Open Question: Should I Counsel My Friends To Get An Abortion? (Please Read The Details)?
They say they cannot make the decision alone, and as I was going to be the kids ?Godparent?, they are firm in this decision and insist that I counsel them. So, as a friend, I have no choice.
They say that they value my opinion because of my education in religion (PhD, Religious Studies) and because we are friends.
They are expecting their second child and have discovered that the child, essentially has no brain (just enough to sustain involuntary neuromuscular activity (unstable heartbeat and limited lung function), it was conceived with a rare and unique encephalopathic disease.
The surgeons/specialists say that they can keep the child alive, but at considerable cost.
In addition, the child will absolutely not have the ability to think or any capacity to even move. It will never speak or hear, or see, or feel any touch - it will only lie in a bed for the duration of his life. The capabilities for any of this is outright impossible, as the parts of the brain that control these functions are completely gone.
This has been confirmed by a dozen other specialists.
They estimate that it will cost about $470,000 a year to keep the child alive (he has to be hooked up to an artificial lung and a heart pump, and have 24 hour monitoring).
This will bankrupt the family (even after the insurance help). The mother has bi-polar disorder and the father has a history of drug abuse. They considered adoption, however, no agency will take on the responsibility, nor has there been (among thousands of adoptive candidates) any interest whatsoever in this child.
Keeping the child will cause the family to have to sell everything they have, give their older daughter to be raised by her Grandparents and even though there has been humanitarian aid, it is not nearly enough to cover even the first year.
The child will have to be put on donor?s lists for vital organs, which will cause some more ?normal? children who are lower on the list to die.
The child has just enough of a nervous system to maintain a heartbeat and lung development, but that is all. It is a guarantee that the child will never feel a touch, or even move. He will have no voluntary actions whatsoever. He will not have the capacity for any thought, emotion, nor will he ever feel any.
The doctors have said that it will be like having a dead person in the house ? only he will require round-the-clock monitoring.
The child cannot be delivered and then not hooked up to life support (so that it may die naturally) as the doctors have a mandate to try to preserve the life, however they may, as the mother insists that if she delivers the child, she will not kill it. If the child is brought to term, they will try to keep him alive. Besides, to do this would be the exact same thing as aborting the child. If you withhold life-saving measures, you kill the child.
Their Baptist Pastor said that the child has no soul, as it cannot think ? and it will never be able to make any decisions or repent or hear or see or have anything remotely related to an experience.
How do you think I should counsel my friends?
(I cannot give any more information than this, as they value their privacy and this is an unusual medical case)

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 07:05:10 GMT
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