ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, October 3, 1996 TAG: 9610030049
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: LONDON
SOURCE: Associated Press
A woman who had been trying against medical advice to give birth to eight babies lost the last four fetuses Wednesday.
In a brief statement, King's College Hospital in London said: ``We regret to announce that Mandy Allwood has now lost her four remaining babies.''
Allwood, 32, gave birth prematurely to three boys Monday. All died.
Obstetrician Donald Gibb said doctors delivered a girl under anesthetic Wednesday morning. The baby weighed just 7.7 ounces and died soon afterward.
Allwood conceived the eight fetuses after taking fertility drugs and rejected medical advice to abort some of them.
The hospital said Allwood, in the 19th week of her pregnancy, received a blood transfusion and was in stable condition. It did not immediately provide more detail about the deaths of the last four fetuses.
Allwood's pregnancy and her decisions aroused considerable controversy in Britain. After Allwood discovered she was pregnant with the eight fetuses, she approached the News of the World, a Sunday tabloid newspaper, which reportedly bought her story for a sliding scale six-figure sum, depending on how many live births she produced.
The Rupert Murdoch-owned tabloid would not comment on the reports of a sliding scale, but said that if none of the fetuses came to term, it would help pay for a vacation.
Allwood's relationship with the father, Paul Hudson, also has been strained by the disclosure in newspapers that he has another lover and two children.
Both Allwood and Hudson are on welfare. Allwood, who is divorced and has a 5-year-old son, received fertility drugs from the free National Health Service.
LENGTH: Short : 40 linesby CNB