The ONLY CHOICE?
Another reason Gateway is vitally needed
I was in the dark
shadows of the ultrasound room when I first heard the words “incompatible with
life.” I didn’t understand. He was already alive.
The
profession certainly made it clear that it supported the choice to terminate. I
was still reeling from the ultrasound when the doctor who delivered the news
began pressuring me to have a possibly risky and invasive amniocentesis – a procedure to remove some
of the amniotic fluid that protects the baby – just hours later. When I
declined, the doctor pressed harder, saying further testing was needed to have
more "choices." Instead, that day my husband and I gave the baby his
name, which is Hebrew for “gift from God.”
In
the weeks that followed, a parade of doctors pushed a slew of tests on me. For
more choices – that was always their justification. Never mind that I had
already made my choice, they only seemed determined to change it. Not once did
I hear the words I so craved: “Don’t worry about it. What do you want to do? I
will help you.”
So many women facing a
terminal diagnosis do so alone. They suffer greatly, unjustly deprived of a
supportive community. Too often that injustice begins in the doctor’s office,
where women are berated with so-called choices but in reality left feeling as
if they only have one. I had to fight for respect for my choice to bring my
terminally ill baby into the world, and until I found truly supportive medical
care, the doctor’s office was the only place where I did not feel sustained.
After
my unborn son's fatal diagnosis, doctors seemed determined to change my
'choice' - Monica Canetta / Thu, October 28, 2021, 8:01 AM
https://www.yahoo.com/news/unborn-sons-fatal-diagnosis-doctors-120137626.html
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