Oldenburg Baby

The Oldenburg Baby was the name given by German media to Tim,^[1] a child born with Down Syndrome at the Städtische Frauenklinik hospital in Oldenburg, Lower Saxony, Germany on 6 July 1997. Tim was born prematurely (in the twenty-fifth week of pregnancy) as the result of a failed late-term abortion procedure, which he survived despite not receiving medical attention for several hours after his unexpected live birth. He became a focus of the debate surrounding abortion, especially late-term abortion, and its legal and ethical consequences.

Background

At some point after his birth, his temperature had dropped to 28°C, but as he was still breathing, doctors decided to treat him.

Medical consequences

The child's biological parents chose not to raise the child, so he remained in a children's clinic in Oldenburg until March 1998, when he was taken in by a foster family, the Guidos of nearby Cloppenburg. Due to the early termination of gestation, and the lack of medical attention thereafter, Tim is severely handicapped when compared with other Down Syndrome children of his age.^{[neutrality is disputed]} His brain, eyes, and lungs were badly damaged; he exhibited autistic tendencies; and he underwent many operations in the first years of his life. After two weeks of dolphin therapy in 2003, he showed great improvement in fine motor skills, digestion, and speech. In 2004, Tim started attending a special school.

Legal and ethical consequences

The child's biological parents sued the clinic and the gynaecologist for damages and compensation, claiming that they had not been informed that their child could survive an abortion at that stage. The clinic denied these claims. Bundestag member Hubert Hüppe (CDU) also tried to press charges on the separate grounds that it was not clear whether a medical justification was present in this case, and because the doctor's duty of care had not been fulfilled for several hours, which he claimed defied Article 3 of the German constitution ("No person shall be disfavoured because of disability"). The doctor who had performed the abortion and had left the child without medical attention was initially supposed to be charged with battery, but no charges were ever pressed against him and the public prosecutor's investigations were brought to an end. In 2004, he was fined ninety days' pay, not for performing a late abortion, but for failing to care for the newborn.

Tim's biological mother, who was mentally unwell, sought the abortion due to mental instability and feelings of suicide from being pregnant. She sought psychotherapeutic care after the failed abortion, but committed suicide six years later.^{[citation needed]}

References

1. ^ "Wie geht es Tim?" (in German). Mittendrin. June 2006. Archived from the original on 18 August 2005. http://web.archive.org/web/20050818033933/http://www.mittendrin-magazin.de/archiv/0306/tim.html. Retrieved 17 November 2011. 

External links

• Tim's personal homepage (in German)
• Article from the Stuttgarter Zeitung (07.01.1998) about the investigation (in German)

See also

• Gianna Jessen

Persondata
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Date of birth	1997
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