The former president of the Academy for Life is lamenting the death of a baby who survived an abortion but died two days later after being left without care.
Bishop Elio Sgreccia stated on Vatican Radio that care is a duty even if the law does not require it, denouncing the neglect of a 22-week-old baby boy who survived in a hospital in Rossano after his mother attempted to have him aborted.
Prenatal scans had shown two malformations in the boy, in his palate and lip. His mother went to the Nicola Giannattasio hospital on Saturday to procure a so-called therapeutic abortion.
The baby, weighing just under 11 ounces, was deposited by doctors onto a sheet after the procedure, and placed in a container to await his death.
He continued to breathe, however, and an unidentified person noticed movement in the container on Sunday morning.This person reported the matter to the hospital’s chaplain, Father Antonio Martello, who went and found the baby. The little boy was still alive, with his umbilical cord attached, some 24 hours after the abortion attempt.
The priest alerted the doctors, who sent the baby to a neonatal unit at a nearby hospital, The Telegraph reported. He died there Monday morning.
ROSSANO, Italy, APRIL 28, 2010 (Zenit.org)