Today, Jia Sharma is three years old. She goes to school, leads an active life and is perhaps oblivious of the pacemaker that was fitted in her heart a day after birth. She too was detected with congenital heart defect while in gestation — like Niketa’s baby. However, the Sharmas’ decision endorsed the other side of the now-raging debate on a foetus’ right to live.

The Sharmas were told about Jia’s condition in the second trimester of pregnancy. Jia’s father Varun Sharma — an executive in a multinational company in the Capital — said: “We learnt in the 27th week that the baby had a blocked heart. We were scared, and for the rest of the term, kept praying that the child would be born normal.”

Jia’s mother Sonu consoled herself with the thought that her child could have been afflicted with a life-threatening disease after birth. “Something could have happened when she was four or five,” Sonu told Newsline.

Jia was born at Sir Gangaram Hospital on September 15 three years ago, and was rushed to the Escorts Hospital the next day for an open-heart surgery. Varun Sharma said: “She leads a normal life today and has no restrictions on diet and activity. We have to visit the doctor every six months but Jia is not on medication.”