A Florida obstetrician-gynecologist performing an operation to abort a supposedly "deformed" fetus with Down syndrome in a twin pregnancy instead killed the healthy one with a lethal injection of a chemical, according to The Miami Herald.
The Herald, relying on records obtained by Health News Florida, said Dr. Matthew J. Kachinas mixed up the twins.
The Florida Board of Medicine revoked Kachinas' license for that and a series of other pending cases last weekend, according to Health News Florida. Immediately after the hearing, the distraught physician said he intended to kill himself and was hospitalized involuntarily.
The fetal twins were at 15 weeks' gestation when the botched ``feticide'' took place, the Herald reported. The healthy fetus was a girl; the twin with anomalies — Down syndrome and a possible heart defect — was a boy.
Kachinas, who practiced in Sarasota, is one of the few OB-GYNs in Florida who accepted abortion patients in late second trimester – a highly controversial practice that is nevertheless permitted under law.
The ``selective reduction'' in the twin pregnancy is not considered a late-term procedure, Health News Florida reported.
The parents had achieved the pregnancy through in-vitro fertilization with an egg donor. They were not identified and were not at the hearing. They ended the pregnancy altogether the following week after the death of their daughter.
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The Miami Herald.
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