Posted on 11/11/2004 1:16:35 PM PST by Caleb1411
A few weeks ago, I went to lunch at a diner with Rick Marino, a moral philosopher disguised as a home renovation contractor.
The subject turned to pregnancy and ultrasound. A decade ago, when I was having my last crop of kids, the pictures came out fuzzy. The doctor would point "These are the fingers" or "There is the head" and I'd nod. In truth, I couldn't make much of the blurry images.
Today's ultrasound photos come in 3-D and color. At 18 weeks you can easily discern fingers and facial features. At seven months, you have a fully recognizable human baby. It's so clear that even a man can see it.
For a couple of hundred bucks, a pregnant woman can go to the mall nowadays and have a picture taken of her baby. Or even a video with a musical soundtrack.
Rick and I were marveling over this when we were interrupted by the waitress. "You guys talking about ultrasounds?" she asked. At first I missed the edge in her voice.
"Amazing, aren't they?" I asked.
"They're going to be used against women," the waitress snapped. She was obviously ready to sacrifice a tip to make a point.
She was right, of course. Ultrasound images are already changing the perception of abortion. Once, the idea of fetal humanity was a matter of religious conviction. Now, it is an observable fact. If you don't believe me, go to Google Images on the Internet and type in: Ultrasound, 30 weeks.
The implications are both political and philosophical.
In the new Bush administration, abortion is going to become the hottest of hot buttons. The president will probably appoint three or four Supreme Court justices. At the very least, a Bush-leaning court would probably reverse previous rulings that outlaw a federal ban on third-term abortion. Ultimately, Roe v. Wade itself may be in danger.
Obviously this is a crisis for the abortion-rights movement. It is also a problem for the Democrats. Most Americans are already queasy about third-term abortions. As ultrasound imagery improves, abortion-righters may find themselves without significant support in their own party.
Dogmatic orthodoxy on abortion is also a philosophical problem for the left. In the great moral debates of our time, they have rested their case on science, not blind belief. Lately they have taken to calling themselves "reality-based," in somewhat sneering contrast to presumably simpleminded "faith-based" conservatives. The problem is, this time they are on the wrong side of science.
It is true that millions of opponents of abortion arrived at their position without the need for photographic evidence. They have always believed that human life begins at conception. But there are millions of others, neither reactionary nor religious, who have now concluded or are in the process of concluding that at some point, before birth, fetuses become babies, deserving of protection.
Finding that point will be the crux of the coming debate. If the abortion-rights movement wants the support of the middle-aged, socially liberal guys in the diners of America, it had better find a more convincing tone than anger and an argument that doesn't require us to deny, on doctrinal grounds, the evidence of our own eyes.
ping
I've got a 12-week ultrasound where you can clearly see a hand and all five fingers...
Soft soap is worthless.
Does the child who is the product of a rape or incest have less rights than one produced by consensual sex? In the case of a conception from rape or incest, the damage is already done to the mother, why compound her emotional problems by murdering the child?
Then my wife told me she was pregnant. Still nothing on the abortion screen. I dutifully trudged to the first ultrasound and there was my beautiful baby boy as a tiny speck-and he was just....words can't describe how I felt watching him trying to live, yearning to survive-there was nothing wrong with him. He was just so tiny and helpless, totally depending on us to see him through(picture a 6'3 250 lb.er tearing up while typing).
I felt sky high until I realized with a shudder how absolutely wrong and despicable my prior position was. I am so sorry for my past views.
You, of course, are entitled to your opinion and your own methods. You should know,however, that the methods you espouse tend to turn people off and cause revulsion (understandable, its a revolting topic). This just causes avoidence of your message.
If your intent is to prove your righteousness with anger and retribution, then you are on the right course.
If your intent, however, is to persuade otehrs into seeing LIFE, not death, then acceptanceof the message of lifeshould be the ultimate goal for life's sake, not for the sake of proving them wrong.
How would you instruct others about the effects of the Holocaust in Nazi Germany?
Just catching up with this thread after a few days' absence. I certainly would be proud to have written this article, but Zev Chafets is the author.
Thanks for the links. In this life-versus-death fight, knowledge is a formidable weapon.
What a great, powerful testimony. I pray you have countless opportunities to share it.
JEREMIAH- Chapter I Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee: and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. Proverbs 6-16-17 These six things doth the Lord hate; yea seven are an abomination unto him: A proud look, a lying toung, and hands that shed INNOCENT BLOOD. LunaRed
I don't draw a comparison between abortion and the Holocaust. To me, thats meaningless rhetoric.
But also, for me, what was most compelling was seeing the items the murdered left behind.
There is no question about when human life begins.
The widely used medical textbook The Developing Human, Clinically Oriented Embryology, 6th Edition, Moore, Persaud, Saunders, 1998, states at page 2 that "The intricate processes by which a baby develops from a single cell are miraculous .... This cell [the zygote] results from the union of an oocyte [egg] and sperm. A zygote is the beginning of a new human being ...." At page 18 this theme is repeated: "Human development begins at fertilization [emphasis in original] ...."
Judge Michael J. Noonan ruled as follows in a New Jersey case based on a man's efforts to save his unborn child from being aborted: " based upon the undisputed medical testimony by arguably the foremost authority in genetics in the world, I found that human life begins as conception; and that Roe vs. Wade permits a legal execution of that human being." (MUNICIPAL COURT OF NEW JERSEY LAW DIVISION - MORRIS COUNTY CRIMINAL ACTION DOCKET NO. C1771, ET SEQ. STATE OF NEW JERSEY V. ALEXANDER LOCE, et als. DEFENDANTS APRIL 29, 1991 HONORABLE MICHAEL J. NOONAN)
Dr. Jerome Lejeune, "Father of Modern Genetics" and discoverer of the cause of Down's Syndrome, stated, "To accept the fact that after fertilization has taken place a new human has come into being is no longer a matter of taste or opinion . . . it is plain experimental evidence."
Dr. Hymie Gordon, Chairman, Department of Genetics at Mayo Clinic, stated, "By all the criteria of modern molecular biology, life is present from the moment of conception."
Sir William Liley, a key pioneer of fetal therapy, wrote a famous article in 1972, The Foetus as a Personality, in which he shows us why we have moved away from the view of the fetus as an inert, unformed passenger awaiting arrival at the destination of life, and have seen that the fetus is a splendidly functioning human, full of vigor and very much in command of the pregnancy.
Men and women of science might often approve of abortion, but that is a judgment about the value of human life, not about the scientific fact that human life exists. We present to you below some of the visual evidence that, indeed, we have a brother, a sister, in the womb.
Click below to listen to the heartbeat of an unborn child.
Heartbeat at: 9.5 weeks; 11.5 weeks; 15 weeks; 26 weeks; 32 weeks (All ages noted here are LMP; therefore the baby's age from fertilization is actually two weeks younger than the number. These heart tones were recorded through a Doppler speaker by Dr. David M. Ramsey, III.)
Ultrasound on the Web:
One of the reasons abortion continues is that the victims are largely unseen.
Yet in our day, they have become more visible than ever before, thanks to a wide variety of imaging techniques that allow us not only to view, but also to diagnose and operate on the unborn child.
Ultrasound is one of those imaging techniques. Following are some links that will help you to understand this technique.
www.ob-ultrasound.net (a comprehensive guide to obstetric ultrasound)
www.medison.com (3D ultrasound)
Soundwave Images (Shari Richard)
Medical Gallery of Ultrasound Photos
For those who support the so-called "right to choose," a key question is whether or not they are willing to let the woman see what she is choosing to destroy. Note: While these pictures are posted freely on the Web for all to see, they are still the property of the owners, and so it is not OK to copy the pictures without their owner's permission.
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