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Space Forum / Shuttle / May 2007Ethics and young astronauts.
Well, one of the replies on the recent press event last Thursday was to do with how does the space environment affect the natural cycle of women, and do men get affected at all. The reply was one I'd not heard before, that the reason why older women fly is that their cycle is suppressed, and that really more work needs to be done in this area. It struck me as an impending problem, as its inconceivable that when people need to travel in space more, that young women hwill not be there. On the one hand, it needs research, and on the other, is it ethical to use women who have still to reproduce, risk problems in this way? Surely by now, enough mammals have been flown to get a good idea of what the problems might be and some kind of mitigation strategy used? As for men, I never heard an answer...:-) Brian  SignatureBrian Gaff - briang1@blueyonder.co.uk Note:- In order to reduce spam, any email without 'Brian Gaff' in the display name may be lost. Blind user, so no pictures please! > Well, one of the replies on the recent press event last Thursday was to do > with how does the space environment affect the natural cycle of women, and [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > is that their cycle is suppressed, and that really more work needs to be > done in this area. The FDA has just approved Lybrel, the first medication that actually stops menstrual periods *indefinitely*. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/23/business/23period.html?_r=1&oref=slogin It doesn't work perfectly on all women, but when it does, it means that female astronauts on long-duration space missions will be able to avoid that whole messy menstruation problem (along with the monthly bad feelings) for the duration of the mission--even many months. SignatureSteven D. Litvintchouk Email: sdlitvin@earthlinkNOSPAM.net Remove the NOSPAM before replying to me. Yeah, but the problem seems to be that if we do go off Earth and want to reproduce out there, sooner or later someone has to conceive and give birth in space, and htis is where ethics comes in, as we are talking making a choice for an as yet unconceived person. Brian SignatureBrian Gaff - briang1@blueyonder.co.uk Note:- In order to reduce spam, any email without 'Brian Gaff' in the display name may be lost. Blind user, so no pictures please! >> Well, one of the replies on the recent press event last Thursday was to >> do with how does the space environment affect the natural cycle of [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] > that whole messy menstruation problem (along with the monthly bad > feelings) for the duration of the mission--even many months. > Yeah, but the problem seems to be that if we do go off Earth and want to > reproduce out there, sooner or later someone has to conceive and give > birth in space, and htis is where ethics comes in, as we are talking > making a choice for an as yet unconceived person. > > Brian But hasn't this been true for every baby ever born? Won't it continue to be true for every baby to be born? And isn't it also true for every potential baby unconceived? Curmudgeon I think the point is one of degree, do we really know what will happen to a human conceived and born in a space environment? If we do, then why the comment that was made in the interview about older women only being flown? Its interesting to note that the Russian girl flown, went on to have healthy babies, but the exposure was not very long. Brian SignatureBrian Gaff....Note, this account does not accept Bcc: email. graphics are great, but the blind can't hear them Email: briang1@blueyonder.co.uk ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ >> Yeah, but the problem seems to be that if we do go off Earth and want to >> reproduce out there, sooner or later someone has to conceive and give [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > > Curmudgeon > Well, one of the replies on the recent press event last Thursday was to > do with how does the space environment affect the natural cycle of women, [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > fly is that their cycle is suppressed, and that really more work needs to > be done in this area. I suspect this reasoning is a bit post-hoc. In reality, the largest reason older women fly is because it takes years to get the skills that are required to become an Commander/Pilot or MS. > It struck me as an impending problem, as its inconceivable that when > people need to travel in space more, that young women hwill not be there. [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > > Brian SignatureGreg Moore SQL Server DBA Consulting Remote and Onsite available! Email: sql (at) greenms.com http://www.greenms.com/sqlserver.html |
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