Seton Hill University’s Respect Life Club will host photojournalist Michael Clancy on Friday, February 12, at 7:30 p.m. in Reeves Theatre, which is located on the University’s hilltop campus in Greensburg, Pa. This event is open to the public and there is no fee to attend. For more information, call 724-830-1030.

Clancy, a veteran freelance photographer of Nashville, Tenn., was hired by USA Today in 1999 to photograph a spina bifida corrective surgical procedure being performed on a 21 week old fetus in utero at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

According to Clancy, the entire procedure, which lasted one hour and 13 minutes, took place within the uterus and no part of the child was to breach the surgical opening.

“Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the uterus shake. It was shaking from within. Suddenly, an entire arm thrust out of the opening, then pulled back until just a little hand was showing,” says Clancy on his website. “The doctor reached over and lifted the hand, which reacted and squeezed the doctor’s finger.”

The mission of Seton Hill University’s Respect Life Club is to increase awareness of life issues by educating and promoting choices that uphold the dignity of human life in all of its stages.