Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

Abuse of an expectant mother. This abuse is most often perpetrated by the woman’s spouse, partner, or relative. Spurts of temper can progress to shouting and name calling. Then pushing and shoving. The use of physical violence can start a pattern. It is estimated that 1 in 12 pregnant women is battered. Most cases of pregnancy abuse are not…

Next to child neglect, physical abuse is the second most frequently reported form of child abuse, accounting for 25% of all cases of child abuse. Physical child abuse is physical injury inflicted upon the child with cruel and/or malicious intent. Physical abuse can be the result of punching, beating, kicking, biting, burning, shaking, or otherwise harming…

Emotional child abuse is the third most frequently reported form of child abuse (after child neglect and physical child abuse), accounting 17% of all cases of child abuse. It is likely that emotional child abuse is greatly underreported, since it can be difficult to detect and difficult to document. Emotional child abuse includes acts of commission or…

The physical, sexual, or emotional abuse of an elderly person, usually one who is disabled or frail. Like child abuse, elder abuse is a crime that all health and social services professionals are mandated to report.

A complex set of behaviors that include child neglect and the physical, emotional, and sexual abuse of children. Although most people think first of physical abuse when they hear the term child abuse, physical abuse makes up only a small percentage of reported cases. Physical abuse is defined as physical injury inflicted upon the child with…

Also known as fertility awareness, natural family planning, and the rhythm method, this approach entails not having sexual intercourse on the days of a woman’s menstrual cycle when she could become pregnant or using a barrier method (such as a condom, the diaphragm or a cervical cap) for birth control on those days. Because a sperm may live in the female’s reproductive tract for up to 7…

The voluntary self-denial of food, drink, or sex. Today, abstinence most commonly refers to denial of one’s sexual activity.

Marked by restraint, especially in the consumption of food or alcohol. From the Latin prefix “abs-,” meaning “from” or “away,” and the Latin noun “temetum,” meaning “intoxicating drink.”

Uptake. For example, intestinal absorption is the uptake of food (or other substances) from the digestive tract.

In radiology, the amount of energy that is deposited in any material by ionizing radiation. The unit of absorbed dose, the rad, is a measure of energy absorbed per gram of material. An alternative unit of absorbed dose is the gray. One gray equals 100 rads.