  In this talk I review the intriguing possibility (see Reference[1]) that the
physical spectrum of a vector-like gauge field theory exhibits an enhanced
global symmetry near a chiral phase transition. A transition from the Goldstone
phase to the symmetric phase is expected as the number of fermions Nf is
increased to some critical value. Various investigations have suggested that a
parity-doubled spectrum develops as the critical value is approached. Using an
effective Lagrangian as a guide one observes that a parity doubling is
associated with the appearance of an enhanced global symmetry in the spectrum
of the theory. If such a near-critical theory describes symmetry breaking in
the electroweak theory, the additional symmetry suppresses the contribution of
the parity doubled sector to the S parameter.
