SHE was waxing poetic about the potential that this invention offered. You can go find HER post if you wish; I'm not linking to it.
Pregnant women are being given the chance to hold life-size models of their unborn babies, thanks to an invention that converts data from ultrasound and MRI scans.The comments that follow the news item range predictably enough, from zygote zealotry to the cynical contemplation of a niche market for yet another tchotchka associated to the breeding function.
This one got it:
Women already hold their unborn babies. How can you "hold" a child more intensely than you do in your womb? Why is it that we need to see a fetus to get a sense of it when it's inside us? - from Susanna, Berlin.Abortion criminalizers believe in the higher power of The Fetus©™, separate from a pregnant woman. This seems to be the pseudo-reality that fetus fetishists willfully choose to recognize. It suits their goal of ensuring legal control over The Fetus©™, often to the pregnant women's detriment.
And what's with the fetus fetishism? In anthropological terms, a fetish is a "man-made" object used in religious cults. Essentially, fetishism is the attribution of inherent value or powers to an object. That jibes with the zygote zealots view of the object of their obsession. Not of woman born. Unborn. Pre-born. Innocent because not yet contaminated by female naughty bits.
Why fetishism and not idolatry, then? The key difference is the degree of obsession. While zygote zealotry appears to be an all-encompassing financial, intellectual, emotional and religious concern for most abortion-criminalizers, it's a stretch to suggest that they worship the fetus. Intense spiritual focus is required along with attendant rituals, for fetishism to get kicked up to the level of idolatry.
While those repetitive images of The Fetus©™, juxtaposed with emotionally charged exhortations that are paraded outside Planned Parenthood clinics in the US could be construed as the manifestation of a primitive and savage religious cult, they are inspired by the ideological doctrine of fundamentalist monotheistic religions. This zygote/embryo/fetus obsession is not technically idolatrous.
Will anti-abortion priests officially bless the embryo effigies that devout fundamentalist Catholic couples bring to church? Some sort of ceremony that falls short of being a sacrament will be instituted no doubt.
Fern hill wrote about US FDA cautions regarding the effect ultrasonography could have on fetal brain development. Though seemingly endorsed by an obstetrician, Dr Lopes -the inventor - is neither a physician nor a medical doctor. He does seem eager to test the money-making potential of his invention in a Brazilian clinic.
How long would a fetus have to be exposed to this medically unnecessary procedure to create a 3-D model - long enough to cause irrevocable damage to its developing neurons? Sadly, fetishists like Blob Blogging Wingnut only care about how the object of their obsession - The Fetus©™ - can be used to further their political agenda.
2 comments:
Even more exciting, this technological break-through will allow you to take that same information and create a copy of your little buddy out of sugar! Not only can you hold your tadpole in your hand, you can eat the sticky little bugger too!
You're evul, Lindsay. What if Mary had done that with her baby Jesus fetus?
Then, instead of eating the-son-of-god lite by way of paper crackers, the faithful would have gorged themselves stupid on sugary embryo effigies.
Oh. Wait. Some of them would like that.
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