GE Ad Draws Rave Reviews

New Dimensions in Ultrasound Technology Add Motion, Touch

By Liz Townsend

Since the 1960s, expectant parents have been able to see their unborn babies through ultrasound, the technology that bounces sound waves off the child, which a computer translates into images. For years, however, "baby's first picture" was so blurry it was nearly impossible for a layperson to interpret.

But recent developments -- 3D and 4D ultrasound -- are bringing the secret world of the unborn baby into much sharper focus, adding new dimensions such as movement and even "touch" to produce images of a vibrant human being that demolish the pro-abortion lie that the preborn are just "blobs of tissue."

Traditionally, ultrasound images are seen on a monitor screen as two-dimensional pictures. 3D ultrasound enters two-dimensional data into a computer, which reconstructs them as three-dimensional images characterized by depth and clarity.

Now, GE Medical Systems has developed what it calls a 4D ultrasound system, known as the Voluson 730, which you may have seen advertised on television. The system allows physicians (and parents!) to view continuously updated three-dimensional ultrasound images, which essentially show the baby's movements in "real time." It is like seeing a photo, only better.

The GE web site includes testimonials from doctors and parents who have used the Voluson 730. "The quality was amazing," Michelle Tooms of Mansfield, Texas, told the company. "I even think I saw him smile. The images made me feel close to my baby. It actually made me cry!"

Such an experience is portrayed in a moving television commercial advertising the system. While the song "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" plays in the background, the camera focuses on a woman with a look of wonder and joy.

Suddenly we see the beautiful, moving image of her baby's face and hand on an ultrasound screen. She is joined by her husband who is also watching the screen with awe.

As he lays his wedding-ring-clad fingers on his wife's hand, which is resting lovingly on her belly, the announcer says, "When you see your baby for the first time on the GE 4D ultrasound system, it really is a miracle." The baby's ultrasound image then fades into her newborn face, as the baby is resting between her parents.

To pro-lifers, the ad is a remarkable expression of the humanity of the unborn baby, seen through the loving eyes of her mother and father. The juxtaposition of the unborn baby's image with the baby after birth is a strikingly clear statement of the basis of the pro-life movement: the unborn baby is as much a person as you and me.

GE's aim is to allow images from inside the body to be more completely analyzed, and thus enable the view of the unborn baby to be more accurate.

"It's like in real life," GE Medical Systems marketing manager Jeff Peiffer told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "You get a much better view of a person in three dimensions compared to a two-dimensional photograph."

The addition of movement to the images gives a complete vision of the baby, since doctors can then see how he is reacting in his environment.

"That is what's brand new here," Peiffer told the Journal Sentinel. "We are just on the cusp of what technology can offer."

Taking GE's system one step further, New Mexico-based Novint Technologies has added the sense of touch. Using a special computer mouse that transmits electrical currents, a person can trace the unborn baby's image and feel different textures and contours with the use of e-Touch computer software.

"It feels a bit squishy . . . similar to skin," Novint founder Tom Anderson told Reuters. "You can feel along the surface and feel a little bit of pressure and contour. You can actually see what the baby looks like much more clearly."

In a Novint press release, Anderson described how he has used the technology to "touch" his own unborn child.

"I have touched my son's cheek, and he is not born yet! It was such an incredible moment to touch him for the first time -- I remember the experience clearly and will never forget it," Anderson said. "I know what my son's face looks like, and I have spent hours already touching his nose and lips and face, discovering all of his features."

Touch adds yet another level of diagnosing ability for doctors, and also brings the reality of their baby's life to the parents.

"This is an exciting tool that not only gives parents the first glimpse of their child, but also the life-like contact which enables bonding with their child," Anderson said. "The real importance is that the ability to touch may aid early diagnosis of medical problems. Previously, neither parents nor the medical community have had such hands-on interaction with a fetus in utero."

Such remarkable developments have only become possible now that computers can process data quickly and store more information. Beyond obstetrics, the new ultrasound technology can also be used to diagnose breast tumors and other soft-tissue injuries, and many hospitals and medical centers have already purchased GE's 4D system. But perhaps its most lasting contribution will be to make the clear vision of a moving unborn baby a common sight, and the idea that a preborn child is less than human a discarded relic of a great lie.