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Live babies being born after abortions
By Rebecca Smith, Evening Standard Health Reporter Last updated at 00:00am on 22.06.04Leading doctors today called for a major overhaul to avoid babies being born alive after abortions.
Pregnancy expert Professor Stuart Campbell has demanded rules should be tightened after it was revealed that at least nine babies are known to have survived terminations in recent years.
He said injections that were supposed to end their lives in the womb failed to do so - and he called for stricter regulations to be enforced on the methods of abortion.
Professor Campbell said that all abortions carried out after 18 weeks of pregnancy should include an injection, followed by drugs, to induce labour and a stillborn child.
Some consultants only give the injection in abortions after 22 weeks. Others, he claims, do not use it at all.
Professor Campbell, who worked as an obstetrician at St George's Hospital-Tooting, and pioneered 4D scanning of babies in the womb at the Create Health Centre for Reproduction and Advanced Technology in London, said: "It is really unfair on the nurses and the parents to see the baby making some sort of movement after birth.
"If after 18 weeks you just induce labour (without an injection first) a large number would be born with a heartbeat and most of them will survive with a heartbeat and will make movements.
"Certainly from 18 weeks they should inject the heart to stop it from beating, but not everyone does this. Guidance should be given by the Royal College.
"There are cases where the injection does not work but this is very rare."
One baby with Down's Syndrome was to be aborted at a hospital in the home counties but lived. It was transferred to St George's Hospital, where it received neonatal intensive care and survived. It is believed to have been adopted.
Next week a motion is being tabled at the British Medical Association conference that babies should be entitled to all the intensive care that babies born prematurely receive. Consultant obstetrician-Jim Thornton said in the past babies were born alive after abortion more regularly but "people didn't make a fuss and pretended not to realise the baby was born alive".
He said that if a baby were to be born alive and viable then it must be given medical help but there was a "grey area" where babies born in this manner at 22 or 23 weeks were on the cusp of being able to survive. Only 17 per cent of babies born normally at 23 weeks survive.
Professor Thornton, of City Hospital, Nottingham, said: "Once it is born, you can't kill the baby but the law doesn't say anything about to what degree you resuscitate it.
"The way it is dealt with is by sensible doctors and sensible nurses keeping it under their hat and allowing the baby to pass away peacefully."
Professor Campbell does not believe that a baby born in this way should be kept alive at all costs.
"What paediatricians do is spend resources keeping a baby that is going to die, alive. It is absolute nonsense. It does show that is up to us (obstetricians) to make sure the baby is not moving."
Guidance issued by the Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecologists states that a legal abortion must not be allowed to result in a live birth.
But Professor Campbell says it does not make clear at what stage it is necessary to stop the heartbeat before abortion.
Reader views (9)
Here's a sample of the latest views published.
Why on Gods green earth would such a cruel process be allowed. I understand why some abortions should be allowed but only in the first 30 days of conception. Rape victims, insest cases or cases where it in dangers the baby and or the mother and death would be the outcome. What has the world come too. I myself was a young mother! I furthered my education and took full responsiblity of my actions . There are no reasons that a child should be put to death because it is a unwanted pregnacy! Wake up world!
- Stephanie Marshall, Kearney Nebraska United States
Woman who dont want babies should cross their legs! Abortion should not be allowed at that stage of pregnacey. I dont believe in it at all because its murder. I have a premature baby boy. He was suppose to come around 27 weeks but thank God he came 33 weeks. I have a friend whos little girl came 25 weeks and appart from small she was perfectly formed. Please think before you do this horrible thing thanks.
- Jean, Dorking Surrey UK
i dont believe in abortions personally but everyone has reasons etc I think its totally wrong to have an abortion after 12wks, its every womans choice to have one but the limit should be dropped. i know a woman who had a baby at 20wks (premature labour) and despite being poorly lived and has grown into a healthy little girl. I watched a programme on UK tv thats showed the procedure of a late term abortion and i was absolutly discusted with the procedure...it broke my heart...i also have a friend who had two babies at 21 wks one lived for a short while but wasnt given any medical help why is this? if the baby can breathe even if for a short while then it should be given every chance and b given medical attention..this sort of thing scares me and letting a child to die because its not classed as 'viable' is murder in my eyes and what i have just read in that article above is just awful.
- Gemma, cumbria UK
It annoys me that it is allowed for people to have abortions up to 22weeks. It is a womans choice to have an abortion but i believe that it should not be allowed to be carried out when so far along in the pregnancy, if they child is not wanted then maybe they should think about contraception or adoption or maybe see about a termination earlier but up to 22weeks is unfair but if it does carry on like this then yes it is unfair to nurses and doctors who have to witness it, they are only doing their job but i have no sympathy for the woman who has choosen to abort their child this far in their pregnancy.
- Siona, cumbria
I was just reading about this woman who went and had an abortion at 22 weeks and the baby was born alive. Of course the baby then passed away a few moments later. She then decided to blame the clinic and sit there and say what a tragedy it was, (and of course is!) But this to come from the woman who flew all the way to Florida to have a late term abortion!!! I hate her, she and all the late term abortions should not be able to live with them selves. Why would you wait that long to do such a horrible thing??? It should be illegal to do things like that late in pregnancy. I am pro choice, but there should be a limit.
- Teresa, Indianapolis, Indiana USA
And what is scary is Senator Obama wants to make it ok to kill the baby if it is born alive and will try and put legislation through if he is elected. I don't want him as our president!!!
- Karen Urrutia, Buffalo, NY
Let us do all within our power to put an end to the brutality visited upon the unborn human baby and sanctioned by our government. That we can even think of giving a lethal injection to a baby in the womb tells us the extent to which we have all been de humanised. Let us recognize what we are doing and long overdue, have the courage to say, that's enough!
- Jane, Sunderland uk
I agree, it is a world gone mad. If a baby is conceived and not wanted by the mother, why oh why can't the mother take it to term and give it up for adoption to someone who longs for a child? Surely the "inconvenience" of carrying the unwanted baby to term and then handing it over for adoption is a small price to pay when the alternative is murder? How do these people sleep at night?
- Amanda Sheehan, Australia
Are the doctors in this article aware of the fact that they are talking in medical words about killing a baby, a child, an human being? They give the baby an injection to make sure the child is born dead otherwise it could be born alive. When that happens it is seen as a human being and gets medical care. So my question is, is a child in the womb not already an human being because of the fact that the baby can be born alive. And is an abortion after 18 weeks (or sooner) then not murder? So how can we let them get away with murder?
- Jeruëlle, Utrecht
