Reaction to the photo "Handshake of Life"

There was a wonderful article recently in the Pittsburgh, PA "Post-Gazette" by a woman named Ruth Ann Dailey. In light of the amazing photo, dubbed "Handshake of Life" by many e-mailers, that has made the rounds online for years now, Dailey takes the time to ponder one of the most important questions of our day, how can we call our society a "moral" society?



"...it doesn't matter whether a fetus's hand reached out involuntarily or in thanks. It matters that doctors can successfully operate on a 21-week-old fetus with spina bifida -- or they can vacuum his brain and crush his skull to remove him from a woman's body.

It matters that the same scientific progress that's made a supremely unnatural act relatively safe also shows us -- in vivid, freeze-frame detail -- how unnecessary, how brutal and how personal that act is.

And it matters that we continue to question whether we can consider our nation "moral" when our laws enshrine such an act as a reasonable choice."

Read the article at: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05024/447098.stm