Living Legacy

Jiabao Li (Artist, Mom), Dr. Elizabeth Crouch (Neonatologist, Scientist, Mom), Dr. Jacqueline Parchem (Obstetrician, Scientist, Mom), Michael Bruner (Creative Technologist)

Interactive installation, 2026

Living Legacy addresses the silence surrounding maternal and neonatal health, where loss is often quietly endured and lives go unremembered. Maternal mortality in the U.S. far outstrips that of other developed countries. Many fetal and neonatal brain tissue sections used in scientific research are gifts from parents whose babies died due to pregnancy loss, termination for medical reasons, stillbirth, or preterm birth. While these slides may appear sterile in the lab—as mere images, stains, and numbers—behind every specimen is a life and a family’s unfinished story. We explore biologic memory through these donated tissues, insisting that scientific discovery should not require erasure.

In interviews conducted by Neonatologist Elizabeth Crouch, families describe donation as a way to make loving decisions and create meaning when time is short. For many, donation becomes one of the only available acts of care. It is a way to continue parenting their child and build a legacy when speaking openly about the loss feels impossible. These babies may not have lived long outside the womb, but that does not mean they never existed. Through this living archive of science and storytelling, their existence is preserved.

Instructions

Please sit down and take a breath. This installation holds space for the deeply personal experiences of neonatal loss and maternal grief; please engage with care. Place a baby brain slide under the microscope and put on the headphones. As you adjust the focus, the voices of bereaved mothers transition from muffled to clear. These audio excerpts are from 12 hours of research interviews. Watch the still cellular landscapes begin to swarm and flutter, animated by the cadence of each story.