In a remarkable advance in foetal medicine, a baby in the UK was removed from its mother’s womb for an operation and then put safely back in afterwards so it could continue with its nine-month gestation.

The child had been diagnosed with spina bifida after a routine 20 week scan and its mother, Bethan Simpson, chose the innovative surgery to repair the problem after refusing an abortion.

Spina bifida should not be not a death sentence, she told reporters, adding that the child has the same potential as every one of us.

In the UK, up to 80% of children diagnosed with spina bifida are aborted.

The case also raises serious jurisprudential issues regarding the status of the unborn child. In some countries, legal rights are not conferred upon the child until it is born: but what then of a child that is taken from its womb and then put back?