What should happen with this baby?

As usual, you show yourself to be a great braying jackass. The mother of this child has shown extremely poor judgment in the choice of her partner. The child herself is obviously not sufficiently mature to raise a child. Yet, for sake of your prejudices, you think she and/or her mother should be saddled with an infant.

Is there something about opposing abortion that makes you feel noble?

I don't oppose abortion, nor do I casually toss it out as a solution. 31 weeks is extremely far along. There are many families in the US who would willingly adopt a healthy infant (and there is no reason to suppose this baby wouldn't be healthy.) I can't imagine how a ten year old will handle something like this, but if I were advising her I wouldn't start with a position that an abortion is clearly the best solution. I think it would take a fairly nuanced understanding of the beliefs of the child in order to make a good recommendation as to what serves her best interests.

This is a really tough one. I've been reading along, still haven't decided.

I don't think the "mother" should have to be in any sort of maternal role. That includes thinking about the person carrying half her genes who is out there somewhere, down the line.

I would definitely advise an abortion earlier on in the pregnancy.

The viability of the fetus does give me pause, though.

I guess c-section and adoption is the least-awful way to deal with an awful situation.

I *almost* wonder if they should just do a c-section and tell her it was an abortion, so the girl doesn't have to think about it anymore. Done. But I don't think that kind of dishonesty is actually a good idea.

I wonder what the girl thinks? Even if she wants to keep the baby, I don't think that would be a good idea. But I'd be more comfortable with the c-section/adoption route if I knew the girl didn't want to keep the baby near her. (Since there's no way she can do all of the care-taking necessary, the usual sense of "keep the baby" doesn't seem to apply.)

As for the girl's mother, I do think it's possible she plain didn't know, and if that's the case then the girl should stay with her mom. But how do they even determine that?

Ugh, what a mess, through and through.

good post soz

For me, the viability of the fetus is key in this. The fact of the matter is this fetus IS viable. At this stage, I don't even consider this a fetus, but for all intents and purposes a fully formed human being that just happens to be separated from the outside world by an inch of muscle and skin.....and all while we talk...tick, tick, tick, the closer this human is coming to making its natural debut in the world.

At this point, this fetus would feel every bit of pain that an infant would feel if you were to start cutting off limbs and throwing them in the trash.
Jesus, the same people that think of circumsion as barbaric and unnecessary pain are willing to have vivisection perform on this baby that just happens to be inside another human at the moment?

You're right soz in that there is not a "non-awful" way to deal with this.

I too thought about giving the girl a C-section, and telling her it was an abortion, but quickly rejected that idea.

Number 1, it would be an out and out lie. Number 2 involves the fact that this girl, although she is 10 years old, DOES have thoughts on this.

Sure, you can tell the girl it was an abortion, and thinking "she's only 10, and doesn't understand" make it seem that an abortion is just something "that makes the baby go away"
What about when this girl gets older, becomes a woman, and understands that what really happened was that her baby was cut up inside her and taken out piece by piece through her vagina, which had already been abused.

On some level, this now girl is going to get the message that her vagina is just something that a man can put his penis in when she doesn't want that, or that baby parts are dragged out of.

Ask yourself this...What would you prefer to think when the future is now, and you are 30 years old, or any age for that matter...

When I was 10, and couldn't be fully informed, but did have some kind of understanding, I was made helpless by adults, and had a baby cut up inside me and removed.

When I was 10, and couldn't be fully informed, but did have some kind of understanding, the same baby was taken out of me by a incision, and that baby was adopted by someone who wanted her. That baby is a 20 year old adult now. Yes, I was made helpless by adults, but at least no one was killed by being cut up.

Some of you seem to think the mother probably knew. Why? Because they're Hispanic? Don't be so quick to blame her mother. 1000's of women, White, Black, Hispanic, etc., have been with men and completely unaware of their abusive tendencies. Child abusers don't wear any marks. What woman would think her man capable of such a monstrous act unless she was told? I'll never forget the movie "Something About Amelia". In this suburban, middle-class family, a young girls' natural father had been abusing her for years and her mother didn't have a clue. How could she? The child had never told her.

I'm sorry this child even knows that she's pregnant. Then it would be easy to perform a c-section and call it appendicitis. I'm all for keeping her in the dark as much as possible to try and recapture even a smidgen of her childhood. 10 years old is still very young.

Having never delivered a child, I can't answer this. Why do you advocate C-section vs vaginal delivery? I thought C-section was pretty significant surgery, cutting the abdominal wall, etc. with a week long post surgery recovery. Is the thought that it would be less tramatizing to go in and be done than going through a several hour long delivery?

100% agreement here

I know they're growing up faster and faster these days but can most 10 year olds give birth naturally? Has she developed the hips? Is her pelvis wide enough? Trying to give birth naturally could kill her.

I tried to do some research on sites like this one, but they really don't address your concern about skeletal maturity. Part of me thinks that the human body is made for this, but then I see ten year olds and they are awfully small.

Mine's just about to turn 10. It's so hard to wrap my mind around in general but yeah, can't imagine the pelvis is big enough for a full-term baby.

Plus childbirth is just plain rough. More so for some than for others. But a c-section takes the effort and most of the pain out of it (there is still pain afterwards but there is pain after a vaginal birth too).

eoe, I agree, I wish the girl didn't even know. I wonder if there's any chance she doesn't? I Googled and didn't find much more than boomer's original item.

No matter what, though, she knows about the event(s) that caused the baby...
sigh....

edit: looks like it's at least possible in some cases:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_youngest_birth_mothers

I wonder how nobody noticed that this girl was pregnant.

Chai, there are other methods of surgical abortion. None of them are pretty but they might be less traumatic. I don't know.

I too wish the girl didn't know but I can't imagine how she couldn't. I imagine that when the ER doctor figured out what was going on that chaos set in.

On a related note....

How old do you think a kid would have to be in order to parent a baby?

Mo's other mom's mom was 13 when she gave birth. She kept the baby (Mo's other mom) but did such a horrific job of parenting that it landed her in jail.

I have a good friend that gave birth at 14 and she's a terrific parent. Her son is 11 now and he's doing great. The parents are still together.

The big difference between the two situations was family support.

Well, you won't convince me that carrying that fetus to term would ever constitute serving her best interests.

I agree - that is why I said it would be too cruel for either one.

I couldn't imagine ever feeling good about knowing you had aborted a child that was viable outside the womb.

This pregnant child is in a bad circumstance any way you slice and dice it - but why make it worse by killing (and in this case I wouldn't classify the baby as a fetus if it is viable) a viable baby? It may be the one good thing from this horrible situation.

I think it's possible, but the physical maturity of first time mothers is a big reason that many women died in childbirth back in the day when 14-16 was the norm. The baby is nearly full term now. I stick with the concept of performing a c-section asap and letting the courts evaluate the situation with the child's mother. I wouldn't presume that she's the best choice, but I wouldn't automatically rule her out either.

Good for whom? That clown Fido accuses me of wanting to kill the victim. The victim is not the fetus, it's the child carrying the fetus. How can you possibly know that carrying the fetus to term will be good either for this child, or for the infant who would result?

Most likely at 10 she would be too small to be able to deliver a baby.

Some people advocate that making up things like she had to have appendix removed rather than a baby would be better. I don't understand how lying would be better. As awful as it is, this poor girl would be better off knowing the truth and getting help on how to deal with it rather than cover it up, abort a viable child.

hmmm....I like this idea. You're right, this child might not have even known she was pregnant. How would she know? She may never have even had a period.

Although calling it appendicitis is still obviously lying, it might for the interim at least save her the anguish of knowing the rest of this.

Then, it can be explained to her later, when it's more appropriate. She would eventually have to know. Any number of things could come up in the future where a doctor would say "you said you've never been pregnant, but you have been"

engineer, as far as C-section vs vaginal, I am thinking of both the size of an average 10 year old, and the mental anguish of having a part of her body again being tormented.

The size of her pelvis, vagina, general stamina, understanding of what to do. They don't call it labor for nothing.

I could be wrong, but to me it seems a vaginal birth, potentially hours of labor, would be much rougher on a kid that has already been through too much.

For the infant - is it better to be forcablely torn apart or allowed to live and adopted by a loving family?

Do you know how long people wait to adopt an infant - several years. I know one of best friends have adopted an infant.

At 31 weeks, the fetus is in all likelihood a viable human being already. Remember Amillia? She was born at 22 weeks and survived. In the United States fetus's are generally considered viable at 23 weeks, so I don’t see how killing a viable human being is anything other than murder. The word abortion has no place in a conversation where a different procedure probably results in a viable human being. Give the kid an incubator chance at the very least... then I would think adoption would be most logical.

Mom (grandma) certainly needs to be investigated; and dad (grandpa) should be hung from the neck until dead and may God not have mercy on his soul.

Ah.... having just observed a C-section delivery and recovery, I can tell you that this is not the case.

It is very significant surgery, even if it is performed regularly.

That being said, I would be very surprised if vaginal delivery is even an option.