United Nations Committee Affirms Abortion as a Human Right

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-a-grimes/united-nations-committee-affirms-abortion-as-a-human-right_b_9020806.html

 01/25/2016 10:47 am ET | Updated 4 hours ago

• David A. GrimesAuthor, Every Third Woman in America: How Legal Abortion Transformed Our Nation;former Chief of the Abortion Surveillance Branch at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC)

 

In a landmark case, Peru has compensated a woman for denying her a medically indicated abortion. In 2001, K.L. was a 17-year-old who was diagnosed as having a fetus with anencephaly at 14 weeks' gestation. As described below, this fetal anomaly is routinely lethal. Although abortion was legal in Peru in this circumstance, a hospital director refused her request for an abortion. She was forced to continue her pregnancy and deliver the doomed fetus, which survived only four days. Working with human rights lawyers, K.L. filed a complaint with the United Nations Human Rights Committee, based in Geneva. In 2005, the Committee concluded that Peru had violated several articles of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and it ordered financial compensation to K.L. Fifteen years after the incident, reparations were finally made for Peru's "cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment." This marked the first time a United Nations Committee had held a country accountable for failing to ensure access to safe, legal abortion.

Abortions for fetal anomalies Fetal abnormalities account for a small but important proportion of abortion requests. Indeed, modern prenatal diagnosis is predicated on the availability of legal abortion should an abnormality be detected. Most women who undergo prenatal diagnosis receive favorable news and thus continue desired pregnancies.

Anencephaly: a deadly defect Anencephaly is an uncommon (1/1000 pregnancies) but devastating neural tube defect. The human embryo starts as a tube, which subsequently closes at both ends at around 4 weeks. If the bottom fails to close, then meningomyelocele (spina bifida) occurs. If the top fails to close, anencephaly results (photo).

In this condition, major parts of the brain, skull, and scalp are missing. Fetuses with anencephaly are doomed. Many die during pregnancy or childbirth, and those born alive usually die soon thereafter. Median survival time after birth in a recent case series was55 minutes. The mother and family often witness the death of the malformed infant.

Most choose abortion Most women who receive a prenatal diagnosis of anencephaly choose abortion. In a recent review of the world's literature, researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that overall 83% of women in this setting chose abortion, ranging from 59% to 100% in individual studies.

This CDC study confirmed earlier evidence that most women who learn of serious fetal defects during pregnancy choose abortion. In the figure below, each square indicates the overall percent opting for abortion; the vertical line is the 95% confidence interval for the overall percent. A narrow line indicates good precision. The proportion choosing abortion varied by severity of the fetal anomaly. Among more than 5,000 women in five countries who received a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome (trisomy 21), 92% chose abortion. For anencephaly, the proportion was 84%. For sex-chromosome defects, abortion frequency was lower. With Turner syndrome (45X) and Klinefelter syndrome (47XXY) the proportion who chose abortion was 72% and 58%, respectively. The corresponding figure for spina bifida (meningomyelocele) was 64%.

Risks to the pregnant woman In settings where legal abortion is not an option, women with a fetal diagnosis of anenecephaly must continue these doomed pregnancies. The risk of maternal complications appears to be high. In a recent report of 26 cases from Ireland, most women had labor medically induced, since pregnancies with anencephaly tend to continue longer than normal. Seven women (27%) had excessive amniotic fluid develop around the fetus, and three of these had to have fluid removed repeatedly by needle in late pregnancy. Four of the vaginal births had mechanical difficulty delivering the fetal shoulders.

Progress in Peru During the negotiations with Peru over K.L.'s ruling, lawyers filed and won another case against Peru. In this case, another teenager was denied a medically indicated abortion. Importantly, Peru in 2014 adopted national guidelines for safe abortion services which should provide clarity for health care providers and for women in the years ahead. Nevertheless, few women have apparently been able to access safe, legal abortion since adoption of the guidelines. Much work remains to be done to ensure that women's human rights are respected.

Follow David A. Grimes on Twitter: www.twitter.com/drdavidagrimes

YES the Question is...

‘To kill or not to kill, that is the question’

A new film about Jerome Lejeune shows the drama of his life after identifying the cause of Down syndrome.
http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/to-kill-or-not-to-kill-that-is-the-question/18265
 

Mary Le Rumeur | Jun 21 2016 | 1

It is August 1969 in San Francisco and Professor Jerome Lejeune is addressing the annual meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics.

Ten years earlier he had discovered the genetic cause of Down Syndrome, when he saw under his microscope in a Paris laboratory the third little mark on the 21st chromosome. In 1962 he received the Kennedy Award from the hands of President John F Kennedy for his work with handicapped children.

But the drama of his life was that his discovery of trisomy 21 would lead to a medical holocaust, national health systems giving huge funds to track down and eliminate these children before they could be born.

Invited to America to receive the highest distinction in genetics for his work, the William Allen Memorial Award, Lejeune decided to use this occasion to speak out in defence of "his patients" --  the children and their parents who already came from all over the world to seek his advice and help in Paris.

Losing a Nobel Prize

Colleagues tried to persuade him just to address the scientific questions. But Lejeune had given months of reflection to his speech. He had counted the cost.
In his soft, very precise voice he said : "For thousands of years, medicine has striven to fight for life and health against disease and death. Any reversal of this order would entirely change medicine itself."

That night he wrote to his wife, "Today I lost my Nobel Prize."

As he had foreseen, Lejeune was ostracised by the scientific, medical and political elite in France. His research funds were withdrawn. In the 1960s doctors had been proud to belong to the « Lejeune team », but in the 1970s it was social suicide. During the campaign to legalise abortion in France in 1975 slogans were painted on the walls of the Sorbonne : "Death to Lejeune".  His own children saw these attacks against their father.

'To the least of these...'

These key moments of his life are explored in a recent film made by François Lespés and titled in English, Jerome Lejeune : To the Least of These My Brothers and Sisters  (a reference to Christ’s words, "Whatever you do to the least of my brethren…").
The film shows how Pope Paul VI created the Pontifical Academy of Science in 1974. This gave Professor Lejeune the chance to work with the elite of the international scientific world on questions of science and ethics.

His meeting with Cardinal Wojtyla in Poland in 1975 was the beginning of a strong friendship, which continued when his friend became Pope John Paul II in 1978. On a visit to France in 1997 the Pope insisted on praying before the tomb of Jerome Lejeune, in the company of his wife and children and grandchildren.

As many countries began to deny the value of life in the womb, Lejeune travelled tirelessly around the world, defending the humanity of the human person from his or her very beginning.

Maryville Court Case

A remarkable trial took place in Maryville, Tennessee in August 1989. A young divorced couple were battling over the custody of their seven frozen embryos. The mother wanted to have custody so she could have the embryos implanted in her womb, to try and bring them to birth. Or else she wanted them to be given to other childless women. The father wanted custody so that they would remain frozen and be eventually destroyed.

"The judgment of Solomon all over again!" said Lejeune when the lawyers for the mother contacted him, asking him to give evidence. The transcript of this trial -- "What's in the Fridge? Jerome Lejeune's Expert Court Testimony" -- can be read on the website SEDIN. The simple, seemingly facile descriptions of the beginnings of life actually demonstrate the amazing pedagogy of a great scientific mind.

The trial judge in Davis vs Davis seemed convinced by Lejeune’s testimony, awarding custody of the embryos to the mother: "Human life is not property, and human life begins at conception," said Judge W. Dale Young. "Mr and Mrs Davis have produced human beings, in vitro, to be known as their child or children." This judgment was later overturned by a higher court.

His vocation

As a young medical student, Lejeune had intended to become a country doctor, to practise medicine with a close relationship to his patients. In fact, his vocation was to be a great scientist, but also to practise a medicine of deep humanity. He treated the most rejected of human babies, revealing their value to their parents and families, and to a society which was demanding more and more perfection.

His discovery of the genetic cause of Down Syndrome immediately removed the shame that had been felt by families, as all sorts of reasons had been given for this condition.
In 1989, the King of Belgium, King Baudouin, requested a visit from Professor Lejeune, as a representative of the Pontifical Academy of Science. The Belgian Parliament was debating a law to legalise abortion, a law which the King would refuse to sign. At the end of their meeting, the King asked Professor Lejeune "Would you mind if we pray together?" These two men, remarkable for their moral courage, and their humanity, are now both candidates for beatification by the Catholic Church.

The Jerome Lejeune Foundation in Paris has continued Lejeune's work since his death on Easter Sunday 1994. His wife, Madame Birthe Lejeune, is still a very active member of the foundation as are their children and their spouses. A clinic has been created to welcome families whose children suffer from any kind of genetic condition, and research projects are constantly funded to seek to ameliorate the lives of these children. The Jerome Lejeune Foundation has an associated organisation in the USA and an office in Madrid.
An English language DVD of the film, To the Least of These, can be purchased from the US Foundation.

Mary O'Neil Le Remeur writes from Angers in France. She has a sister with Down syndrome.