  We examine the origin of the Newton-Schr\"odinger equations (NSEs) that play
an important role in alternative quantum theories (AQT), macroscopic quantum
mechanics and gravity-induced decoherence. We show that NSEs for individual
particles do not follow from general relativity (GR) plus quantum field theory
(QFT). Contrary to what is commonly assumed, the NSEs are not the weak-field
(WF), non-relativistic (NR) limit of the semi-classical Einstein equation (SCE)
(this nomenclature is preferred over the `M\/oller-Rosenfeld equation') based
on GR+QFT. The wave-function in the NSEs makes sense only as that for a mean
field describing a system of $N$ particles as $N \rightarrow \infty$, not that
of a single or finite many particles. From GR+QFT the gravitational
self-interaction leads to mass renormalization, not to a non-linear term in the
evolution equations of some AQTs. The WF-NR limit of the gravitational
interaction in GR+QFT involves no dynamics. To see the contrast, we give a
derivation of the equation (i) governing the many-body wave function from
GR+QFT and (ii) for the non-relativistic limit of quantum electrodynamics
(QED). They have the same structure, being linear, and very different from
NSEs. Adding to this our earlier consideration that for gravitational
decoherence the master equations based on GR+QFT lead to decoherence in the
energy basis and not in the position basis, despite some AQTs desiring it for
the `collapse of the wave function', we conclude that the origins and
consequences of NSEs are very different, and should be clearly demarcated from
those of the SCE equation, the only legitimate representative of semiclassical
gravity, based on GR+QFT.
