Then and now: “Hand of Hope” photographer and Baby Samuel
A highlight of Monday’s ProLifeCon was photographer Michael Clancy explaining how his famous “Hand of Hope” photo of 21-week-old baby Samuel Armas came to happen in 1999, followed by now 12-yr-old Samuel and his mom Julie sharing their end of the story.
Michael and Samuel only get to see each other every 3-4 years, so that Family Research Council was able to bring them together was special for all. Here’s a photo I snapped…
Michael has written a book, Hand of Hope, about his experience, available here.
Jan.25, 2012 11:22 am |
Inconsistencies, Pregnancy |
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
Where is Duck???
I love both photos. AWESOME!!!! Praise God for life. Isn’t is GREAT to be pro-life? No to death and destruction of the unborn. “Choose life”.
It’s just the most PRECIOUS photo! It’s as if baby Samuel were saying “Thank you for taking care of me.”
I hope all the pro-abortion folks on this blog see this picture.
If 21-week-old unborn Samuel is not human, what is it? A “blob” of cells?
Marvelous picture! Praise God!
That’s a pretty awesome picture, but I really wish that photographer would stop saying that the baby reached out and grabbed his hand. The surgeon said that the baby was sedated and was unable to do so, the hand fell out when he was positioning the baby in the womb. Regardless, that hand is obviously a tiny human, can’t see who could deny it.
i have seen this pic before. wow! doctors dont kill.
Beautiful.
Thanks for the update on Samuel- glad he continues to do well!!
Those who support abortion are curiously silent…
Maybe Megan will find a reason to tie in something wrong with prolifers in this story? Could CC use anything here to launch into a random bit of Catholic bashing? Will Doug make a random humorous quip of some sort? Reality is out of mantras when faced with this, I guess?!?
C’mon Choicers!!! Tell us all how Samuel could have been killed when he was a fetus this age, and how it would have been fine, empowering, the best thing, his Mom’s right, etc. Look at the picture and tell us- proudly- it wouldn’t have been murder to abort Samuel.
Matt Drudge had his tv show canceled in the early years of the Fox News Channel for showing the famous photo.
Odd that some can find life to be as scary as death.
Hans Johnson says: “Odd that some can find life to be as scary as death.”
Hans I agree with you. We got to the extreme that paradoxically defending Life publically (especially in the media) is NOT tolerable. I was reading a blog yesterday from LiveAction mentioning that, according to a recent poll, only a minute percent (something like 1-3 %) of journalist in big media disapprove of abortion. That’s very revealing!
Also, Mary Ann, I think that pro-abortion folks on this blog will have really hard time getting around this picture. What argument can they use?
As the say goes “a picture is worth 1,000 words”. I think this photo should be almost a pro-life logo.
I should add something to my previous comment. This photograph of a tiny hand reaching out of the womb is EXTRAORDINARY. It is truly unforgettable.
I guess Duck would have to be consistent and say that Samuel hadn’t entered into the “community of humans” yet so mom should still be allowed to snuff Samuel out.
My husband and I were honored to meet Michael Clancy after he spoke at a prolife event in Wisconsin recently.
What a life-affirming story we heard by a courageous and humble disciple of Christ.
Though I agree the photo is stunning and well done it shouldn’t be said that the fetus was “gripping the doctors hand”. He wasn’t, he was sedated and the hand flopped out. a fetus has it’s hand shaped in a closed position in the womb and it fell on the doctors finger. Again I agree the photo is moving, and glad the mother attempted a risky surgery and the boy seems healthy today. This does nothing for me as a pro-choice person. That mother made a choice to keep her child, and a choice to have a risky surgery, she still made a choice. Plus that banner that says “ten week old fetus” they do know that is a quarter with two hands on it right? is that supposed to be shocking?