experts say is a growing demand for reducing twins to one, fuelled more by socio-economic imperatives than medical need, and raising vexing new ethical questions.
Experts question whether parents should choose to terminate a fetus just because of the impact the child would have on their lives, and note that even more medically necessary reductions can trigger lifelong angst and even threaten marriages.
The mother said the Toronto doctor who eventually did her reduction performs several a month.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalpost.com ...
She found out about her *second* set about a month before they came.
My wife and I found out about ours very early, due to an ultrasound.
Needless to say, we weren't terribly surprised...twins definitely "run" in the family.
Your mom did not know she was pregnant ?
Yeah, she thought it was just the late-night pizzas and associated gas.
A girl I went to grade school with used to talk about her “sister”. Years later, her parents told her that she was a twin, whose sister died at birth.
They know somehow.
I admire his restraint, I would have shot the SOB.
“Someone tell me what thats worth!”
You can’t put it in dollar amount that is for sure!
Unfreakingbelievable.
How can people who are such heartless cold blooded butchers live with themselves?
Imagine seeing your child grow up knowing you killed his brother or sister. Suppose the child found out. It would be like living in a horror movie with a witches for parents.
OK, so really, the deciding thought was —’if we do this, SOMEONE ELSE WILL RAISE OUR KIDS!” So, it is better to MURDER one of them than let someone else raise them?
In whose logic? I know that twin will miss the other, and when the remaining twin finds out that the other was murdered for the parents’ convenience — good grief!!
So true. One of the problems is couples waiting too long, which makes fertility treatments necessary, which often results in multiple pregnancies.
I got MY major honor a few years back....one of our oldest daughter's best friends is a boy who she's known since kindergarten. When they were seniors in high school he happened to be at our house one day and started making some typical teen stupid comments about politics. I engaged him in conversation and challenged his comments, at which point my daughter said to her friend, "I wouldn't argue with my mom if I were you. She REALLY knows what she is talking about when it comes to politics!"
I knew it wasn’t so long ago.
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