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British Medical Association to Discuss the Fate of Late-term Abortion Survivors

LONDON, June 22, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The issue of abortion survival is on the roster for the annual meeting of the British Medical Association in Wales next week. Late term abortions are often done by chemical injection, inducement of labour or saline and the child can survive only to be left to die without care. At their meeting in Llandudno next week, BMA doctors will hear arguments that a child who survives an abortion must be given the same intensive neo-natal care as any other premature child.

Dr Vivienne Nathanson, head of science and ethics at the BMA, assured BBC News Online that abortion survival was rare, however, since no records are kept it is impossible to verify her assertion. The Daily Mail reports that at least two such cases occur in the UK every year whereas pro-life leaders say that statistics indicate that at least 3000 occur annually.

Dr. Nathanson, defending the decision to allow abortion survivors to die without further care, spoke only of the cases where severe disability will prevent doctors from instigating "aggressive" neo-natal care. She said, "Nobody wants to see babies die and nobody wants to see babies suffering, but suffering can also come from very aggressive treatment if that treatment is not having any effect." Dr. Nathanson avoided the question of many perfectly healthy children being abandoned after abortion; stories all too familiar to pro-life activists.

Dr. Louise Silverton, of the Royal College of Midwives, even more chillingly referred obliquely to "guidelines" intended to ensure death in late-term abortions.. She said, "There are guidelines to prevent the live birth of babies following late abortions." However, even she agreed that those who escape ought to be accorded the same neo-natal care that other pre-term children receive.

Nuala Scarisbrick, Trustee of LIFE, said, "We have known for years that this dreadful practice goes on in NHS hospitals, often in units where there are full facilities for care of premature babies. The BMA should instruct its members at their conference next week that all babies born alive after abortion should be resuscitated and given truly loving care."

Scarisbrick admonished the medical establishment to refuse to participate in abortion. She said, "How strange that the Government which wants to make it a criminal offence for parents to smack their children is indifferent to the suffering of 180,000 unborn children killed by abortion every year, and by the treatment of babies born alive after late abortions. There is hypocrisy here."

BBC News online coverage:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3828701.stm

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