Italian police to investigate abortion of wrong twin (botched abortion shocks Italy)

Guardian ^ | August 27, 2007 | John Hooper

[NYer]

Italian police have been asked to investigate a case in which doctors treating a 40-year-old woman who was pregnant with twins aborted a healthy foetus while leaving a second, malformed one untouched.

The San Paolo hospital in Milan yesterday confirmed a report of the blunder in the daily Corriere della Sera. A statement from the hospital said the twins had changed places inside the womb between the first ultrasound scan and a second one carried out shortly before the operation, which took place in the 18th week of the pregnancy. It said it had handed the case notes to the "competent authorities".

The "misfortune", as the hospital termed it, is the latest of several high-profile errors that have prompted fierce debate over both the standards of professionalism in Italy's hospitals and the application of its abortion law. In March, a foetus aborted in the 22nd week of pregnancy at a hospital in Florence, because of suspected deformities, was found to be physically sound. It was rescuscitated and survived for a brief period.

A leading Christian Democrat politician, Luca Volonte, denounced the latest case as "infanticide arising from a contempt for human life". He said the health minister should also investigate the blunder, which the hospital said took place in June.

Italian news agencies said the woman subsequently returned to hospital to have the remaining, deformed foetus aborted. She then reported the doctors to police.

Italy's still-controversial 1978 law provides for abortion on demand up to the 90th day of gestation. However, doctors can terminate pregnancies at a later stage if there is a danger to the life of the mother or if the foetus is malformed.

In 2004, the latest year for which figures are available, less than 3% of the 138,000 abortions in Italy, were undertaken after the 90-day mark.

[NYer]

Catholic Ping
Please freepmail me if you want on/off this list

[Jeff Chandler]

Imagine the outrage if they had killed a dog!

[klossg]

Yikes. We are a scary bunch, skating on the edge.

[AliVeritas]

ping

[Soothesayer]

So true. In many places they won’t even let us adopt a dog without proving our worthiness. Kill a dog and there is almost NO CHANCE of getting away with it. If only children could get that kind of security :(

[metmom]

It’s a more understandable error than amputating the wrong foot, but if people weren’t so obsessed with perfection and abortion, it wouldn’t have happened, but that’s the chance you take..

I wonder what the *birth defect* was?

[iowamark]

I guess you just cannot trust your abortionist! Who would have thought?

[tracer]

In Czechoslovakia an abortion was referred to a a “cancelled Czech”.....

[tracer]

In Czechoslovakia an abortion was referred to a a “cancelled Czech”.....

[Greg F]

22nd week of pregnancy ___________________________ At 22 weeks: The fetus is about 7½ inches long and weighs about one pound. The fetus has fingerprints and perhaps some head and body hair. The fetus may suck its thumb and is more active. The brain is growing very rapidly. The fetal heartbeat can be easily heard. The kidneys start to work. At 23 weeks, approximately 31% of babies born survive.

[Greg F]

3 D ultrasound at 22 weeks.

[trisham]

Italian news agencies said the woman subsequently returned to hospital to have the remaining, deformed foetus aborted. She then reported the doctors to police.

************

This story is so sad, I simply cannot express it.

[madprof98]

It was rescuscitated and survived for a brief period.

Too bad for it, huh?

[mtg]

That's interesting... (botched abortion shocks Italy)

But successful abortions don't?!!! Go figure!!!

[Greg F]

Yes, this story hit me harder for some reason than most abortion stories. It was a healthy baby that was wanted but killed because the mother didn’t want to raise a baby with a defect. Terrible. And then she aborts the baby with the defect as well after they kill the healthy baby. And so late in the term. At that age I read that they put a needle into the heart of the baby they want to kill and inject poison. The baby has to feel pain.

[athelass]

the woman subsequently returned to hospital to have the remaining, deformed foetus aborted. She then reported the doctors to police.

My God! They make it sound like she returned a dress that didn't fit. She's 40 years old. The pregnancy was probably IVF. Not one word about the human tragedy of it, the grief of the parents, nothing. Just the medical malpractice. Mark Steyn says Italy's birth rate is so low the population will halve every 35 years. Italians are aborting themselves out of existence. Apparently, without regret.

[Kevmo]

Here’s one for your pro-life list.

Did that aborted baby have a right to life?

[fortunecookie]

I first read it this morning in this link: Botched abortion shocks Italy, where the deformed twin fetus' 'malformation' was down syndrome. It seems to be the same story. I don't want to rush to conclusions, but I hope the UK report listed above isn't calling down syndrome a deformity. Not that it much matters, because the little twin has lost his/her sibling and those who push abortion as a 'solution' seem to have an ever increasing list of imperfections to eliminate.

Italian police have been asked to investigate a case in which doctors treating a 40-year-old woman who was pregnant with twins aborted a healthy foetus while leaving a second, malformed one untouched.

This healthy baby was aborted and they are outraged but only because they made a mistake on which one they were aborting, yet every day thousands of healthy babies are casually discarded...

[StAnDeliver]

"the grief of the parents,"

The "grief of the parents"? Are you joking? Where was Il Papa in his role staying this grevious harm? And absent an epiphany about what she's just done, her conscience will burn to her last days.

[trisham]

Yes, this story hit me harder for some reason than most abortion stories. It was a healthy baby that was wanted but killed because the mother didn’t want to raise a baby with a defect. Terrible. And then she aborts the baby with the defect as well after they kill the healthy baby. And so late in the term. At that age I read that they put a needle into the heart of the baby they want to kill and inject poison. The baby has to feel pain.

**********

I don't know how anyone could read this story and not realize the evil of abortion. I don't think I've ever heard of anything more tragic.

That the mother could, after all of this, sue the doctor, is beyond me.

[Popman]

Imagine the outrage if they had killed a dog!

Took the words right out of mouth

[trisham]

Did that aborted baby have a right to life?

*************

Both babies had a right to life.

[caver]

They should sterilize this woman and her husband, if she has one.

[TheSarce]

Eugenics ping...

[Kevmo]

Both babies had a right to life.
***No, they didn’t. That’s why the parents could choose to kill either one. Those babies do not have the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness extended to them by the constitutions of the governments in Italy (nor the USA). That is what needs to change.

[NYer]

I wonder what the *birth defect* was?

Down's syndrome. God had the last laugh here!

[NYer]

Thank you, Greg, for posting those pictures!

[NYer]

Mark Steyn says Italy's birth rate is so low the population will halve every 35 years. Italians are aborting themselves out of existence. Apparently, without regret.

They are also contracepting themselves out of existence. To fill the lack of workers, they have imported Muslims from the middle east. Need I say more.

[NYer]

I hope the UK report listed above isn't calling down syndrome a deformity.

Of course they are!

A few years ago, a British woman aborted her baby because it had a cleft lip. This outraged other British who had been born with cleft lips and/or palates and had them surgically repaired. This is the slippery slope of abortion.

[metmom]

How on earth did they diagnose a Down’s Syndrome baby with an ultrasound?

And did they verify that it actually WAS Down’s after they aborted it, I wonder?

I hear way too many stories of babies diagnosed with birth defects whose parents were advised to have an abortion and they didn’t. The baby was then born perfectly normal.

The left hates life.

[Gerish]

By the grace of God, I hope this woman is never able to conceive again.

[fr maximilian mary]

Ave Maria! What's unique about the Italian abortion industry is that it seems to thrive on married couples who want only one or two children (I was stationed in Italy for 2 years and they are destroying themselves by contraception and abortion). In the USA the abortion industry seems to thrive more on fornication, adultery (and rape--which Planned Barrenhood never reports). Regardless of the circumstances, abortion is always a murder of a preborn child, a violent rejection of the dignity and duties of motherhood, a contradiction to what the medical field is supposed to be all about, an insult to the Creator of life... it's a mortal sin and, in the Catholic Church, is an automatic excommunication (but alas, the press and the medical world could care less about the eternal consequences of abortion). Really, contraception and the contraceptive mentality is the slippery slope that has led Italy (and the USA) to this point of mass holocaust of preborn babies. Where there is a contraceptive mentality there are "unwanted" pregnancies and thus abortion. And, by the way, Downs Syndrome babies are pure fountains of God's love. STOP the baby-killing! Kyrie eleison...

[fr maximilian mary]

Ave Maria!

What's unique about the Italian abortion industry is that it seems to thrive on married couples who want only one or two children (I was stationed in Italy for 2 years and they are destroying themselves by contraception and abortion). In the USA the abortion industry seems to thrive more on fornication, adultery (and rape--which Planned Barrenhood never reports). Regardless of the circumstances, abortion is always a murder of a preborn child, a violent rejection of the dignity and duties of motherhood, a contradiction to what the medical field is supposed to be all about, an insult to the Creator of life... it's a mortal sin and, in the Catholic Church, is an automatic excommunication (but alas, the press and the medical world could care less about the eternal consequences of abortion).

Really, contraception and the contraceptive mentality is the slippery slope that has led Italy (and the USA) to this point of mass holocaust of preborn babies. Where there is a contraceptive mentality there are "unwanted" pregnancies and thus abortion.

And, by the way, Downs Syndrome babies are pure fountains of God's love.

STOP the baby-killing! Kyrie eleison...

[8mmMauser]

Pinged from Terri Dailies

8mm

[Aquinasfan]

The "misfortune", as the hospital termed it...

Getting chopped into little pieces by a so-called medical doctor is very "unfortunate."

Excuse me while I puke.

[Aquinasfan]

A few years ago, a British woman aborted her baby because it had a cleft lip. This outraged other British who had been born with cleft lips and/or palates and had them surgically repaired.

It should. If it's better for a baby to be dead than to live with disease X, shouldn't we kill everyone with disease X?

[Coleus]

.

[MountainFlower]

WOW!

PING!

[Pinkbell]

How horrible! How can a parent kill her child because their child is not “perfect” according to their sense of the word? This beautiful little girl was created in the image of God, and she had the right to life. Sadly, it was not recognized. In the attempt to kill her “defective” child, she proceeded her perfectly healthy child. Perhaps God decided a mother worthy of doing such a thing doesn’t deserve either. May both these babies rest in peace!

[Hardastarboard]

I’ve often wondered if it’s still considered a double homicide if you kill a pregnant woman on her way to an abortion clinic. What if she was about to change her mind? How would the killer know?

[MountainFlower]

rips my heart out.