Louise Slaughter: “First, let me say that no one is advocating the killing of disabled children. That is offensive to all of us. The fact…”

“First, let me say that no one is advocating the killing of disabled children. That is offensive to all of us. The fact is that a fetus that is being born with no brain or one with no lungs is one that will not live. I believe even the OB/GYN would admit to that. Let me then go on to say that this decision to terminate a pregnancy in the late term is an agonizing decision. Parents who have carried a child to late term desperately want that child. In many cases, they have already named that child. Listen to the story of Viki Wilson and her family. She told in her own words: ``In the spring of 1994, I was pregnant and expecting Abigail, my third child. My husband, Bill, an emergency room physician, had delivered our other children, and would do it again this time. At 36 weeks of pregnancy, however, all of our dreams and happy expectations came crashing down around us. My doctor ordered an ultrasound that detected what all of my previous prenatal testing had failed to detect, an encephalocoele. Approximately two-thirds of my daughter's brain had formed outside her skull. What I thought were big, healthy, strong baby movements were in fact seizures. ``My doctor sent me to several specialists, including a perinatologist,'' I am sorry, I am so upset about this I can hardly speak, ``a pediatric radiologist and a geneticist, in a desperate attempt to find a way to save her.…”