BRITAIN: Ultrasound pictures of a human embryo walking, smiling, crying and sucking its thumb in the womb helped reignite the abortion debate in Britain when they were released on Tuesday, the same day a report found that half of all teenage girls who become pregnant choose a surgical termination writes Lynne O'Donnell in London
The three-dimensional images produced by the latest in ultrasound technology have been cited by Britain's anti-abortion lobby as evidence of the humanity of the unborn child from conception.
The pictures show with startling clarity a fully-formed baby moving around the womb, stretching and kicking out its limbs at 12 weeks and opening its eyes at 18 weeks, a function doctors thought did not happen before 26 weeks. Nor did they think babies smiled until six weeks after birth. The pictures, captured by Professor Stuart Campbell, of London's Create Health Centre for Reproduction and Advanced Technology, show a 26-week-old foetus smiling and crying, scratching, yawning, sucking its thumb and putting its fingers tips together.
"The advanced scanning techniques have opened a window on a hidden world," Dr Campbell told reporters. "This is the first time we have seen this kind of movement this early. It is typical of what newborn babies do as a reflex. If you hold a newborn under the arms and put its feet to a table top it will make stepping movements, and this is what this baby is doing in the womb."
Dr Campbell, who plans to publish a book of the images next month called Watch me Grow, said he developed the technology to help parents and doctors visualise foetal development.
The technology updates the ultrasound which has been used extensively in the developing world - notably China with its one-child-per-family policy - to determine the sex of a foetus and aid the decision on abortion.
Pro-life activists noted the pictures showed development earlier than previously thought, and said the technology also applied to the detection of unwanted perceived imperfections.
Ms Josephine Quintavalle, of ProLife, said improving technology increased demand for perfection. The advanced development aspect had educational use, she said, but "this technology is being used to seek out the disabled baby and to destroy it".
As anti-abortion groups hoped the pictures would enliven their campaigns, an independent social research body, the Joseph Roundtree Foundation, released a survey it said showed social and economic impact was more important than morality for British women who chose abortion.
Personal circumstance largely guided the choice of women aged 15 to 17 years.
Between 1999 and 2001, 44 per cent of pregnancies in this age bracket were terminated by choice, the study found.
Newspapers reported one in 10 English babies is born to a teenager and that Britain's rate of teenage pregnancy is among western Europe's highest. Terminations were the most common procedure for the National Health Service, yesterday's Daily Telegraph said.
British law permits abortion up to 24 weeks for personal reasons, and on the basis of abnormality up to nine months if doctors think a disability severe enough.