with the Rev KEVIN LOGAN, of Christ Church, Accrington. . .

THE tiny hand of Samuel Alexandra Armas pops out of his mother's womb to grasp the hand of the surgeon operating on him - 14 weeks before he is born.

This is shown in an amazing picture sent to me this week.

Sam was a 21-week-old foetus destined to die from spina biffida unless surgeon Joseph Bruner could save him.

In a breakthrough procedure, Dr Bruner removed the uterus via a C-section and made a small incision to operate on baby Sam.

Mum Julie Armas said they "wept for days" when they saw the picture, adding: "The photo reminds us that my pregnancy isn't about disability or an illness, it's about a little person."

The news accompanying the picture is that Sam has now been born in perfect health and is thriving in Nashville, Tennessee.

Stories like this are turning the 'it' in mum's tummy into a 'he/she'.

New imaging techniques are also revealing fully-formed little people as young as 12 weeks walking and swimming in their embryonic worlds.

In the last two years we've learned to save babies born prematurely at 22 weeks, thus causing a massive dilemma.

About 1,300 of the 176,000 unborn children we will abort will be aged between 22 and 24 weeks old.

Hence, the Lancashire Evening Telegraph's report earlier this week on MPs' plans for a rethink on our abortion laws.

I'm writing to my MP this weekend for the sake of the other tiny little Sams of this world.

Care to join me?