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Anencephaly and the US Federal Government

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The Watcher
Post subject: Anencephaly and the US Federal Government
Posted: Thu 24 Mar , 2005 5:10 pm
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Not to turn this into an abortion thread, but more a continuation of what constitutes viable human life, I stumbled onto this story, very tragic in its own right, but again showing the ridiculous lengths that the current administration will go to under the guise of "a moral judgement to value all human life."

Navy won't pay for procedure for woman who carried severely brain-damaged fetus

What really is frightening about both of these cases is that the plaintiffs have been successful thus far in their cases, but that the Justice Department continues in appealing them.
Quote:
Easterling said medicine has no procedures to cure anencephaly or to save an anencephalic fetus. The lack of a cerebrum means that the baby never attains consciousness.

Two-thirds of anencephalic fetuses carried to term are born without a heartbeat and fewer than 2 percent survive longer than seven days, he said.

Easterling said it is standard to offer a woman who learns she is carrying an anencephalic baby counseling and a range of options that include abortion. Most mothers choose abortion, he said.

In its appeal, the government said that "although anencephaly is ultimately fatal," some anencephalic babies have lasted a few months, and in one noted case more than two years. "Although anencephalic infants are 'permanently unconscious,' they 'maintain a heartbeat and respiration without medical assistance,' " the government argued, quoting from medical journals.*
*bold added for emphasis.

Thoughts?

Last edited by The Watcher on Thu 24 Mar , 2005 8:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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vison
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Posted: Thu 24 Mar , 2005 5:19 pm
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I can't put my thoughts here. The keyboard would burst into flames.

It's wicked. It's just plain wicked, hateful, ignorant, sinful, vicious..............

Speechless. That's what I am.

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Mummpizz
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Posted: Thu 24 Mar , 2005 5:39 pm
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Thoughts? No. I doubt there's even consciousness.

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WampusCat
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Posted: Thu 24 Mar , 2005 5:40 pm
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I know someone who has given birth to two anencephalic babies. Both died within days (she also had one healthy child). What sort of life is that? What did it accomplish for mother, father or children to bring them to full term?

The first birth was a total surprise. I'm not sure if they knew in mid-pregnancy about the other and chose to take their chances rather than aborting. But at least it was their choice. It was not imposed on them.

I value life, but the government ought to get off its high horse in cases like this and do what is right for families, not what fits the ideology.

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Primula_Baggins
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Posted: Thu 24 Mar , 2005 5:41 pm
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It's vicious, wanton cruelty. They're making their demagogic point by trampling on heartbroken parents. Bastards.


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Axordil
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Posted: Thu 24 Mar , 2005 5:52 pm
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"Although anencephalic infants are 'permanently unconscious,' they 'maintain a heartbeat and respiration without medical assistance,' " the government argued, quoting from medical journals.*

So does a chicken if you cut off its head.

These are ideological monsters we're talking about. I fear the karma they are building up will not be kind to them.

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Primula_Baggins
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Posted: Thu 24 Mar , 2005 6:02 pm
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There is also the serious question of risk to the mother. Advanced pregnancy and childbirth are dangerous and can kill or permanently injure a woman. It's a risk we accept to give life to living children. But to force a woman to face those risks for a child that will most likely be stillborn and certainly cannot live more than hours or a few days--that's not just wrong, it's unethical.

But it fits with the valuation this administration appears to put on women's lives.


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TheEllipticalDisillusion
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Posted: Thu 24 Mar , 2005 7:15 pm
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Quote:
In its appeal, the government said that "although anencephaly is ultimately fatal," some anencephalic babies have lasted a few months, and in one noted case more than two years.
Everyone isn't focusing on the important sentence here. Medical journals say the baby can live anywhere from a few months up to a whole two years! Now I have never given birth (being a man) or been involved with one (being young and not financially stable) to know first hand, but c'mon every possible life deserves that few months or two years, y'know, just to show the child what he or she is missing by not having a full brain. Doesn't anyone get pleasure out of teasing starving animals?







[/irony over]


This case just adds to the government's ridiculous and illogical stance, at times, on the life. Save the unborn, but the born can go fight our wars. :roll:

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Sassafras
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Posted: Thu 24 Mar , 2005 7:26 pm
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But it fits with the valuation this administration appears to put on women's lives.


'Aint that the sad truth.

Another one virtually speechless over the medieval thinking of the current administration. They appear determined to return us to the Dark Ages.

So much for enlightenment.


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Primula_Baggins
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Posted: Thu 24 Mar , 2005 7:56 pm
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My mother once ranted, during another set of dark years, that she foresaw a time when every woman would be tested for pregnancy every month, and any woman who tested positive one month and negative the next would have to show a doctor's certificate that she'd had a natural miscarriage, or face prison.


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Lhaewin
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Posted: Thu 24 Mar , 2005 9:45 pm
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I already saw an anecephalic baby - stillborn in the 6th month, at a time where we did not have the means for a diagnosis before birth.

I think, if the parents decide to interrupt the pregnancy in a case like that, they should get all financial support, which is needed.

As a midwife I might have a different take than the rest of you. There are parents who decide to wait till the baby wants to be born by itself, although it will suffer from serious brain damage and won´t stay alive for a long time. They want to have the possibility to welcome and farewell their child, which is a part of this family forever. There won´t be taken any painful life maintaining actions, but the child can pass in his mother´s arms. I am highly respectful of this decision, but I can understand and support (in my job) the other pov as well.

I am happy to have two healthy children and I don´t know how I would decide.

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The Watcher
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Posted: Thu 24 Mar , 2005 10:15 pm
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Lhaewin wrote:
I already saw an anecephalic baby - stillborn in the 6th month, at a time where we did not have the means for a diagnosis before birth.

I think, if the parents decide to interrupt the pregnancy in a case like that, they should get all financial support, which is needed.

As a midwife I might have a different take than the rest of you. There are parents who decide to wait till the baby wants to be born by itself, although it will suffer from serious brain damage and won´t stay alive for a long time. They want to have the possibility to welcome and farewell their child, which is a part of this family forever. There won´t be taken any painful life maintaining actions, but the child can pass in his mother´s arms. I am highly respectful of this decision, but I can understand and support (in my job) the other pov as well.

I am happy to have two healthy children and I don´t know how I would decide.
Lhaewin -

Of course you would be compassionate, it would be a terrible situation for the family to be a part of, knowing the situation or not.

In this case, however, both of these women were told of the situation of their fetus well after normal abortion would be available to them in the US, and as their spouses were both in the military serving their country at the time, to have our Judicial Department appeal these findings in terms of the women having valid medical procedures performed just makes me sick.

In essence, these women, the spouses of servicepeople, were told that their husbands' medical insurance, which is what Triserve is, would not cover dealing with the dire situation ahead of time., Allowing the women to have their pregnancies terminated spared the families not only horrible heartache, but also potentially dire medical conditions for the mothers by forcing them to deal with an induced and abnomal birth process. The costs of forcing the mothers in this case to undergo the same medical procedures at nine months would not have cost any less and would have been far more dangerous. All these families are asking is to have their medical bills covered.

The government again here in the US has backed itself into an unreasonable corner which just makes them look like idiots. The lower courts found in favor of the plaintiffs in all cases, it was not until the current administration stepped in that these two cases were pursued in vengeance upon appeal.

What is next under this administration? I really ask this out of fear, since they seemingly have no bounds in terms of what they will pursue in their horrible heavyhandedness to suspend the Constitution and anything else that stands in their way. I am not a political zealot, and never have been, but this just frightens me, they seemingly just never take no for an answer.

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Lidless
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Posted: Thu 24 Mar , 2005 11:51 pm
Als u het leven te ernstig neemt, mist u de betekenis.
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Quote:
The lack of a cerebrum means that the baby never attains consciousness.
In other words, they want to keep alive potential Republican voters. It is in the nature of people to favor their own kind.

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Lhaewin
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Posted: Thu 24 Mar , 2005 11:57 pm
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Lidless :Q

:help:

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sh_wulff
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Posted: Sun 03 Apr , 2005 11:57 am
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:Q :Q

a little question..being form outside the US

Do the Republicans stand for less control over personal decisions?

or does this only apply to gun control??

thanks in advance

( I believe in this case it is the family's decision..never an easy one.. and to support them regardless

anencephaly is a major abnormality usually not compatible with prolongerd extra-uterine life

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Dave_LF
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Posted: Sun 03 Apr , 2005 6:50 pm
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I think the federal government has a bad case of anencephaly itself.


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Pippin4242
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Posted: Sun 03 Apr , 2005 11:01 pm
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