[plusone]

Thanks for a reasoned reply. Considering the state of the mother, I can't see how the baby couldn't be deformed.

[cgk]

I can certainly understand that thinking with the information FReepers have posted as to how anti-seizure drugs can cause birth defects. The mother even has something inserted into her skull to help drain fluid from her brain. She is severely ill, that is obvious.

My initial point on this story was that the judge ordered her tubes tied so she could not conceive again, and face this crisis. That surgery in itself requires her stomach being opened and I am happy they chose to deliver the baby that way, instead of aborting it. Either way, she needs to be "opened up". Sad, but true.

This baby is very lucky not to be deformed, and I am grateful he/she is being given the chance to continue to live.

[VeritatisSplendor]

I believe the mother is not disabled as a result of genetics but because of brain damage as a result of meningitis at the age of four. The seizure medicine is iffy, but women on such medication have certainly delivered normal babies. And according to the doctors, they don't see anything wrong with it now.

I don't understand such a visceral antipathy to the birth of a disabled child - disability can come to anyone at any time as it did to this poor girl.

Mrs VS