Selective Abortion in Multiple Pregnancy
Two recent cases in Britain highli
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Two recent cases in Britain highlight the issue of selective abortion in multiple pregnancy, used in high-risk pregnancies in order to increase the chances of success for the remaining fetus or fetuses. This issue has become more important in an era in which many infertile couples seek medical assistance in attaining pregnancy in the first place, and some of the procedures contribute to an increase in multiple pregnancies. Studies show, for instance, that selective reduction of triplet pregnancies to twins may be fairly safe in light of the increased risks of preterm birth of triplets, though it should also be noted that prevention of multifetal pregnancies in the first place is preferable to selective reduction after assisted reproduction treatments. Selective reduction of multifetal pregnancies to twins can reduce the risk of preterm birth and of losing the entire pregnancy, but it still poses the danger of the loss of the entire pregnancy. Selective reduction may be warranted in triplet pregnancies as well as in pregnancies with four or more fetuses. However, this procedure raises ethical issues beginning with the issue of abortion itself, opposed by many in society as the unwarranted taking of a human life, a concern made all the greater when the fetus can be considered otherwise as viable as the remaining fetuses. This raises the issue of how the fetus to be aborted is selected. The procedure is depicted in the literature as simple medically, but it does have th
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thy infants will subsequently be delivered. Another procedure is called multifetal pregnancy reduction, referring to the termination of one or more presumably healthy fetuses in a pregnancy containing three or more fetuses, with the objective being to reduce the risk of very early preterm delivery associated with higher order multiple pregnancies, and therefore to increase the chances of survival for the remaining fetuses (Berkowitz, 1996, 373).
The termination of an abnormal fetus is still a dilemma for those opposed to abortion but less so for those who consider the goal to be a healthy birth. The termination of one or more presumably healthy fetuses in a multiple pregnancy, however, raises a different ethical dilemma as those involved must consider the morality of terminating a healthy child, the danger to the other fetuses, and the means used to select which fetuses to terminate. The dilemma can be somewhat different when risky pregnancies are undertaken intentionally, leading to the need to make a decision about terminating one or more fetuses. This may occur in women treated with renal transplantation, the treatment of choice for patients with end stage renal failure, which can correct the infertility due to chronic il
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1280
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)
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