Because most philosophies that frown on reproduction don't survive.

Monday, August 31, 2015

Death before Birth

I have not watched any of the Center for Medical Progress's expose videos on Planned Parenthood and StemExpress, a company which handles the disposal/redistribution of body parts from aborted babies. There is an argument from some quarters that everyone ought to see the videos, ought to have to come to term with tiny arms and legs being nudged around in dishes, ought to hear laughing employees declare, "Another boy!" as they examine what's left of the poor innocent.

I don't need a video to show me what preborn babies look like. I held one in my hand ten years ago, a wee eight-weeks-developed baby, my own. I don't know why it died, but it looked perfect. It (I don't know whether it was a girl or a boy, and I don't prefer to assign it an arbitrary gender) didn't even fill up the palm of my hand. Baby had all ten fingers and all ten toes, but what has always stayed with me are the big beautiful blue eyes.

I know that some parents want to give a conditional baptism to a child who's been miscarried. We didn't. The baby had died two weeks before I miscarried, apparently, and baptizing a two-weeks-dead body seems a mockery of the sacrament. We had no doubts that God had taken the little one to himself.

The baby's existence and death didn't have to be justified on the grounds of becoming medical research material.  It was never "useful". It did not further the aims of science. And because the baby was human, it deserved a human burial. So we buried it, the only gift we were able to give the baby in its brief lifetime.

I did not take any photos of my baby, but you can see a sweet little eight-week-old baby here. It looks just like mine did. I don't need hidden videos to convince me that abortion is an evil evil business, and I don't want to see these dead little one dismembered when it's hard enough to see a dead little one intact.

3 comments:

Emily said...

I felt the same way and have also not watched the videos. I don't need to burn those images into my brain to understand the horror they contain.
I also have held my 8 weeks gestation child in my hand. And I will never forget.

Julia said...

I'm with you on this. Haven't watched, don't plan to. I am continually amazed at how many women I know have suffered a miscarriage. And even more amazed that the grief of it does not always transform hearts into an understanding that abortion is wrong. Somehow I always expect anyone who has lost a baby to 'get it'. And yet they don't.

Agnes said...

I agree that it is not necessary to shock ourselves with these videos. I am a doctor and have seen my share of horrible realities of life, illness, death. Like you, I have had an early miscariage (so early, in fact, that we barely learned of the pregnancy) and having 3 healthy children I always give thanks to God for them.
However, since there is such a huge amount of shocking visual information in the news everywhere, with close to real (sometimes even more detailed/larger than real) images, shock tresholds are higher for most people than for me or than what they used to be. It's better if they are shocked enough to finally "get it" than not understand the fundamental wrongness of it. Although I'm afraid selfshness and the need to justify oneself will prevent this realization for some.