In the Shadow of Dr. Tiller

[uppityperson]

http://www.progressive.org/in-the-shadow-of-Dr-tiller

(clip) After Tiller focuses on complexities. No one comes to a doctor for a late-term abortion after a twenty-week pregnancy lightly. Many are women with planned pregnancies who find out late that there is something terribly wrong with the baby they are carrying. So they are not just going through a grueling procedure; they are grieving the loss of a child they dreamed of and wanted.

Yes, it is a choice, but not a choice made without a soul-stirring struggle. “It’s guilt no matter which way you go,” says one of the women who is choosing to terminate her pregnancy after finding out her fetus was facing a terminally incapacitating disability. “Guilty if you go ahead and do what we’re doing or guilty if you bring him into the world because he would have no quality of life.”

We watch her hands fidgeting as she holds a tissue. An­guish and empathy flood the screen.

The doctors struggle alongside their patients. “I think about what I do all the time,” says Dr. Shelley Sella, who works with Dr. Susan Robinson at the Southwestern Women’s Options clinic in Albuquerque. “At times I struggle, and at times I don’t, but I always come back to the woman and what she’s going through and often what life will this baby have? What will it mean to be alive with horrible fetal abnormalities? It’s not just about being alive. It’s about life and what that means.”(clip).....more

[Zoeisright]

1. Exactly. There are fates worse than death.

Only compassionate and moral people understand that. Which obviously excludes any repuke. Ever.

[PeaceNikki]

2. Thanks for posting this.

I look forward to seeing "After Tiller.