Moving the World.

I remember reading an essay once that described a well-known New York Times reporter and author as someone who was "tone deaf and loved her surety." When I first read this I thought he meant that she lacked, as it were, a sense of intellectual aesthetics.

In fact what he meant was something different, and far more devastating: "There is no room here for surprise, or poetry, or the challenge of a universe which is not the one you are most comfortable residing in."

At first blush this might seem a long way from the brutal pain experienced by unborn children during abortion, but bear with me. If you've read the stories beginning on pages eight and page 14, you are fully cognizant that pro-abortionists have commandeered the pages of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) to launch an offensive, not just against the best science as it relates to fetal pain, but against common sense and common decency as well.

The five authors would have you believe that unborn children cannot experience pain until after the 29th week. To the commonsensical responsepremature babies delivered at a much younger age give every physiological indication that THEY experience painthe naysayers say these children don't experience pain either! (Occasionally, some grudgingly concede they might, but then turn around to suggest that, aha, this proves that birth and subsequent life have a huge developmental impact. You can't win for losing with these people.)

When I first read this nonsense in JAMA, I immediately thought of a piece that had run in the August 14 New York Times Magazine titled "Second Womb." Paul Raeburn's extraordinary essay traced the pioneering work of Dr. Heidelise Als.

Dr. Als is convinced that, for the best of reasons and with unimpeachable motivations, Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs) unfortunately rarely treat preemies in a way that maximizes their chances of developing to their greatest potential. These babies are painfully poked, prodded, and continually awakened, none of which (while perfectly within the usual guidelines) helps the kids' intellectual and emotional development.

She told Raeburn these children's brains are "still under construction." That, I suspect, also refers to a host of other items, including forming emotional attachments.