Posted on 11/18/2017 11:32:10 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Last week, an article on CNN reported that, at three years old, the “most premature baby” ever born is now thriving. Born at just 21 weeks and four days gestation (possibly the earliest any baby has ever been born and survived), baby girl Stensrud is now a “fun-loving, spunky” little girl who shows no ill effects from being born so early. Her premature birth and subsequent survival without any noticeable ill effects is giving doctors hope that, as Dr. Kaashif Ahmad, baby Stensrud’s doctor, says, they will be able to push the boundaries of “how premature a baby can be born and not only survive but have a positive developmental outcome.”
CNN Health ✔@cnnhealth Born before 22 weeks, 'most premature' baby is now thriving: http://cnn.it/2yeNWkh 10:23 AM - Nov 8, 2017 334 334 Replies 1,421 1,421 Retweets 3,180 3,180 likes
But something is wrong here. In the entire CNN article — which celebrates baby Stensrud’s good health, and what it means for premature birth — there is one word that is glaring in its omission: abortion. If baby girl Stensrud is a miracle — whose life is to be lauded and celebrated, and whose survival gives doctors hope that others like her might live as well — then what does that say about other babies just exactly her gestational age whose lives were terminated?
Abortion is one of the most contentious issues in our country today. Because of what each side believes, there can be no compromise. For a long time I was pro-choice. But a miscarriage I had after nine weeks of pregnancy convinced me, for a variety of reasons, that what I had lost was not a clump of cells, but a baby. Which necessarily caused me to flip suddenly (and somewhat reluctantly) from being pro-choice to pro-life.
But I can certainly understand the other side of the issue. And I feel intense compassion for people who find themselves faced with this terrible choice. Not the women who choose to abort their babies because, for example, they wanted a boy and they were having a girl. But surely we can all feel for someone who became pregnant after rape, or who has learned that her baby has some terrible condition, or may not live much past birth. But just because the issue is thorny, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t ask hard questions. In fact, I believe it means we must.
Pro-abortion advocates want us to believe that the fight over abortion rights is one of women’s freedom. “My body my choice!” they chant, letting us know that government should have no say over what is done to their bodies. And, on principle, this makes sense. Women should have the final say over what medical procedures to have or not have, which tattoos to get or not get, which men to have sex with, which clothes to wear. And since, to them, an unborn baby is not a human being, this is a logical statement.
But anti-abortion advocates believe that an unborn baby is a baby, and that killing it is ending a life. That’s why “my body my choice” means nothing to them. It isn’t the mother’s body they’re concerned with, it’s the baby’s. Yes, the baby’s body is inside the mother’s, but they believe it is distinct and important in its own right. For them, a death is a death no matter where the dead person happened to reside.
No one knows for certain when life begins. And that is why (barring further information) this issue will never be definitively resolved. But that is why baby girl Stensrud’s case is such an important one to discuss. Not as a “gotcha!” to all pro-choice advocates. But simply as a difficult moral question that bears examining. Because 21 weeks four days — the gestational age of baby girl Stensrud — is within the legal limit for abortion in some states. So if, at birth, baby girl Stensrud was a human being whose survival was hoped for and prayed for, and medically intervened for, then shouldn’t any baby of that gestational age be a human being as well? Can a person only be a person when you want him to be?
If, instead of desperately wanting her to live, baby girl Stensrud’s parents had wanted to abort her, they could have legally done so. Courtney Stensrud could have had a procedure known as a D&E — dilation and evacuation. After being placed under general (or sometimes only local) anesthesia, a doctor would have removed baby girl Stensrud from Courtney’s uterus in pieces. The very same baby that, instead, was born, was loved, and lived. How can this be?
If baby girl Stensrud’s mother had believed that a baby of 21 weeks four days gestation was not a human being, baby girl Stensrud would not have lived. There, in the hospital room, her doctors advised her that the baby should not be resuscitated. Instead, Courtney Stensrud says, “I just felt something inside of me say, 'Just have hope and have faith.’” She told the doctors she wanted them to do everything they could to save her baby girl. And they did. Shouldn’t we be talking about this?
“But just because the issue is thorny, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t ask hard questions. In fact, I believe it means we must.”
The (few) Pro-Aborts that I know would say that it’s a waste of resources to save a baby like this. However, they also believe in euthanizing the Elderly, so at least their ghoulish beliefs are consistent.
*Rolleyes*
Proving that the only real threat, was the Abortionists!!!!
My daughter was born just a week early but had to stay in the hospital for 7 days. Being our first, that week was an emotional wrench for my wife and I. 21 years ago. But this? Jeez! Just amazing...
Yes. We should be talking about this.
It is the basis of our country, that everyone has an ALREADY GIVEN right to life and liberty. No matter where they reside, as the author says.
It is WITHIN the original Hippocratic oath not to help a woman kill her unborn baby.
When precious unborn Conor Peterson was murdered along with his mother Lacey by his father Scott (on death row in CA), this was also the argument. Scott is on death row BECAUSE he murdered Conor. The double first degree murder is what gave him the special circumstances making the death penalty eligible.
A human is a human whether it is wanted or not. There are plenty of born people who aren’t “wanted” by their families. That should not be the determinant of life.
God bless her, and God bless the doctors.
Saving this one life does more credit to the medical profession than do every “gender reassignment” surgeries ever performed.
Yes, we do.
Just because it is not convenient for you that life begins at conception does not change the fact that we do indeed know that it begins at that moment.
Pull your head completely out of the sand and read a biology text book some time.
"Children only a year old will speak. Pregnant women will give birth after only three or four months, and their premature babies will live and run about."
I doubt it will convert any pro-choicers. They are pretty dug in. Babies who are wanted by their mothers are worthy of life. Babies who are unwanted by their mothers are unworthy of love or life.
If the question about abortion wasn’t answered correctly with the first parents who performed the evil procedure, then it never will for those who believe it’s “good intentions”.
Bunk. I was a biology major in January of 1973 when Roe was announced. Right then I said to myself: so they are saying it's OK to kill a human in the first trimester.
You'd flunk Bio 101 if you didn't get that: life starts at fertilization and results in a unique organism which begins developing right then and there.
PS: this morning me and my budding star baseball player worked out on the diamond. He's getting so I can't catch the fast balls and his batting is putting him at the top of his teams.
He was born at 27 weeks and spent 3 months in the NICU, was just a bit bigger then the kid in the pic.
Tell me they aren't humans, that they're "just a mass of cells".
BUNK
Pretty good for a “clump of cells”.
21 weeks. Anyone with a functioning mind can see that this destroys the pro-baby-killers’ arguments. “It’s just a mass of tissue.”
Also, she was a girl, and still is. Sex is determined at the moment of conception. One’s sex is RECORDED at birth, not assigned.
F*ck all who disagree.
I believe that institutionalized abortion is an outgrowth of the twentieth century eugenics craze for making super humans. That movement was coopted by racists and anti-humanists. It is now part of the Vegan, green planet, save-the-whales (and others) movement. Their desire is that, for those humans they deem worthy, to live like we lived in the dark ages. Except of course, those who will still need to fly around in their private jets and ride in ten vehicle convoys everywhere.
Reality concerning a fetus is not part of their agenda. Their philosophy is that humans, except their approved humans, are bad for the planet. There are too many humans and they want us all dead because...global warming or something.
Such a cute little girl. 8>)
No, the mere fact that a child survives a premature birth should not raise questions about abortion.
IMO abortion being murder is a stand-alone reason to stop abortion.
Virtually all babies are viable when they are in he right environment, that is, int heir mothers' wombs. They remain viable, even in premature, if they are put in an environment that approximates the womb as closely as possible. All babies --- even early embryos that look like cocktail shrimp -- have the same basic, fundamental right that you or I have: the right not to be assaulted, the right to simply go on living.
PING
My 26 year old daughter was born 10 weeks early at 2.5 lbs back in 19@2. She was not the youngest in the unit there was a 14 week early little kid at barely a pound who came out fine
The best was the hospital put on an Alumni cook out every year where you brought your kid in and you’d see all the other kids and parents
This experience it is obvious that life begins at conception then it becomes a case of can Technology preserve that life
Ping!
My grandson was 2 lb, 14 oz when he arrived. He also spent about three months in NICU. Today he’s going on five years, a bright, healthy, happy young man and a joy to be with.
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