As the stunned pair let the news sink in, they're given lots of information on multiple births including
selective termination. But both agree they couldn't go through with a selection process and want all four of the babies to have a chance.
"Couples experienced
selective termination as traumatic, regardless of the prenatal test revealing the fetal impairment or stage in pregnancy in which the termination occurred."
Methods that can occlude umbilical cord blood flow of the conjoined twins are required to accomplish
selective termination. In our case of a monochorionic diamniotic triplet pregnancy complicated with conjoined twins, microwave ablation was performed to achieve cord occlusion of the target twins, and the procedure was technically successful.
When type II sFGR is diagnosed early,
selective termination of the growth-restricted fetus may be another option.
A 1999 report from Iran showed that couples counseled still opted to marry rather than separate but they requested prenatal diagnosis and
selective termination of pregnancy.
[14] Genetic counselling should be offered to all pregnant women of AMA, and age-related risks (which increase exponentially with age) of having a child with a chromosomal abnormality, as well as options for prenatal testing and
selective termination of pregnancy if a fetal abnormality is detected, should be discussed.
Throughout the region, the practice of sex selection--prenatal sex screening followed by
selective termination of pregnancies--has yielded a generation packed with boys.
Stories of apparent abnormality detected on ultrasound later found to be incorrectly diagnosed raise particularly uncomfortable questions around the issue of
selective termination. The psychological and emotional impact of false-positive diagnosis of conditions such as Down syndrome on women's experience of pregnancy, and on their subsequent birth and postnatal experiences, surely has considerable relevance for how midwives choose to approach the issue of screening with women in their care.
Parents worried about the risks inherent in carrying a litter of children sometimes opt for
selective termination, usually between 9 and 12 weeks.
In multifetal pregnancies, early diagnosis by chorionic villus sampling also facilitates
selective termination of an affected fetus.
In a report out today the experts concluded: ``We take the view that the use of
selective termination following prenatal diagnosis to abort a foetus merely on the basis of information about behavioural traits in the normal range is morally unacceptable.'' The working group said genetic tests on embryos should remain restricted to serious diseases and disorders, such as Down's.
This tactic has been widely employed in discussions about prenatal diagnosis and the
selective termination of fetuses affected with conditions that are likely to lead to disability.