She's Alive



...weighing a mere 11 ounces and being at least 3 months premature. Story may be found HERE. Note that she isn't the smallest ever...a baby released from a chicago hospital in February started out at a mere 8.5 ounces.

Of course in reality, they were even smaller than that...we all were. Several days ago Clifton was engaging the age old abortion debate and this picture of baby Kalea reminded me of my lab experiences which I related over at Clifton's blog. While Kalea's leg is about the size of an adult pinky finger, most of the aborted fetuses I witnessed were (when put back together) perhaps a little larger in their entirety than an adult pinkie...but otherwise they looked very much like Baby Kalea. In fact,too much alike for my comfort.

As medical science pushes back the time barrier in which a baby can survive outside a mother's womb, some abortion proponents may find themselves losing and certainly backtracking their arbitrary "life defining" point of no return. But of course, a life dependent on another life does not make it lifeless...quite the contrary I should think: we humans are very much dependent on LIFE outside of ourselves.

Unlike baby Kalea, science can do nothing for those who leave God's womb. May we be granted great mercy to remain...together therein.

Comments

Anonymous said…
James, I do not mean to be rude, but should medical technology try to keep a baby like that alive? Isn't it more merciful to let her die? Wouldn't her innocent soul be better off in heaven than trapped in a body and mind that will probably be disabled her whole life?
6:50 PM
Mahogany Elle said…
I totally agree, James. God bless you and the work that you're doing.
7:16 PM
Anonymous said…
Anonymous poses a good question. Though I am NOT James, my response is "yes" medical technology has the responsibility to sustain life no matter whether disability or not is the future of one's life. A living breathing person, no matter their ability, has the opportunity to worship God and be a blessing to those around them. It is God's choice, not ours, to decide who lives and dies.

Now...to be fair...am saying all of this as a healthy person who has no disability except that of being a great sinner.
5:53 AM
fdj said…
Anon...I don't think you are being rude at all.

I could find no details about the child...only that an ultrasound "raised concerns" such that an early delivery was deemed neccesary. On what basis are we assuming that she will "probably be disabled"?

Ultimately we do not know if her soul would be better off in heaven...if that were the default case (that a soul is better off in heaven) then count me in for calling it quits this morning. And we open the floodgates for suicide, mercy killings etc.

Alas, death is not natural, it is not normal...it is the enemy. Funny how science recognizes this as well - though perhaps opting not to use the same terminology.

Whereas I admit we DO enter a grey area when science prolongs - painfully and miserably - the inevitable...but I'm not sure this is the case at all with Baby Kalea.

Many an infant born much less premature than this has required some fairly heoric efforts too.
7:29 AM
Fr. David said…
Thank you for this post. I was a premie myself--though I came out, 2.5 mos. early, at a strapping 2 lbs, 13 oz.--and love any and all "survival stories" of us defective ones who, thanks to the opportunities medical science affords us, can live normal lives.

(My defect was an incomplete esophagus, btw)
4:09 PM
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