When Shakina Rajendram’s micro preemie twins were born on March 4, 2022, they were so tiny they fit in the palm of her hand. Her daughter weighed about 11 ounces, less than a soda can, and her son weighed about 14 ounces. Rajendram had been pregnant for about five months when she went into labor, and she and her husband, Kevin Nadarajah, were told to prepare for the worst, that the twins might not survive.
“Doctors said if they did survive the delivery, we should be prepared for them to have significant disabilities,” said Rajendram, of Ajax, Canada, near Toronto. “We were told they might never walk or talk or breathe independently.”
One year later, Rajendram, 36, said two happy babies are proof that their instincts were right.
The present splendid functioning of the twins affirms the fact that, tiny as they were, these two little babies are human beings. They were demonstrably viable at an exceedingly low birth weight. Can an unborn child be too small to be considered human? Would humans lose their humanity if they got smaller? An example from a children's book makes a great point.
In Dr. Seuss's children's book Horton Hears a Who! (1954), Horton the Elephant hears a small speck of dust talking to him. The speck of dust is actually a minuscule planet populated by microscopic creatures known as "Whos." Horton, thanks to his large elephant ears, is able to hear the "Mayor of the Whos" quite well and agrees to protect the Whos from harm. "After all," Horton proclaims throughout the book, "a person's a person, no matter how small." The point here is more philosophical than biological. Size is relative, and it is prejudicial to assume that being too small is a disqualification for being a person.
