Well, Lil Bit gave up the fight yesterday. My niece, after 10 days of struggle and anguish, has lost the second of her twins.
Sometimes I wonder if it would have been better to have declared it a miscarriage at 24 weeks, rather than the death of two baby girls after 10 days.
I realize that either way, it's the same thing, but my ever-practical mind wonders where the line really should be drawn -- for the sanity and health of everyone.
Her twins suffered from twin-to-twin transfusion: one baby had siphoned all the blood from the other. Instead of having two 2-pound babies, she had a 1-pound baby and a 3-pound baby. You'd think that the larger would have a better chance for survival, but because of the extra blood she carried, her heart was severely damaged. She died first, after only 2 days. The other was too small and starved from the loss of blood. After 10 days of transfusions and intensive care, she also died. I have to believe both suffered almost as much as their mother did from this ordeal.
But the conservatives of the religious right would have to ask if the failure to resuscitate babies from a 24-week pregnancy would be euthanasia. And my niece needed to know that she had done all she could for her tiny ones.
Sometimes I wish I were a mindless religious fanatic -- at least then, I'd have easy answers.
Then I remember that the unexamined life is not worth living, and I soldier on.
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