OT - Did anyone see this in the news?

[Guest guest]

This article frightens me because if I don't follow my doctors advice can they

then charge me with some kind of negligence? What if something is wrong with my

baby and they say oh its because she wouldn't take a glucose tolerance test, or

she wouldn't do this...are they going to come after me? This is very scary.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/West/03/11/mother.charged.ap/index.html

No Caesarean leads to murder charge

Friday, March 12, 2004 Posted: 6:50 AM EST (1150 GMT)

Rowland was charged wth the murder of her stillborn baby.

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SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (AP) -- A pregnant woman who allegedly ignored medical

warnings to have a Caesarean section to save her twins was charged Thursday with

murder after one of the babies was stillborn.

Prosecutors said Ann Rowland, 28, didn't want the scars that accompany

the surgery.

An autopsy found the baby died two days before its January 13 delivery and that

it would have survived if Rowland had had a C-section when her doctors urged her

to, between Christmas and January 9. The other baby is alive, but authorities

had no further information.

The doctors had warned that without a C-section, the twins would probably die,

authorities said. A nurse told police Rowland said a Caesarean would " ruin her

life " and she would rather " lose one of the babies than be cut like that. "

" We are unable to find any reason other than the cosmetic motivations " for the

mother's decision, said Kent , spokesman for the district attorney.

Court documents give no address for Rowland, and she isn't listed in area

telephone books. An attorney was to be appointed for her Friday, said.

The charges carry five years to life in prison. Rowland was jailed on $250,000

bail.

According to the documents, Rowland went to LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City in

December to seek advice after she hadn't felt her babies move. A nurse, Regina

, told police she instructed Rowland to go immediately to one of two other

hospitals, but that Rowland said she would rather have both babies die before

going to either place.

On January 2, a doctor at LDS Hospital examined Rowland and recommended an

immediate C-section based on an ultrasound and the babies' slowing heart rates.

Rowland left, the doctor told police.

The same day, Rowland allegedly saw a nurse at another hospital, saying she had

left LDS Hospital because the doctor wanted to cut her " from breast bone to

pubic bone. "

A week later, Rowland allegedly went to a third hospital to verify whether her

babies were alive. A nurse there told police she could not detect a heartbeat

from one twin and advised Rowland to remain in the hospital, but Rowland

allegedly ignored the advice.

In January, the state Supreme Court ruled that unborn children at all stages of

development are covered under the state's criminal homicide statute. The law

exempts the death of a fetus during an abortion.

The law has been used to prosecute women who kill or seriously harm their babies

through drug use; it has never been used because a woman failed to follow her

doctor's advice, said Marguerite Driessen, a law professor at Brigham Young

University.

" It's very troubling to have somebody come in and say we're going to charge this

mother for murder because we don't like the choices she made, " Driessen said.