In UK, ban sought on abortions for cleft palate, club foot
July 6th, 2008From the Scotsman:
Conservative Member of Parliament Nadine Dorries is pushing for a measure that would specifically prohibit abortions for club foot and cleft palate.
The UK’s Abortion Act says that an abortion may be carried out if the child “would suffer from such physical or mental abnormalities as to be serious handicapped,” but does not define what a “serious handicap” is.
About 40 babies were aborted in the UK between 1996 and 2006 because they had either club foot or cleft palate, mostly after 24 weeks, according to a recent report.
“I don’t classify either cleft palate or club foot as serious disabilities when they are easily correctable,” said Dorries. “I think most members of the public would say aborting babies for these reasons late in pregnancy is wrong.”
She said she did not back the idea of extending such a ban to other disabilities, such as Down syndrome.
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July 7th, 2008 at 9:21 am
My son Jacob spent eight days in hospital at the end of June/start of July. He had a respiratory tract virus and needed oxygen assistance during those eight days. He shared a room with two to three others, depending on how busy the wards were, all of them under a year old. There were maybe seven babies staying for some portion of our Jacob’s visit throughout that time.
Jacob was the only child with Down syndrome. Three of the others were treated for cleft palate. Not minor surgery, and certainly not fun, but still pretty routine.
To think that a fully formed 24-week-old baby in utero can be dismembered because of an imperfect foot or roof of mouth. Which is the bigger imperfection in Nature’s eye, let alone talk of deity?
Go Nadine Dorries. It’s still possible to humanize humanity.