Word: fetal
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From a medical standpoint, there are two problems with very late childbearing: health risks to the fetus and to the mother. After age 40, the risk of fetal abnormalities is substantial: the incidence of Down syndrome, for example, rises to 1 in 40 live births. (Using donated eggs from a young woman presumably reduces the risk.) The mother meanwhile faces increased risks of diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure and other complications of pregnancy -- all of which can harm the unborn child. These problems are usually manageable, however, if the woman's health is generally good...
...that sounds will somehow influence the fetus in their womb, zealous moms-to-be have attended classical concerts or kept tunes playing constantly at home. Now there is an updated, high-tech version of that technique: a contraption that delivers complex sonic patterns to unborn children, to excite the fetal nervous system and exercise the baby's brain...
...Bowing to the demands of pro-lifers, the Bush Administration continued a ban on federal funding for fetal-cell transplants, despite the fact that the use of such tissue has shown promising results in treating Parkinson's disease and other disorders. Frustrated U.S. researchers watched helplessly as their European counterparts moved ahead on medical applications of fetal tissue...
This is not the first time the Bush Administration has run afoul of doctors. Two years ago, Louis Sullivan, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, angered medical researchers by extending a Reagan-era ban on federal funding for experiments involving fetal-tissue transplants, an important field that shows promise for treating many human disorders, including diabetes and Parkinson's disease. Ignoring the recommendations of a scientific panel, Sullivan argued that encouraging fetal-tissue research would lead to more abortions. A measure that would overturn the ban passed the House last week by nearly enough votes to override a Presidential...
Would a victory for the doctors signal a new era of medical activism? Probably not. It is possible that the coalition whipped up to defeat the gag rule could strengthen efforts to revise the Medicare schedule or liberalize fetal-tissue research, but neither of those issues generates the same kind of deep emotions. Most doctors would prefer to leave politics to the politicians, if they would just leave medical decisions to physicians and their patients...