Extraordinary pictures of a 12-week-old unborn baby wriggling his legs in the "stepping" motion characteristic of newborns triggered a debate on the ethics of abortion which no one predicted would take centre stage at a general election.
Prof Stuart Campbell, the ultrasound pioneer who captured the images, said yesterday he was "truly staggered" by their impact.
"I just wanted to educate couples about the development of a baby," he told The Daily Telegraph. The images were compiled for his book "Watch Me Grow!" for would-be parents. "It never entered my head that these pictures would have this effect, engendering a national debate on abortion, but seeing an 11-week-old foetus doing quite sophisticated things opened my own eyes to the fact that we did not know how rapidly the foetus developed," he said.
His pictures showed that at 12 weeks, unborn babies looked like they were "enjoying jumping...
