The abortion debate has devolved to the zygote version of a LOLCat. A lady got an ultrasound, and her unborn child looked like it was smiling. Thus, "a baby can experience feelings such as happiness" earlier than previously thought.
(I'm not putting a copy of the thing here. You can view it at the Gawker link or at the UK rag, Daily Mail, where it originally appeared.)
Professor Stuart Campbell, who took the picture at his London clinic with 3-D and 4-D scanning equipment, said it did not necessarily show the unborn child had feelings - but it was certainly displaying human behaviour.
Well, FFS, what other species' behaviour should it be displaying? That fetus fetishists' vehemently made argument -- abortion is wrong because a fetus is human -- infuriates me. We pro-choicers never contend that a fetus is non-human. Of course it's human. What it is is a non-person.
Let's hear some more from the good professor:
'This is a joyful expression of the humanity of the foetus. I have seen a foetus making a crying face at around 18 or 19 weeks, but not a nice smile.
'This is the earliest on record - it is just a delight.'
Oh, gag me.
Go have a look at the thing. It is not a delight. It's creepy and weird-looking and -- as one commenter at Gawker pointed out -- it appears to be making a peace-sign. Are fetuses capable of complex moral reasoning as well?
This would be merely weird and creepy, but it happened in the UK, where in 2008 there was a heated debate in Parliament about lowering the abortion limit of 24 weeks' gestation to 22 or even fewer. (The motion lost and the limit is still 24 weeks.)
This will surely rev up the Brit chapter of Fetus Fetishists International.
And it will no doubt have an impact in the gun-lovin'-abortion-hatin' Excited States, where lawmakers in Nebraska banned abortions after 20 weeks, based on faulty science that claimed fetuses can feel pain after that point. The ff'ing lawmakers ignored all kinds of sciencey-facty-neurologicky testimony to inflict yet another blow on women's rights for spurious reasons.
I can't wait to read what SUZY ALLCAPSLOCK makes of it. 'i'm in ur uterus, smiling for the camera?'
