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Is it Wrong to Abort a Person?
Published in Christopher Kaczor, The Ethics of Abortion, 2023
The intimacy argument begs an important question: Why should independent moral status require independent physical status? We don't think that one conjoined twin may licitly or legally authorize a third party to kill her conjoined sister in order to terminate their intimate relationship. Indeed, the intimate relationship that always exists in pregnancy is a powerful argument against abortion. Donald Marquis notes,All mammals have mothers. A fetus is a mammal. Therefore, a fetus has a mother. Only the pregnant woman qualifies to be the mother of the fetus within her. All mothers are parents. All parents (unless exceptional circumstances obtain) have serious, special duties of care to their children. (Think here of your reaction to deadbeat dads.) Therefore, all pregnant women have serious, special duties of care to their children. Fetuses are children. Therefore, all pregnant women have serious, special duties of care to their fetuses.(2010b, p. 56)
The Artificial Womb and the End of Abortion
Published in Nicholas Colgrove, Bruce P. Blackshaw, Daniel Rodger, Agency, Pregnancy and Persons, 2023
A man may become a father and yet lack the awareness that he is a father. After all, there are some men who get women pregnant but only learn that they are fathers years later when their son or daughter shows up on their doorstep. When does such a man’s fatherhood (whether he knows it or not) begin? As Don Marquis notes,All mammals have mothers. A fetus is a mammal. Therefore, a fetus has a mother. Only the pregnant woman qualifies to be the mother of the fetus within her. All mothers are parents. All parents (unless exceptional circumstances obtain) have serious, special duties of care to their children. (Think here of your reaction to deadbeat dads.) Therefore, all pregnant women have serious, special duties of care to their children. Fetuses are children. Therefore, all pregnant women have serious, special duties of care to their fetuses.(Marquis 2010, pp. 56–57)Common speech reflects the reality that parenthood begins prior to birth. Pregnant women are sometimes asked, “Who is the father?” Note that the question is in the present tense, rather than, “Who will be the father?” When a pregnancy begins, someone is the father who caused the pregnancy. And when someone is a father, someone else is a mother. Similarly, terms like surrogate mother, birth mother, and biological mother all indicate the reality that motherhood (like fatherhood) is not something that begins after birth, and this is true regardless of the self-conception of the men and women involved.
Fetal Development and Maternal Diet
Published in Praveen S. Goday, Cassandra L. S. Walia, Pediatric Nutrition for Dietitians, 2022
The gestational age from 22 to 24 weeks is considered a peri-viable period. The lower the gestational age (GA) at birth, the higher the risk of death and disability; survival at 22, 23, and 24 weeks GA is 23%, 33% and 57%, respectively. Among these survivors, the risk of moderate to severe disability at these gestational ages respectively is, 43%, 40%, and 28%. The fetus at 24 weeks weighs approximately 500 g. All of the essential organs have formed. The skin is characteristically wrinkled, and fat deposition begins. The head is still comparatively large, and eyebrows and eyelashes are usually recognizable. By 24 weeks, which is the end of the canalicular period of lung development, bronchi and bronchioles enlarge and alveolar ducts develop into terminal sacs. A fetus born at this time will attempt to breathe, but many will die despite active intervention because of poor gas exchange, infection, intraventricular hemorrhage, and other complications of prematurity.
The difficult process of autonomous choice: using I-poems to understand experiences of abortion-seekers in The Netherlands
Published in Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters, 2023
Lianne Holten, Rosalie van der Wolf, Marit S. G. van der Pijl
This fits in Beynon-Jones’ distinction of various “repertoires” used when speaking about pre-abortion ultrasound viewing from the perspective of the abortion-seeker. In the normative repertoire, ultrasound is a tool of maternal-fetal bonding. The personification of the fetus inherent in this discourse makes the ultrasound morally and emotionally laden and can be upsetting for the abortion-seeker. In the current study, abortion seekers spoke of not being a “hypocrite” and “taking responsibility” and feeling the obligation to see what they later would have removed. In this way, according to Beynon-Jones, the ultrasound can also represent “a means of articulating the loss, or ending, of a relationship – rather than signifying its beginning (p.711)”.28 The other repertoire is one of medical objectification in which ultrasound can be seen as a tool of fetal de-personification. Herein the ultrasound is used as a medical assessment that helps to facilitate the ending of pregnancy and as evidence that the embryo is developmentally and morally insignificant. The participants in this study spoke of the relief of seeing only “a little circle” or a “little bean”. Being aware of which repertoire abortion seekers use could help reduce anxiety by meeting individual needs concerning pre-abortion ultrasound.
The Ethical and Legal Status of ‘Fetonates’ Or ‘Gestatelings’
Published in The American Journal of Bioethics, 2023
“Fetonate” might be thought useful from a clinical perspective because it could be more “recognizable to putative parents” in utilizing and adapting language within our existing vocabulary (Segers and Romanis 2022, 2213). But I would suggest that “fetonate” is actually confusing in layperson’s terms. The connotation of “fetus” is that the entity is part of a pregnant person and of “neonate” is that it is a separate entity that can be touched/held and interacted with in other ways. Combining the two terms is oxymoronic. Thus, confusing rather than useful in explaining what the entity is/what state it is in. A unique term plays an important “role in appropriately managing expectations” (Segers and Romanis 2022, 2213). An oxymoron does not help with this objective: it does not clarify for putative parents what their product of reproduction is, how it will look/behave, and how they can interact with it.
The Role of Insulin-like Growth Factor-Axis and Mitotic Index in South Indian Neonates with Small for Gestational Age
Published in Fetal and Pediatric Pathology, 2023
Nithya M. N., Krishnappa J., Sheela S. R., Venkateswarlu Raavi
Development of the fetus is an important stage during gestation where the interaction between fetal, placental, maternal, growth factors, nutrition, hormones, environmental, and genetic factors determine the outcome of pregnancy [2]. The imbalance in any of those factors might result in low birth weight/SGA, which is a major problem in developing countries. The importance of the GH/IGF-axis in fetal growth and SGA has been proven by gene knockout studies in animals [26]. Recent studies reveal that there are contrasting results and the impact of nutrition, environment, and genetic makeup on low birth weights and SGA. To determine if there were any differences in the levels of IGF-axis components and mitotic index in SGA and AGA neonates of the south Indian population, we measured the levels of IGF1, IGF2, and IGFBP3 proteins and mitotic index in cord blood, and IGFR1 and IGFR2 mRNA expression in the placenta of AGA and SGA neonates.