Comparison of zygote development in identical and fraternal twins. Via the Wiki
Annie Laurie writing at Balloon Juice brings up an interesting point I hadn’t thought about, at least in this context. She spends the first part of the post briefly reviewing the rise in twin births and all the technology that makes multiple births possible these days, and then concludes with this FreeThought money graf:
And yet, all the hard science work and technological funding that lets modern mothers discuss the exact gestational age, sex, and probable birth weight of the “pre-born” babies whose ultrasound pictures they’re posting on Facebook is just invisible. Women gush that God has “blessed” them—or, in the NYTimes demographic, fret that perhaps they should consider fetal reduction, to “ensure” the most stress-free, high-resource outcome for a single precious survivor.
It reminds of a buddy I used to know. A routine test caught early stage lymphoma. Surgery and chemo stopped it in its tracks. He hasn’t had a problem since. His version is “Jesus saved me,” which he devoutly believes. Of course, when medical treatment tragically fails, it’s technology’s fault or the medical staff, even though consistency would suggest Jesus killed that person. And thar she blows! The double standard.
Here’s how that works.
You take a notebook, and divide the pages into two columns. You enter “God” on one column, and “Satan” on the other.
Whenever anything good happens, you enter that in the “God” column. Whenever anything bad happens, you enter that in the “Satan” column.
At the end of the year you can review, and see how much good has come from God and how much evil has come from Satan.
It’s amazing how that works.
Well, more accurately, some people allow themselves to be amazed by it.
The size of the sperm cells in this graphic is greatly exaggerated. for an egg that size you’d barely be able to see the sperm.
I totally get her point, and it’s a good one, but I kinda have an issue with the “fetal reduction” comment. Reducing the number of fetuses, especially in the large-number births seen with IVF and FSH stimulators, is extremely important. What I really can’t stand is the number of women who get these treatments, then credit Dog with the “miracle of birth,” then ignore their doctor when he says, “selectively abort some of these or all of them will be affected” because abortions make baby Jebus cry. Of course, the thing the TLC shows about litter-bearing moms never show is that most of these kids are developmentally disabled both physically and mentally by being part of such a ridiculous multiple birth.