Posted on 03/18/2005 6:56:43 PM PST by Pikamax
Unborn baby pictures fuel abortion debate By Sarah Womack, Social Affairs Correspondent (Filed: 19/03/2005)
Extraordinary pictures of a 12-week-old unborn baby wriggling his legs in the "stepping" motion characteristic of newborns triggered a debate on the ethics of abortion which no one predicted would take centre stage at a general election.
Prof Stuart Campbell, the ultrasound pioneer who captured the images, said yesterday he was "truly staggered" by their impact.
An unborn baby at twelve weeks "I just wanted to educate couples about the development of a baby," he told The Daily Telegraph. The images were compiled for his book "Watch Me Grow!" for would-be parents. "It never entered my head that these pictures would have this effect, engendering a national debate on abortion, but seeing an 11-week-old foetus doing quite sophisticated things opened my own eyes to the fact that we did not know how rapidly the foetus developed," he said.
His pictures showed that at 12 weeks, unborn babies looked like they were "enjoying jumping off the womb like a trampoline". At 14 and 15 weeks they sucked their thumbs and at 18 weeks they opened their eyes. Experts had said babies did not open their eyes until 26 weeks.
One image he took captured a 14-week-old standing up, stretching and then sitting down again inside his mother's womb.
Prof Campbell, former head of obstetrics at King's College Hospital who now works at a private practice, Create Health, in Harley Street, said the pictures had altered his views of abortion but it was important to separate those who had abortions because their baby was very severely deformed from those who chose a termination for so-called ''social'' reasons.
"My own viewpoint is that the foetus is its own advocate and we should reduce the time limit for 'social' abortions from the present 24 weeks to 18. Maybe 12 in the future," he said. Women wanting abortions before 12 weeks should have much easier access to them, without the need for two signatures from a doctor, he said.
"But we should have a different time limit where an abortion is considered because the baby has a severe abnormality, because sometimes that abnormality is not diagnosed until the baby is 20 weeks old. If you have a deadline very soon after 20 weeks you might be rushing doctors to reach a conclusion and more mistakes would be made.
"I would probably keep the limit in these cases at 24, maybe reduce it to 23."
While abortion has long been a contentious moral issue, it was only propelled into the political arena when Michael Howard, the Conservative leader, said abortions should be performed no later than 20 weeks into a pregnancy.
Roman Catholic, Muslim and Jewish leaders joined the fray, urging their supporters to consider the issue - and the stance of political parties - when they cast their vote in the general election. The Church of England has refused to speak out on the issue, however. Abortions for all age groups reached an all-time high of 50,000 in the most recent figures available.
I don't understand my digital camera. I'm too stupid for my DVDVCRTEVO. There are watches that I can use only during daylight savings time. But news like this makes me love modern technology.
The special report on TV last weekend about babies in the womb from conception to birth was enough to turn off any woman thinking of abortion. It was inspiring to see that little baby girl as she progressed in the womb.
Ping
For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
--Pslam 139, Of David
"The Church of England has refused to speak out on the issue, however."
No surprises there.
"One image he took captured a 14-week-old standing up, stretching and then sitting down again inside his mother's womb."
So much for the people who say they are just a blob of flesh. Maybe this will help change their minds. I hope.
Only 50,000 abortions performed annually in England is a drop in the bucket compared to the 1.5 million that the baby murdering mills in the US exterminate every year. And now the old codgers are waking up to the fact that killing almost a quarter of the next generation of tax payers was a very stupid move. Christians see it as the mark of the Beast in our evil society. God is not mocked. Our nation will pay in blood for the blood of these innocents.
"One image he took captured a 14-week-old standing up, stretching and then sitting down again inside his mother's womb."
Were there any shots of the babies playing soccer inside their mothers? Mine always played soccer, usually at 3 in the morning.
On a more serious note, I had an amnio when my daughter was four months along. I watched on the extremely high-resolution (for the time) ultrasound as she jetted from one side of the womb to another, playing and acting wild in just the way she has ever since. Her personality was already established. I could clearly see her pretty profile and was able to recognize her after her birth without the need for any bracelet, since I had seen her face before her birth. The doctors and nurses laughed at her antics and her strong determination as we waited for her to tire herself out so we could put the needle in safely. When the needle was inserted she wriggled away from it. It was very cute. How anyone could kill such a little person is inconceivable. But they'll kill a grown woman, I guess a baby isn't any different.
I don't want to sound overly harsh, but why did you have an amnio? The procedure itself could kill the baby. Would you abort a baby who didn't "pass his amnio?" As a fellow prolifer, I am curious as to why you would undergo a procedure intended for eugenic selection?
Not that I had an amnio, but I do know some other reasons people do this.
I have several friends who are older first time moms -- 40+ -- they would NOT have aborted in any circumstance.
One of them had a test come back abnormal. She wanted to know WHAT was wrong if anything to be prepared for it. Nothing more. I can't fault someone for that.
I had an amnio 17 1/2 years ago when the risks were not so well understood as they are today. I had it because I was considered at-risk for having a baby with birth defects. I would certainly never have aborted a child with birth defects, but did want a heads-up if something was wrong. At the time my case was being followed very closely and I had a broad variety of tests on a regular basis. The doctors appeared to be amazed I was carrying at all.
Dear TorahTrueJew,
When we were pregnant with our first son, the alpha fetal protein test came back elevated, and the nurse-midwive misinterpreted the level of risk for Down Syndrome. We had amnio to find out what was what. It turned out that our son didn't have Down Syndrome.
We weren't at all thinking of procuring the killing of our son, but if he'd been born with Down Syndrome, we wanted to be ready to do our best for him.
sitetest
Please let me know if you want on or off my Pro-Life Ping List.
Heck, "Dr." Howard Dean and his wife actually worked for Planned Parenthood and were ideological wackos for population control, etc. ALWAYS, ALWAYS get a second opinion on childbirth-related health matters.
How can anyone confuse that clump of overgrown cells with life? /sarcasm
ditto to the other responses. The risk from the amnio procedure is truly minimal, as it's all done with cameras monitoring the baby and the positioning of the needle.
I had amnio with my first child (who just turned 23). I was then 37 and considered high risk. WE had it at Georgetown University Hospital, a Roman Catholic hospital the does not perform abortions. My husband and I made it perfectly clear that we had no plans to abort, but would, like the others, like to know if such a potential problem was there so we could prepare to raise a baby with whatever they found, and be educated on it before the birth.
Moving forward almost 2 years, I became pregnant with twins. In that case, the amnio injection could have been more dangerous, and we did not go forward with the procedure.
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