Calls are increasing to lower Britain’s 24-week term limit on abortion following three high profile stories in two days of babies born prior to the governments 5 ½ month mark of life and surviving. Doctors gave a combined odds of 1600-1 that all 3 babies would survive, but survive they did increasing the questions about fetal viability.
Kim Cruickshanks from Kent had six miscarriages in 14 years but made it to 23 weeks with Daisy who was born weighing just 17 ounces. But despite dire predictions from the doctors, she grew to 4 ½ lbs in 3 months and was allowed home just before what would have been the due date.
Happy mum Kim said “She’s lifting her head and doing things you would expect of a four-month-old baby and she smiles a bit. We were told it was highly unlikely she would make it. They said when she was born she might breathe a little bit but that might be it. I thought we were going to lose her - we had a bit of hope but were prepared for the worst.”
Kirsty Barrett’s waters broke at 19 weeks with a successful live birth being considered less than a 1% possibility. But baby Esme survived and was born more than a month later weighing 22 ounces. The parents claim that some medical staff at Nevill Hall Hospital in Abergavenny gave up and at one point an abortion was recommended. But Mum pushed for a switch to Royal Gwent Hospital in nearby Newport which initiated a new steroid strategy after only 20 minutes, producing a safe delivery of the baby girl.
Esme’s mum reflected “They didn't think Esme would survive because she'd had no waters for five weeks. There was a one per cent chance. They thought they would give her to us and she would pass away. But she was born crying. They couldn't believe it. She was so tiny and for the first couple of days Gareth (Esme’s Dad) brought me pictures because I couldn't see her. It was touch and go and we were warned that sometimes there are two weeks or so when things seem to go well, but then they can go downhill. But she didn't.”
Lucas is another born under 24 ounces at 23 weeks. Mum Tracy is praising the staff at the city's Women's Hospital, Liverpool for their work. She was rushed into the hospital following heavy uterine bleeding. The situation was life threatening and staff could have legally opted to abort. Instead, they performed a C-section saving the lives of both mother and child.
A thrilled Mrs. Georgiou said “The doctors say Lucas is a real-life miracle; we have watched him grow in his incubator, when it should have been happening in my womb. Now I’m ecstatic to be taking him home. Winning the lottery couldn’t top how we feel now.”
The concerning common thread in these stories, particularly with the two girls, is the attitudes of some in the National Health Service to write off life and make a pre-judgment concerning viability that determines the course of treatment.
If a person is rushed into the emergency with life threatening situations, hospital staff do not first concern themselves with whether the person has any chance of making it. On the contrary staff surrounds the critical patient and fights for their life. But with the unborn it seems there is a resignation that if the child hasn’t reached legal viability then termination is the ‘safest’ route.
In the third case it seems that staff had more determination to save both lives when protecting the life of the mother alone clearly would have been a simpler choice. But until the culture of life is extended into the mother’s womb the willingness to abort will remain not only an acceptable option but often the preferred one.
