The Worst Kind of Mistake

“A Florida OB-GYN who was supposed to abort a fetus with Down syndrome in a twin pregnancy but leave the normal one alone made the worst kind of mistake.”

I’ll bet you can guess what the oopsie was.

I must be really jaded about this issue because I snorted a half laugh and half humph after reading the article in the Miami Herald. I couldn’t help it. The sick irony of the whole situation sent me over the edge.

This couple wanted a child bad enough to hop through the in-vitro hoop, and they got twins out of it, a boy and a girl... two for the price of one. But, oh no, one was “not normal.” One had Down syndrome and was therefore scheduled to die.

But then uh oh, Mr. OB-GYN accidentally injected the wrong baby... and when you kill the wrong baby there is hell to pay. You can lose your license to practice medicine over such a mishap. The doctor felt really bad about it (not sure if “it” was losing his license or killing the wrong baby.) He said he was going to kill himself over it and ended up involuntarily hospitalized. (You can kill babies but not yourself, I guess.)

And what did the mom and dad learn from this mistake? If at first you don’t succeed, try try again. A week later they had the little guy with Ds injected and ended the whole nasty affair.

I feel sad that when it is all said and done, the worst kind of mistake means something entirely different to me than how it was written in the article. And I feel sorry for that couple, sorry for them in ways I can’t even explain.