Nobody believes abortion is murder

[Aractus]

Kichi have you read this?

NT Coroner calls for abortion protocol

COMPERE: Now a story which may be disturbing to many. The Northern Territory's Coroner has called for protocols to be put in place in all hospitals and clinics in the territory to deal with an unusual situation. An abortion which resulted in the birth of a live baby.

The coroner's recommendation follows an inquest into the death of a baby born at the Darwin Private Hospital in July 1998. The baby's mother had been admitted to the hospital for a pregnancy termination but the delivery of an aborted fetus did not happen. Instead, a baby girl was born and died soon after.

Camille Funnell reports.

CAMILLE FUNNELL: It was a quarter to three in the morning in July 1998. Carey Williams, a registered midwife, had been called to one of the mother's rooms in the Darwin Private Hospital. The woman in the room had been booked in for a second trimester pregnancy termination. Nurse Williams was ready to help. She placed what she assumed was a fetus in a kidney dish and took it from the mother's room. It was then she heard a cry. It came from the baby in the kidney dish.

Nurse Williams told the Coroner's court she then realised the baby was older than the 19 weeks term she'd been told. Although premature, she says the baby was apparently health with no apparent abnormalities, its vital signs were good. That left Nurse Williams with what she described as a very big moral dilemma - what to do?

She said because the baby was making noises she couldn't just leave it in the kidney dish so she put the baby in a warm rug and checked the baby every 10 to 15 minutes. About 80 minutes later, at five past four in the morning, the baby died.

The Northern Territory Coroner was told the midwife had rung her supervisor seeking help while the baby was still alive, but no-one was available to help her. The Coroner's court was also told the midwife rang the woman's doctor, Dr Henry Chow, and told him the planned abortion had resulted in a live birth. The doctor's response, according to evidence to the court, was; "So?".

Today the Coroner found the doctor should have taken responsibility that morning. He should have attended at the hospital. Coroner Greg Cavanagh says protocols are needed to ensure that children who survive a termination are, at the very least, assessed for age and viability by a medical practitioner.

The Coroner accepted evidence that the baby, given its premature state, was facing an inevitable death but he says the deceased should never have been referred to as 'a fetus'. She had 18 minutes of life. Greg Cavanagh says the fact her birth was unexpected and not the desired outcome from an abortion should not result in her and others like her being perceived as anything less than a complete human being.