Post by gem on Nov 18, 2002 13:36:47 GMT -5
A row has erupted among doctors at an English hospital over plans to abort a twin boy in the final weeks of pregnancy.
A consultant at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle first proposed aborting the twin a month ago after the child was diagnosed with a heart defect which he considered to be inoperable.
However, the child's 19-year-old mother is now
into her 35th week of pregnancy and other consultants and specialists at the hospital believe that the abortion would have disastrous psychological effects.
Medical opinion is also divided as to the child's prognosis, with several experts believing that he has a good chance of leading a normal life.
One doctor has now threatened the hospital's medical director with legal action if the late-term abortion is allowed to proceed, although the latest reports suggest that the mother has now
refused the abortion.
Late-term abortions up to birth are allowed in Britain when doctors believe that the victim would
be born "seriously handicapped". In this case the abortion would be performed by injecting potassium chloride directly into the child's heart, and his dead body would then be delivered at the same time as his living twin sister.
[Sunday Times, 10 November; The Journal, 11 November]
A consultant at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle first proposed aborting the twin a month ago after the child was diagnosed with a heart defect which he considered to be inoperable.
However, the child's 19-year-old mother is now
into her 35th week of pregnancy and other consultants and specialists at the hospital believe that the abortion would have disastrous psychological effects.
Medical opinion is also divided as to the child's prognosis, with several experts believing that he has a good chance of leading a normal life.
One doctor has now threatened the hospital's medical director with legal action if the late-term abortion is allowed to proceed, although the latest reports suggest that the mother has now
refused the abortion.
Late-term abortions up to birth are allowed in Britain when doctors believe that the victim would
be born "seriously handicapped". In this case the abortion would be performed by injecting potassium chloride directly into the child's heart, and his dead body would then be delivered at the same time as his living twin sister.
[Sunday Times, 10 November; The Journal, 11 November]
