“Twenty-one weeks after delivery of her second child, when the baby was diagnosed with a rare bone disease, Carol determined she had two options: keep the baby and have a child with a shattered skeleton that wouldn’t live very long or request a rare very late term killing.”
This story doesn’t say that, but in case you were wondering what I make of the front page story in the National Post today, my translation of the scenario above is pretty much it.
It may be worth noting that I am a compassionate, empathetic woman. I see a lot of pain around me; people come to me with their problems and I don’t turn a blind eye. I’m sorry–that’s not big enough a word–when parents lose a child, a baby.
Neither am I cold about how hard it must be to receive a diagnosis like this.
And yet.
I refuse to see a mother killing her child early as compassionate. It’s not right, and if that child were a mere 15 weeks older we would all agree. Yes, the child will die anyway, but that does not make killing right. I don’t know why it should be kosher to kill a kid in utero simply because that child will die, as predicted by our flawed and fallen medical world, which has made countless false predictions in the past.
When the only place that child will thrive is in utero, why not let her live for that time?
I know, I know. It’s a woman’s choice.
Life presents tough choices. I’m not living in some happy-go-lucky Pollyana bubble where everything always turns out perfectly. And somewhere out there, I’m not oblivious that “Carol” might read this, and I want to be considerate of her too.
I think there’s a bigger picture. “Carol” made her choice; I’m hard pressed to see how it was a good one.
by 
I’m with you, Andrea, but I would just like to say this:
If the only abortions done in this country were the hard cases–rape, incest, to save the mother’s life or health, when the baby has severe defects–that is, if abortion were truly rare, then there would be no more than a peep out of the pro-life movement. If abortion were truly rare, there would be no real movement to make it illegal.
What really upsets me about the pro choice movement is that they use people like Carol, real people in heart-rending situations, as human shields for their entire movement. They put forward the most horrible situations, and, because a majority of people are sympathetic to abortion in the really tough situations, the abortion-on-demand-without-apology folks let the Carols of this world put their stories forward, and ride on their coattails.
I totally agree, Melissa.
Following is a letter i wrote to the Post journalist a few moments ago.
I’ve just read the National Post article titled ‘Incompatible with Life’
which seems like a presentation that would soothe Canadians’ conscience
as there has been news recently of abortions that lead to live births
which in turn have lead to the ‘end of life’ for those born. This
article refers to much compassionate and scientific medical accounts
that lead the reader to conclude that the idea that babies born alive
and then are killed is absurd and unfounded. However, the article pays
no attention to its’ own words ‘most’ and ‘almost everyone’ as in
‘incompatible with life conditions lead to most live born abortions’ and
late abortions are performed when ‘almost everyone has some anomaly’. I
think paying attention to these words would lead one to ask; ‘Well, what
about the others? What about the ones who had no anomaly nor
incompatible with life conditions?’ Having two friends who were ‘tagged’
for abortion because of some perceived anomaly and our now a graduate
engineer and a PhD candidate is a sobering reminder of the misleading
nature of compassionate and scientific statements. This personal story
is not an isolated one as this past year two other friends had their
unborn babies tagged for abortion yet were born as ‘normal’ children.
Further stories may be found by googling things like ‘survived
abortion’. I encourage you to include incidents like these ones I have
mentioned in subsequent articles so this important issue will be fully
reviewed and acted upon.