Dominican Republic abortion ban stops treatment for pregnant teen with cancer

[sinkingfeeling]

http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/25/world/americas/dominican-republic-abortion-teen/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic (CNN) -- In the Dominican Republic, a ban on abortion is preventing a teenage girl from receiving treatment for a life-threatening disease.

At the Semma Hospital in the captial city of Santo Domingo, a 16-year-old girl is dying of acute leukemia. Doctors say the girl, whose name is being withheld to protect her privacy, needs an aggressive chemotherapy treatment. But there's one problem: the teenager is nine weeks pregnant and treatment would very likely terminate the pregnancy, a violation of Dominican anti-abortion laws.

Rosa Hernandez, the girl's mother, is trying to convince doctors and the Dominican government to make an exception so that her daughter's life can be saved. "My daughter's life is first. I know that [abortion] is a sin and that it goes against the law ... but my daughter's health is first," Hernandez said.

According to Article 37 of the Dominican constitution, "the right to life is inviolable from the moment of conception and until death." Dominican courts have interpreted this as a strict mandate against abortion. Article 37, passed in 2009, also abolished the death penalty.

[JoePhilly]

1. If the girl dies, so does the fetus, dopes.

[get the red out]

2. Yes BUT!

If the very expendable vessel incubating the most precious child-to-be expires, then that's just HIS will, and completely justified. Of course the child-to-be, since it is fully human (unlike the incubator, evidently) will live forever in heaven.

[Lucy Goosey]

3. Pro-Life Fail

This shit angers me. It's not even a therapeutic abortion! And, obviously, if the teen dies, the fetus dies too, so well done, Dominican constitution.