http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/04/05/nabor05.xml
Channel 4 defends plan to screen an abortion By Hugh Davies
(Filed: 05/04/2004)
Channel 4 is to screen an abortion in its entirety, three years after it said that pictures of the aftermath of one were "offensive to public feeling".The footage, lasting about five minutes, will be the first time that the procedure has been televised in Britain.
A London doctor is depicted adopting the manual "vacuum pump" method. The woman having the abortion is four weeks pregnant. Viewers will see the aborted foetus being placed on a petri dish.
Her abortion is to be accompanied by pictures of foetuses terminated at 10, 11 and 21 weeks - similar to the images that Channel 4 backed off from earlier. In addition, there will be an inspection of the aborted foetal remains of a seven-week pregnancy.
My Foetus is already provoking an outcry, with the Roman Catholic Church calling it "abhorrent".
A Channel 4 broadcast last year of an autopsy by Gunther von Hagens prompted hundreds of complaints. The Independent Television Commission rejected the complaints because the programme had "approached the limits of what is allowed" but had not exceeded them.
Mags Patten, a Channel 4 official, denied that My Foetus was part of a trend towards shock television. She said: "This is purposeful TV, opening up the debate on abortion."
Julia Black, who made the film, said last night: "The abortion debate in this country needs to be brought up to date. I think the pro-choice movement can no longer rely on just arguing abortion is a woman's right. They have to start engaging with the reality."
She filmed the abortion at the clinic founded by her father Ken Black, the Marie Stopes International in London.
Black, who had an abortion at 21, said that she believed "a pervasive silence" surrounded the physical reality of the procedure.
"Aborted foetuses from 10 weeks on look like tiny babies. Rationally, we know abortion ends the life of a potential human being but why, when we see what they look like, are we so shocked?
"I needed to be convinced that abortion is a morally legitimate procedure even after knowing what it involves, and I wanted to take viewers on the same journey."
Lord Winston, a pioneer in gynaecolological microsurgery, questioned whether, as he said of his own BBC programme that showed the moment of a man's death, My Foetus was "an absolutely valid TV exercise".
He recalled a similar furore that preceded his programme in the BBC's Human Body series.
"It is quite important for our society to be generally aware of death. The programme was roundly criticised before people saw it. Afterwards there was much praise and three Baftas."
During the 1997 and 2001 general elections, Channel 4, along with other broadcasters, refused to transmit images of aborted foetuses as part of the Pro-Life Alliance's party broadcasts. The channel said that the images breached regulatory guidelines on decency.
Channel 4 said its film, lasting 30 minutes, was a different type of broadcast as, apart from the abortion footage, individuals for and against the procedure were interviewed, along with doctors.
Jess Search, commissioning editor for the programme, said: "Part of Channel 4's purpose is to open up discussion in difficult territory, and I think My Foetus does that."
The film will be screened at 11pm on April 20
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Ignored One.