A UK couple has released an absolutely gorgeous photo of their late daughter, moments after she was born prematurely at 24 weeks – the legal limit for abortion in the country.
Though baby Adelaide only survived a few hours after birth, the parents, Emily and Alastair Caines, are hoping that her short life will spark a debate about the UK’s abortion law.
Currently UK law effectively allows abortion-on-demand up to exactly the same point in pregnancy when their daughter was born – 24 weeks.
“Our picture shows Adelaide was not a feotus she was a fully formed human being and to think that a baby like her could be legally terminated on grounds of a lifestyle choice is to me is horrifying,” said Emily.
Though her daughter did not survive, Emily pointed out that many other babies born at 24 weeks DO survive.
“That makes a mockery of the 24 week legal limit,” she said.
(To view the photo and read more about the Caines’ story, go to The Mirror.)
But while Emily and her husband deserve kudos for raising important questions about legal abortion in the UK, unfortunately they themselves seem unaware of some of the inconsistencies in their own position.
For instance, Emily says that while she opposes late-term abortions for lifestyle reason, she is not opposed when there are “medical reasons” for the abortion.
The problem is that there are no such medical reasons for late-term abortions: the term ‘medical reasons’ is almost always a euphemism for a eugenic abortion – an abortion of a baby who is disabled or otherwise suffering some kind of medical condition. Of course, aborting the baby doesn’t actually solve any medical problem: it just gets rid of the person who has the problem.
Another difficulty with the Caines’ story is that they conceived Adelaide using in vitro fertilization (IVF). While this in no way impacts the dignity and worth of Adelaide’s life, IVF does involve serious ethical problems from a pro-life perspective: IVF almost always involves the creation of more embryos than will be implanted, some of which will either be frozen in storage indefinitely, or simply destroyed.
Currently Emily and her husband are expecting another child – also conceived through IVF.
Emily had also previously lost another baby, Isabelle, after she was born prematurely at 23 weeks.
She says calling the loss of a baby born prematurely a “late miscarriage” doesn't give full justice to the experience for the parents of the baby.
“That doesn’t acknowledge the fact that a mother has been through labour, delivery and seen and held their baby,” she said.
“I hope this beautiful picture of my daughter being born helps change people’s perspectives.”