CONTRARY to the claims of anti-abortionists, the survival rate of extremely premature babies is not improving. If they are born before 24 weeks, babies are just as unlikely to live today as they were 12 years ago.
David Field and colleagues at Leicester Royal Infirmary, UK, recorded the outcomes of births between 1994 and 1999 from all hospitals and clinics in a region in central England, and compared these with outcomes between 2000 and 2005. None of the 150 babies born at 22 weeks survived in either period. Of infants born at 23 weeks, 19 per cent survived in the…
