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A faulty ultrasound diagnosis at two medical clinics led to the killing of a seven-month-old unborn child in Vietnam who was perfectly healthy. Dr Pham Ba My, director of the Gia Lai Province General Hospital, told a Vietnamese news service that the baby died last Sunday following an abortion after testing at the hospital earlier in the day.
 
The baby’s mother, Nguyen Thi Thu T, previously had  an ultrasound diagnosis at a health center in Chu Se, where doctors told her the baby’s body was deformed. They advised her to travel to Ho Chi Minh City for further testing, where she had another ultrasound scan showing the same result. Doctors advised her to have an abortion.
 
When the mother’s relations were about to bury the aborted baby, they found she was still alive and had no congenital anomaly. The dangerously premature baby was immediately taken to the Gia Lai Province General Hospital, but it was too late to save the unfortunate girl.
 
Dr Pham Vuong Quan, at the Paediatrics Emergency and Intensive Care Unit of the hospital, said the baby weighed 2.2 Kilos and had a normal body for that stage of gestation. When she was hospitalised, the baby was in poor condition, with pale skin, laboured breathing, poor reflexes, and a body temperature below 35 degrees Celsius, the doctor said.
 
F&L Comment: This tragic case should serve as a reminder to those who argue that abortion should be permitted if the baby is diagnosed with a severe anomaly. False positive diagnoses happen. To argue for abortion in these cases is to argue that it is better to risk killing the healthy than to risk letting the disabled live.
LifeNews. May 17. Family & Life. May 18.