Why I am in favour of repealing the 8th Amendment.

joe_cork

What if, after 10 weeks, the scan results for your pregnancy revealed that the foetus has a chromosomal abnormality resulting in serious sight & hearing problems, would have severe brain abormalities and serious mental disabilities, and even if it survived the pregnancy would never walk. What if, assuming it managed to reach full term, it would have only a 10% chance of reaching the age of one. What if, even if you knew that the baby was to reach its first birthday, that you would know for certain that you would be burying the child at some stage, and almost certainly at a young age?

If this was the scenario put in front of you after 10 weeks into a pregnancy, would you choose to take a pill that would induce a miscarriage?

We didn't do an amniocentesis during pregnancy, so a few days after the birth of our child we suddenly found that these were the conditions that our baby had been born with. So, for us, the decision around termination was never an option.

We are both in favour of repealing the 8th amendment. Personally, if I had done the amniocentesis (or preferably the newer non-invasive Harmony cfDNA tests), I know for a fact that I would have chosen to terminate. Even today, this is the option I would have chosen were it up to me.

However, we would not have terminated as my wife has said she would never have been able to do this, but would respect the decision of other mothers to do otherwise. In other words, she is very much pro-choice, but would personally choose not to terminate.

Why am I writing this? Firstly, I personally find every day an emotional struggle, I find it a battle to get over the condition of our baby. We both love our child, but know our time with her is limited, and we both know that at some stage she will be gone. So even the act of writing these thoughts down feels like an escape valve, something heavy off my chest. Secondly, the ongoing abortion debate will definitely focus on conditions such as this. The anti-abortion side will say they are speaking for parents such as us. They don't speak for us. They don't know what we've experienced, or what parents in similar situations have experienced. Remember that the Harmony cfDNA tests are non-invasive, which I believe will mean that more parents will choose to scan for fetal chromosomal conditions. So this is a scenario that more parents will find themselves in. I believe parents should have a choice.

January

The Harmony test is not a conclusive test though, you still have to have an amnio to confirm diagnosis.

Abnormalities like you described also wouldn't show up at a scan at ten weeks, more likely to show at the 20 week anamoly scan (not everyone gets one of these by the way!).

The 12 week limit will not catch severe (non-fatal, which won't be allowed after 12 weeks) abnormalities so women who decide they want to terminate at that point will still have to travel.

joe_cork

January wrote: »

The Harmony test is not a conclusive test though, you still have to have an amnio to confirm diagnosis.

Abnormalities like you described also wouldn't show up at a scan at ten weeks, more likely to show at the 20 week anamoly scan (not everyone gets one of these by the way!).

The 12 week limit will not catch severe (non-fatal, which won't be allowed after 12 weeks) abnormalities so women who decide they want to terminate at that point will still have to travel.

The harmony blood test can be performed from 10 weeks of pregnancy onwards (from the Rotunda website).

Skylinehead

https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057732408

Thread here, if you want copy and paste your post in there. We don't need more abortion threads though.