In the United Kingdom, Adelaide Caines only lived an hour after birth but her parents believe her short life made a huge difference.
As LifeNews previously reported, her parents, Emily and Alastair Caines, decided to publicly release a photo of 24-week-old Adelaide in hopes that it would reopen the debate on the legal limit for abortion, saying what they witnessed in their daughter’s short life “makes a mockery out of the 24 week legal limit.”
Emily said, “Our picture shows Adelaide was not a fetus she was a fully formed human being and to think that a baby like her could be legally terminated on grounds of a lifestyle choice is to me is horrifying.” She added, “Our daughter may not have lived long but she was still our daughter and we love to talk about her and celebrate her life. I hope this beautiful picture of my daughter being born helps change people’s perspectives.”
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Tragically, the couple lost a baby before Adelaide at 23-weeks; and both experiences made them uncomfortable with the legality of late abortion in the United Kingdom.
Emily said, “Isabelle was born at 23 weeks and called a miscarriage, and Adelaide was born one week later and called a neonatal death – but both my daughters looked exactly the same to me. We found the term miscarriage to be offensive. But what really hurt was knowing that this country permits babies like Adelaide and Isabelle to be terminated…We live in an age where the technology is available to keep a baby alive who is born at 23 or 24 weeks.”
She continued, “I know only too well we can’t keep all of them alive, but we can save some. So I think it’s wrong that babies can be aborted when they reach that stage. In my opinion, the limit should be lowered to 16 weeks, because four months is long enough to make up your mind if you want to keep the baby or not. A baby is a baby from the moment you see a blue line on the pregnancy test. I saw Adelaide and Lennox when they were embryos, because they were both conceived through IVF, and to me they were already babies at that very early stage.”
Unfortunately, doctors told the couple that it was unlikely that any child they conceived would survive because Emily’s cervix was short and could not hold a baby to term. However, in December, Emily gave birth to a son, Lennox, at 32-weeks at Southmead Hospital in Bristol.
After the birth Emily said, “Isabelle never cried and Adelaide’s cry was very weak but Lennox’s was like a lion’s roar. We just burst into tears because we finally believed he really was going to be OK. It was amazing. There were so many times when I thought, ‘I’m never going to be a mum, ever. It’s not meant to be.’ After Isabelle and Adelaide, we asked ourselves, are we going to put ourselves through this again? Are we going to put ourselves through potentially another loss?’ But we just had to give it another go. I just couldn’t give up.”
Emily concluded, “Even now I feel like Lennox is on loan because it feels too good to be true, that he is actually here. He is now 9lb 1oz, though, and doing great. He’s got some catching up to do, but he’s even started smiling.”
