Chapter 17, Problem 4CT

The complications of ectopic pregnancy (Section 17.2) are life-threatening for the mother, and in fact each year in the United States a few pregnant women die when their situation is not diagnosed in time. Tragically, the only option is to surgically remove the embryo, which was doomed from the beginning. Based on what you know about where an embryo normally develops, explain why the ectopic embryo in Figure 17.25 could not have long survived.

Figure 17.25 This embryo, the result of an ectopic pregnancy, could not survive implantation outside its mother’s uterus.