Precision in word choice reflects precision of one’s thoughts

Faithful readers know that I don’t appreciate the inter-penetration of political themes with our scientific work.

Hence, I avoid politically motivated terms as in ‘substance’ in lieu of ‘drug’ (or ‘marijuana’ in lieu of ‘cannabis’).

I also avoid stigma-laden American slang terms such as ‘addict’ and ‘addiction’ and I turn toward the WHO Expert Committees for an international perspective about ‘dependence’ syndromes.

I recently ran across a word choice essay on the topic of ‘fetal alcohol effect’ versus ‘fetal alcohol syndrome.’

You might enjoy reading the essay and the logic for avoidance of ‘fetal alcohol effect.’

‘FETAL ALCOHOL EFFECT’ — who needs the term?