The cells, called HEK 293 cells (that stands for human embryonic kidney) were taken from an aborted fetus in the 1970s in the Netherlands.
If they do, they are unlikely to pass it on to the fetus in the womb, but they are quite likely to do so in the act of giving birth.
Maternal prenatal stress, hormonal changes in mother and developing fetus, and resulting changes in neurodevelopment are also potentially associated.
The first organ that the system has been used to emulate is the uterus, because keyhole surgery is widely employed to deal with ectopic pregnancies (those where the fetus develops in the fallopian tubes leading into the womb, rather than in the womb itself).
Further testing prompted by unusual ultrasound readings later determined that the fetus did, in fact, have Down syndrome, and the patient opted to terminate the pregnancy.
Last month, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced a proposal to ensure women could receive late-term abortions if their health was in danger or the fetus wasn't viable.
Without the influence of testosterone in the womb, a fetus will develop into a girl.
"In traditional thinking, a fetus is a living thing, so when you have an abortion, there are bad psychological consequences, " says sociologist Khuat Thu Hong of the National Center for Social Sciences.
The forced termination of Ms. Feng's pregnancy unleashed a torrent of outrage in China and elsewhere in mid-June after graphic photos of her in the hospital next to the aborted fetus, a girl, were posted online.
WSJ: Chinese Woman in Forced-Abortion Case Claims Harassment
In a late-term abortion, the fetus is partially delivered, then its skull is collapsed so it can be removed.
Lesbianism, the researchers suggested, might be the result of a female fetus's being exposed to male hormones in the womb.
Because of the way that sex is determined in people, such exposure might cause a fetus to develop characteristics more usually associated with men than women.
Because the endocrine disruption hypothesis suggests that the fetus and newborns could be vulnerable to BPA in ways children or adults would not be, the focus of these PK studies has been on the perinatal period.
For a fetus to form, the blastocyst must be implanted in a womb.
But it turns out Muslim tradition has always been fairly liberal in its interpretation about the point at which a fetus can be considered fully human.
Pregnant women can receive general anesthesia without harming the fetus, and surgery isn't substantially riskier in pregnant women, as long as the surgeon and anesthesiologist take the pregnancy into account.
In 2009, a Maryland woman attempted to cut a fetus out of a pregnant woman using a box cutter.
"A pregnant woman has to accommodate this foreign body of the growing fetus, so there is an immunological shift that occurs in pregnancy, " she said.
The team hopes that calculations from virtual patients will help guide doctors in targeting tumors or making clinical decisions, like figuring out if the benefits to the mother in getting a CT scan outweigh the risks to the fetus.
There is, however, at least one way that a fetus without an SRY gene can be exposed to testosterone in the womb and that is if she has a twin brother who is releasing his hormones into the fluid that bathes them both.
Webster (a 5-4 decision) upheld major parts of a Missouri abortion law that prohibited the use of public facilities or the participation of public employees in abortions, and required doctors to test the viability of the fetus before an performing any abortion.
But, to the dismay of some anti-abortion campaigners, that change would give a higher priority to the mother's life if she is in danger (other than from a suicide threat) than to a fetus's right to life.
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In 2007, an Australian couple was one of the first to put their fetus, Bubba Waring, on Facebook.
In this procedure, mothers are given general anesthesia, which also sedates the fetus.
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Under the abortion method in question -- called "intact dilation and evacuation" by doctors -- the fetus' skull is drained to allow it to fit through the birth canal.
For example, sometimes a fetus might be diagnosed with having a congenital cystic adenomatoid malformation -- an abnormal formation in the lungs -- but actually turns out to have a diaphragmatic hernia.
"The risks both to the fetus and the mother cannot be ignored, " said Dr. Diana Farmer, the surgeon-in-chief at the University of California, San Francisco's Benioff Children's Hospital.
CNN: Study: Major benefits for spina bifida surgery in the womb
Despite the efforts of legislators to resolve the thornier issues--such as making sure that a woman's decision to have an abortion is not influenced by the idea that her fetus's tissue may help a victim of Parkinson's disease--the current calm in public attitudes may well be fleeting.
In 1990 Goodfellow and colleague Robert Lovell-Badge discovered the genetic "switch" that decides whether a fetus' gender-neutral gonad develops into a female ovary or male testes.
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