Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

When a pregnant woman takes alcohol, it gets to the fetus through the placenta affecting its normal physical and mental development. Frequent Alcohol exposure distorts physiological, cellular, genetic, molecular, and epigenetic processes leading to craniofacial and brain malformations, which in turn lead to long-term effects on the functioning of the endocrine and immune systems in the child (Wozniak, Riley & Charness, 2019). The brain and craniofacial development disruption lead to deficits in motor skills development, cognition, memory, behavior, hearing, social, and vision. Therefore, prenatal alcohol exposure plays a critical role in an infant's mental and physical developmental disabilities.

However, various intellectual and physical signs and symptoms are presented in children with fetal alcohol syndrome. The signs include disabilities in learning, memory loss, poor coordination, hearing/ vision issues, abnormal facial features, bones/kidney/ heart problems, low IQ, hyperactive behavior, and delay in language and speech (Wilhoit, Scott, & Simecka, 2017).

The risk factors for inheriting the FAS include long alcohol history, having a FAS child, and low alcohol metabolism. Women aged thirty with a long alcohol history could be at risk of having children with FAS (Wozniak, Riley & Charness, 2019). Also, if one gives birth to a FAS child, the chances of having other children with the FAS condition increase. In addition, a woman who, due to genetic factors, slowly metabolizes alcohol is at a higher risk of affecting their unborn children leading to a FAS condition (Wozniak, Riley & Charness, 2019). Therefore, the main risk factors for inheriting FAS include genetic factors, history of FAS, and long alcohol history.

The main ethical implications of the scenario include misunderstanding between the patient, family, and healthcare giver and autonomy issues. In the scenario, the patient has an intellectual disability. Hence, it could be difficult for her to make an informed decision, depriving them of the freedom of expression and decision-making (Helgesson et al., 2018). This could, in turn, lead to psychologically causing harm to the patient due to a misunderstanding between the mother, healthcare giver, and patient. Therefore, an intellectual disability could lead to a lack of autonomy in the patient causing psychological harm.

References

Helgesson, G., Bertilsson, G., Domeij, H., Fahlström, G., Heintz, E., Hjern, A., . . . Hultcrantz, M. (2018). Ethical aspects of diagnosis and interventions for children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) and their families. BMC Medical Ethics, 19(1). doi:10.1186/s12910-017-0242-5

Wilhoit, L. F., Scott, D. A., & Simecka, B. A. (2017). Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders: Characteristics, complications, and treatment. Community Mental Health Journal, 53(6), 711-718. doi:10.1007/s10597-017-0104-0

Wozniak, J. R., Riley, E. P., & Charness, M. E. (2019). Diagnosis, epidemiology, assessment, pathophysiology, and management of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders. The Lancet. Neurology, 18(8), 760.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6995665/