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The Smiling Unborn Child (Music in Utero)
Christian Post ^ | 7/12/2009 | Charles Colson

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.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: abortion; prochoice; prolife; unborn
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To: FTJM

What is this?


21 posted on 07/13/2009 6:35:20 PM PDT by MSF BU (++)
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To: MSF BU; Free Vulcan
That is a child undergoing surgery for spina bifida.

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.

22 posted on 07/13/2009 6:42:44 PM PDT by Harmless Teddy Bear (I miss the competent fiscal policy and flag waving patriotism of the Carter Administration)
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To: TN4Liberty

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.
*********************

Do you make a smile-like face when you have gas?


23 posted on 07/13/2009 6:46:09 PM PDT by JavaJumpy (Go get 'em, Sarah! http://www.howobamagotelected.com)
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To: GSP.FAN

A picture of a tiny hand grabbing a doctor’s finger during surgery needs a warning?


24 posted on 07/13/2009 6:47:09 PM PDT by Reddy
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To: SeekAndFind

kick


25 posted on 07/13/2009 6:56:48 PM PDT by An American in Turkiye
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To: Reddy

Well it would depend on what kind of surgery the doctors are performing?
Are the docs killing or saving the child?


26 posted on 07/13/2009 7:06:08 PM PDT by GSP.FAN (Only dead fish go with the flow...)
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To: GSP.FAN

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.


27 posted on 07/13/2009 7:52:09 PM PDT by Fire_on_High (One Big Ass Mistake America!)
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To: GSP.FAN

Sorry about that.


28 posted on 07/13/2009 8:04:13 PM PDT by FTJM
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To: Free Vulcan

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.


29 posted on 07/13/2009 8:08:09 PM PDT by FTJM
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To: SeekAndFind

ABORTION KILLS THE MOST INNOCENT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuLT0vFceD8


30 posted on 07/13/2009 8:17:13 PM PDT by doug from upland (10 million views of .HILLARY! UNCENSORED - put some ice on it, witch)
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To: SeekAndFind
It might be better to leave this issue to the Churches because it is a guaranteed losing issue in politics. How else could so many moron democrats have been elected?
31 posted on 07/13/2009 8:20:57 PM PDT by Semper
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To: FTJM; Fire_on_High

My apologies if i jumped the gun,i assumed it was a picture of a abortion being performed.


32 posted on 07/13/2009 8:34:54 PM PDT by GSP.FAN (Only dead fish go with the flow...)
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To: FTJM; ohioWfan; Reddy; Fire_on_High

My Bad..
http://www.snopes.com/photos/medical/thehand.asp


33 posted on 07/13/2009 8:54:02 PM PDT by GSP.FAN (Only dead fish go with the flow...)
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To: GSP.FAN
Story behind picture
34 posted on 07/13/2009 8:56:45 PM PDT by FTJM
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To: GSP.FAN; ohioWfan; Reddy; Fire_on_High
Photographer's version of events
35 posted on 07/13/2009 9:00:29 PM PDT by FTJM
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To: benjibrowder

So much for it being gas in a newborn.


36 posted on 07/13/2009 9:08:51 PM PDT by Lauren BaRecall (Proud heterosexual.)
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To: TN4Liberty
Babies also recognize their mothers’ voices right after birth.

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.

37 posted on 07/13/2009 9:16:25 PM PDT by Lauren BaRecall (Proud heterosexual.)
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To: Harmless Teddy Bear

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.


38 posted on 07/13/2009 11:07:49 PM PDT by sinanju
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To: FTJM

it’s ok someone mentioned it was a surgery not an abortion.


39 posted on 07/14/2009 5:18:12 AM PDT by Free Vulcan (No prisoners. No mercy. 2010 awaits.....)
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To: GSP.FAN; FTJM
Well, I may be the only one, but some of us still appreciate warnings for bloody surgical photos.......even amazing ones like that (which I remembered well).

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).

40 posted on 07/14/2009 5:47:03 AM PDT by ohioWfan (Proud Mom of a Bronze Star recipient!)
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