The tragic deaths of Charlie Gard and Alfie Evans have launched an international debate over parental rights and the power given to medical experts in making life-changing (or life-ending) decisions. With the modern rise in prenatal screenings for various birth defects and disabilities, many mothers are encouraged to abort their children, who they are told wouldn’t survive anyway.
Scottish mom Samantha Dukes was pressured to abort when she was 22 weeks (almost six months) pregnant. Today, her son Dexson is alive and well because she listened to her maternal instinct despite her doctor’s recommendations.
At Dukes’s 22-week checkup, doctors diagnosed her unborn child with spina bifida, conjoined kidneys and a brain disorder, Life News reported.
Dukes told the Daily Record that she was informed that Dexson would die at birth or shortly afterward. Given the grim outlook, doctors recommended an abortion.
Eventually, the pressure felt unbearable, and Dukes decided to take her doctor’s advice.
The then-33-year-old drove to the hospital and asked for an abortion. But when she was told she would have to wait until another day to have to procedure, she saw it as a sign of divine intervention.
Still, doctors continued to urge Dukes to abort her child well into the third trimester — what she estimates to be about 20 times.
“But even when I was 33 weeks’ pregnant, I was still being asked, ‘Are you sure you want to continue? it’s not too late,’” she recalled. “I was asked if I wanted one [an abortion] every time I had an appointment. I was told because he had no cerebellum in his brain he wouldn’t even be able to hold his head up — he’d be a vegetable.”
Dukes refused, believing it was “God’s will” that she keep her child. Dexson was born March 24, 2014.
Posted by Samantha Dukes on Thursday, April 26, 2018
Though he required several surgeries during the first weeks of his life, Dexson fought hard, and is now a healthy preschooler.
Today, Dexson can walk short distances on his own. His spina bifida does cause him back and leg pain, and he will eventually required another surgery on his spinal cord, but Dukes said he loves his life.
“You never hear him complain,” she said. “He’s such a happy little boy and I’m awfully proud to be his mum.
“He’s a wee miracle,” Dukes added. “To look at him, you’d think there was nothing wrong with him. He’s an inspirational little boy.”
(H/T: Life News)