New born babies with disability, or the wrong sex vs. parents convenience and want? It all comes down to this.

In UK law, the fetus becomes a legal entity only at the moment of birth. Because of this, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists can recommend that late termination of pregnancy for fetal anomaly should be preceded by feticide, but any clinician who injected a similar severely malformed newborn baby with potassium chloride moments after birth would be guilty of murder.

The report of the Nuffield Council of Bioethics, published after widespread consultation in November 2006, “unreservedly” rejected the possibility of neonatal euthanasia in the context of UK practice even when life is intolerable.

Who defines intolerable? Doctors? Parents? Ethicists? Society? What is intolerable to one is acceptable to another. The life of a child, no matter how handicapped, depends upon the luck of the draw. If the baby has parents willing to make personal sacrifices, the baby has a chance. If not, tough. The baby dies.

Another reason is the fear that active killing may have a negative impact on the psychology of professional staff, and that parents may feel pressured to accept the option of euthanasia so that they do not become a burden on medical and social services.

Who defines burden? And when we decide that death is preferred over life, for those who cannot speak, we have crossed the line. In Europe it is all about money, using resources from their national health care systems BUT, it’s also about parents wanting the perfect child and anything less isn’t worthy of life. Not to say that in the US this isn’t true as well, but infant murder is still a crime in all circumstances. Here, we have people demanding their terminally ill children be kept alive with artificial means. Two opposites at the extreme- and both are messing with Mother nature.

The availability of active euthanasia as a therapeutic option would undermine this progress and be a step backwards, she says.

However, we must look at how to provide for babies who might be candidates for euthanasia elsewhere in the world. Sadly, too often, parents have to battle for essential services that ensure the best outcome for their disabled child, and that also make their own lives more tolerable, she concludes.

Therapeutic option? FOR WHO? Not the child, that’s for sure. For the parents, YES. Those who cannot be bothered with the burden, that they have decided, with the help and quiet urging of a society that embraces the culture of death as an option. Many parents are made to feel guilty for choosing life for such children. The battle for services? Only in a society that has other options such as infanticide. These services are expensive, after all. And the alternative option (euthanasia) is cheaper.

Even healthy babies are not always given a chance for a life. In Britain, gender abortions might be on the rise soon enough:

CAMPAIGNERS last night warned couples “not to play God” with a revolutionary home test that reveals an unborn baby’s sex at six weeks.

They fear the £189 kit will create a massive leap in abortions if would-be parents are not having the gender they want.

It remains to be seen if there is an increase in abortions due to the results of this home test. Careful record keeping would be required to track any increases, and somehow I doubt anyone over there really cares.

The Pink or Blue Early Test Kit, launched on the internet this week by DNA Worldwide, is claimed to be 98 per cent reliable.

Mums-to-be prick a finger to give a small blood sample. They put this on a filter paper and send it to a lab for testing.

Lab technicians determine the sex by looking for the Y chromosome found in males in three tests. Each works because an unborn baby’s DNA is present in the mother for six weeks.

Sweet.

Wrong-sex abortions are more common in some ethnic minorities — with boys being more highly prized than girls.

The North West London NHS Trust is one of the authorities to have banned revealing gender information from scans.

Britain has one of the highest abortion rates in Europe, with more than 185,000 a year. More than 80 per cent are performed at under 13 weeks.

Prolife Alliance’s Ms Millington added: “We have already reached an alarming situation where hospitals in some parts of the UK will no longer disclose the gender of an unborn child.

Really? Why not? Is it not the right of parents to know the sex of their unborn child? Honestly, I see NO reason to know this information. No medically sound reason; it’s ALL an emotional reason. I had the opportunity to learn the sex of my two younger daughters when I was pregnant with them. I refused the tests. It didn’t matter to me. I don’t think it should matter to anyone. No matter what, if the baby is a girl- in most cases at least one parent is going to be let down. I guess now we’ll have YET another option if we’re let down in time.