Pictures of unborn will challenge views on life

SOME of the most startling images ever taken of an unborn child have been hailed as having the potential to change the public perception of life in the womb.

The photographs, taken in London by Professor Stuart Campbell of Create Health Clinic, show the remarkable development of a foetus after only 12 weeks of life.

They even show it going for a walk in its mother’s womb.

Photographed using a sophisticated 4D ultrasound system, these pictures reveal movements that nobody suspected took place in foetuses at such an early stage in their development.

“When I first began to use this system and see these images, I was staggered,” says Prof Campbell, who was one of the first to use this baby scan method at the clinic in London.

“I was amazed, not only at the detail, but at the level of complexity we could now see.”

One of Ireland’s leading pro-life advocates said yesterday that such images could help medical practitioners think again about the true nature of abortion.

“I would hope these images will change the way in which doctors think about pre-born life,” said Dr Patricia Casey, Professor of Psychiatry at University College Dublin.

“If it led to a rethink about what it is that doctors do when they abort a foetus that would be a good thing.”

The Irish Family Planning Association estimates as many as 7,000 Irishwomen travel to Britain to have abortions each year.

These are not the first images of unborn children released by Prof Campbell that have amazed the world of medicine. In the past year, there have also been pictures of a 15-week-old old yawning and an 18-week-old with its eyes open.