http://apologeticspress.org/APContent.aspx?category=7&article=1578
Life in the Womb
| by | Dave Miller, Ph.D. |
Fetologists and medical researchers have long recognized the four behavioral states of the pre-born infant that parallel the newborn: 1F (quiet sleep), 2F (active state), 3F (quiet awake), and 4F (active awake). State 5 for newborns, i.e., crying, has not been considered to have a pre-born correlate. However, in a study assessing the effects of exposure to tobacco and cocaine during pregnancy on fetal response to acoustic stimulation, researchers report what appears to be “crying behavior” by the pre-born infant. These behaviors, seen on ultrasound and captured on video recordings, include: an initial exhalation movement associated with mouth opening and tongue depression, followed by a series of three augmented breaths, the last breath ending in an inspiratory pause, followed by an expiration and settling. Researchers believe that these behaviors suggest the possibility of a state 5F (Gingras, et al., 2005).
This research will not be welcomed by the pro-abortion forces of America, since it provides yet another piece of mounting evidence that suggests the pre-born infant is fully human. Indeed, much scientific evidence exists to confirm that the viewpoint enshrined in 1973 by the U.S. Supreme Court, which opened the floodgates for wholesale abortion, is responsible for murdering over 45,000,000 human babies (“Abortion in the...,” 2005).
Of course, the Bible provided the correct perspective all along. Consider, for example, the recorded visit that Mary, the mother of Jesus, made to Elizabeth, the mother of John the baptizer. Both women were pregnant at the time.
Now Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste, to a city of Judah, and entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth. And it happened, when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Then she spoke out with a loud voice and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! But why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy” (Luke 1:39-44, emp. added).
Notice that Elizabeth’s pre-born baby is being represented as a living human being. In fact, the term “babe” used in verses 41 and 44 to refer to the pre-born John is the exact same term that is used in the following chapter to refer to Jesus after His birth as He laid in the manger (Luke 2:12,16). So inGod’s sight, whether a person is in his or her pre-birth developmental state, or in a post-birth developmental state, that person is still a baby! Yet, the slaughter continues.
REFERENCES
“Abortion in the United States: Statistics and Trends,” (2005), National Right to Life, [On-line], URL: http://www.nrlc.org/abortion/facts/abortionstats.html.
Gingras, J.L., E.A. Mitchell, and K.E. Grattan (2005), “Fetal Homologue of Infant Crying,” Archives of Disease in Childhood, 90:F415-F418, [On-line], URL: http://fn.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/abstract/90/5/F415.