Tim: The Boy Who Wasn’t Meant To Be
In July 1997, a couple in Oldenburg, Germany discovered that the “fetus,†or “unborn child,†the woman was carrying had Down Syndrome. According to the Wikipedia, the woman was in her twenty-fifth week of pregnancy.
In order to understand what happened next, it is necessary to belabor (no pun intended) the obvious. There are about four weeks in a month. The first month of a pregnancy ends at the fourth week. The first trimester ends at the twelfth week. The second trimester, or sixth month, of pregnancy ends at the twenty-fourth week. This mother had entered her seventh month of pregnancy – a time period in which premature babies are born and often survive.
After learning of the Down Syndrome, the couple decided to abort the pregnancy. The pregnant woman underwent the abortion. The baby expelled from her vaginal canal breathed, moved, and had a beating heart. Medical personnel expected him to die soon so did nothing to treat him.
Ten hours later the baby’s heart was still beating and he was still breathing although his body temperature had dropped a great deal. Physicians decided to treat him.
As a result both of the abortion and the lack of immediate medical treatment, the boy who would be named Tim but called the “Oldenburg Baby†by the German media had more severe disabilities than most other Down Syndrome babies. Extensive damage had been done to his brain, eyes, and lungs. In the first years of his life, he required several operations.
Tim’s parents had the legal right to raise him but did not wish to. Quoting directly from the Wikipedia, “Tim’s biological mother needed psychotherapeutic care after the failed abortion, and died a few years later.â€
The physician who aborted Tim and failed to treat him for ten hours after his having unexpectedly lived through the procedure was fined 90 days’ pay in 2004 for failing to give care to a newborn.
Tim spent much of the first year of his life in a children’s clinic. In 1998, a foster family took him in. The badly damaged little boy showed signs of autism. In 2003, he was given what is referred to as “dolphin therapy.†The practice is controversial because some observers believe it is not a “therapy†but only a recreational activity. However, for whatever reasons, the boy seemed to make improvements in digestion, motor skills, and even speech after contact with these marine mammals. Since 2004, he has attended a school for children with disabilities.
What is to be made of this tragedy? The first lesson to be drawn is that “abortions†make little sense performed at a time period when it is possible for the aborted to live outside the womb. It is sheer moral insanity to be desperately rushing to save a baby in one area of the hospital that was born prematurely while ignoring one that was forced out of the uterus at exactly the same time period.
Moreover, we need to clarify that the entire issue of the woman’s body and choice ends once her body and that of the baby part ways for any reason at all.
It also points out the need to take on the issue of the custody of abortion survivors. No woman should be able to abort – with the expectation of the fetal death – and then legally have custody of a baby that happened to survive the procedure. Since abortions will be practiced regardless of whether or not they are legal, all countries need to deal with the custody issue.
Tim has extraordinary disabilities. His life has been full of pain. Inevitably, if with great discomfort, some must wonder: Was his life worth saving? Is his life worth living? The answer to these questions may be found at http://tims-delfintherapie.de. The text is in German and I can’t read it. Those of my readers who are blind will not be able to see the accompanying photograph but those who possess vision will recognize the worth of that picture. One thing that needs no translation is the meaning of a smile.
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