Bush turned against abortion after mum showed him 'dead foetus'

George bush has revealed that he turned against abortion and stem cell therapy the day his mother showed him a foetus in a jar, which was a result of miscarriage she had when Bush was a teenager.

In an interview the former President said Barbara Bush, former first lady of George H W regime, asked doctors to save the dead baby so she could show it to her son.

On a subsequent hospital visit she calmly motioned to the jar and told him, "Here's the foetus."

The astonishing episode left a huge impact on the young Bush and hardened his pro-life stance, causing him to lean further to the right on issue of abortion and stem cell therapy.

"There''s no question that affected me, a philosophy that we should respect life. There was a human life, a little brother or sister," the Daily Mail quoted him as saying.

He recalled his mother showed him the foetus while he was driving her to hospital for an appointment following the miscarriage.

Bush said that the episode was so sensitive he had to ask the permission of his mother to put it into his memoir, and she approved.