Word: fetus
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...Environmental. There are unfavorable factors in the embryo's uterine surroundings-some nutritional deficiency in the mother, drugs in her bloodstream crossing the placental barrier, or viruses infecting both mother and fetus...
...most cases, the only "remedy" is abortion. But sometimes it may be possible to contain an enzyme deficiency by altering the mother's diet. If the embryo is developing unnaturally because of faulty nutrition, it even may be possible to inject nutrients into the amniotic fluid, which the fetus absorbs...
...perhaps be discouraged from having children of their own. By inserting a needle through a woman's abdomen when she is 16 weeks pregnant and extracting fluid from the amniotic sac, doctors can determine if the unborn child will have Tay-Sachs disease. Cells shed by the developing fetus into the fluid will be analyzed for traces of HexA. If the enzyme is missing, doctors could advise an abortion that would save the parents from the heartbreak of having a doomed, Tay-Sachs child...
Storr summed up by stating that there is a critical transition between the "vegetative life of the fetus and the independent life of the infant, and consistent mothering is required to pass it unscarred...
Great Britain's historical opposition to abortion comes from both common and canon law. In 1803 Lord Ellenborough pushed through a bill to make abortion a crime punishable by death if performed after the fetus had "quickened." In 1837 Parliament revised the law, eliminating the death penalty, but in the process lost the distinction between abortion before and after quickening and consequently outlawed all abortion. A 1929 change made abortion illegal except to save the life of the pregnant woman...