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HWN Suggests

We are all mermaids in the womb. Sort of

In the mother's womb the fetus floats in a clear, slightly yellowish liquid that surrounds and protects it during pregnancy, allowing it to move and exercise muscles while suspended in its watery world. A spongy disc of tissue called the placenta, about eight inches in diameter and one inch thick, connects the fetus to the mother's uterus via the umbilical cord, delivering all the nutrients and oxygen the baby needs until birth. So how does a baby go from breathing underwater, mermaid-like, to taking its first gasp of air when it is born and thrust into a world?

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 Development of the fetus

The number of weeks associated with each stage (based on last menstrual period) is only an approximation and may differ from one woman to the next.

Articles of Interest

A Distinct Human Organism

The embryonic, fetal, infant, child and adolescent stages are stages of development of a determinate and enduring entity -- a human being -- who comes into existence as a zygote and develops by a gradual and gapless process into adulthood many years later.

Are Fetuses Human?

It is almost impossible in today’s world to be unaware with the controversy of abortion. Politicians, religious leaders and people and general all seem to have a very clear view on this topic; whether aborting an unborn fetus should be allowed. Supporters say that a woman should do what’s best for her body and the fetus has not been born yet, so one is not killing anything when getting an abortion. Opponents claim that no one has the right to kill a defenseless human and abortion should be illegal. But what exactly is a fetus? And is it human?

Born Wet, Human Babies Are 75 Percent Water. Then Comes The Drying

We are an assemblage of water packets, slightly salty, like the sea we came from. As Loren Eiseley put it, we're a "concentration" of water, "that indescribable and liquid brew which is compounded in varying proportions of salt and sun and time," and on the day we're born, we're at high tide. After that, very quietly, the sea within us ebbs and ebbs, and as it goes ... so do we.

Can fetuses feel pain?

Legal or clinical mandates to prevent pain in fetuses are based on limited evidence and may put women seeking abortion at unnecessary risk. This paper outlines neurodevelopment in fetuses in the context of pain experience.

Embryo/Fœtus

Scientific, technological and medical developments which involve intervention on the embryo or fetus continue to accelerate, raising ethical and legal questions.

Ethically speaking, is a fetus a person?

My aim is to provide an overview of just one subset of arguments: the personhood of the fetus. The strengths and weaknesses of two well-known personhood arguments will be considered. My central contention is that both ‘pro-life’ and ‘pro-choice’ concepts of personhood of a fetus lead us to conclusions that are difficult to accept.

Fetal Cells May Protect Mom From Disease Long After The Baby's Born

Back in the late 19th century, a German scientist named Georg Schmorl made a remarkable discovery: Cells from a baby can hide out in a mother's body, after birth. More than a hundred years later, scientists are just beginning to figure out what these cells are doing. And their findings may have implications for how cancer and autoimmune diseases affect women. But the discovery also means something else. Something that's a bit mind-boggling: You likely have cells from your older siblings in your body. And cells from your grandmother, maybe even your great-grandmother.

Fetal Development

There are three stages of fetal development: germinal, embryonic and fetal. Most people don’t talk about their pregnancy in these terms, but it can be helpful to know.

Fetal Development

The actual embryo or fetal age (also known as conceptual age) is the time elapsed from fertilization of the egg near the time of ovulation . However, because most women do not know when ovulation occurred, but do know when their last period began, the time elapsed since the first day of the last normal menstrual period , the menstrual age, is used to determine the age of a pregnancy. The menstrual age is also known as the gestational age.

Fetal tissue research is essential for scientific discovery and improving human health

Fetal tissue has been essential in research used to develop therapies that have saved millions of lives, and it continues to be necessary for the future of medicine.

If a Fetus Isn’t a Human Being, What Is It?

Let us restrict our question about the nature of the fetus to the science of human development in the womb, which has been understood reasonably well since the mid 19th century. The question at issue is this: When does human life begin? Note that we are not asking moral questions or even metaphysical questions per se. We’re asking about biology: when, from a biological perspective, does an individual human being first exist?

Leonardo's depiction of the Human Fetus

Leonardo's depiction of the fetus in the womb is one of many portions of his planned Treatise on Anatomy. The Treatise on Anatomy a work proposed by Da Vinci that would compile various anatomical sketches and medical ideas, it was never finished. The sketch of a human fetus in the womb was completed around 1511.

Scientists Create First Cloned Human Embryo

The process that created Dolly the sheep in 1996 has now been proven successful in humans.

Stages of Development of the Fetus

At the end of the 8th week after fertilization (10 weeks of pregnancy), the embryo is considered a fetus. During this stage, the structures that have already formed grow and develop.

The Not-so-Sterile Womb: Evidence That the Human Fetus Is Exposed to Bacteria Prior to Birth

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What Makes a Fetus a Person?

Without robust societal support of pregnant women and child-rearing families, too many women will be left to regard their unborn children as trespassers on their already taxed lives rather than unbidden gifts that open new horizons to them. These women need society’s utmost assistance — not abortion, or scorn.

When Does a Human Fetus Become Human?

The question of when human life begins stubbornly remains a central point of contention in the debate, now raging for half a century, regarding the ethics of abortion. The Supreme Court made its decision, but for many, it is far from a settled matter.

When Is a Royal Baby a Fetus?

Technically, right up until the moment he's born. And yet we've called him a baby the whole time. What media coverage of the recent pregnancy and birth has to do with abortion politics.