Aldehydes themselves, at least in physiologically significant quantities do tend to be somewhat hard on the body, though.
As for reduction of an acid, then to an aldehyde would indeed be difficult, it would be more practical to reduce all the way to the alcohol followed by the use of a selective oxidizing agent which oxidizes alcohols to aldehydes without overoxidation to the carboxylic acid such as chromyl chloride in an Etard reaction (now hows that for a reaction name, if its going to be used for making drugs?
), pyridinium chlorochromate or pyridinium dichromate. (note that any concerns you might have concerning the reactivity of aldehydes, or toxicity thereof are so belittled by the likes of chromyl chloride, that they fade into nonexistence comparatively speaking. CrO2Cl2 being a reddish-brown liquid that looks like bromine, has some of Br2's escape-artiste tendencies, is a fuming, damn corrosive compound that hydrolyzes violently on contact with water, fuming off HCl, leaving hexavalent chromium [carcinogenic and generally bad news] and in the presence of atmospheric moisture, fumes off HCl strongly. Oh, and it likes to set things on fire. It really likes to set things on fire. It needs to be used in very unreactive solvents, typically dichloromethane or chloroform, carbon tetrachloride etc, if DCM isn't to be had, because it causes many solvents and other organics to ignite on contact.
I've used it before, made it and distilled it, so it IS something that can be handled in a home lab. BUT it does mean one needs to be able to safely cope with addition of concentrated (98-99% is adequate, doesn't have to be utterly anhydrous, at the expense of some yield to hydrolysis by the trace water content) sulfuric acid to the correct molar proportions of a dichromate salt and NaCl or KCl, then refluxing with a good condenser or stack of condensers protected by a drying tube followed by replacement of the dessicant tube with a stopper lubricated with a perfluorocarbon grease and distilling the product directly at about 120-125 'C (boiling point is 117 'C), again using a dessicant trap on the condenser/s attached to the receiver, perfluorocarbon greases only, unless one is going to use concentrated sulfuric acid to lubricate the ground glass joints)
Volatile hexavalent chromium source that reacts nastily with water and would like nothing better than to sear the flesh from your bones, eat your face off, give you cancer if there's anything left of you, turn your lungs into a slushpuppy and leave acid in it's wake. Lovely, friendly stuff that likes to set things on fire, but doable. And survivable. Although if spilled, you don't want to be on you. I did, once, or rather, a flask failure resulted in about a liter of boiling chromyl chloride (not in solvent, this was during a synthesis) hitting the lab benchtop. Promptly charring the bench-top to ashes soaked in virulent, corrosive, smoking, HCl-belching carcinogenic unpleasantries wherever it hit. Thankfully it didn't slosh over the entire bench, since ground zero became porous enough to help absorb some of the liquid pretty quickly. So I could salvage the structure by sawing out the section which had gotten cooked extra-crispy and disposing of the carbonized shite that used to be bench-top as hazardous chemical waste at the relevant section of the municipal waste dump, after hydrolyzing any remaining chromyl chloride, carefully, with water misted over it while wearing protective gear, to avoid their being exposed to the CrO2Cl2 itself; and effecting a repair by cutting a suitable panel to shape and size and nailing it in. Damn glad that I have quick reactions and was able to get the hell out of the way rather than end up doused from waist to feet in boiling chromyl chloride though and that the worst of it was the waste of the resources put into my synth run for the chromyl chloride and having to do it all over again.
Not intended to scare you off trying. Rather, intended for you to get a good idea of what your up against and what an accident of the critical failure type looks like and what a worst-case scenario would be, if it were to hit flesh rather than a lab bench.
Still got a hole burnt in the floor too as a permanent reminder to be careful as hell around CrO2Cl2 and to always say a quick prayer to the gods of personal protective equipment prior to use. (and to keep my wits about me and stay quick off the starting blocks if a situation mandates getting the bleeding hell out of the way and making an exit in the shortest time possible
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And ugh...I hate losing glassware. Its like losing at least a cherished family pet (I don't have kids...but I confess, I mourn broken glassware more than I ever did my own mother when she died, although if that seems like I'm a bastard, she was suffering at the time, for a long, long time from severe MS and dementia, and had nothing left in her life, so her death was a good thing, and something I'd have caused myself if it were not for the legal ramifications..NOT ending her is something I do feel some sorrow and guilt, for being unable to do it due to the legal risk)
Losing a flask or condenser is way worse than her death was. One gets to have favourites among one's glassware pieces.