Oldenburg Baby

The Oldenburg Baby was the name given by German media to Tim, a child born with Down Syndrome at the Städtische Frauenklinik (city gynaecological clinic) 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
Tim's parents had decided on an abortion after learning of the fetus' condition, and the procedure took place less than four hours later. In 1997 it was not yet standard practice to inject fetuses which were approaching or had reached the stage of viability with potassium chloride before inducing labour, to ensure immediate heart failure. It was assumed that all fetuses would die during the contractions. After labour was induced with prostaglandin, Tim was born alive, weighing 690g (1.52 lb), and 32cm (13in) long. As the aim of the procedure had been to kill the fetus, the new-born was initially left without medical attention, in the belief that he would soon die. After ten hours, the baby's body temperature had dropped to 28°C, but as he was still breathing doctors decided to treat him.

Medical consequences
The child's biological mother 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. 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 skill, 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 needed psychotherapeutic care after the failed abortion, and died a few years later.