LETTERS Unborn cries
Sir: Amanda Craig's eye-witness report (5 January) of seven abortions at the NHS Samaritan Hospital in Marylebone Road is all the more thought-provoking for its objective dispassionate style. However, one claim in her report, must be chal- lenged. She writes: '. . . even at 24 weeks it would be quite impossible for [the foetus] to scream. That, at least, is one horror story that is not true.'
This, I expect, is a reference to the film The Silent Scream which is distributed by the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children which shows the ultrasound monitoring of a 12-week unborn child aborted by the suction method. The child's distress at the invasion of the abortion instruments is obvious: the heartbeat soars and the mouth opens in what the commen- tator calls 'a silent scream'. The Society referred the film to the late Professor Ian Donald, the developer of ultrasound, who viewed it a number of times and made a sworn affidavit as to its authenticity.
Audible crying by the unborn is well documented. The late Professor Sir Wil- liam Liley described a tape of such crying produced by Dr Bendeck of Mexico City at a Latin American Conference of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. Professor Beazley of Liverpool has noted other cases (in 'Assessment of life in utero', Nursing Times, 8 May 1980). The crying is heard externally when an air bubble (which may be introduced into the womb during di- agnostic procedures) reaches the child's head.
No doubt most very premature babies only have the lung capacity to whimper or wail. Indeed, these are the words used in complaints from nurses and patients in the vast majority of cases about which we have heard. Nonetheless, simply to sweep aside any such events with the claim that the child of 24 weeks' gestation cannot scream is surely as inhuman as the abortions described in the article particularly when one considers that infants of 22 weeks are giving voice in premature baby units. Survival of babies born at this stage is conceded by the Government and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. Now that the Human Fer- tilisation and Embryology Bill has legalised abortion up to birth we may doubtless expect even more contrived denials of the 40-week baby's abilities and humanity.
John Smeaton
The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, 7 Tufton Street, London SW1
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