I wonder if you saw the article that appeared in the news about three weeks ago? You might have missed it because the news coverage was short-lived and fleeting.
The story was about a surgery that was conducted in Philadelphia on a 21 week-old unborn child. The child was diagnosed with a cancerous tumor called an intrapericardial teratoma. In essence, it is a tumor that grows on the sac surrounding the heart of the growing child. As a result, it caused a life or death situation for the child. Left untreated, the tumor could have simply outgrown the heart resulting in fatal consequences.
Following the operation, the child, a boy, was born 10 weeks later, at 31 weeks after conception. Two weeks after that, he needed one more surgery to finish the task begun by the first operation. According to reports, the child is now 4 months old and doing well.
This kind of advance in fetal surgical intervention is not unique. According to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, since 1995, nearly 1,400 fetal surgeries have been conducted just at that hospital. Most have been to treat spina bifida.
In fact, it was such an operation to treat spina bifida that resulted in another famous and moving photo. In 1999, another unborn child underwent an operation at 21 weeks since conception, in an effort to treat the congenital defect. It was another delicate intervention that required surgically opening the womb. Near the end of the operation, a picture was taken showing the identifiable and fully formed hand of the child extended from the womb and grasping the finger of the surgeon.
It is not necessary to exaggerate any conscious intent on the part of the preborn child, any more than we need debate the intent on the part of a sleeping newborn child that might grasp its mother’s finger after feeling her touch. Still, the picture, joined to the story and the news of these medical efforts highlight a profound and wide-reaching contradiction in our society.
At 21 weeks, both children in these two operations could have been legally aborted. They have no rights at that stage because, in essence, by law we have designated them as not yet persons with a right to life. The best that they can hope for is a life-supporting decision on the part of the mother or the parents.
The growing number of fetal surgeries, however, reminds us of what science and reason know to be the truth. The personhood of these children is already established. Their unique DNA and the knowledge that they have already joined the continuum of the human family that ends with our last breath was the reason to make such expert and costly efforts to treat them. The hand grasping the finger is not mere emotion. It reminds us of what our reason already knows.
As a nation, however, we still allow close to one million children to be aborted annually. In Illinois, a bill, HB 40, was recently introduced that would use tax dollars to force all of us to be part of the provision of abortion services.
The pervasive shadow of abortion is also at the heart of our deepest national political divide. The wrangling and arguing that made the national news in recent weeks involving the so-called nuclear option in the Senate, with the subsequent confirmation of Justice Neil Gorsuch, was essentially a continuation of one on-going debate. That is, the protection of our legal justification for abortion. That question is a primary consideration in the election of virtually every one of our national officials and many at the state level as well.
It has now been 44 years since abortion was legalized in our country by the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision. Debate over this decision continues to divide us and haunt us, as it should, given that this is a matter of life and death. Prayers and efforts by people of faith have helped keep alive a sense of respect for the unborn. But, so too have both science and reason, joined together with astonishing medical advances.
In essence, the truth will not let our consciences rest. That truth sits before us. It simply awaits the day when we will act on it.