The Rhesus Danger. Its Medical, Moral and Legal Aspects
- Author:
McCurdy, M.B., Ch.B.,
U.P.H. Heinemann. 5s.
The author of this book writes with understandable bias because two of his children have died from haemolytic disease of the newborn, which is the gravest of the perils of the ” Rhesus danger As the book is intended in part for the lay reader, this bias may be the cause of some unnecessary anxiety. The material is divided into two parts. The first section deals ably with the medical background of the Rhesus problem. Since the book is directed towards the lay as well as the professional reader, it is perhaps not sufficiently emphasized that the first Rhesus positive child, born to a Rhesus negative mother, is almost certain to be healthy. It is also by no means inevitable that the second, or even the third, Rhesus positive child will suffer. A good account is given of the process of Rh sensitization and its effects. One of the sequelae of haemolytic disease, which is called kernicterus, is caused by brain damage which leads to a low grade mental deficiency. The writer comments on the variation of the estimates given by different workers, of the number of children who, having survived haemolytic disease, subsequently suffer from mental defect. It certainly has not been confirmed, as the author mentions, that there is any excess of Rh positive children of Rh negative mothers in groups of feeble-minded children and their mothers.
The second section deals exhaustively with every avenue which the Rh incompatible couple, who have had children with haemolytic disease, may have to explore. This certainly makes interesting reading. On the subject of sterilization, the author justly remarks, ” until the wife is past the child-bearing age there is always the possibility that medical science will discover some way of preventing the development of haemolytic disease in a child before birth, which would enable the couple to have normal children
The author does lose sight of the fact that an Rh incompatible couple may well achieve the size of family they desire before they are seriously menaced by their incompatibility. The idea that engaged couples should be compelled to have their blood typed, is dismissed by the author as manifestly absurd. It is certainly an abhorrent idea and an extremely impractical one. There is at the moment no simple solution to the Rhesus problem, but there is a hope that, in the future, medical research will discover a method of improved treatment of the diseased children, and possibly a means of treating the sensitized mother during pregnancy. S.D.L.
Disclaimer
The historical material in this project falls into one of three categories for clearances and permissions:
Material currently under copyright, made available with a Creative Commons license chosen by the publisher.
Material that is in the public domain
Material identified by the Welcome Trust as an Orphan Work, made available with a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
While we are in the process of adding metadata to the articles, please check the article at its original source for specific copyrights.