Removing a Foetus, Always Abortion? Always Murder?

Various | June '03 | Multiple

[Hank Kerchief]

Boy 'Pregnant' With His
Own Twin Brother
By Barbara Davies
The Mirror - UK
6-10-3

Doctors have removed a 4lb baby boy from the stomach of his seven-year-old twin brother.

Alamjan Nematilaev was born with the freak foetus growing inside him.

For seven years it lived like a parasite until a school doctor became alarmed about Alamjan's bulging tummy and took him to hospital.

Surgeons who gave him a scan operated immediately, unaware that the baby was attached to the boy's blood vessels and still alive.

They saved Alamjan from certain death, but knew the 8 inch foetus was doomed.

Maksud ai-Magaibetov, who removed the baby, said: "Thank God the school doctor insisted on taking him to hospital. If this had gone on, we would not have been able to rescue him."

And in a blast at Alamjan's parents, he added: "To my mind it was impossible not to notice the size of his belly.

"I mean, the boy really looked like a woman in her sixth month of pregnancy."

The bizarre story of Alamjan reads like the plot from a horror novel.

His tummy grew and grew, but his plight went undiscovered for years because his parents thought he had rickets, a common childhood disease in his native Kazakhstan.

Then, after a gym lessson, his school doctor took him for a medical examination.

Consultants were baffled by the mystery lump - until they took a scan.

His mother Gulnara, 30, said she almost fainted when doctors broke the news.

She added: "I was stunned. It's just not what you expect to hear. We knew he was a bit overweight, but pregnant?

"However, I could tell from the solemn expressions of the doctors that they weren't joking."

GULNARA admitted that she told Alamjan off for making up stories when he complained of something moving inside him.

"I hadn't listened properly and told him to be quiet," she sobbed.

Alamjan's medical condition is not new, but doctors claim his case is unique because the others have been detected far earlier.

Dr ai-Magaibetov said: "We couldn't believe our eyes when we scanned him.

"We could see the clear shape of a baby inside him. And it wasn't a small baby. We have never heard of a case like it."

Dr Valentina Vostrikova, who led the medical team, said: "It was remarkable - for almost seven years it lived like a parasite inside the boy's body.

"The embryo was recognisably male and lay in such a way that he sustained himself from his brother.

"Technically, the baby was alive, yet was not sustainable when separated from his brother."

Alamjan's gran Mantsura said: "The doctors showed us the poor little twin. He was a big boy, with a head, a body, hair, nails and a penis. We just can't believe he was growing inside our boy."

Gulnara plans to keep the tragedy a secret from Alamjan.

She explained: "I don't want to frighten him, because he won't understand it.

"He doesn't know how babies come into the world, and I don't think we'll ever tell him about this case because we don't want to shock him."

Alamjan has been told not to show the scar on his stomach to anybody.

He knows only that he had a lump inside him which has now been removed.

"I had a football inside me," he said, cupping his hands to show the size of it. "But my mum has told me to stop talking about it."

AUTHORITIES have tried to hush up the case, fearing it will disgrace their crumbling health system rather than create scientific interest.

But a full postmortem will be carried out to study the phenomenon.

Dr ai-Magaibetov said: "It will give us the answer as to what exactly happened and why.

"One cause of the abnormality could be radioactive pollution in Kazakhstan dating from Soviet times, causing the unnatural development."

Boy 'Pregnant' With His Own Twin Brother - Link

 

Baby 'pregnant' with twin brother
21/06/2003 15:13  - (SA) 

 

Beijing - An eight-month-old Chinese baby boy has been hospitalised after doctors found he was "pregnant" with his own twin brother, state media reported Saturday.

Scanning of the boy, who was admitted to Xiangxizhou Hospital in central Hunan province on Friday, led to the surprise discovery of a foetus, Xinhua news agency reported.

Although the foetus was taking up two-thirds of his abdomen, the baby boy looked normal from the outside, although his belly seemed slightly bigger than average, according to a journalist.

The boy is the victim of an extremely rare condition, doctors said according to Xinhua news agency.

Baby 'pregnant' with twin brother - Link

[Hank Kerchief]

No Comment.

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[narses]

Ping. I'd love to hear informed commentary.

[sinkspur]

So would I. First blush, the principle of double effect would say the doctors couldn't take the fetus, as it was a direct action against the fetus.

However, this is such a bizarre aberration, and the fetus was not developing, or developing so slowly that it could never have reached viability.

Would this not be like the separation of siamese twins, in which one knows that one of the twins will not survive?

[ahadams2]

removing a foetus from a womb is always abortion and always murder.

[Hank Kerchief]

removing a foetus from a womb is always abortion and always murder.

Only from a womb? How about from a test tube?

Hank

[narses]

I have no ability to form an opinion. I am at sea on this. Your siamese twin analogy and a fallopian tube/ectopic pregnancy analogy are the best I can come up with. If the surgery is designed to save both lives, if possible, and one dies, that is probably moral, but I don't know. I'm glad beyond all ability to express myself that I haven't been faced with such a moral dilemna yet. I hope if I am, that God's Grace leads me to the right conclusion.

[sinkspur]

Technically, I wonder if this a fetus? And, yes, the ectopic preganancy might also work here.

I don't know. That's why moral theologians make the big bucks.

[sinkspur]

Was there a "womb"? The article doesn't say.

[narses]

I'd say the test tube, yes, but from a fallopian tube, from the belly of a young boy, I don't think so. The analogy is bad, but it becomes justifiable homicide, not murder, under very rare circumstances. A test tube baby threatens no other human life, an ectopic pregnancy does.

Is there a Catholic Doctor or Canon Lawyer in the house? HELP!

[sinkspur]

Weigh in here, when you can.

[narses]

I'd say he was a fetus, a human life, unique DNA, etc. No womb, threatening the life of his brother. Bad. I'd want real treasure, if not here, then in heaven to make this call. Pray for their souls (the whole family), they need it.

[sinkspur]

Your perspective is also welcome.

[MarMema]

Wow Hank, you came up with a zinger here. :-)
These poor people.....

[nickcarraway]

How in the world could the baby remain alive, but not grow?

[nickcarraway]

Well, asking this question assumes that those involve could know what was going on. If this is true, it is such a unknown circumstance, those involved probably weren't informed enough to make a proper moral assessment.

[nickcarraway]

ping

[drstevej]

Life begins at conception. I am against abortion in all cases except where there is clear threat to the life of the mother. I don't know the details here, but it may be an analogous situation.

In the case of clear threat to the life of another, I believe the person whose life is threatened has the same choice regarding self defense as when one's life is threatened in other circumstances.

I personally am not a pacifist in these situations. I respect the convictions of others who are.

[sitetest]

Dear sinkspur,

There is just not enough information here to make any sort of judgement.

I think that the principle of double-effect may apply (though I've read that there are some moral theologians who still don't accept this.). If the surgery performed was necessary to save the boy's life, and a consequence of the surgery was the death of the fetus, this may apply. If the surgery directly killed the fetus, then it doesn't.

Let's look at an ectopic pregnancy as the example. The fertilized ovum attaches in the fallopian tube. The woman will die from the ectopic pregnancy. To prevent her death, surgery is performed to remove the now-diseased fallopian tube (fallopian tubes don't take well to having embryos attach to their internal walls). The surgery doesn't directly kill the fetus. However, once the tube is removed, the fetus will die, as he will no longer be able to draw sustenance through the fallopian tube.

Even knowing that a consequence will be certain death, in not having directly caused it, and in having acted to save the woman's life, there is the double-effect.

In the current case, there just is so little to go on, all I can do is speculate. Perhaps it was determined that the continued existence of the blood vessels from the boy's body to the fetus would eventually kill the boy? Perhaps the blood vessels could have been removed, and the area cauterized? At that point, the fetus no longer drew sustenance, and died? I don't know.

All I can say is that if surgery was performed that directly killed the fetus, it was immoral.


sitetest

[sinkspur]

How in the world could the baby remain alive, but not grow?

Speculation is that Chernobyl radiation may have had some effect here.

I'm stumped. There was no hesitation on the part of the doctors, however.