Doctors Advised Abortion; Baby Born Healthy

by Devon Williams, associate editor

‘How many other babies are killed who would have turned out to be completely healthy?’
A Wales couple are enjoying their healthy 5-month-old son after they defied doctors' recommendation to abort him.
Before Brandon Kramer was born, doctors diagnosed him, via an MRI scan, with a rare brain disorder that reportedly would cause deafness and blindness. Becky and Kriss were told their son probably would survive only a few hours. Just weeks before Brandon's birth, doctors recommended abortion.
The couple ignored the doctors’ advice and welcomed a healthy boy on Oct. 1, 2007. He is now teething and attempting to talk.
"I feel incredibly guilty thinking that I could have killed him — and then I find myself wondering how many other babies are killed who would have turned out to be completely healthy,” Becky told London’s Daily Mail.
The parents said they want their story to serve as a warning for other parents advised to abort their babies.
According to the British Paediatric Neurology Association, “Just because you have an abnormality in a scan doesn't mean your baby will turn out abnormally.”
Officials at the University Hospital of Wales said an urgent case review will be conducted.
Dawn Vargo, associate bioethics analyst for Focus on the Family Action, said prenatal diagnoses often are wrong.
"Unfortunately, parents who receive an adverse genetic diagnosis for their preborn child often are under immense pressure from their doctor to abort," she said. "It is encouraging to see parents to who were willing to recognize and affirm the life of their preborn child — despite dire warnings about supposedly serious health complications."
The U.S. Senate currently is considering the Prenatally and Postnatally Diagnosed Conditions Awareness Act (S. 1810), which would provide up-to-date information and resources to families that receive adverse genetic diagnoses during pregnancy.

FOR MORE INFORMATIONVisit the Focus on Social Issues Web site.