Distinguishing fetal characteristics?
Okay, bear with me, this is kinda weird: I need to know what sort of distinguishing features a fetus might have.
My story is set on Earth-as-we-kinda-know-it, in the New England area of the US, but at least... 50 years in the future (vague timing). In this future, the US has trended very right-wing and abortion has been outlawed, and my protagonist was prosecuted for teaching women how to perform their own chemical abortions. She did prison time and is now serving out her (very lengthy) parole sentence in a privatized "re-entry community," and as part of her parole, she is on work-release to a reproductive technology company that has developed and patented "ectogenesis," or the growing of human fetuses outside the body -- basically, human babies grown in mechanical wombs.
She has to come to the realization that one of the fetuses was grown from eggs she sold to the company to try and get some more money. I was originally going to have her see a common-to-her-family birthmark on one of the fetuses, but then I realized that I don't know when birthmarks actually appear -- at birth, or before, or after?
Could a fetus have a "birthmark" or some other hereditary, non-deforming, non-health-threatening condition that she could see? I'm sure part of my difficulty in answering this question is that our current fetal imaging technology just doesn't allow for this sort of thing.
I have tried searching on:
"when do birthmarks appear" <-- talks about at birth or after
"fetus mole" <-- not helpful
"fetus distinguishing features" <-- brings up a lot on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
"fetus freckles"
My story is set on Earth-as-we-kinda-know-it, in the New England area of the US, but at least... 50 years in the future (vague timing). In this future, the US has trended very right-wing and abortion has been outlawed, and my protagonist was prosecuted for teaching women how to perform their own chemical abortions. She did prison time and is now serving out her (very lengthy) parole sentence in a privatized "re-entry community," and as part of her parole, she is on work-release to a reproductive technology company that has developed and patented "ectogenesis," or the growing of human fetuses outside the body -- basically, human babies grown in mechanical wombs.
She has to come to the realization that one of the fetuses was grown from eggs she sold to the company to try and get some more money. I was originally going to have her see a common-to-her-family birthmark on one of the fetuses, but then I realized that I don't know when birthmarks actually appear -- at birth, or before, or after?
Could a fetus have a "birthmark" or some other hereditary, non-deforming, non-health-threatening condition that she could see? I'm sure part of my difficulty in answering this question is that our current fetal imaging technology just doesn't allow for this sort of thing.
I have tried searching on:
"when do birthmarks appear" <-- talks about at birth or after
"fetus mole" <-- not helpful
"fetus distinguishing features" <-- brings up a lot on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
"fetus freckles"