German Man Who Survived Late-Term Abortion in 1997 Passes Away

Their experience with Tim turned the Guidos into pro-life activists, campaigning against late-term abortion and the use of pre-natal tests to allow abortions.

By Dave Andrusko
National Right to Life

For those Germans with long memories, the “Oldenburg baby” is the earliest and most famous case of a “failed” abortion. Twenty-one years after he was supposed to die from a late-term abortion, Bernhard and Simone Guido’s adopted son Tim passed away suddenly after suffering from a lung infection, according to the German news outlet Die Welt.

In a statement on their website, the parents said Tim had spent a “wonderful Christmas” at home with his family. “We are very sad and don’t yet know how we should come to terms with the loss of our son who was unique, full of life and joy.”

In 1997, in her 20th week of pregnancy, Tim’s biological mother discovered her son had Down syndrome. “German abortion rules limit terminations to the first 13 weeks, except in cases when the mother feels – for health or psychological reasons – unable to carry the baby to term,” the Irish Times reported.

The abortionist assumed that delivering Tim that early meant he could not possibly survive, which is why he didn’t inject potassium chloride into Tim’s heart.

But Tim did!

“Born weighing just 690g (1½lbs), nurses wrapped him in a towel, where he spent the first nine hours of his life alone,” Derek Scally reported. After that, realising he was still alive, doctors and nurses began to provide him with medical care.”

Born so prematurely and untreated for nine hours, “Tim suffered from other medical conditions,” the Irish Times reported. “He was autistic, could barely speak and underwent many operations during his life.” But Tim lived to be 21, not one or two years as was predicted.

Bernhard and Simone Guido had applied to be foster parents. In a book Simone Guido wrote about their life with Tim, she said, “It was supposed to be a healthy girl.” But Tim’s biological mother and father declined to keep him.

And seeing him in the hospital in 1997, Simone Guido wrote, was like love at first sight: “We immediately thought: he belongs with us.”

Showing what kind of people the Guidos were, “As well as Tim and their two own children, the Guidos fostered two further children with Down syndrome.”

Their experience with Tim turned the Guidos into pro-life activists, campaigning against late-term abortion and the use of pre-natal tests to allow abortions.

Continue reading this compelling story here

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