Recently, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) has been gaining much attention from the press and medical journals. The resulting defect is blamed on the mother, who drank alcohol during the time that she was pregnant, causing a deformed fetus. There are also questions on whether a father is also liable if a child is afflicted with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. Does his drinking result in the embryo being “flooded” with alcohol while it is being fertilized, and therefore getting malformed in the process? The answer is a resounding, “no.” So far, there is no evidence that suggests that paternal drug use and birth defects can manifest on a growing fetus inside the mother’s womb. This does not mean though, that the alcoholic father is off the hook because the child is still affected by the father’s consumption of alcohol.
Paternal drug use and birth defects in a child starts with various problems in the mother’s reproductive system. Compared to females, who only produce eggs during their pre-birth development, males continue to produce sperm in their entire lives. Some studies pointed out that alcohol consumption by a man can go pass through the bloodstream and eventually to his testicles. The alcohol somehow is able to distort some components of the sperm. Being exposed to this harmful drug, sperms can become deformed with their heads or tails affected and constricting their movements. Alcohol in the semen could also be spread to the woman’s ova and expose the embryo to harmful levels of this drug. Furthermore, semen infected with alcohol could slow down an embryo’s growth.
Paternal drug use and birth defects can cause miscarriages, or cause the child to become ill. It was discovered that children with alcoholic-fathers who drank heavily and mothers who do not drink alcohol are compared with other parents with FAS, the offspring of the alcoholic fathers are not horribly deformed, but they are certainly deficient in some intellectual and functional aspects, and it was found they are also more likely to be more aggressive than usual.
In the past, there are those who broached the idea that only the mother was responsible for the health of her unborn baby, so if there were any problems in the development of her fetus, the blame would be hers alone. New studies, however, debunked this school of thought, pointing the blame for some problems in the development of the fetus to the father. When a man uses alcohol, cigarettes, and other narcotics, and is exposed to various industrial chemicals, it may affect the components of his sperm cells that would harm the fetus.
Paternal drug use and birth defects can also cause Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and other disorders due to the father’s substance or alcohol abuse at the time the baby was born. Even if there are many factors in the development of Attention Deficit Disorder in a child, no one should be blamed for this. Factors like discipline habits, genetics, nutrition, school environment, and the initial health of a female while she was carrying her child in her womb are all possibilities in the development of ADD.
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