Can a person with (FAS) Fetal Alcohol Syndrome be almost genius level?
September 3rd, 2010 | 
Author: I have a friend who I suspect has FAS because of her appearance – her face looks like pictures of people with FAS. I also suspect this because her mother was always drunk in her ealiest stages of pregnancy. Yet my friend is tall and super intelligent. Is it possible she only got a few FAS features? Doesn’t seem very likely now that I think of it.
Also, wasn’t it a widespread fact during the late 60′s that alcohol was bad for pregnant women? She says people didn’t know back then. I think they did.
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It may be that your friend doesn’t have FAS but has either FAE (fetal alcohol effects) or ARND (alcohol-related neurodevelopmental disorder).
No, it wasn’t a widespread fact druing the late 60s. A scientific paper suggesting the harmful effects of alcohol on a fetus came out of France in 1968 but was not widely accepted. Not until 1973 was a study detailing alcohol-related malformations published and this along with mounting evidence was enough for the concept to be accepted and the disorder given a name — FAS. Even as late as 1990, there were still Europeans who felt that a glass or two of wine or beer was beneficial during pregnancy. I was pregnant, with my then-husband and in Europe at this time and people were always trying to force liquor on me because they truly believed it was fine. Much later, in 2005, Dr. Richard Carmona, U.S. Surgeon General, issued a warning to women about the risks of alcohol combined with pregnancy.