The Fetus

In today’s OpinionJournal.com we read about National Geographic’s remarkable documentary called, “The Womb,” which features how new technologies display the life of the fetus in the womb:

The new generation of three- and four-dimensional ultrasound imagery provides striking views of fetuses inside the womb. . . . “It’s almost a new science, in a way. It’s taught us so much about how the fetus develops at an early stage,” said Professor Stuart Campbell of the Create Health Clinic in London. . . . Four-dimensional imagery shows objects in 3-D moving in something close to real time. . . .

“We see the earliest movements at 8 weeks,” [Stuart] Campbell said. “By 12 weeks or so they are seen yawning and performing individual finger movements that are often more complex than you’ll see in a newborn,” he said. “It may be due to the effects of gravity after birth.” (emphasis added)

The images reveal facial expressions, like smiling, at 20 weeks. Beyond 24 weeks fetuses may suck their thumbs, stick their tongues out (perhaps using newly developed taste buds to sample amniotic fluid imbued with the flavors of the mother’s food), and make apparently emotional faces.

Naturally, as OpinionJournal.com notes, the pro-choice folks are up in arms over it.

But it’s hard to maintain the position that only religious nuts think that the fetus is a human being. Scientific empirical evidence demonstrates that IT IS HUMAN LIFE.