Debating Selective Reduction
Because multiple pregnancies frequently and in miscarriage, Dr. Hauser recommended the couple to consider selective reduction, which is a medical euphemism for the procedure of aborting one or more fetuses so that the others can have a better chance of being born safely. Septuplets have been delivered several times in history, but in all cases, some of them or have only lived just a couple of days or weeks.
Moreover, this type of pregnancy can also have an unwanted impact on the mother’s health, increasing the risk of potentially fatal blood clots, bleeding or swelling of the ovaries, and severe fluid retention that may lead to heart failure in rare cases.
DES MOINES, IA – NOVEMBER 21: Bobbi and Kenny McCaughey appear before a press conference 21 November at the Blank Children’s Hospital in Des Moines, IA. Bobbi, who delivered septuplets two days ago, said she was anxious to be able to hold all of her babies. (Photo credit should read JOHN RUTHROFF/AFP/Getty Images)
For all these reasons, doctor Hauser and doctors Paula Mahone and Karen Drake, the McCaugheys’ perinatologists, explained Bobbi and Kenny that the standard option in such a situation was a selective reduction. However, the couple was deeply religious Baptists, which means that they were utterly opposed to any form of abortion. They told reporters that selective reduction wasn’t an option for them and that they put their faith and that of their babies in the hands of God.
By conventional medical standards, they were taking a huge gamble with the lives of all seven fetuses, but according to them, Bobbi and Kenny were living their faith.