Letter: Not always a case of love vs abortion

From Mr Tom Dalziel

Sir: I was saddened to read Dominic Lawson's Another View ("Choose love, not abortion", 14 September). Sometimes such a choice does not exist.

Last October, my wife and I learnt, from a detailed scan of our baby after 17 weeks' gestation, that such were the abnormalities apparent in his spine and internal organs that he would have stood little chance of survival should the pregnancy have continued to full term. Any "life" that might have been afforded him would have been of extremely low quality.

We decided that the only course of action was to have the pregnancy terminated. This was not an easy decision, and was certainly not one taken on the basis of love vs abortion.

We loved our baby, we had such tremendously high hopes for him; he was very much wanted and we will never forget him. To continue with the pregnancy would, however, have been quite irresponsible, knowing what we did about the way in which he had developed.

We are not alone in having had to endure this heart-rending agony, and it is quite incorrect for Mr Lawson to present such decision-making in the stark way he does. Furthermore, there are ways of terminating a pregnancy other than "suction" and "dismemberment". Our little baby was born after an induced labour.

Yours faithfully,

Tom Dalziel

Nottingham

15 September