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23 Weeks 6 Days

A tiny baby, born at 23 Weeks and 6 days—roughly halfway to full term. And a whole universe of medical and moral questions.
Duration
1h 6m
Broadcast on
11 Sep 2026
Audio Format
other

When Kelley Benham and her husband Tom French finally got pregnant, after many attempts and a good deal of technological help, everything was perfect. Until it wasn't. Their story raises questions that, until recently, no parent had to face… and that are still nearly impossible to answer.

This hour, which we first released in 2013, we spend the entire episode on the story of Kelley and Tom, whose daughter was born at 23 weeks and 6 days, roughly halfway to full term. Their story contains an entire universe of questions about the lines between life and death, reflex and will, and the confusing tug of war between two basic moral touchstones: doing no harm...and doing everything in our power to help. Kelley has written about her experience in a brilliant series of articles in the Tampa Bay Times. 

If you want to know more about what we talk about in the update tacked onto the end of this episode, check out the links below: 

Check out the book that Tom and Kelley wrote about Juniper here:

And when you're done listening to the episode, be sure to check out the video below--but be warned, it does contain spoilers. 

EPISODE CREDITS:
Reported by Jad Abumrad
Produced by Matt Kielty and Jad Abumrad
Update produced by Pat Walters and Anisa Vietze
with mixing help from Jeremy Bloom
 

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RIDILEB is supported by AT&T. We all love to connect via video calls or texts. Right now, at AT&T, you can get the new iPhone 18 Pro for $0 with iPhone trade-in. Any condition. It has the ultimate pro camera system and big leap in battery life, so you can turn this deal into a long-lasting connection. Learn how you can trade in your iPhone for the new iPhone 18 Pro requires trade-in of iPhone 14 or higher, excluding iPhone 16E, and eligible plan. Terms and restrictions apply, subject to change, visit an AT&T store for details. Hey, this is RIDILEB. I'm Pat Walters, one of the editors here, and this episode we're about to play is, well, it started as a newspaper story that a friend of mine, and actually one of my first editors in journalism, who wrote way back in 2012 for the Tampa Bay Times, and when I read it, it just destroyed me. And I sent it to Jad, and I was like, "You got to interview Kelly about this story." And he did, and the episode it became is still one of my favorite episodes of the show ever. And when we started talking about playing it again, I wondered, "How's everybody doing now?" All these years later. So I checked in, I really didn't know what to expect, and what we found was very moving. That's at the end. I hope you'll stick around and listen to it, but first, here's the original episode 23 weeks, six days. Kelly, can you hear me? Yeah. Okay, good. So we're just doing this because- Because that article you wrote was so beautiful. One of the most amazing things that we've ever read. Aw, thank you. Okay, I'm Jad Abomrod. I'm Robert Crowwich. This is Radio Lab, and today, a story about a decision. About a decision that we, as human beings, we've only recently begun to consider. Yeah. Sure, there are stories like this elsewhere, but somehow- Not too many. Yeah, maybe not. So we're going to devote the entire hour to just this one story, which I think is a first for us. And the story comes to us from a woman named Kelly Benham. Okay. She's a reporter for the Tampa Bay Times in Florida. Maybe the way to do this is chronologically just sort of across time. Where were you and who- What did you want to do? When I decided to have a baby? Yeah. Were you one of those people who ever since you were young, you knew that you would be a mom? Yeah, I did. But I wasn't like- I didn't play with a lot of dolls or babysit, but I always just kind

Transcription truncated.

A tiny baby, born at 23 Weeks and 6 days—roughly halfway to full term. And a whole universe of medical and moral questions.