Ireland: Abortion High Court Case

[James Peter]

It would be inhumane to force a pregnant teenager to carry her baby for nine months knowing it would die, Ireland's High Court has heard. The 17-year-old girl, known only as Miss D, from Leinster, is asking judges to allow her to travel to Britain for an abortion after health chiefs told her she could not go.

The teenager is four months pregnant and last week she found that the newborn baby will live for three days at most. The foetus has not formed properly and suffers from anencephaly, meaning a major part of the brain, scalp and skull is missing.


Article (http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-1263861,00.html)

So what are people's thoughts? Should a mother carry a child for 9 months knowing that it will live not more than 72 hours?

[Jawa Man]

Article (http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-1263861,00.html)

So what are people's thoughts? Should a mother carry a child for 9 months knowing that it will live not more than 72 hours?
I think that it would still be wrong, because it is basically like an early euthanasia. How do we know God's plan with any human being?
As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" Jesus answered, "It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.
If you remember, the blind man ended up being healed. So I feel, who can we say will die and won't die?

[Bill the Cat]

Any chance that the diagnosis is incorrect?


***** Edit to add ******

Found this article: http://www.asfhelp.com/asf/management_of_a_pregnancy

[themuzicman]

This is a tough case... I always find it hard to play God.

Michael

[Bill the Cat]

Should a mother carry a child for 9 months knowing that it will live not more than 72 hours?


This article shows a 5% chance of survival from this anomaly

http://digitalcommons.library.tmc.edu/dissertations/AAI9981812/

Anomalies with the lowest survival were anencephaly (5.13%)

[James Peter]

Surely the survival chances depend on the particular case? A cancer survival rate may be 60% but that doesn't mean that everyone diagnosed with that type of cancer will have a 60% chance. It depends on the individuals health, the severity of the condition etc.

Assume for arguments sake that the child will be dead within 72 hours. What then? Should the mother still carry the child?

[Bill the Cat]

Where does the time frame stop? How about kids diagnosed with Progeria? What about kids that will only live for 1 year? 6 months? 5 years? When is long enough to let the kid live?

[Teallaura]

Ya know, if a baby is born then accidentally poisoned so that he/she would not survive the next 72 hours killing that child for whatever reason is still murder in the eyes of the law - and you go to jail. The expected lifespan of a person does not justify the taking of that person's life - period. Not if he's 120 years old, 60 years old, 30 years old, 15 months old, 7 minutes old or 3.5 minutes from being born.

Like my momma used to tell me: if it ain't yours, don't take it!

[James Peter]

At least your position is consistent.

I guess.... I still don't think the line should be drawn at conception and have a lot of sympathy for how the girl must feel.