Results: Cleveland Clinic Performs First In Utero Surgery

A multispecialty team of clinicians performed the surgery in February, and the baby, a girl, was later delivered by caesarean section near full term June 3, making it northern Ohio's first surgery of its kind. Mother and daughter are doing well. Did you know it was possible to perform surgery on infants before their birth - in utero - in order to correct certain medical issues?

Spina bifida is a birth defect that is most often discovered during the routine anatomy scan typically performed when a fetus is around 18 weeks old. The condition affects the lowest part of the spine and occurs when the neural tube does not fully close, causing the backbone that protects the spinal cord not to form as it should. This often results in damage to the spinal cord and nerves and can even lead to brain damage. Many children have been aborted because of the discovery of spina bifida in utero. Do you think it is good that successful surgeries can be performed that might eliminate the mother's desire to abort her child?

Do you or do you know someone who has spina bifida?

Fetal surgery for the birth defect is currently an option for parents in about 20 hospitals in North America after becoming clinically accepted in 2011. Prior to 2011, there were only four fetal surgery centers in the world. Cass was the director of one of them. Do you appreciate that the number of facilities that can sucessfully perform in utero surgeries to correct spina bifida are increasing?

If you watch the video, an animation clearly depicts what is taking place to repair the baby's compromised spinal cord. This took place at 23 weeks, in this case (when many abortions are performed). Obviously the baby is not just a "bundle of cells" or an "insentient mass inside the mother", as many claim to justify the killing of the child. Does the fact that surgeries like this can be performed on babies still in the womb make a case for the brutality (& unnecessity) of abortion?