Fetuses and Embryos
- LAST REVIEWED: 28 April 2017
- LAST MODIFIED: 27 March 2014
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199791231-0107
- LAST REVIEWED: 28 April 2017
- LAST MODIFIED: 27 March 2014
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199791231-0107
Introduction
In the non-medical/scientific publications, the human organism prior to birth generally is referred to as a fetus, but it is important to recognize that technically the term “fetus” actually only refers to the human organism from roughly the tenth week of gestation onward. Prior to that gestational age, terms, such embryo and zygote, are technically correct. However, in this article we will follow the convention of using fetus as an all-compassing term referring to the human organism at all stages of gestation. There are many possible avenues for the research that seeks to study the fetus. Beyond the foundational medical and technological developments, the researcher can explore many of the social, legal, and ethical questions surrounding the place of the fetus in modern society. With the advances in reproductive technology, what is the place of the physically or intellectually disabled fetus in society? Quality of life assessments and genetic counseling can help to inform the parents of their options under such circumstances, but the decision to keep or abort the fetus remains theirs alone to make. How does one define the beginning of personhood? At what point––fertilization, conception, some point during the pregnancy (such as viability) or birth––does the fetus take on personhood? Scholars, trained in medical ethics, religious thought, and philosophy, have engaged in extensive debates over this issue, but without reaching a consensus. One of the most perplexing questions is the relationship between the fetus and the woman. What is the woman’s responsibility to the fetus? How can women preserve their independence and autonomy? Legal commentaries are extensive on such questions. How can the state balance its requirements to protect the autonomy and equality of the woman with its interests in protecting future and potential life? Other researchers examine the influence of the fetus on modern culture, particularly the influence of the sonogram and fetal imagery on societal perceptions of the fetus in the womb. Although the issues of abortion and stem cell research have tended to dominate public discourse, there are other important legal and policy concerns. These include issues such as prenatal substance abuse, disability rights, and sex-selective abortion. The final section of this bibliography provides a list of a number of abortion/women’s rights–related protest and advocacy organizations. A number of them produce original research and policy analysis. Others emphasize public education and public protest. Many are involved in the electoral, legislative, and judicial processes. As will be evident in the entries that follow, medical and technological advances have reopened questions as to the meaning of embryonic and fetal life and its relationship to childhood.
Medical and Scientific
A good place to start is with an understanding of the biological development of the human organism prior to birth. There are a number of medical text and reference books that provide a detailed description of the growth and development process. These books range from a general coverage of the topic to specific elements of development and care. There also are a number of journals that cover areas of interest in obstetrics. Some of the newest topics in obstetric medicine include prenatal and genetic testing and the adverse effects of drug interactions. Many recent studies are focused on devising new, non-invasive tests to check the fetus for genetic disorders. Current tests, such as amniocentesis, are invasive and carry a number of risks for both the fetus and woman. In connection with this is the expanding field of testing for genetic disorders. These medical journals are full of articles that address testing for specific disorders. For the sake of broad coverage, this list includes articles with more general discussion. While these sources provide a good starting point, it should also be noted that medical science is a rapidly evolving field.
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Article
- Abduction of Children
- Aboriginal Childhoods
- Addams, Jane
- ADHD, Sociological Perspectives on
- Adolescence and Youth
- Adolescent Consent to Medical Treatment
- Adoption and Fostering
- Adoption and Fostering, History of Cross-Country
- Advertising and Marketing, Psychological Approaches to
- Advertising and Marketing, Sociocultural Approaches to
- Africa, Children and Young People in
- African American Children and Childhood
- After-school Hours and Activities
- Animals, Children and
- Animations, Comic Books, and Manga
- Anthropology of Childhood
- Archaeology of Childhood
- Ariès, Philippe
- Attachment in Children and Adolescents
- Australia, History of Adoption and Fostering in
- Australian Indigenous Contexts and Childhood Experiences
- Autism, Females and
- Autism, Medical Model Perspectives on
- Bereavement
- Best Interest of the Child
- Bioarchaeology of Childhood
- Body, Children and the
- Body Image
- Boy Scouts/Girl Guides
- Breastfeeding
- Bronfenbrenner, Urie
- Bruner, Jerome
- Buddhist Views of Childhood
- Byzantine Childhoods
- Child Beauty Pageants
- Child Homelessness
- Child Protection
- Child Public Health
- Child Trafficking and Slavery
- Childcare Manuals
- Childhood and Borders
- Childhood as Discourse
- Children and Film-Making
- Children and Money
- Children and Social Media
- Children and Sustainable Cities
- Children as Language Brokers
- Children as Perpetrators of Crime
- Children in the Industrial Revolution
- Children with Autism in a Brazilian Context
- Children, Young People, and Architecture
- Children's Humor
- Children’s Museums
- Children’s Reading Development and Instruction
- Children's Views of Childhood
- China, Japan, and Korea
- China’s One Child Policy
- Citizenship
- Civil Rights Movement and Desegregation
- Class
- Classical World, Children in the
- Clothes and Costume, Children’s
- Colonization and Nationalism
- Common World Childhoods
- Competitiveness, Children and
- Congenital Disabilities
- Constructivist Approaches to Childhood
- Consumer Culture, Children and
- Consumption, Child and Teen
- Conversation Analysis and Research with Children
- Critical Approaches to Children’s Work and the Concept of ...
- Critical Perspectives on Boys’ Circumcision
- Crying
- Disability
- Discipline and Punishment
- Discrimination
- Disney, Walt
- Divorce And Custody
- Dolls
- Domestic Violence
- Drawings, Children’s
- Early Childhood
- Eating disorders and obesity
- Education
- Environment, Children and the
- Environmental Education and Children
- Ethics in Research with Children
- Eugenics
- Evolutionary Studies of Childhood
- Fairy Tales and Folktales
- Fathers
- Female Genital Cutting
- Feral and "Wild" Children
- Fetuses and Embryos
- Filicide
- Films about Children
- Films for Children
- Folklore
- Food
- Foundlings and Abandoned Children
- Freud, Anna
- Freud, Sigmund
- Friends and Peers: Psychological Perspectives
- Froebel, Friedrich
- Gangs
- Gay and Lesbian Parents
- Gender and Childhood
- Geographies, Children's
- Globalization
- Hall, G. Stanley
- Happiness in Children
- Hindu Views of Childhood and Child Rearing
- Hispanic Childhoods (U.S.)
- Historical Approaches to Child Witches
- History of Adoption and Fostering in Canada
- History of Childhood in America
- History of Childhood in Canada
- HIV/AIDS, Growing Up with
- Homeschooling
- Images of Childhood, Adulthood, and Old Age in Children’s ...
- Infancy and Ethnography
- Infant Mortality in a Global Context
- Innocence and Childhood
- Institutional Care
- Intercultural Learning and Teaching with Children
- Islamic Views of Childhood
- Japan, Childhood in
- Juvenile Detention in the US
- Key, Ellen
- Klein, Melanie
- Labor, Child
- Latin America
- Learning, Language
- Learning to Write
- Legends, Contemporary
- Literary Representations of Childhood
- Literature, Children's
- Love and Care in the Early Years
- Magazines for Teenagers
- Maltreatment, Child
- Marxism and Childhood
- Masculinities/Boyhood
- Material Cultures of Western Childhoods
- Mead, Margaret
- Media Culture, Children's
- Medieval and Anglo-Saxon Childhoods
- Menstruation
- Middle Childhood
- Middle East
- Migration
- Miscarriage
- Mothers
- Multi-culturalism and Education
- Music and Babies
- Native American and Aboriginal Canadian Childhood
- New Reproductive Technologies and Assisted Conception
- Nursery Rhymes
- Organizations, Nongovernmental
- Orphans
- Parental Gender Preferences, The Social Construction of
- Parenting
- Pediatrics, History of
- Peer Culture
- Peter Pan
- Philosophy and Childhood
- Piaget, Jean
- Play
- Politics, Children and
- Postcolonial Childhoods
- Post-Modernism
- Poverty, Rights, and Well-being, Child
- Prostitution and Pornography, Child
- Psychoanalysis
- Queer Theory and Childhood
- Race and Ethnicity
- Racism, Children and
- Radio, Children, and Young People
- Readers, Children as
- Refugee and Displaced Children
- Rights, Children’s
- Risk and Resilience
- Russia
- School Shootings
- Sex Education in the United States
- Sexuality
- Siblings
- Social and Cultural Capital of Childhood
- Social Movements, Children's
- Social Policy, Children and
- Socialization and Child Rearing
- Sociology of Childhood
- South African Birth to Twenty Project
- South Asia
- Special Education
- Spiritual Development in Childhood and Adolescence
- Spock, Benjamin
- Sports and Organized Games
- Street Children
- Street Children And Brazil
- Subcultures
- Sure Start
- Teenage Fathers
- Teenage Pregnancy
- Television
- The Bible and Children
- The Harms and Prevention of Drugs and Alcohol on Children
- The Spaces of Childhood
- Theories, Pedagogic
- Tourism
- Toys
- Transgender Children
- Tweens
- Twins and Multiple Births
- United Kingdom, History of Adoption and Fostering in the
- United States, Schooling in the
- Value of Children
- Views of Childhood, Jewish and Christian
- Violence, Children and
- Visual Representations of Childhood
- Voice, Participation, and Agency
- Vygotsky, Lev and His Cultural-historical Approach to Deve...
- War
- Welfare Law in the United States, Child
- Well-Being, Child
- Western Europe and Scandinavia
- Witchcraft in the Contemporary World, Children and
- Work and Apprenticeship, Children's
- Young Carers
- Young Children and Inclusion
- Young Children’s Imagination
- Young Lives
- Young People, Alcohol, and Urban Life
- Young People and Disadvantaged Environments in Affluent Co...