Another Baby Birth Streamed Live. Does This Cross A Line?

by editor on Feb.13, 2009, under TechCrunch

This isn’t the first time a guy tries to stream the birth of his child live on the internet (it happened on Ustream back in August 2007), and I’m confident it won’t be the last: Allan Branch yesterday streamed a minute of his wife’s c-section on live streaming site Qik, using a jailbroken iPhone. Right after the birth of his baby girl Sarah, she was even given her own Twitter account in addition.

The video is actually just of his wife’s head and part of the surgery room. It doesn’t show any of the actual surgery or even the baby. You can find the video on Qik here, but here’s the embedded clip:

Leaving aside the fact that Branch ignored the advice of the attending nurse, who asked him to turn it off (many hospitals prohibit any video taping in surgery rooms for malpractice reasons), doesn’t this make you cringe just a little bit? There’s no question that everyone has the right to determine how far he or she wants to go in sharing their private lives on the internet, but I imagine a lot of people will deem live streaming a child’s birth inappropriate. Are there no private moments left anymore?

Personally, I think the video doesn’t cross a line at all, although I can hardly think of anything more private and intimate than a child’s birth that could be streamed on the web. That said, thanks to Allan, who is a Rails developer, for letting us know and all the best for his family!

What do you think? Acceptable or opening up Pandora’s box?

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