Posted on 01/28/2014 9:02:09 AM PST by null and void
3D printed figures modeled after ultrasound
A remarkable number of obscure items are constructed with 3D printers: desserts, pizza, vehicles, robots, and prosthetic limbs to name but a few. But now, one company wants to 3D print your baby before its even born. Perhaps catering to the audience of people who collect umbilical cords as family keepsakes or want to tangibly immortalize memories, 3D Babies uses 3D/4D ultrasound images and modeling software to sculpt and 3D print a statuette of your unborn baby.
3D ultrasound reveals your baby in color
The figurine is as based on the images provided with artistic rendition thrown in for good measure, or to fill in the blanks. We create an adorable baby figurine resembling your baby's facial features and body position, says the company, but allows customers to select from one of three skin tones ranging from light, medium or dark or whether or not to the genitals are visible. Models come in eight, four, or two inch length sizes. The eight-inch life size appropriately matches a 23-24 week old fetus for a whopping $800, but if mailing your grandparents a model is your goal, the $400 four inch or $200 two inch is more postal friendly.
It is not clear on the 3D babies' website what printer resolution or material they use.
Advancements in ultrasound technology yielding 3D images of fetuses made it only a matter of time before an entrepreneur decided to capitalize on this pairing, yet 3D babies is not the first, giving customers options. The Japanese firm Fasotect and Hiroo Ladies Clinic launched a similar product modeled after CT or MRI scans of the mothers womb almost a year prior. However, Fasotects rendition is a bit more of a preserved animal in a jar, compared to 3D babies porcelain-looking sculpture.
Why not... anything that reinforces the humanity of the unborn is a good thing, IMO.
It would be interesting to have folks in front of abortion clinics carrying these at various stages of development and demonstrating, through ripping them apart, what will happen during the abortion.
Compelling indeed. Good point.
That only looks like a mass of cells to me :)
I remember I brought a 4D Ultrasound picture of my daughter to work when she was probably three or four months in the womb.
She had a cute smile, a lot like the one in the picture there.
“Oh cute, how many months pregnant is your wife?” a liberal coworker asked me. When I said between 3 or 4 months, this woman got a very shocked and uncomfortable look in her face as if she had just seen a ghost.
Perfect!
No. Since the fetus was hydrocephalic, with lower limbs “deformed to the extent that the gender (could not) be determined,” it likely looked nothing like that.
actually on Sunday the hospital said the baby was girl...
Gee, maybe aborting women can have these 3D babies as "mementos?"
Hmmm. Wonder what else they were able to *determine* about that little baby.
I’ve had more babies than most people, but I think this is creepy. Except the cat.
But on the other hand, I see the potential for people who think an unborn baby is something categorically different from a born baby, as opposed to the same-thing-but-smaller.
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