World Meeting of Families

Watt (Anscombe Bioethics Centre), “Terminally ill children, a precious gift; supporting mothers’ pregnancies”

Helen WATT.jpg

“Like any terminally ill child, the unborn child with a life-limiting condition is a precious gift for his or her parents to accept, welcome, and nurture in the remaining weeks and days.” These are the words of Helen Watt, a researcher at the Anscombe Bioethics Centre in Oxford, who spoke this morning during the panel session dedicated to Amoris Laetitia on Cherishing the Gift of New Life, at the World Meeting of Families being held in Dublin. “Parents suffer deeply after this kind of prenatal diagnosis; but, then, they somehow find the strength to go on,” explained the expert, “just as parents usually find a similar force in the case of a sick child who is already born.” Presenting the experiences of some women, Watt stressed that “the pregnant woman needs to grieve because she was expecting to have a healthy child; but, at the same time, she needs to be supported to form a relationship with the real child living inside her.” According to the researcher, “no child should deliberately suffer the interruption of his or her life because of the fears that parents will live at birth or for a lifetime.” The criterion indicated is that of love for the unborn child. “It is not enough to partially love the child: he or she must be loved with total respect and his/her bodily presence must be loved to the end.” Finally, the encouragement to support “women who are facing a very painful pregnancy today, so that they can really see their child as a precious gift entrusted to them at this time but destined for eternity.”

 

 

23 August 2018