Charlene McCabe: ‘To label our precious unborn children as ‘incompatible with life’ is like a death sentence. No doctor can say with certainty that a child, however severe their disability, would not live until birth.’

Pat Ramsey (SDLP), Karen McKevitt (SDLP), Sean Rogers (SDLP), and Paul Givan (DUP) fully supported the Declaration and ensured that they would do all they can to promote better provision of perinatal hospice care in Northern Ireland.

PRESS RELEASE from Every Life Counts

Northern Ireland Families before the United Nations to Launch Global Campaign to End Use of Dehumanising Term 'Incompatible with Life'

Every Life Counts, an all-Ireland support group for parents whose unborn children had been diagnosed with life-limiting disabilities, have joined with disability rights groups, support groups and medical experts in obstetrics, neonatology, and perinatal hospice internationally to launch a global campaign to discontinue the use of the phrase ‘incompatible with life’.

On Wednesday 11th March 2015, a new medical declaration, the Geneva Declaration on Perinatal Care, which aims to enlist the support of medical professionals in ensuring the phrase is not used in counselling families, will be launched before the United Nations in Geneva.

The Declaration reads as follows: “As medical practitioners and researchers, we declare that the term ‘incompatible with life’ is not a medical diagnosis and should not be used when describing unborn children who may have a life-limiting condition,” and also calls for better perinatal care for families.
Today at Stormont, Charlene McCabe, a spokesperson for Every Life Counts NI, launched the Geneva Declaration on Perinatal Care in the Northern Ireland Assembly.

“We're calling on medical professionals to stop using this term, because it misinforms parents; no doctor can say with certainty that a child, however severe their disability, would not live until birth. It pushes families towards abortion, and it denies them a chance to spend time with their children, to make memories and to heal. Families who are told that their baby may not live for long after birth need our full support and holistic perinatal care, but this can only be achieved if misleading and offensive language and attitudes are discontinued,” said Charlene McCabe.

The launch was attended by Pat Ramsey (SDLP), Karen McKevitt (SDLP), Sean Rogers (SDLP), and Paul Givan (DUP) who fully supported the Declaration and ensured that they would do all they can to promote better provision of perinatal hospice care in Northern Ireland.

On 29th October 2014, Jim Wells, the Health Minister of Northern Ireland, launched a new Regional Bereavement Careplan for parents and families who experience a miscarriage, stillbirth or neonatal death, which was produced jointly by the Department of Health and the Northern Ireland Practice and Education Council for Nursing and Midwifery. As part of this Careplan, perinatal hospice care will be much more personalised and tailored to parents’ needs, right from the moment of diagnosis and after their precious baby has passed away.

Every Life Counts NI is greatly encouraged by this promising development in the provision of perinatal hospice care in Northern Ireland, and hopes that all Members of the Legislative Assembly can show their support for the Geneva Declaration on Perinatal Care.