A worrying situation ...

I see from an article in this week's Catholic Herald that moves are afoot to restrict the right of Catholic doctors to refuse to refer women for abortions. According to the article by Simon Caldwell, currently about one in four doctors are now refusing to sign consent forms on moral grounds. It is expected that this proposal will be passed by the BMA's policy-making body on Thursday.

On Tuesday Archbishop Peter Smith of Cardiff spoke out about this proposal saying, that the "right of conscience is a fundamental human right"

It is important to mention that it is not only Catholic doctors who feel strongly about this but they are also supported by doctors of other Christian denominations as well as Jewish and Muslim doctors and some who have no religious faith.

If you have missed your copy of the paper this week, you'll find a link to the article here.

If any new readers of this blog missed the earlier post about the baby who underwent surgery in the womb please follow the link to read about this amazing story.

'Hand of Hope'

I received this by email recently and just felt that I had to share it with you all. Some of you may have seen it already. It is incredible.

A picture began circulating in November. It should be 'The Picture of the Year,' or perhaps, 'Picture of the Decade.' It won't be. In fact, unless you obtained a copy of the US paper which published it, you probably would never have seen it. The picture is that of a 21-week-old unborn baby named Samuel Alexander Armas, who is being operated on by surgeon named Joseph Bruner. The baby was diagnosed with spina bifida and would not survive if removed from his mother's womb. Little Samuel's mother, Julie Armas, is an obstetrics nurse in Atlanta She knew of Dr. Bruner's remarkable surgical procedure. Practicing at Vanderbilt University Medical Centre in Nashville, he performs these special operations while the baby is still in the womb. During the procedure, the doctor removes the uterus via C-section and makes a small incision to operate on the baby. As Dr.Bruner completed the surgery on Samuel, the little guy reached his tiny, but fully developed hand through the incision and firmly grasped the surgeon's finger.

Dr.Bruner was reported as saying that when his finger was grasped, it was the most emotional moment of his life, and that for an instant during the procedure he was just frozen, totally immobile. The photograph captures this amazing event with perfect clarity. The editors titled the picture, 'Hand of Hope.' The text explaining the picture begins, 'The tiny hand of 21-week- old foetus Samuel Alexander Armas emerges from the mother's uterus to grasp the finger of Dr. Joseph Bruner as if thanking the doctor for the gift of life.' Little Samuel's mother said they 'wept for days' when they saw the picture. She said, 'The photo reminds us pregnancy isn't about disability or an illness, it's about a little person.' Samuel was born in perfect health, the operation 100 percent successful. Now see the actual picture.