July 11, 2011

Fetal Surgery May Be The Straw To Break The Camel's Back

Fetal Surgery
Fetal surgery "is the surgical treatment of a fetus [still in the womb] with certain life-threatening congenital abnormalities. Surgical intervention on the fetus is meant to correct problems that would be too advanced to correct after the baby is born."  One example is spina bifida.  Another is the removal of tumors.

Children's Hospital Boston explains it here
The UCSF Fetal Treatment Center shows a video here.  This can be graphic.

What am I talking about when I say fetal surgery may be the straw to break the camel's back?  I am referring to personhood.  If science can not persuade ProChoicers that a fetus in the body of a pregnant woman is a person, and therefore should not be killed/aborted/terminated, then maybe logistics will.

Logistically, with whom will the medical records reside after a pregnant woman is opened up and her fetus is operated on?  I don't know the answer for the fetal surgeries done so far, but I would imagine the fetus would get its own records, and the mother would get her own records, even if some of the information is duplicated.  Otherwise, how would doctors access information about the baby's medical history later on, like when the child is three-months-, five-years- or 25-years-old?

Sounds like the fetus is its own person, to me.

Kathleen



image - http://www.cardinalglennon.com/fetalcare/Pages/OpenFetalSurgery.aspx

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