The Moral Significance of Birth

Does birth make a difference to the moral rights of the fetus /infant? Should it make a difference to its legal rights? Most contemporary philosophers believe that birth cannot make a difference to moral rights. If this is true, then it becomes difficult to justify either a moral or a legal distinction between late abortion and infanticide. I argue that the view that birth is irrelevant to moral rights rests upon two highly questionable assumptions about the theoretical foundations of moral rights. If we reject these assumptions, then we are free to take account of the contrasting biological and social relationships that make even relatively late abortion morally different from infanticide.     

对妊娠晚期畸形胎儿实施致死性引产的可行性分析

在妊娠晚期发现胎儿畸形,许多胎儿父母要求引产。一些患儿父母因为在医院引产出活体畸形婴儿而与医院产生纠纷。本文考虑采用医疗方法在引产前或引产中使胎儿心跳停止,确保引产出的胎儿为死婴（即致死性引产）以减少纠纷,利于社会。本文试图从医疗、伦理、法律的角度,探讨在胎儿父母要求下,对妊娠晚期畸形胎儿实施致死性引产的可行性。     

Prenatal SSRI exposure: Effects on later child development

The aim of this review is to integrate research on the pharmacological mechanisms of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and the following effects on fetal brain development and child cognitive function seen in children with prenatal exposure to SSRIs. As antidepressants are transferred from the mother to the fetus through the placenta, the fetus is vulnerable to alterations in neurotransmission and possibly altered neural functioning. Because of this risk, pregnant women suffering from depression are often advised to discontinue their use of antidepressants during pregnancy. Though, maternal untreated depression may also have negative consequences for the fetus and child after birth. In the present review, we find a distinction between studies of early versus late development. Studies on early cognitive development indicate no negative effects, while studies on later development report some cognitive difficulties and behavioral problems, indicating latent effects of exposure. However, the reviewed studies are not all converging, and it is not clear whether and to what extent prenatal SSRI exposure affects cognitive development.     

Fathers and fetuses

Harris postulates that in certain instances it would be morally impermissible for a woman to have an abortion because it would be a wrongful harm to the father and a violation of his autonomy. He constructs and analyzes five cases chosen to elucidate the moral issues involved and concludes that, for a man to lay claim to the fetus being his in a sense that the mother is obligated to respect, the fetus must be the result of his having pursued a legitimate interest in procreation in a morally legitimate way. When a man has satisfied the requirements of autonomy both for himself and for his sexual partner in regard to the interest in procreation, the woman has a prima facie obligation to him not to harm the fetus. Therefore, unless there is some contravening moral consideration that overrides this obligation, the abortion of the fetus is morally impermissible.     

探索产科领域的百慕大之谜

妊娠肝内胆汁淤积症(ICP)往往在妊娠晚期发生胎儿猝死,但机制尚不清楚.孕妇和胎儿体内高浓度胆汁酸水平是ICP的显著临床特点.胆汁酸对实验动物心肌细胞具有毒性作用.深入研究胆汁酸对胎儿心脏的毒性作用,有可能揭示胎儿死亡之谜.     

胎教音乐对胎儿影响的实验研究

该项研究从三个方面探讨了胎教音乐对胎儿的作用。结果发现：胎教音乐可以使胎动时间延长,并证明在胎儿后期即存在条件反射;胎儿出生后能够再认胎教音乐,说明在胎儿后期已经存在听觉记忆;胎儿的性别及神经活动类型是影响其对音乐反应的重要因素。该研究的意义在于：证明了胎儿期心理现象的存在。把对“胎儿期有无心理现象”的历史争论引入了心理学的实验过程。     

Abortion: identity and loss

The fetus is characterized as a "human organism" which, according to both the "stage" and "process" ontological theories, is a partly but not fully real individual human being. Abortion deprives the fetus of a future full-fledged human life, and this susceptibility to loss entitles it to certain moral rights, though not to the entire range of rights accorded a fully human being. Therefore, as the fetus becomes more fully human, the seriousness of abortion approaches that of infanticide.     

母亲-胎儿关系：概念、测量和影响因素

亲子关系并不仅仅始于出生之后,在怀孕期间孕妇就开始建立与胎儿的关系。母亲-胎儿关系是孕妇在怀孕期间对胎儿所产生的一种对胎儿的认知表征、投入的情感以及与胎儿的互动的关系,具有重要的理论与实践意义。目前用于测量母亲-胎儿关系水平的主要工具为母亲-胎儿依恋量表,母亲孕期依恋量表以及胚胎依恋量表。多种因素会对母亲-胎儿关系产生影响,主要包括孕妇年龄、文化等人口学因素,孕周、孕期检查等怀孕相关因素,以及人格特点、心理健康、社会支持等心理社会因素。未来研究要对研究方法进行整合、更多关注父亲-胎儿关系的发展特点,并尝试探索干预措施来提高这种亲子关系的质量。     

Abortion, Personhood and the Potential for Consciousness

The view that the fetus' potential for human consciousness confers upon it the right to life has been widely criticised on the basis that the notion of potentiality is so vague as to be meaningless, and on the basis that actual rights cannot be deduced from the mere potential for personhood. It has also been criticised, although less commonly, on the basis that it is not the potential to assume consciousness, but rather the potential to resume consciousness which is morally significant, and on the basis that the fetus does not really possess the potential for consciousness. In response, I argue that these criticisms are mistaken and that the potential for human consciousness is a sufficient condition not simply of potential, but actual, personhood. Since it possesses this potential from the moment of conception, the fetus should be considered an actual person from the moment of its conception.     

Pregnancy reduction in Jewish law

10% of infertile women who become pregnant with the aid of hormonal stimulation become pregnant with multiple fetuses. 20% of mothers of triplets experience preeclampsia and 35% risk serious postpartum hemorrhage. Risk increases with the number of fetuses for venous stasis, varicose veins, phlebothrombosis, thrombophlebitis, and embolic phenomena. Risk increases proportionally with increased number of fetuses for fetal morbidity and mortality. Selective abortion is often used as a method of reducing risk to both the woman and the fetuses, thus increasing the chance that 1 or 2 fetuses will be born healthy. A related issue is the selective reduction of fetuses in multiple pregnancies that may have a genetic defect like Hurler's syndrome, microcephaly, Tay-Sachs disease, spina bifida, hemophilia A, or thalassemia major. In cases where 1 fetus in a set of twins is so inclined, the reduction of the defective fetus increased the success of the remaining co-twin. Selective reduction should not pose a problem for Jewish women since the procedure does not violate any Jewish legal or moral rules. In Jewish law an unborn fetus is not considered a person until it is born. Until the 40th day of pregnancy it is considered as 'mere fluid.' In order to stress the positive aspect of selective reduction it should be called "enhanced survival of multifetal pregnancies."     

Reproductive ectogenesis: The third era of human reproduction and some moral consequences

In a well known story Derek Parfit describes a disconnection between two entities that normally (in real life) travel together through space and time, namely your personal identity consisting of both mind and body. Realising the possibility of separation, even if it might never happen in real life, new questions arise that cast doubt on old solutions. In human reproduction, in real life, at present the fetus spends approximately nine months inside the pregnant woman. But, we might envisage other possibilities. Historically, the first era is the normal conception inside the woman, the growth of the fetus in the womb and then, after nine months, birth and the appearance of a new individual. The second era is In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF). The fetus starts outside the woman as a fertilised egg, moves to the body of the woman and spends nine month there, where the body of the woman and the fetus travel together in space-time to separate at birth. In the third era of reproductive ectogenesis, the two never travel together. The fetus spends its gestational time entirely outside the woman’s body. We have two entities separated in space-time the whole time. The intimate connection consisting in the fetus being a part of the woman’s body is gone. In this paper I will briefly comment on the three eras of human reproduction — and primarily on the relationship between the new individual and the woman — and then spend some time with a fictional story illustrating some moral consequences of the third era. The story is from Pig Pharmaceuticals Limited and how they in the year 2050 report the successful development of pig-related pregnancies with transgenic pigs as surrogate mothers.     

Reproductive ectogenesis: The third era of human reproduction and some moral consequences

In a well known story Derek Parfit describes a disconnection between two entities that normally (in real life) travel together through space and time, namely your personal identity consisting of both mind and body. Realising the possibility of separation, even if it might never happen in real life, new questions arise that cast doubt on old solutions. In human reproduction, in real life, at present the fetus spends approximately nine months inside the pregnant woman. But, we might envisage other possibilities.Historically, the first era is the normal conception inside the woman, the growth of the fetus in the womb and then, after nine months, birth and the appearance of a new individual. The second era is In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF). The fetus starts outside the woman as a fertilised egg, moves to the body of the woman and spends nine month there, where the body of the woman and the fetus travel together in space-time to separate at birth. In the third era of reproductive ectogenesis, the two never travel together. The fetus spends its gestational time entirely outside the woman’s body. We have two entities separated in space-time the whole time. The intimate connection consisting in the fetus being a part of the woman’s body is gone.In this paper I will briefly comment on the three eras of human reproduction — and primarily on the relationship between the new individual and the woman — and then spend some time with a fictional story illustrating some moral consequences of the third era. The story is from Pig Pharmaceuticals Limited and how they in the year 2050 report the successful development of pig-related pregnancies with transgenic pigs as surrogate mothers.     

Sex differences in fetal habituation

There is some evidence for sex differences in habituation in the human fetus, but it is unknown whether this is due to differences in central processing (habituation) or in more peripheral processes, sensory or motor, involved in the response. This study examined whether the sex of the fetus influenced auditory habituation at 33 weeks of gestation, and whether this was due to differences in habituation or in the sensory or motor components using a set of four experiments. The first experiment found that female fetuses required significantly fewer stimulus presentations to habituate than males. The second experiment revealed no difference in the spontaneous motor behaviour of male and female fetuses. The third experiment examined auditory intensity thresholds for the stimuli used to habituate the fetus. No differences in thresholds were found between males and females, although there was inter-individual variability in thresholds. A final experiment, using stimuli individualized for that particular fetus' auditory intensity threshold, found that female fetuses habituated faster than males. In combination, the studies reveal that habituation in the human fetus is affected by sex and this is due to a difference in central 'information processing' of the stimuli rather than peripheral aspects of the response. It is argued that male and female fetuses present different neurobehavioural developmental trajectories, with females more advanced at 33 weeks than males. This study suggests that research examining prenatal behaviour should consider the factor of fetal sex. This may be particularly pertinent where there is an intention to use the results diagnostically.     

妊娠合并卵巢良性肿瘤的治疗进展

卵巢肿瘤是妊娠期较常见的并发症之一,以良性多见,其并发症发生率高于非妊娠期,孕妇常因并发症引起急腹症就诊,甚至危及母儿的生命,其治疗方式和处理时机与非妊娠期卵巢良性肿瘤明显不同。     

Two kinds of potentiality: a critique of McGinn on the ethics of abortion

In Moral Literacy, or How to Do the Right Thing , Colin McGinn proposes a consequentialist solution to the abortion dilemma. McGinn interprets moral rights and moral interests as attributable only to actually sentient beings by virtue of their ability to experience pleasure or pain. McGinn argues against the moral rights of potentially conscious human fetuses, on the grounds that the unjoined ova and spermatazoa of any fertile men and women are also potentially sentient, but we do not generally suppose that unjoined human genetic germ plasm has moral rights. I argue that McGinn's reply equivocates between two different senses of 'potential sentience'. I distinguish between strong and weak potentiality, or between naturally probable potentiality and merely logically possible potentiality . I agree that it is reasonable to deny that a weak or merely logically possible potentially sentient fetus that would result from any unjoined ovum and sperm has a moral right to life. But I claim that this fact does not diminish the plausibility of extending a moral right or potential moral right to life to a naturally probable potentially sentient fetus, which we have good reason to believe will actually become sentient in the natural course of things if nothing is done to prevent its normal development. I conclude that it is not merely the potentiality, but the strong potentiality of a healthy, normally developing fetus that is soon to acquire sentience, moral interests, and, on McGinn's own terms, a moral right to life, that continues to sustain the abortion contro-versy, even among those who also want respect a woman's moral right to reproductive self-determination.     

Abortion and the death of the fetus

Abortion is conceptualized as encompassing two aspects: ending the physical dependency relationship the fetus has to the mother, and terminating the life of the fetus. Analysis of the unique nature of the mother-fetus and mother-child relationship leads to the conclusion that both the act of abortion and the pregnant woman's decision to seek the death of the fetus can be logically justified.     

Abortion: A Jewish view

A practicing physician reviews the contribution of Jewish ethics, as it relates to the structure of Jewish law, to the issue of abortion. The topics approached include the status of the fetus, the relationship of fetus to mother, abortion and murder, therapeutic abortion, and the rights of the mother. The discussion describes rabbinic answers to abortion requests and is followed by a summary of the Jewish attitudes toward termination of fetal life. An appendix is provided, dealing with central aspects of Jewish ethics, the structure of Jewish law, their relationship, and a note on abortion legislation in Israel.     

Behavioral response of altricial and precocial rodent fetuses to acute umbilical cord compression.

Norway rat fetuses (Rattus norvegicus) exhibit a stereotypic behavioral response when the umbilical cord is experimentally compressed with a vascular clamp. In this study, the development of the fetal behavioral response to cord compression was compared in altricial and precocial rodents, which differ markedly in neural and motor maturity at the time of birth. Both altricial and precocial species showed some form of behavioral response to umbilical cord compression. Fetuses of two altricial species, Norway rats and Mongolian gerbils (Meriones unguiculatus), expressed hyperactivity in response to cord compression throughout the last third of gestation. In contrast, precocial cotton rats (Sigmodon hispidus) and spiny mice (Acomys cahirinus) did not respond to cord compression until relatively late in gestation. Thus, altricial and precocial species do not express the cord compression response during comparable periods of neural development: precocial species are much more mature at the earliest expression of this behavior than altricial species. These findings are consistent with the interpretation that the cord compression response is a behavioral adaptation that can promote survival of the fetus in utero.     

Sandra Day O'Connor and the justification of abortion

The recent Supreme Court decision upholding Roe v. Wade and in particular, the dissent by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, sheds new light on the issue of abortion. Let us consider any stage of a pregnancy when abortion is medically safe for the mother. If at that stage it is also medically viable to save the fetus, is an abortion performed at that stage of pregnancy morally justifiable? For example, if it is, or becomes, medically safe to perform abortions after first trimester of pregnancy and at the same time saving a fetus is, or becomes, medically viable or not unusual during some stage of the second trimester, can abortions during and after that stage of pregnancy be justified? With a number of qualifications I shall argue the thesis that as a general rule, but not an absolute rule, abortion in these instances is not usually justifiable. For if it is, then one will also have to grant the moral justification for a number of other highly questionable medical practices. This thesis is not to be identified with the stronger claim that abortions of viable fetuses can never be performed. There are surely exceptions such as when the life or health of the mother is in danger. But, I shall argue, the justification for making such exceptions is on different grounds than is sometimes claimed because one must weigh the health of the mother against the life of another human being.     

Abortion,Killing, and Maternal Moral Authority

A threat to women is obscured when we treat “abortion‐as‐evacuation'’ as equivalent to “abortion‐as‐killing.'’ This holds only if evacuating a fetus kills it. As technology advances, the equivalence will fail. Any feminist account of abortion that relies on the equivalence leaves moral room for women to be required to give up their fetuses to others when it fails. So an account of the justification of abortion‐as‐killing is needed that does not depend on the equivalence.