A
COUPLE OF MONTHS ago, I was walking through an
antique shop with a good friend. I came across some old
editions of Life magazine. As I shuffled through the pile of copies,
one cover caught my eye. The date on the cover was April 30, 1965.
What was unique about this particular copy of Life was a picture
that would not have been common at that time. It was a picture
of a baby in its mother’s placenta. This was the first time anyone
was able to capture pictures showing the embryonic development
of a baby. The pictures in this 14-page article were quite breath-
taking. However, it was not the pictures that surprised me but
the descriptions that accompanied them. On the cover were the
following captions (emphasis mine):
“DRAMA OF LIFE BEFORE BIRTH”
“LIVING 18-WEEK OLD”
I also found the following statements
in the article (emphasis mine):
“This is the first portrait ever made
of a living embryo inside its
mother’s womb.”
“By studying pictures like these,
embryologists get a deeper and
more detailed understanding of
life before birth.”
“The birth of human life really
occurs at the moment the mother’s
egg cell is fertilized by one of the
father’s sperm cells.”
"Drama of Life Before Birth," Life Magazine, April 30, 1965.
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