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Womb 'smile' fires abortion row
The Age Online ^ | September 14, 2003 | By Rebecca Urban, James Meikle

Posted on 09/15/2003 10:35:24 AM PDT by miltonim

Images published for the first time yesterday suggesting unborn babies smile, blink and cry months before they leave the womb have renewed calls for abortion to be outlawed.

The pictures, published in London, show foetuses at 26 weeks exhibiting facial expressions. The images were captured by state-of-the-art scanning equipment.

Anti-abortion groups seized on the revelation, saying the images confirmed what they had argued all along: that a foetus was a human being with human characteristics.

The technology, known as a 3-D/4-D ultrasound, also reveals limb movements at eight weeks, leaping, turning and jumping at 11 to 12 weeks, intricate finger movements at 15 weeks and yawning at 20 weeks.

Whether the facial expressions are an emotional response or merely physical reflex is likely to be debated.

An obstetrician who has been using the Austrian-developed equipment at a private London health clinic for two years, Stuart Campbell, said: "It is remarkable that a newborn baby does not smile for about six weeks after birth. But before birth, most babies smile frequently. This may indicate the baby's trouble-free existence in the womb and the relatively traumatic first few weeks after birth when the baby is reacting to a strange environment."

In Australia yesterday, anti-abortionist Senator Brian Harradine said governments had a responsibility to at least look at the new information to emerge from London. Similar evidence pointing to activity in the womb had existed for several years, but had largely been ignored, he said. "The photos show abortion is actually killing these unborn children. It really is time the massacre stopped."

A Victorian Government spokesman said abortion laws were based on years of scientific research and while the Government was interested in all new medical developments and theories, any major policy review on abortion was a long way off.

Pro-Life Victoria secretary Denise Cameron said she was not surprised by the photographs. The information would bolster the campaign for a review of abortion laws.

"It is very, very exciting news for us... that babies at 26 weeks are smiling and laughing in utero," said Ms Cameron, speaking from the Freedom To Be Born rally at Treasury Gardens yesterday.

"No longer can you deny that what is in the womb is a living being. We have always known that every abortion is killing a baby."

Australian Doctors Who Represent Human Life president Kevin Hume, said pro-life groups had believed for years that a foetus had human characteristics. The images would allow them to say, "I told you so."

"If evidence of human features, smiling and so forth, appear at an early age it means we should look again at... abortion that is carried out in the first and second trimesters," he said. "We're looking at recognisable human beings."

Melbourne's Catholic vicar-general, Monsignor Les Tomlinson, said he expected the images would ignite further debate on abortion. He backed a review of abortion laws.

"The Catholic Church's position has always been that we would regard human life from the moment of conception. So this would certainly be scientific evidence of the correctness of our belief," he said. "Any revisiting of the legislation would be welcomed by us."

Australian Birth Control Services medical director Geoff Brodie said he doubted the pictures would have much impact on the abortion laws.

"I think they are clutching at straws," he said. "No doubt it will be picked up by those groups that use anything and everything to stop terminations but ignore the fact that women have a right to choice."

The 3-D/4-D ultrasound reveals more detailed and life-like scans of a foetus than the common 2-D ultrasound that concentrates largely on the internal organs.

Obstetrician Professor Campbell said he believed the new technology meant there were many questions that could now be investigated. "Do babies with genetic problems such as Down syndrome have the same pattern of activity as normal babies? Does the foetus smile because it is happy or cry because it has been disturbed by some event in the womb? Why does a baby blink when we assume it is dark inside the uterus?" Professor Campbell said.

A spokeswoman for the Royal Women's Hospital in Melbourne said scientific evidence still maintained that babies in the womb did not smile.

Dr Brodie, of Australian Birth Control Services, said it was still unknown if smiles, or other facial movements, were the result of neurological reflexes or emotional development.

The $A290,000 scanner that makes the images possible costs two to three times more than conventional equipment. The machine develops ultrasound so that it can be transformed and shaded to produce detailed surface features from the foetus that move in real time. It is already improving diagnosis of abnormalities such as cleft lip and palate.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 4d; abortion; prenataldevelopment; prolife; unborn
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reuters

I was surprised when I saw a story on this baby's picture on a regular TV network channel. What is this world coming to?!?

1 posted on 09/15/2003 10:35:25 AM PDT by miltonim
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To: miltonim
I can't link but GE has a remarkable video demo available.I think it is such a wonderful sight.
2 posted on 09/15/2003 10:39:27 AM PDT by MEG33
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To: miltonim
I can't believe this is news. I still remember watching my oldest on ultrasound at just 19 weeks. He was swimming around, obviously having a good time in there, and he had the most innocent expression on his face. I will never forget it.

3 posted on 09/15/2003 10:45:03 AM PDT by Tired of Taxes (and tired of this screenname, too.)
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To: miltonim
Dr Brodie, of Australian Birth Control Services, said it was still unknown if smiles, or other facial movements, were the result of neurological reflexes or emotional development.

wideawake, of Baby Murderer Observation Services, said it was still unknown if seething hatred of unborn children is the result of neurological defects or emotional underdevelopment.

4 posted on 09/15/2003 10:45:16 AM PDT by wideawake (God bless our brave soldiers and their Commander in Chief)
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To: MEG33
See GE Commercial for 3D-4D Ultrasound:

GE commercial in windows media player format fast http://www.gemedicalsystems.com/rad/us/video/4d-100k.asx

GE commercial in windows media player format slow http://www.gemedicalsystems.com/rad/us/video/4d-28k.asx

GE commercial in Real player format fast http://www.gemedicalsystems.com/rad/us/video/4d-100k.rm

GE commercial in Real player format slow http://www.gemedicalsystems.com/rad/us/video/4d-28k.rm


5 posted on 09/15/2003 10:45:37 AM PDT by miltonim
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To: MEG33
The server will link automatically if you don't put any HTML tags in the post. Just copy the ling, paste it, and hit the Post button.
6 posted on 09/15/2003 10:47:41 AM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (Even if the government took all your earnings, you wouldn’t be, in its eyes, a slave.)
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To: miltonim
Whether the facial expressions are an emotional response or merely physical reflex is likely to be debated.

Pathetic. Is that the best they can do!

They even question if these unborn children are "human beings." No, actually they are frogs. Sheesh.

7 posted on 09/15/2003 10:47:53 AM PDT by SkyPilot
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To: miltonim
Thanks.It's been a long time since I had a baby so it is remarkable to me.
8 posted on 09/15/2003 10:48:18 AM PDT by MEG33
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To: Blood of Tyrants
Miltonin did it!
9 posted on 09/15/2003 10:49:18 AM PDT by MEG33
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To: Tired of Taxes
I am right with you! My wife is 18 weeks and we have seen the baby kick, "wave", and shimmy during the last two ultrasounds. News of this sort is going to help us in the fight to outlaw Abortion.
10 posted on 09/15/2003 10:49:55 AM PDT by CanisRex (my .02)
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To: Blood of Tyrants
Thanks, let my try that,


GE commercial in windows media player format fast
http://www.gemedicalsystems.com/rad/us/video/4d-100k.asx

GE commercial in windows media player format slow
http://www.gemedicalsystems.com/rad/us/video/4d-28k.asx

GE commercial in Real player format fast
http://www.gemedicalsystems.com/rad/us/video/4d-100k.rm

GE commercial in Real player format slow
http://www.gemedicalsystems.com/rad/us/video/4d-28k.rm
11 posted on 09/15/2003 10:53:58 AM PDT by miltonim
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To: CanisRex
Absolutely!
12 posted on 09/15/2003 10:57:49 AM PDT by miltonim
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To: CanisRex
I am afraid nothing will help outlaw abortion until moral representatives are elected. There are just too many people willing to murder babies because they impinge on their lifestyle.
13 posted on 09/15/2003 10:59:05 AM PDT by freeangel (freeangel)
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To: miltonim
Why does a baby blink when we assume it is dark inside the uterus?" Professor Campbell(Obstetrician) said.

Well if Professor Campbell thinks the only reason for blinking is the presence of light, he should be tied to a stake with his eyes sewn open in a sandstorm in the middle of the night in the Sahara. Afterall, there will be no need for him to blink.

14 posted on 09/15/2003 11:00:21 AM PDT by StriperSniper (The slippery slope is getting steeper.)
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To: freeangel
I believe the only thing that will really work is to change minds and hearts.
15 posted on 09/15/2003 11:01:22 AM PDT by MEG33
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To: StriperSniper
re: Well if Professor Campbell thinks the only reason for blinking is the presence of light, he should be tied to a stake with his eyes sewn open in a sandstorm in the middle of the night in the Sahara. )))

Whence this hostility?

Prof. Campbell merely posits what I'd say was an interesting enough question (though the babe probably blinks in REM sleep); I don't see that it is partisan one way or another. Prof. Campbell does say "baby" after all, which is something of a giveaway as to his probable opinion on the nature of preborn human life.

16 posted on 09/15/2003 11:06:46 AM PDT by Mamzelle
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To: MHGinTN
ping!
17 posted on 09/15/2003 11:07:48 AM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
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To: MEG33
I believe the only thing that will really work is to change minds and hearts.

Correct. Right now, "minds and hearts" are governed by sympathy for the pregnant women -- this baby will cause them a lot of stress and inconvenience, which we can all understand.

The only counter to this is to re-establish the understanding of what the "choice" is really all about --that "reason X" is sufficient to justify the death of the unborn child.

The task is to establish that second part in peoples' minds -- that we're talking about reasons to decide to kill a child. This technology might do it -- but not on its own.

18 posted on 09/15/2003 11:12:53 AM PDT by r9etb
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To: miltonim
I know at least one baby that smiled right after birth: my son.

He was crying while the nurses and doctors poked him, but when dad held him up to my face for the first time ( I couldn't hold him because my abdomen was being stitched up), he not only calmed but smiled.

We have a picture of him swaddled on my hospital bed, taken as we prepared to get ready to go home. He is smiling.

A friend saw the picture and said - that's not a newborn, thats a six-month old baby! But he was four days old.
19 posted on 09/15/2003 11:14:32 AM PDT by SarahW
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To: Mamzelle; Tailgunner Joe
Prenatal babies have been proven to have brainwave activity just like that seen in dreaming adults. The scare to the champions of serial killing to the preborn is that their dehumanization of the preborn (which is actually the founding principle of the abortion on demand/women's special right to choose a serial killer) will suddenly be called into question as the very real humanity of the preborn is revealed!
20 posted on 09/15/2003 11:20:37 AM PDT by MHGinTN (If you can read this, you've had life support from someone. Promote life support for others.)
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