History of Fetal Development
- In 1973, U.S. Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decided in legalizing abortion nationwide and right-to-life leaders seized upon research involving human fetuses about to be aborted or following an abortion as a weapon in the war against the right to choose, arguing that such research "dehumanizes unborn children" and gives abortion an aura of legitimacy.
- In 1974, The National Research Act joined the two issues; among its provisions was a temporary moratorium on federally funded fetal research, "before or after abortion." The moratorium remained until 1975, when the Department of Health, Education and Welfare issued regulations governing federally funded fetal research.
- In the 1930s, scientists have used tissue from aborted fetuses as a means of understanding cell biology and as an important tool in the development of vaccines.
- In 1954, American immunologists developed the polio vaccine based on cultures of human fetal kidney cells and they were awarded a Nobel Prize for Medicine.
- Over a course of time, studies have shown that once the female is pregnant, she will have to have a checkup every 4 weeks until the 28th week to make sure the baby is healthy. This prevents any abnormalities or problems that could happen throughout those weeks.
- Sir Francis Galton made a whistle producing ultrasound in 1893. The first technological application of ultrasound was actually an attempt to detect submarines. (Paul Langevin in 1917)
- Jacques and Pierre Curie in 1880 created the piezoelectric effect. It was useful in transducers to generate and detect ultrasonic waves in air and water.
- Echolocation in bats was discovered by Lazzaro Spallanzani in 1794, when he demonstrated that bats hunted and navigated by inaudible sound and not vision.
![Picture](/uploads/2/8/7/6/28764183/849434.jpg)
Picture of a 20-weeks ultrasound