One of my neighbors is a nurse who works in a cancer treatment facility. She and I were discussing this issue a few mornings ago, in response to a TV show. She told me that many women who are diagnosed with cancer during pregnancy choose to continue the pregnancy; a significant number choose to have chemo at the same time, depending on the type and the risk. She knew of very few (less than 10%) who chose to terminate a pregnancy, and quite a few who chose to wait until they were out of the first trimester, when the side effects of chemo would affect the developing fetus, to begin treatment, and a fair number (~1/4) who waited until after the child was born to begin treatment.
Is this heroic? I believe so. Is it as rare as this article makes it out to be? Not from what my neighbor told me several days ago. Of course, the virulence and stage of the cancer makes a significance difference in the mother's options and the level of heroism in her choice.
Do I respect the choice Lorraine Allard made? Most certainly... just as I respect the choice one of my friends made when she went into premature labor at 26 weeks and chose to deliver at home, to preserve her child from the potential effects of being "saved" at such an early age; as a special education teacher myself (she's a speech/language pathologist who works in a school setting), we have seen too many of these children, whose lives were preserved at the cost of lifelong disabilities - cerebral palsy, severe learning disabilities, hearing and vision problems, permanent problems with health - are all much more likely with extremely premature babies such as the one in the story. He may be fine - but he may be like a girl I knew 15 years ago, who was 4 months premature, was born before her skull formed (and it never did; without her bike helmet, you could see her brain move under her scalp), had a permanent tracheotomy, a permanent feeding tube, was permanently in a diaper and a wheel chair, had no useful language (speech or sign; her fine and gross motor control was not sufficient for sign, and the tracheotomy prevented speech - and her apparent intelligence wasn't high)... She died at 10, of pneumonia, after several months in the hospital, having never known a day free of pain, a day when she could communicate with others, a day when she could eat. Only the parents can make that choice for themselves and their families, and I will not decry those who choose not to risk that level of disability for their children - but I respect those that do.