Sunday, January 16, 2005
It's Only a Picture
The January 5th issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Has an article about the controversy surrounding fetal photos in "The Business of Baby Pictures" (will need subscription for full text).
Now why would some in the medical industry be so upset over the increasingly popular use of 3D ultrasounds for non-medical purposes? Well, let's hear their side first:
...the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine (AIUM) reaffirmed its stance against ultrasound used for nonmedical purposes. Its "prudent use" statement says that the AIUM "strongly discourages the non-medical use of ultrasound for psychological or entertainment purposes."
The statement notes that although diagnostic ultrasound so far has not been found to have "biological effects" on patients, such effects could be identified in the future."
Fair enough, but most things can fall into the category of being possibly found harmful in the future so that argument is rather, shall we say, underdeveloped.
So what are some other arguments against non-medical use of fetal US out there?
Well they mentioned these as well:
"Copel says the task force will try to determine the point where physicians would cross the line from professionalism to "hucksterism" if their practices offered keepsake ultrasound products. "We don't want to look like we're practicing medicine out of the back of a wagon," he says."
I guess the people that come into the office with no complaints, but just want to see if their blood pressure and cholesterol are alright, should be turned away less I appear to be selling snake oil from a wagon.
"Some experts are concerned that Doppler or color Doppler ultrasound used during the first trimester might interfere with fetal organogenesis."
Maybe these "experts" really don't know this (which I doubt) but the child is usually around 28 weeks old before 3D US are used. This is the age that makes it most likely that a good photo will be obtained. Now there are places out there performing first trimester 3D US, but I don't know why. At that stage of development the parents aren't going to be able to get an idea what their child will look like (which is the reason most have it done). Outside of possibly limiting its first trimester use, I say this argument is a straw-man of the highest order.
The evil that dare not speak its name is that the abortion industry has been hit hard by the 3D US industry. The US proves that those "collections of tissue" are really babies. They are photographed smiling, yawning, and stretching just like us "real people". It's getting harder to defend abortion on demand, especially the grisly practice of late term abortion (the ability to end the pregnancy up until the point of delivery because the magic in the ether of the outside world hasn't made them "real" humans yet).
So some in the medical community have decided to try and shut down the practice of non-medical US on the most hypocritical of grounds, safety of the fetus.
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Now why would some in the medical industry be so upset over the increasingly popular use of 3D ultrasounds for non-medical purposes? Well, let's hear their side first:
...the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine (AIUM) reaffirmed its stance against ultrasound used for nonmedical purposes. Its "prudent use" statement says that the AIUM "strongly discourages the non-medical use of ultrasound for psychological or entertainment purposes."
The statement notes that although diagnostic ultrasound so far has not been found to have "biological effects" on patients, such effects could be identified in the future."
Fair enough, but most things can fall into the category of being possibly found harmful in the future so that argument is rather, shall we say, underdeveloped.
So what are some other arguments against non-medical use of fetal US out there?
Well they mentioned these as well:
"Copel says the task force will try to determine the point where physicians would cross the line from professionalism to "hucksterism" if their practices offered keepsake ultrasound products. "We don't want to look like we're practicing medicine out of the back of a wagon," he says."
I guess the people that come into the office with no complaints, but just want to see if their blood pressure and cholesterol are alright, should be turned away less I appear to be selling snake oil from a wagon.
"Some experts are concerned that Doppler or color Doppler ultrasound used during the first trimester might interfere with fetal organogenesis."
Maybe these "experts" really don't know this (which I doubt) but the child is usually around 28 weeks old before 3D US are used. This is the age that makes it most likely that a good photo will be obtained. Now there are places out there performing first trimester 3D US, but I don't know why. At that stage of development the parents aren't going to be able to get an idea what their child will look like (which is the reason most have it done). Outside of possibly limiting its first trimester use, I say this argument is a straw-man of the highest order.
The evil that dare not speak its name is that the abortion industry has been hit hard by the 3D US industry. The US proves that those "collections of tissue" are really babies. They are photographed smiling, yawning, and stretching just like us "real people". It's getting harder to defend abortion on demand, especially the grisly practice of late term abortion (the ability to end the pregnancy up until the point of delivery because the magic in the ether of the outside world hasn't made them "real" humans yet).
So some in the medical community have decided to try and shut down the practice of non-medical US on the most hypocritical of grounds, safety of the fetus.
# posted by Joe Florida @ 8:50 AM 
