PARENTS REJECT ABORTION WHEN THEY WERE TOLD THAT THEIR BABY WILL HAVE NO ARMS NOR LEGS

So often we read stories of couples that when given a pessimistic (or worse) prenatal diagnosis, chose to abort their child. The following is an example of an Illinois couple who took the road less traveled.

When Amanda Perdew was 20 weeks pregnant, she went in for the customary sonogram only to find there was a serious problem with her baby boy.

“They didn’t see much of his arms or legs, so they sent us to Dr. (Charles) Egley at Methodist (Medical Group),” Perdew told Sharon Woods Harris of the Pekin Daily Times, Pekin, Illinois. “He diagnosed it as tetraphocomelia.”

A quick browse of MediLexicon.com. defines this as the “defective development of the arms or legs, or both, so that the hands and feet are attached close to the body.” (It’s still unknown whether there is a genetic issue, which is why they are meeting a genetics counselor and doctor this week.)

Perdew told Harris that Egley asked her at the time if she had ever considered an abortion.”I never thought I would have to make that decision in my life,” she said. “It was a big (emotional) hit for me” and for the father, Brad Doubet. Perdew told Harris

“Brad and I talked about it that night and wondered what kind of life we could give him, and if there would be mental issues as well. We could not help but think negatively that night. The next day Brad called me on his lunch break. We decided that it was not our decision to make — if he was going to live (when he was born), then we needed to let him live. No matter how he is, he is still our baby boy.”

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