Fetal Attraction

Subject: Fetal Attraction Thu 6 Mar 2008 - 19:39

Quote :: In some ways, Prof. Kypros Nicolaides is more suited to Israel than to England, the adopted home of the Cyprus-born, world-renowned "father of fetal medicine." Israel and Judaism, with their child-oriented ideology - there are more in-vitro fertilization centers per capita here than anywhere in the world - are attuned to his decades of work to save distressed fetuses.

And Israelis - with their informality and tendency to tell their life stories to complete strangers - would likely understand his controversial methods of calming frightened patients. Israelis' desire for the "perfect baby" also suits Nicolaides, who discovered that nuchal translucency in a fetus is a marker for Down Syndrome. This leaves open the option for an early abortion. Ultrasound measures the almost-clear (translucent) space in the tissue at the back of a baby's neck. Babies with abnormalities tend to accumulate more fluid there during the first trimester. The BBC even produced a two-part documentary called Life Before Birth that starred Nicolaides.

The 55-year-old head of the Research Center for Fetal Medicine at King's College Hospital in London - on his third visit to Israel to attend a conference of the Israel Ultrasound Society - says in an interview with The Jerusalem Post that he first decided to be a doctor when he was two. Although obviously brilliant, "perhaps I remember what my parents told me later about what I had said about wanting to be a doctor," he concedes...