Ten Years Later, Boy's 'Hand of Hope' Continues to Spark Debate [Samuel Armas update]

Fox News ^ | May 06, 2009 | Joshua Rhett Miller

[rhema]

Nearly 10 years after a stunning photograph of his tiny hand traveled the world, Samuel Armas has a firm grip on what "The Hand of Hope" means to him.

"When I see that picture, the first thing I think of is how special and lucky I am to have God use me that way," Samuel told FOXNews.com. "I feel very thankful that I was in that picture."

[Paved Paradise]

Bravo for Samuel. Bravo. A great testament.

[Guenevere]

My beautiful granddaughter was born at 27 weeks....2lbs.8oz....

..She's bright, gorgeous and adorable....all caught up in size & abilities.

[Victoria Delsoul]

Praise the Lord!

It's amazing. I remember I posted that pic a few times.

Times flies.

[philman_36]

I still remember posting that pic on FR long ago. I also remember the debate and the belief by some (not here) that it wasn't a real photo.
Shows what the doubters "knew".

[victim soul]

Thanks for this post, Rhema. It has made my day!!

May God help us on this National Day of Prayer to turn this country back to a nation that respects and protects every human life from conception to natural death.

[It's me]

IIRC he DID, in fact, show the pic...

[Lauren BaRecall]

BTTT

[Melpomene]

I don’t know; I just know he either quit or got fired b/c of that picture. Good on him if he did.

[pillut48]

Yup. I know of some people online who wouldn’t use his name, Samuel, but would call him either “the walking abortion” or “the botched abortion” because he should have been killed so his mother wouldn’t have had to go through that operation, yada yada yada—God must cry a neverending river of tears for all the babies humanity has destroyed without a second thought (no, I don’t buy that argument that every woman who undergoes an abortion ‘struggles emotionally’ with it, bah!).

I am so glad this child survived, and it sounds like his parents are raising him to be God-fearing—who knows what the future holds for Samuel? Maybe someday he’ll be one of the people who puts an end to Roe v. Wade!

[Coleus]

Picture of a 21 week old baby

Hand of Hope (remarkable photo of 21 wk old baby)

Treating the Tiniest (pro-life issue benefits from advances in fetal surgery)

Story of "The Baby Hand"

An Update on Samuel Armas "The Hand of Hope"

Photo of Unborn Baby’s Hand Continues to Change Hearts and Lives

Michael Clancy: The Photographer Whose Amazing Pro-Life Picture Changed the World

Ten Years Later, Boy's 'Hand of Hope' Continues to Spark Debate [Samuel Armas update]

That Little Hand from the Womb: Samuel Armas still Reaching Out for Life

[cpforlife.org]

I haven’t been posting much lately, but I have been lurkin a bit.

Not sure if i’m correct here, but it seems the pro-life threads are getting fewer responses than ever before.

Any thoughts?

[dcwusmc]

Bravo for this fine young man. And for his parents and the doctor who performed that procedure while he was in the womb. God works wonders on a daily basis and young Samuel is living proof of it!

[dcwusmc]

How does sourcing something from Fox News translate into an LA Times article? I’m baffled.

[kcvl]

Dr. Joseph P. Bruner

Dr. Joseph P. Bruner, director of the Vanderbilt fetal diagnosis and therapy program, indicated the photo has less significance for him.

Apparently fetal surgeons agree that their patients feel pain since anesthesia is given to both the mother and her child, although Bruner, who has performed 80 in utero spina bifida operations, continues to abort fetuses with the disease at the woman's request -- "an increasingly difficult position to be in," the doctor has said. "Because we are performing surgery to improve the lifestyle of fetuses who have spina bifida, it is difficult to justify an operation that could also take that life away," he said. "As we walk through this mine field, society is going to have to take a good, hard look at itself, because it is untenable to hold both views."

Bruner has estimated that about half of women in the United States who discover they are carrying a fetus with spina bifida choose abortion.

Samuel Armas, the infant whose in utero surgery made history after a photo of the pre-born baby grasping the finger of his surgeon through an opening in Mrs. Armas' uterus energized pro-life groups and led to Matt Drudge's departure from Fox News, was born without fanfare.

Journalist Matt Drudge, author of the Drudge Report, attempted to use Baby Samuel's famous photo on his Fox News Network television show, but was forbidden to do so by network management.

"He was using this photo [also seen in] the National Enquirer as a jumping-off point to talk about partial-birth abortion," said Fox News spokesman Brian Lewis. "It was a picture of an emergency operation for spina bifida. We thought it was a blatant misrepresentation. It was a straight editorial decision."

WorldNetDaily columnist and Associate Editor Elizabeth Farah cautioned the network about its reason for censoring the picture.

"Would you have allowed Matt to make his point by displaying a picture of a different pre-birth child -- this one a victim of abortion?" she asked.

"If memory serves, no picture of an aborted baby's body or video has ever been seen in an establishment paper or on an establishment network," Farah continued. "The word censorship comes to mind."

http://tinyurl.com/qdgbff

[kcvl]

Why Fox censored Drudge

Elizabeth Farah

http://tinyurl.com/qdgbff

[kcvl]

Samuel Armas and his younger brother Zachary, both with spina bifida

Julie and Alex Armas, pictured with their oldest sons, Samuel and Ethan, refused to consider abortion when Samuel and their third son, Zachary, were diagnosed with spina bifida before their birth.

[kcvl]

Michael Clancy, the photographer who snapped the photo in 1999 of Baby Samuel Armas reaching out of his mother’s uterus to hold the finger of his surgeon, attended a pregnancy care center banquet last month, where he and Samuel’s mother Julie spoke.

Wrote Michael in an email to me, “It was a God moment when at the end of her presentation, Samuel, at seven years old, climbed the stairs and took his place beside her at the podium. A standing ovation ensued and it was one of several times that night I more than teared up, I cried.”

Here is a photo of Samuel and Michael, taken in March 2007.

http://tinyurl.com/ohbtjs