Posted on 07/13/2009 5:35:43 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
In 1984, a video called The Silent Scream helped change the way people think about the unborn child. The footage of an actual abortion and the fetus’s reaction reminded us that abortion involves the death of a real person.
A recent bit of footage has similar potential, only it couldn’t be more different from The Silent Scream.
The footage was part of a recent PBS special, The Music Instinct: Science & Song. The program was an exploration of, among other things, music’s “biological, emotional and psychological impact on humans.”
Part of this “exploration” included how music affects babies. If we are, as some scientists believe, “wired for music,” then babies are ideal test subjects since their reactions are, by definition, instinctual.
Part of this research involved the effect of music on fetuses. While we knew that mothers often sing to their unborn children, we weren’t sure that the unborn child could hear them.
We are now. A segment of The Music Instinct featured Sheila C. Woodward of the University of Southern California, who has studied fetal responses to music. A camera and a microphone designed for underwater use were inserted into the uterus of a pregnant woman. And then Woodward sang.
The hydrophone picked up two sounds: the “whooshing” of the uterine artery and the unmistakable sound of a woman singing a lullaby.
Then something extraordinary happened. Upon hearing the woman’s voice, the unborn child smiled.
It was one of those moments that makes you catch your breath. The full humanity of the fetus could not have been clearer if he had turned to the camera and winked.
Apparently, fetal responses to music aren’t limited to smiling. They have been observed moving their hands in response to music, almost as if conducting. They have been soothed by Vivaldi and disturbed by loud tracks from Beethoven. They have even responded “rhythmically to rhythms tapped on [their] mother’s belly.”
Perhaps understandably, the connection between fetal responses to music and abortion weren’t mentioned in the show. What is not so understandable is that the program’s website contains no mention of Woodward and her findings. It’s as if someone realized the implications and hoped nobody would notice.
I don’t think that there’s some kind of conspiracy afoot. I just think that the PBS people’s worldview won’t allow them to make the obvious connection. Abortion on demand is only possible if people minimize the similarities between the fetus and us.
That kind of denial is hard work because what we have learned in the past 25 years makes any denial of the fetus’ humanity absurd. So instead of looking at the evidence, many people don’t see it. Call it “worldview-induced blindness.”
In other words, they have eyes but cannot see, ears but cannot hear.
Humans, we are told, are a “musical species” whose brain devotes more to the appreciation of music than even the processing of language. That makes someone who smiles and moves his hands in response to music undeniably human, whether we notice it or not.
What is this?
They open the womb, do the surgery and tuck the baby back in to finish growing.
It looks awful but it is a true miracle that we are able to do this.
Not to throw cold water, but babies don’t smile about anything until they are 8-12 weeks old. They might make a smile like face when they have gas. As sweet as it is to imagine, I don’t think a baby is more apt to smile because it is pleased before birth than in the two months after birth.
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Do you make a smile-like face when you have gas?
A picture of a tiny hand grabbing a doctor’s finger during surgery needs a warning?
kick
Well it would depend on what kind of surgery the doctors are performing?
Are the docs killing or saving the child?
They were correcting a birth defect. That’s a very famous pic of the baby grabbing the surgeon’s hand. If memory serves Baby Samuel is doing quite well these days.
Sorry about that.
Sorry about that. It was a famous photo posted on Drudge from a few years ago of a baby grabbing the surgeon’s hand. I thought it was relevant but should have posted a link.
My apologies if i jumped the gun,i assumed it was a picture of a abortion being performed.
So much for it being gas in a newborn.
What many people don't realize is that the babies are already here - it's just a thin veil of flesh that separates them from us.
If I understand correctly, if the corrective surgery is performed a month or so before birth, you get much better results than if you do it after the child is born.
The repaired spine has time to heal and develop naturally.
it’s ok someone mentioned it was a surgery not an abortion.
That's why I chimed in agreement on your call for a warning. As far as I'm concerned, you're forgiven.....even if you didn't know what the photo was all about. :)
(A link or explanation would have solved the problem for you).
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