THE RIGHT TO CHOOSE
Font Size 
The rights and wrongs of aborting an ill foetus
Published on Mon, Aug 25, 2008 at 23:31, Updated on Wed, Aug 27, 2008 at 17:59 in 
Tags: 
Related Stories
Police hand in Shopian women's deaths: J-K govt - Infosys could be led by outsider, hints Murthy
- Blast in Kochi collectorate, Kerala on high alert
- Pawar admits monsoon subdued, plans ahead
- HIV+ students shunned in Latur school
- Centre divided over HC order on anti-gay law
- AI grounds pilot for flouting norms | Read Story
- Buchanan's book has Indian players hopping mad
- G8 may dissolve to give way to new body
- G5, G8, G14, G20: know your group, pick your side
Photogallery
 |  |
New Delhi: Sunita Arora could well have been another Niketa Mehta making headlines for wanting to abort her 24-week-old foetus. Her doctor had suspected that her baby would be born with complications, but when Sunita wanted to go in for an abortion, she was told it was unlawful to abort a foetus that was more than 20 weeks old.
When her son, Aman was born, her worst fears came true. He was born with thalassemia major.
This means every month she has to spend close to Rs 10,000 on his blood transfusions and medicines - some thing this middle class housewife just can't afford. Seven years later, she still regrets having given birth to Aman.
"I wanted to abort the baby, but they told me it was too late and my husband and I thought we may as well have the baby. Worse come to worst, we thought we'll put the baby up for adoption. Now I wish I hadn't had the baby," says she.
Should Sunita have gone against nature? Would both mother and child be better off that way? When a Mumbai housewife, Niketa Mehta and her husband wanted to abort their unborn child, it sparked off a debate in the country.
Surprisingly a lot of women stood by Niketa Mehta and believed that a mother should have the right to give birth or not to.
But many mothers are living the life Niketa would have had if she had given birth to a baby with a congenital heart defect.
Zeenat knows two-year-old son Shafi may not be like any other child, for he was born with a hole in his heart. Two surgeries later, he is still a long way off from recovering. But would Zeenat have aborted her unborn child had she known in advance?
"No chance of that. He is God's gift to me. I love him the way he was given to me. Taking away life is not some thing we have the right to do," says she.
It's a thought echoed by other parents here as well.
The father of a child with a heart defect, Rafique Kidwai says, "Going against nature is not some thing we should do. That is against norm, against life. This way we and the child are getting to be fighters."
Niketa Mehta will go down in history as a mother who went knocking on the doors of the Indian judiciary system to have her unborn baby aborted. Ironically, though the courts said no, nature was on her side and she suffered a miscarriage.
To go with nature or against it, is a question that rarely has one correct answer. But Niketa, Sunita and Zeenat are different faces of what that answer could be.
| Ads by Google |
| Related Ads: | |
URBANEYE
Read Comment | Post Comment
Read more comment »