Word: fetus
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...capture an embryonic stem cell, scientists must find an embryo, or blastocyst (from umbilical cord tissue, a frozen sample from a fertility clinic, an aborted fetus, or, most controversially, from a cloned specimen) ideally a few days after fertilization. Researchers then extract stem cells from the blastocyst, and, they hope, use those blank slates to create new, potentially curative, cells...
...some people oppose stem-cell research because they believe human life begins at conception. But you don't have to believe that to be apprehensive that stem-cell research may legitimize the mechanization of life, the making of the human fetus into the ultimate guinea pig. People are horrified when a virgin hill is strip-mined for coal; how can they be unmoved when a human embryo is created solely to be strip-mined for its parts...
What next? Today a blastocyst is created for harvesting. Tomorrow, researchers may find that a five-month-old fetus with a discernible human appearance, suspended in an artificial placenta, may be the source of even more promising body parts. At what point do we draw the line...
...France's highest court of appeal, the Cour de Cessation, has reproduced the self-cancelling black box as law. It has ruled that disabled children are entitled to be compensated if their mothers were not given a chance to abort the defective fetus. It has decided in favor of the families of three children-one with a malformed spine, two born with only one arm-whose lawyers argued that if doctors had detected the fetuses' disabilities, they would have had the pregnancies terminated...
...sonogram, will advise: Abort. Perfect children are mandated by law. Parents will be considered irresponsible if they bring forth a specimen less than perfect. Think of the charming effect this decision would have if it were applied in those many countries around the world where a fetus that turns up with a vagina rather than a penis is considered to be defective...