“It Makes Us All Schizophrenic”, Says Abortion Doctor

From the article “When Abortion Becomes Birth: A Dilemma of Medical Ethics Shaken by New Advances” by Dena Kleiman published Feb. 15, 1984. It was published in the New York Times.

“Told about the subject of this article, many doctors declined to return telephone calls. In one case, the director of obstetrics at a major New York hospital spoke in detail of an aborted infant’s survival last year, and the impact this event had on the hospital’s staff. The next day, he called back to deny the incident had ever occurred.”

…..

“While publicly the great majority of hospitals agree that any infant that survives an abortion or miscarriage should be kept alive, doctors acknowledge privately that the practice varies widely from hospital to hospital.”

”It’s necessary to remember that these days abortion is done on request and therefore not a procedure you undertake in the interest of the fetus,” said Dr. Gordon W. Douglas, the chief of obstetrics and gynecology at New York University Medical Center…”

”It makes us all schizophrenic,” said Dr. Richard Hausknecht, an associate clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Mount Sinai Hospital who specializes in high risk pregnancies. ”Nowadays we are asked to terminate a pregnancy that in two weeks doctors on the same floor are fighting to save.”

The article then goes on to discuss how the new procedure, D & E (discussed elsewhere on this site) eliminates the possibility of live births, but is very upsetting to the doctors. It goes on at length in this vein.