Rights of mother vs. rights of fetus

This is a case probably everyone has heard about, so I hesitated to post the 
article.  I can't imagine someone hearing a repeated warning about the safety 
of her children and refusing to have a procedure on anything other than 
religious grounds.  It's hard to believe she was in her right mind. So, yes, I 
find this woman repugnant, if indeed the news stories characterizing her 
behavior are accurate.

However.

If we are to allow women the right to terminate their pregnancy by abortion, a 
forced procedure, then who are we to deny a woman the right to refuse medical 
intervention when the pregnancy is at risk from natural causes?  If we are 
comfortable saying, keep your laws off of my body, then we must accept we 
cannot control the actions of a pregnant mother, no matter what the effect on 
the child, or the eventual burden placed on society for that damaged child.

This case is doubly troubling in that the mother may have a significant history 
of mental illness.  Do we have the right to control a woman's pregnancy if she 
is possibly a danger to herself?


-x





Woman in C-Section Case Denies Vanity
 
 
 Mar 13, 6:20 PM (ET)

By ALEXANDRIA SAGE 
 
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - A woman charged with murder for allegedly refusing a 
Caesarean section that could have saved her unborn twin said she never imagined 
having a stillborn child would result in prosecution or national news coverage.

"I feel like I'm getting a lot of attention that (should be) my private 
business," Melissa Ann Rowland told The Associated Press during a jail 
interview Friday.

Prosecutors this week charged Rowland with exhibiting "depraved indifference to 
human life" in avoiding the C-section. One nurse told police Rowland said she 
would rather "lose one of the babies than be cut like that."

Rowland denied claims she avoided surgery because she feared scarring.

  
"It was all medical concern. None of it was vanity," Rowland said. Her other 
two young children, ages 7 and 9, both were delivered by C-section, she said.

Her attorney, meanwhile, said she had a long history of mental illness. Rowland 
said she had attempted suicide twice and spent time in a psychiatric hospital.

Rowland, 28, who has been jailed since mid-January on a child endangerment 
charge involving the surviving twin, said she was informed of the murder charge 
Thursday evening by reporters.

Critics of the charges say the case could affect abortion rights and open the 
door to the prosecution of mothers who smoke, fail to follow their 
obstetrician's diet advice or take some other action that endangers a fetus.

"I see this as part of an overall focus of a certain movement on fetal rights 
and an effort to elevate fetal rights above the rights of a woman," said Kim 
Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women and a former prosecutor.

A phone message left at the headquarters for the National Right to Life 
Committee seeking comment was not immediately returned.

Rowland, from the Salt Lake City suburb of West Jordan, was warned numerous 
times between Christmas and Jan. 9 that her unborn twins were likely to die if 
she did not get immediate medical treatment, charging documents allege. When 
she delivered them Jan. 13, a baby girl survived but her twin, a boy, was 
stillborn.

Rowland was charged with criminal homicide. She said the child endangerment 
charge stems from allegations that the surviving baby girl had drugs and 
alcohol in her system, which Rowland denies.

The baby has been adopted by a family Rowland knows. Her other children live 
with her estranged husband's parents.

Rowland's attorney, Michael Sikora, called a C-section major surgery and told 
The Salt Lake Tribune "it would come as no surprise that a woman with major 
mental illness would fear it."

Prosecutors allege that Rowland told a nurse during a January visit to a 
hospital that doctors wanted to cut her "from breast bone to pubic bone" and 
she would rather "lose one of the babies than be cut like that."

Rowland denied making the statements, but remembers that hospital visit 
as "very stressful. Doctors there had me very upset." She was concerned about 
her recovery time and the nature of the surgery, she said.

She said she was never concerned about her babies' health because in all her 
hospital visits, she was told the babies had good heartbeats and were fine.

Caesarean sections usually involve delivery through a surgical incision in the 
abdomen and front wall of the uterus. They are generally not vertical and can 
be done in the bikini incision, according to Dr. Christian Morgan, a family 
practice doctor who regularly performs C-sections at the University of Utah 
Health Sciences Center. 

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