Even after we have shown our slides and pictures of pre-natal development, some people continue to deny the humanity of the preborn child. How do we answer? (M.B., Cornwall, Ont.)
Any scientist who today claimed that the unborn child is less than human would be laughed out of court. It is a demonstrable and universally accepted scientific fact that every human being begins life when a human sperm fertilizes a human ovum, and thus the preborn baby is genetically human. This is not a theory, it is not a hypothesis; it is proved with every in vitro human fertilization and resultant baby. Any conceptus (embryo, foetus) resulting from such a fertilization is not a rabbit or a kangaroo; it belongs to the family of man – homo sapiens. It is totally human.
However, we have to remind ourselves – lest we become discouraged – that there are people who refuse to see anything they do not want to see, and are determined not to understand anything they do not want to accept. There is a Flat-Earth mentality.
What is an ectopic pregnancy? How dangerous is it? (M.R., Winnipeg, Man.)
The word “ectopic” comes from two Greek words: ek, meaning “out,” and topos, meaning “place.” An ectopic pregnancy is one where the embryo or foetus is out of place, in an abnormal position, usually in the fallopian tube or, less frequently, in the abdominal cavity.
In the present stage of medical skill, a tubal ectopic pregnancy is a certain death sentence for the baby and a death-threatening situation for the mother. The fallopian tube is not made to accommodate a developing baby and in a few weeks it will burst; the baby will die, and unless the mother has immediate surgery, she is likely to bleed to death. Surgery to prevent this disaster has never been illegal.
Is it true that abortion has caused an increase in ectopic pregnancies? (M.R., Winnipeg, Man.)
Apparently the answer is “yes.” Statistics from the Health Department of the United States showed a 300 per cent rise in the incident of tubal ectopic pregnancies between 1970 (i.e., before abortion was legalized) and 1980. In terms of real numbers, such pregnancies went from 18,000 in 1970 to 75,000 in 1985, an increase of 417 per cent. Between 1973 and 1983 some 13 per cent of all maternal deaths in the United States were caused by ectopic pregnancies.
What is meant by “pregnancy reduction”? (P.S., Burnaby, B.C.)
The explanation begins with the procedures of in vitro fertilization (IVF) and embryo transfer (ET). Because the rate of successful pregnancies in IVF is very low, the women who are being treated are routinely given fertility pills to produce superovulation, or multiple ova. The many ova are fertilized and later transferred to the woman’s uterus in the hopes that at least one will continue to develop into a viable baby. Sometimes, however, many of the embryos develop and a woman may have four or more developing babies.
Faced with a new problem, an overabundance of children, instead of none, the doctor’s next step id to kill some of the babies in the womb by a lethal injection. That killing is known as “pregnancy reduction”; quadruplets are reduced to twins, and twins to an only child. Even some pro-abortion doctors feel squeamish about selective reduction of pregnancies.
People talk about viability. At what age is a baby viable? (B.R., Toronto, Ont.)
It will depend on where the baby is born, on the state of the art of medicine there, and on the facilities for neo-natal care. Obviously a premature baby has a better chance in specially equipped neo-natal units in teaching hospitals than in a remote settlement.
Medical advances have lowered the age of viability in the last few decades. In well-equipped hospitals in Western Europe and North America, viability was thought to be at 28 weeks of gestation in 1948. Forty years later, babies are surviving and doing well even though they are only 20 to 22 weeks old at birth. It is foreseen that even younger babies e.g. 18 weeks, will soon be saved.