Would you rather have a child said to be SS or abort?

[ICURN7]

This is a question one of my patients had asked me.Very difficult one. She had gone to a genetic counsellor as her doctor ordered but feels she doesn't want to keep the baby because of associated risks. She also tells me she feels so bad aborting the little thing in her. she kind of have a mixed feling since everyone now knows she is almost 5 months pregnant. I just empathized with her but remained silent throughout. Anyone?

[RN4PatientCare]

I just saw a story last night about "ss" being cured through bone marrow transplant!

Now, if she went ahead and aborted then found out a cure became possible, could she live with that?

[TrudyRN]

Years ago, sickle cell patients were considered terminal but I guess there is better treatment today.

I think each parent must decide the fate of his or her child and it is not my place as a nurse to do it for them. That said, I sometimes think that sick children are given by God so who are we to refuse them. On the other hand, I see that, once the child is past childhood and is maturing physically and the parents can no longer care for him or her at home, the sick person has to be placed in a facility. There he is subject to all the horrors for which these places are often known - from bedsores to rape, from being ill-fed to Heaven only knows what else. It's so hard when these children are little but even harder when they are grown. I sometimes think it was more humane in the long run to encourage parents to let them die of starvation/dehydration in a corner of the nursery, as was pretty commonly done not so very long ago. Just typing it gives me the willies and I know it must have been awful beyond words to have to hear these little ones scream themselves to death while ignoring their needs for nourishment and other physical/spiritual/emotional care.

There just are no easy answers.

Like should rape victims be forced to carry to term the baby conceived in a rape? Should they have to raise these children?

Dumb question: Why call it SS, not SCD or SCT? (disease, trait)

[TrudyRN]

pearl, your sources are purely anecdotal, not scientific. Further, http://www.catholicsocialscientists.org/ is scarcely unbiased.

You are welcome to your own opinions, but not your own facts.

I'm out of this, though, or this will devolve into a discussion about abortion rights, not the specific situation in question here.

Suesquatch, you didn't really think Planned Parenthood was going to say otherwise, did you? Plus, most of their references are pretty old.

At any rate, I know you had your reasons for aborting and it was the right decision for you at that time. Personally, I think there is a time and place for everything, including AB. Not that I think women should abort any time they wish, for it is actually murder in my book. But we live in an imperfect world so we have to sometimes make imperfect choices.

I have a problem with women who use AB for birth control and have repeat AB after repeat AB. I have seen this occur in more teens and young women than I care to count.

I hope you're ok. :wink2:

[Maternity Girl]

It seems strange to me that abortion is being suggested in her case. I worked for an OB/GYN office for years and we sent many women to genetic counselors for SSA and never did any of them suggest aborting the baby. They just educated the patient about the disease and taught them what to do when the baby was born. SSA isn't something worth aborting your baby over. Especially at five months. She had to of had her Level II u/s at the same time and saw it was a healthy baby. Plus, like everyone said, these tests aren't 100%.