{"id":292175,"date":"2023-05-31T14:33:37","date_gmt":"2023-05-31T19:33:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=292175"},"modified":"2024-10-16T13:06:02","modified_gmt":"2024-10-16T18:06:02","slug":"couple-called-selfish-abortion-no-arms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/couple-called-selfish-abortion-no-arms\/","title":{"rendered":"Doctor called couple ‘selfish’ for choosing life for son with no arms"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A 25-year-old woman and her husband received criticism for refusing to abort their son because he does not have arms. She said she loves her son just as he is \u2014 “perfect.”<\/p>\n

According to The Mirror<\/a>, Mariaan Strauss and her husband Hendrick, from South Africa, explained that they learned during an ultrasound at 13 weeks that their son did not have arms. The doctor advised the parents to abort him. And while the thought of raising a child with different abilities seemed daunting to the couple, they did not want to end his life.<\/p>\n

Called “selfish<\/a>” for that decision, the couple now says that 11-month-old Hendr\u00e9 is the “greatest gift we could have received.” He weighted just over six pounds at birth and Mariaan said that she and her husband cried “because it was such a beautiful moment.”<\/p>\n

Still, she said, “the big, dark depression hit me.”<\/p>\n

“Society is cruel and I thought, ‘Will our child ever be accepted? Is he going to be mocked and bullied?”<\/p>\n

She added, “The words of my specialist kept running through my head, ‘You’re selfish if you don’t abort. You must think of the child. He will never be able to have a normal quality of life.'”<\/p>\n