If you can perform surgery on fetuses, then maybe they have value after all

From Washington Examiner.com (May 12):

“A procedure with two patients,” read the subheading of a CNN article about a groundbreaking surgery that took place in March. “For this surgery,” the report noted, “there were two patients: Kenyatta and her baby.”

If you guessed that the procedure was a surgery performed on a preborn baby, you’d be right — and you’d be forgiven for wondering how CNN could be so accidentally pro-life.

Doctors in Boston recently performed a successful brain surgery on a 34-week-old fetus to treat a rare condition that often results in brain injuries or heart failure immediately after birth. Waiting to treat until after the baby was born could’ve risked her life.

So, guided by an ultrasound, doctors threaded tiny metal coils through a catheter into the fetus's brain, relieving a dangerous buildup of blood. Before the surgery, the unborn baby received an injection to keep her from moving and to alleviate pain.

Two days afterward, Denver Coleman, a healthy baby girl, was born.

“I heard her cry for the first time and that just, I — I can’t even put into words how I felt at that moment,” her mother, Kenyatta Coleman, said. “It was just, you know, the most beautiful moment being able to hold her, gaze up on her and then hear her cry.”

This isn't the first time doctors have performed surgery on a fetus, but the American Heart Association called it the “first in-utero brain surgery.” Now seven weeks old, Denver Coleman is a marvel of medical technology and a testament to the value of the unborn.

"She's shown us from the very beginning that she was a fighter. She’s demonstrated … 'Hey, I wanna be here,'" Kenyatta Coleman said.

Even CNN, no bastion of pro-life thought, was eager to characterize baby Denver as a person. Notable as well is that the doctors, realizing fetuses’ capacity for pain, provided her with pain relief during the surgery.

Our society may not have much respect for the unborn, but developing medical technology makes their humanity that much clearer. If you can perform life-saving brain surgery on fetuses, then maybe they have value after all. [source]

Glad the surgery was a success.