'Fetal reductions are most commonly conducted by inserting an ultrasound-guided needle through the mother's abdomen and into the uterus, injecting a potassium chloride solution into the chosen fetus or fetuses, stopping their hearts.'
UPDATE 8/17/11 - IVF: 'Creating' Life & Aborting Life via Selective Reduction
-- From "When is twins too many?" by Tom Blackwell, National Post 12/10/10
Selective reductions are typically carried out for women pregnant with triplets or greater, where the risk of harm or death climbs sharply with each additional fetus. The Ontario couple is part of what some experts say is a growing demand for reducing twins to one, fuelled more by socio-economic imperatives than medical need, and raising vexing new ethical questions.
A New York City obstetrician and leading specialist in the field confirmed that the demand for twin reductions has increased and likely will continue to do so, especially among 40-somethings. Twins make up about 5% to 7% of the total reductions, said Dr. Mark Evans, who sometimes performs the procedure on Canadians.
Experts question whether parents should choose to terminate a fetus just because of the impact the child would have on their lives, and note that even more medically necessary reductions can trigger lifelong angst and even threaten marriages.
There seems to be little ethical debate around reduction for triplets or more, when the technique clearly curbs the chances of a pregnancy being lost entirely or the babies born with serious health problems. Some experts, however, call even those cases a largely hidden symptom of a fertility industry whose work has helped increase the number of multiple births by over 40% in the past 20 years.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "'Selective Reduction' Abortions Increasing: Children Have Become Commodities" By Deacon Keith Fournier, Catholic Online 12/24/10
On June 20, 2008 the Vatican released an instruction called "the Dignity of the Human Person" which dealt with "Certain Bioethical Questions". In the section concerning the deliberate destruction of embryos we read: "The fact that the process of in vitro fertilization very frequently involves the deliberate destruction of embryos was already noted in the Instruction Donum Vitae (The Gift of Life). There were some who maintained that this was due to techniques which were still somewhat imperfect. Subsequent experience has shown, however, that all techniques of in vitro fertilization proceed as if the human embryo were simply a mass of cells to be used, selected and discarded."
The killing of these "excess" children continues after implantation in the womb of their mother through this heinous procedure referred to as "selective reduction". It is, in fact, selective execution. Children have become commodities.
In 1987, the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued its important direction entitled "Instruction on Respect for Human Life in its Origin and on the Dignity of Procreation". Among the questions it answered was: "What Respect is due to the human embryo, taking into account his nature and identity?" The answer given by the Magisterium: "The human being must be respected - as a person - from the very first instant of his (her) existence."
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
