A woman in Australia has lost both her baby twins at 32 weeks gestation after doctors aborted the ‘wrong’ baby in a major medical mix-up.
The tragedy has prompted critics to question why it is considered socially acceptable to abort babies with medical complications.
The unnamed woman wanted to abort one of her babies because a scan showed it to have a heart defect, which doctors said gave it a slim chance of survival.
Tragedy
But doctors realised that they had aborted the ‘wrong’ twin when they discovered the healthy baby had died.
Dr Peter Saunders of the Christian Medical Fellowship said: “The story graphically illustrates the grim reality of the ‘search and destroy’ approach to unborn babies with special needs. Such procedures are now very common although very few involve twins.”
He stated: “It is interesting that the killing of an ‘unwanted’ child with special needs in the womb is regarded as ‘normal’ whilst the killing of a ‘wanted’ normal child is seen as a tragedy and worthy of international news coverage.
Unwanted
“And yet if the ‘abnormal’ baby had actually been born, doctors would presumably have done everything possible to provide what treatment or care they could.
“Of course if the second ‘normal’ child had also been ‘unwanted’ then the story would not have warranted a mention. Abortion of ‘unwanted’ ‘normal’ babies takes place over 40 million times every year around the world”, he added.
The Royal Women’s Hospital apologised for the “distressing clinical accident” and the hospital is now the subject of a full investigation.