Abortion doctor gets life sentence A US doctor who was convicted of murdering three babies by cutting their spinal cords has agreed to a sentence of life in prison in order to avoid execution. As part of the deal with prosecutors, Dr Kermit Gosnell agreed to give up his right to appeal the conviction, in exchange for avoiding a possible death sentence, according to CNN. Normally, jurors would have decided the punishment in a separate penalty phase, but the deal makes that step unnecessary. "The Commonwealth (of Pennsylvania) took away the death penalty and Dr Gosnell gave up his right to appeal," defence lawyer Jack McMahon was quoted as saying. The office of Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams said Tuesday's sentence was for the deaths of two babies. The remaining sentences for the murder of the third baby and for involuntary manslaughter in the death of a woman under his care will occur on Wednesday. Gosnell ran an abortion clinic for more than 30 years in a poor neighbourhood of the Pennsylvania city. He was found guilty on Monday in the murders of three babies who emerged alive after illegal late-term abortions. Jurors heard weeks of grim testimony and saw sometimes bloody and horrific images of aborted foetuses, with reports that Gosnell kept jars of foetal body parts stored in his clinic. Gosnell's clinic, the Women's Medical Society, was licensed but apparently had last been inspected in 1993 when it was closed down in early 2011 after a federal probe of alleged narcotic misuse. Prosecutors charged that Gosnell had killed seven foetuses by using scissors to cut their spinal cords when they emerged alive. Judge Jeffrey Minehart of the Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas threw out three of the seven foetal death charges. Pennsylvania forbids abortions after the 24th week of pregnancy, and some of the additional charges Gosnell was convicted of were related to abortions performed after that time.