A ‘miracle’ baby born weighing just 1lb 4oz after doctors tried to abort her has celebrated her tenth birthday.
Natasha Smith’s birth was induced 14 weeks early when her mother developed a life-threatening condition.
Doctors told Norelle Smith the abortion at 26 weeks was necessary or the pregnancy could kill her.
But her daughter was delivered alive – to the astonishment of the medical team at the former Queen Mother’s Hospital in Glasgow. . . [Full text]
The case illustrates two points of interest. First: it is legitimate to make an ethical or moral distinction between “termination of a pregnancy” and “abortion” (with the intention of causing death) after the point at which an infant may be able to survive with neonatal intensive care. In some situations, those who are otherwise opposed to abortion for reasons of conscience might undertake induction of labour after 21 or 22 weeks gestation with a view to saving both mother and child, even if the effort is ultimately unsuccessful. Second: late term abortions undertaken with the intention of causing death may, in fact, result in the live birth of an infant who may die, or who may, if assisted, survive like Natasha. This is a vivid illustration of the reason some health care workers are unwilling to participate in abortion, but, depending upon how the surviving infant is treated (palliative care; deliberate neglect; killing), may also cause conflicts of conscience.