Having been a good schoolboy, I remember the lessons of 10th grade health - including the mantra that alcohol consumption during pregnancy leads to Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. Apparently, this conventional wisdom was shared with the men so that we could continue to make choices on behalf of the women in our lives...
Anyway, the fact of the matter is that there is no research in the middle ground. The federal government knows that heavy alcohol consumption causes FAS, but doesn't know much on whether moderate or light consumption has any effect at all. And because pregnant women are a protected class of citizen under research rules, we're not likely to find out anything any time soon.
However, one might take note of the French, who drink wine in moderation during pregnancy and still seem to be doing fine (all jokes about Nazis and trees aside).
1 comment:
Hmm. I can't think of a situation where I would consider it ethical to test this hypothesis. It's likely that alcohol can bring no benefit to unborn children, so how can we ethically test whether it's harmful? Especially as the infant-to-be cannot provide informed consent!
I ran though an human subjects ethics course a few months ago. This is a problem that I think has a clear-cut answer, and we're doing the right thing.
Admittedly, this does not match up with my views on abortion. I don't care, though.
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