If a pregnant woman drinks two glasses of wine every day during her third trimester...?
Well, it could kill the baby so I suppose that would affect both... But as the face will be fully formed by then, it will affect the childs brain function first. The baby will likely be born with foetal alcohol syndrome. Any woman that does this should have their baby taken away from them right after birth as the problems with drinking during pregnancy are VERY widely known and there is no excuse for that kind of ignorance.
How does alcohol damage a baby during pregnancy?
To clarify, again: I don't care about all the things wrong with the baby after it's born. I know all those things already. I wanna know what's happening to the fetus when exposed to alcohol. How does the alcohol interfere with development? Show me your biochem skills. I've learned the word apoptosis so far, who else is gonna come up with a big word for me?
Should pregnant women be reprimanded for endangering their unborn children?
The answer is no. A balanced, free society is one which recognises that the individual has ethical capacity to act in their own best interests. In this case, a pregnant woman may decide that smoking and drinking while pregnant are in her own best interests. She should be free to make that choice, provided she is given the information that it is harmful to her and her baby (and in our society no pregnant woman could possibly plead that she didn't know it was harmful!).If she chooses that the advantages of smoking and drinking while pregnant outweigh those harms, then we respect her choice, even if we don't agree with it, and we accept that she is not acting out of malice to the baby, but self-interest. It's a bit like freedom of speech. Freedom of speech sounds great, until we realise it means that people are free to disagree with us. If we really support freedom of speech, we must support equally the right to freedom of speech for those who oppose us. Just as with freedom of speech, our recourse is to discussion and debate to encourage others to agree with us, not laws or rules. In countries where the choices of people are dictated by the state, civil liberties are severely curtailed, and quality of life is very much the poorer for it. Laws about clothing, diet, religious observance, personal association, sexual behaviour, political affiliation and other forms of expression are extremely unpleasant for most people.
I am pro choice but I am against third trimester abortion. Is this valid?
Actually, no, it’s not valid and I will tell you why. The “third trimester” is not some magical moment in which at 29 weeks, the fetus…the baby is suddenly “human” and worthy of saving. So one week earlier, at 28 weeks, it’s still a clump of cells and then in one week you afford it “personhood”? Trimesters are simply a way of quantifying and staging fetal development in a nice 3 part system. There aren’t magic doorways to personhood or humanity at 14 weeks or 28 weeks.I do appreciate your efforts at developing a line you can’t in good conscience support crossing. You’re getting there.If women could see the humanness (and adorableness!) of that little “peanut” with a newly developed flickering heartbeat only 4 weeks after conception (6 weeks GA), abortion would be off the table for most of them. I am honored to see these little innocent humans at every stage of development. I love them. Whenever I see that flicker of a newly developed human heart, I am excited for that new little soul, a life!As a technologist doing an ultrasound at that early stage, I can tell the moms who are considering abortion. They look away from the screen during the exam. It breaks my heart because just that fact tells me that deep down, they know it’s a beating heart and a human life. And not just any human life, but their baby. Not looking at the screen is simply denial. Whether she looks or not, that heart is still beating.
What's the side effect of drinking alcohol while your pregnant?
Depends how much alcohol you are talking about. An occasional single drink appears to have no negative effects on mother or baby. Heavy and/or regular use can lead to Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders, which can range from mild issues with attention or decisionmaking, to full-blown FAS, with severe mental retardation and damage to the facial and cranial bones. (In the U.S. they recommend abstaining completely during pregnancy. In most other countries, light/occasional use is accepted.)