GESTIÓN EN SALUD PÚBLICA: BioEdge: Norway to allow foetal reduction of multiple births

domingo, 23 de octubre de 2016

BioEdge: Norway to allow foetal reduction of multiple births

BioEdge: Norway to allow foetal reduction of multiple births

Bioedge

Norway to allow foetal reduction of multiple births

by Michael Cook | 22 Oct 2016 |

Norwegian health officials have ruled that not only is foetal reduction legal for residents, but that women from foreign countries can seek it as well. The controversial procedure involves aborting one or more healthy babies in a multiple pregnancy.

In February the Department of Justice found that aborting a health twin should be treated no differently than any other abortion. (Abortion is legal until the end of the 12^th week in Norway.) Now the Department of Health has opened the doors to foreign women as well. Since neighbouring Sweden and Denmark have banned selective abortions, some Norwegians fear that the development of “abortion tourism”.

IVF has increased the demand for foetal reduction, as multiple pregnancies are more common with this form of fertility treatment.

“We have not found any medical benefit from this,” Dr Birgitte Heiberg Kahrs, a specialist in fetal medicine in Oslo told The Local. “On the contrary, it exposes the second child in the womb to danger as the abortion risk increases.”

“Our recommendation was that this should only be allowed for twins if one fetus showed developmental abnormalities, and that it should be done between weeks 12 and 14 to reduce the abortion risk.”

We goofed and we're eating humble pie. Wednesday, October 19, was World Bioethics Day. I'm afraid that it passed unnoticed at BioEdge, perhaps because every day is World Bioethics Day here. But was also the first time it was celebrated, so we shall be better prepared next year.

However, it appears that very few people were popping champagne bottles in the UK and US even though they must have the larges number of bioethicists. No events were planned in the United Kingdom, only one in the US, and 29 in India. World-wide, there were events in 55 countries, most on the theme of the Day, "human dignity and human rights".