Aborted baby 'not a dwarf'

news.com.au ^ | 07Apr02 | GERARD McMANUS

[nickcarraway]

Aborted baby 'not a dwarf'

By GERARD McMANUS

07Apr02

THE 32-week-old baby who was terminated because doctors at the Royal Women's Hospital believed it would be born with dwarfism, may in fact have been normal, a federal MP has claimed.

Handwritten theatre nurse notes written at the time the baby was delivered state that the "the baby doesn't look small" and other medical records also suggest there was considerable ambivalence about whether the baby girl was a dwarf or not.

Senator Julian McGauran, who has been demanding a Medical Practitioners Board inquiry into the case, has told federal parliament that he had been given evidence to suggest that the hospital had misdiagnosed the child's disability of dwarfism.

"The greatest deception of all had (sic) occurred," Senator McGauran told the Senate. "The baby did not have dwarfism, but was found to be normal on delivery."

The Royal Women's Hospital maintains strongly that the original diagnosis made in January 2000, a few weeks before the termination, was correct.

"There was no evidence of a misdiagnosis at the time, and genetic testing was carried out which confirmed the diagnosis," spokeswoman Sue Driscoll said.

However, the hospital's own clinical notes written just four days before the termination are less certain, Senator McGauran claimed.

"It is unlikely, but possible, that the baby is a normal small baby," the doctor's notes say.

The baby, who was named Jessica by her mother, was aborted in February 2000 after the mother learnt from hospital doctors that she may be born with dwarfism.

Doctors say they agreed to the mother's desperate requests for a termination because she was suicidal.

The doctor who performed a "fetal reduction" on the baby in his surgery rooms said yesterday he did not see the baby when it was delivered stillborn hours later at the Royal Women's Hospital.

Senator McGauran said the Medical Practitioners Board was bound to fulfil its responsibilities in investigating complaints about the doctors involved.

"These matters really do require investigation and clearing up, matters of illegality, unethical practice, misdiagnosis and misreporting," he said.

The State Coroner Jacinta Heffey ruled late last year that she did not have the jurisdiction to investigate the death of a baby that had been born dead.

[jwalsh07]

Bitch.

[garv]

Intellectual and moral dwarfism is genetic among the pro-abortion set.

[DLfromthedesert]

An infant at 32 weeks is viable. How can this be legal in any jurisdiction? Dwarfism is not lethal.

[ventana]

Good work tonite, nick. V's wife.

[moyden]

The liberal is a sadistic thug.

[Ciexyz]

32 weeks is eight months. Many preemies are born at seven and eight months and survive. This is outright murder.

[Ciexyz]

If the mother was suicidal at the thought of giving birth to a "dwarf", how will she feel now, learning that the baby probably was "normal"?

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

Fetal "reduction"?? What the heck is THAT? I haven't heard that undoubtedly PC term before.

It was predicted that eventually things like this would happen. Unfortunately, this "mother" will probably portray herself as the victim now and sue everyone in sight.

[dead]

They write this like it's some kind of tragedy all of a sudden, as if dwarf murder is somehow benign.

[Ciexyz]

Hope that this woman's next try at pregnancy doesn't result in Down's syndrome, Tay-Sachs or sickle cell anemia. Anyone imperfect doesn't have the right to live (sarcasm, of course).

[f.Christian]

...trial-error--natural selection...back to frog school--pond!

[dead]

If the mother was suicidal at the thought of giving birth to a "dwarf"...

I'm sure she was never suicidal. To get a late term abortion, you need to claim a threat to mother's "life or health", which basically means you have to make up some reason.

[jwalsh07]

Many preemies are born at seven and eight months and survive. This is outright murder

Babies have survived after only 20 weeks in the womb. And you are right, this is murder and stinks of Nazi Eugenics.

[SarahW]

It does no one any good for you to overstate the chances the baby was not afflicted with dwarfism. The baby was not "probably" normal by any ones account except yours.

If genetic testing confirmed dwarfism, any ambivalence in the notes by nurses would be irrelevent.

I've seen babies with dwarfism and they look like small normal babies.

[nickcarraway]

Last fall, I was having dinner at a good friend's parents' house. His mother, a pediatrician, was telling me that when she was pregnant with my friend's younger brother she was sick and had a fever for an extended period. Her doctor told her the baby was in trouble and she should abort it. It was so chilling to hear that doctors had wanted to abort someone that I had known for ten years. He was born perfectly healthy, of course.

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

In the end, does it really matter either way?

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

There are many stories out there just like that. Scary.

[Cicero]

Do you think we should have open season on dwarfs?

[fightinJAG]

And if the mother was suicidal, how could the doctors possibly have believed that her "desperate pleas" constituted informed consent? How can a person in this state make any rational decisions about her health and body?

On another sad note, genetic testing is hardly foolproof.