This fetal technology transforming the fetus becomes an array of biomedical technologies. It began with penicillin given to pregnant women with syphilis in the 1930's. Nutritional supplements for fetal growth and development as well as fetal blood sampling treats Rh incompatabily, chronic maternal/fetal hemorrhage, infections, and other problem. The use of catheters and other needles to drain fluids from malformed organs such as blocked urinary tracts become another layer of fetal treatment. Selective termination of a defective fetus, the use of corticosteroids in preventing respiratory distress syndrome in premature infants and in facilating fetal growth and development. There are also quite a number of future treatments that today are realized. Gene therapy in utero in which genes are inserted into a living fetus in order to correct genetic defiencies, fetus-ti-fetus transplantation, in which fetal cells from a dead fetus transplant into a living fetus in utero. Another treatment is experimental fetal surgery. Fetal treatments not only need intervention into fetal bodies but also into maternal bodies. To access the fetus, surgeons use the pregnant woman's body to get around to it. Physical treatment surrounds fetal treatment. Catherization, suction and surgical penetration represent some ways in which the pregnant woman's body becomes accessed. The maternal cyborg seems to be the gateway between the living in the dead based on the procedures taken and the circumstances to which a doctor has to deal with.
Last modified 30 December 2006