Despite warnings mother gives birth to severely disabled boy

Woman advised to abort her child due to care issues

When faced with the decision to abort her severely disabled boy, Katyia Rowe, a 26-year old training administrator from Telford, England, decided to give birth to the boy after seeing a 3D ultrasound of the baby.

Rowe and her partner Shane Johnson, a 26-year old security officer, had been expecting since March 2012. Rowe was given the option to abort the boy at 24 weeks after the baby was found to have brain abnormalities that would prevent him from talking and walking and place him in 24-hour care for the duration of his life. Although the 20-week ultrasound scan and assessments by experts at Birmingham Children’s Hospital made these disabilities clear, Rowe decided against an abortion after seeing the boy in a series of real-time ultrasound scans: “As I watched I knew that while I was carrying him he still had a quality of life and it was my duty as a mother to protect that no matter how long he had left, he deserved to live.” 

The boy, Lucian, born on October 23 at the Royal Shrewsbury hospital in Telford, died nine hours later. She said, “It was without doubt the happiest moment of my life… My son looked utterly perfect. The love and joy I felt the moment they put Lucian in my arms told me it had all been worth it.”

Read the full story at the Daily Mail Online.