Folic acid and the prevention of neural tube defects

doi:10.1136/bmj.311.6999.256

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Jonathan Reggler

General practitioner Marlow, Buckinghamshire SL7 1DN

Power of the state in attitudes to health has already expanded too much

EDITOR,--Nicholas J Wald and Carol Bower advocate the compulsory addition of folic acid to flour to prevent 1000 of the 1500 pregnancies in which the fetus has spina bifida that occur annually.1 Few cases of children with spina bifida being born would be prevented. Most cases are already discovered in utero and terminations occur in most cases, so the main financial saving would be that of fewer terminations being …