Is BONES Going Pro-Life? Episode 4-2

     Dr. Brennan’s pregnancy creates a sub-plot where she has an ultrasound and doesn’t see the need to mention it to baby’s daddy, agent Booth. Well, daddy gets upset at being left out, which creates an opportunity for some Hollywood-style reconciliation. Surprisingly enough, this crime drama somehow manages to inject sound relationship advice into the script when Bones suggests that she walk for a while in Booth’s shoes—which surprised the heck out of me, considering the program’s track record of liberal claptrap.

     When Bones finally produces a still image taken from the ultrasound video, Booth grabs it under the pretense of wanting to study the baby’s development, and it winds up just inside one of his desk drawers where he can “study” it often. By the final scene, Booth and Bones watch the video together, completely in awe of the fetal work-in-progress. In all this, they never refer to the baby as a fetus, but as a baby or a little girl.

     So, what makes this baby so special that she is a little girl, and not a fetus? Just one thing: She is wanted! Biologically and anatomically identical to millions of terminated fetuses, her value lies in her parents’ intention, and not in her budding human life. If the show’s plot had involved a bald eagle’s egg, a fetal grizzly bear, or any other endangered species’ progeny, its ultimate value would have been assumed, but this was a human, pre-born baby, and everyone knows they’re expendable at a whim.