Word: sacs
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...unborn baby healthy, or does a defect destine it to an early death or a life of debilitating illness? In many cases the answers to these worrisome questions can be found in laboratory analysis of a small sample of the amniotic fluid drawn from the sac surrounding the baby in the womb. Using amniocentesis, as the technique is called, doctors can accurately predict serious disorders like Down's syndrome (mongolism) and Gaucher's disease (a metabolic disorder); faced with a grim certainty, prospective parents can opt for abortion. But amniocentesis has its limitations; it cannot foretell all defects...
...performed some 15 to 20 weeks into the pregnancy, is done under a local anesthetic. Doctors scan the woman with pulsed sound waves to locate the fetus, the umbilical cord and the placenta. After making a small incision in the abdomen, they insert into the uterus and the amniotic sac a pencil-lead-thin tube containing an endoscope with fiber-optic bundles that transmit light. This enables the physicians to see tiny areas of the fetus. By inserting biopsy forceps into the tube, doctors can take a 1-mm (.04 in.) skin sample from the fetus. They prefer to excise...