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>There's zero chance of a birth defect from one small glass of wine a week. Where's the evidence to back this up? Here are the facts: 1. Alcohol is harmful.
by freehunter 11y ago
>There's zero chance of a birth defect from one small glass of wine a week.
Where's the evidence to back this up?
Here are the facts:
1. Alcohol is harmful.
2. We don't know exactly how harmful.
3. We can't test to see exactly how harmful.
The output of that is, the recommendation is zero. The recommendation is zero because any other recommendation would be arbitrary at best, harmful on average, and debilitating at worst when people realize "one drink a week" isn't backed up by any science. And the social pressure will never let up, because who knows if that is the woman's first drink of the week or her fourth drink of the day?
Yes of course people need pressure to not drink while pregnant! And even with that pressure, people still smoke and drink and do drugs while pregnant. Just like they need pressure not to speed, not to shoot up heroin, not to kill other people! That's the entire point of societal pressure, is to make people conform to activities that aren't actively harmful to society.
If you tell women "don't drink", that's a very clear statement. Easy to follow. If you say "only drink one drink per week, maybe, we don't really know", there's a non-zero chance that more women will drink more than they should than we have today. But how much is too much? No one knows. So in effect, how much is too much? Any amount.
- anonbanker 11y agoI replaced "alcohol" with "sex", and "drink" with "lay", and it worked out remarkably well, with appropriately humorous results. I invite the reader to do the same.
- freehunter 11y agoNow try replacing "alcohol" with "a bullet through the head" and see if it's still funny. Or try doing a Google image search of "fetal alcohol syndrome". Smart asshole.
- DanBC 11y agoBut it's ridiculous to suggest that fetal alcohol syndrome is a risk for someone having one small glass of wine per week.
- anonbanker 11y agoPlease don't do this on HN. personal attacks are not welcomed on this website.
- freehunter 11y agoCalling someone an asshole is not a personal attack. A personal attack is attacking someone's character instead of their argument. I'm not saying he's wrong because he's an asshole, I'm saying he's wrong and he's an asshole.
- anonbanker 11y agoA personal attack is not justified because you disagree with someone. Again, please stop doing this on HN.
- dllthomas 11y agoIn my view - which I expect is shared by at least some others - saying that another poster is an asshole is a personal attack whether or not it has anything to do with their argument.
- DanBC 11y agoWhere's the evidence that zero os risk free? Obviously you avoid the minimal risk from tiny amounts of alcohol, but you've created other risks - you just aren't aware of them.