Buenos Aires, Argentina, Aug 27, 2006 / 22:00 pm

The parents of a mentally disabled woman who had supposedly conceived through rape and had been given permission by the courts in Argentina to undergo an abortion finally had their wishes granted as the unborn child’s life was taken on Friday at a private clinic, in the city of La Plata.

Although the baby was a few weeks short of viability, the Supreme Court of Buenos Aires had authorized an abortion to be administered at the end of July.  However, doctors at a public hospital refused to comply with the order, objecting that the baby was too far developed for the procedure to take place.

Although the child’s great-grandmother had offered to care for him and local government officials had offered to provide economic assistance, the family’s lawyer told reporters the private clinic agreed to carry out the abortion, even though the woman was almost six months pregnant.

The director of the Bioethics Institute of the Catholic University of La Plata, Dr. Juan Carlos Caprile, strongly condemned the act and said the doctors who administered the abortion committed an act of “homicide on an innocent child of 6 months who was completely formed and all of whose organs were completely functioning, including the heart—which begins to beat at about 18 days after conception.”

“Once again the weight of the law has pierced, as with a sword, the heart of a small, defenseless victim, who was sentenced to death and was executed by professionals who claim to practice ‘the art of healing,’ but in reality engage in the ‘art of killing’,” Dr. Caprile stated.

“One of the techniques that could have been used is the scraping of the uterus, which cuts the child into pieces, killing him in the very sanctuary of life that is the maternal womb,” he said.  “Another method is the injection of saline solution into the amniotic fluid that surrounds the baby, which causes his instantaneous death, after which he is extracted.”

“A cesarean operation may have also been performed, such that once the uterus is opened, the baby is extracted and dies in the process from lack of medical attention.  As he is extracted alive, he surely cries out begging for his life, as other babies do at that stage; (babies) who are blessed by the scientific advances that are practiced by neo-natal doctors, true professionals in the art of healing,” Dr. Caprile said.