Courtesy of BBC News
The mother of Ireland's first ever set of sextuplets has told how she and her husband declined without hesitation the option of aborting some foetuses. Nuala Conway, 26, of Dunamore, County Tyrone, gave birth to four girls and two boys 14 weeks early last month.
She said that 14 weeks into the pregnancy, she and husband Austin were told about the risks of proceeding. "But we knew without discussion what we both wanted. These babies are a wonderful gift from God," she said.
"Whatever God laid out for our lives, we were taking it," she told the Sunday Express newspaper.
Abortions in Northern Ireland are still strictly limited and can go ahead only if it can be proven that the pregnancy would damage the physical or mental health of the woman. Mrs Conway's babies were delivered by a team of 30 people at the Royal Jubilee Maternity Hospital in Belfast and all arrived within the space of five minutes. The babies, conceived without the aid of IVF, weighed between 1lb 7oz and 2lb 2oz.
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2 comments:
I find it incredible that people who use IVF then speak about how "God" wouldn't want them to abort "extra" fetuses. God does not want them to use this artificial method, period.
Catholic Church teaching:
http://www.catholicinsight.com/online/church/vatican/article_475.shtml
A human being comes into existence at the moment of fertilization of an oocyte (ovum) by a sperm. This fact has been recognized by the science of Human Embryology since 1883, and is still acknowledged today. The Church teaches that a human being must be respected-as a person-from the very first instant of his existence as a human being, and therefore, from that same moment, his rights as a person must be recognized among which in the first place, is the inviolable right of every innocent human being to life. The Church also teaches that from the moral point of view a truly responsible procreation vis-à-vis the unborn child, must be the fruit of marriage.
Pope Paul VI has taught that there is an "inseparable connection, willed by God, and unable to be broken by man on his own initiative, between the two meanings of the conjugal act: the unitive meaning and the procreative meaning."
A human being comes into existence at the moment of fertilization of an oocyte (ovum) by a sperm. This fact has been recognized by the science of Human Embryology since 1883, and is still acknowledged today. The Church teaches that a human being must be respected-as a person-from the very first instant of his existence as a human being, and therefore, from that same moment, his rights as a person must be recognized among which in the first place, is the inviolable right of every innocent human being to life. The Church also teaches that from the moral point of view a truly responsible procreation vis-à-vis the unborn child, must be the fruit of marriage.
Pope Paul VI has taught that there is an "inseparable connection, willed by God, and unable to be broken by man on his own initiative, between the two meanings of the conjugal act: the unitive meaning and the procreative meaning."
IVF violates the rights of the child: it deprives him of his filial relationship with his parental origins and can hinder the maturing of his personality. It objectively deprives conjugal fruitfulness of its unity and integrity, it brings about and manifests a rupture between genetic parenthood, gestational parenthood, and responsibility for upbringing. This threat to the unity and stability of the family is a source of dissension, disorder, and injustice in the whole of social life.
I understand that this young couple have NOT used IVF. They were advised by their doctor to 'reduce the number of babies' - a horrible euphemism - and to their immense credit they opted to carry them all. I wish them all the luck in the world with their instant family.
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