LIFEAlerts

LIFEalerts – Sexual Exploitation

Sexual Exploitation

South Africa – The inherent dangers associated with prostitution are enough reason to keep it illegal

After the gruesome murder of 23-year-old Jessica Weyers, the issue of prostitution has been brought back into the spotlight. Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, founder and Deputy Chairperson of Embrace Dignity stands for total abolition of prostitution in South Africa because they believe that objectification, exploitation and oppression are inherent in the sex trade. They help women exit the lifestyle and have said that COVID-19 and unemployment put women at greater risk to be sex trafficked. Embrace Dignity is also a member of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, which draws links between human trafficking and sex work. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime 2018 global report on human trafficking found that adult women and young girls account for 72% of trafficked persons across the world. More

Netherlands – Mask-wearing law contradicts legalized prostitution

The Netherlands have joined the rest of Europe to make wearing face masks indoors in public places compulsory – Citizens who rebel will be fined 95 euros. Prostitutes, on the other hand, are free to go with their clients and are allowed to remove their masks. Never mind that this contradicts the very goal of maintaining the spread of the virus since one sex worker will see around ten different clients a day. These rendezvous often include consuming drugs and alcohol – a recipe for disaster – if you’re serious about containing the spread of covid-19. More

LIFEalerts – Same Sex Attraction

Same Sex Attraction

UK – High Court protects transgender children from harmful and experimental drugs

In a landmark case which will impact laws around the world, the UK High Court has ruled that puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones are experimental treatments which cannot be given to children in most cases without application to the court. The court also ruled that it is highly unlikely that a child aged 15 and under could be competent to understand the long-term risks and consequences of treatment sufficiently in order to give consent to such interventions. Clinicians would also involve the court in any case where they doubt whether the long-term interests of a 16 or 17 year-old would be served by transgender treatments.

This case comes as vindication for Sue Evans (a former employee) who first raised concerns at the transgender clinic over 15 years ago. Keira Bell who was a victim of this treatment also made history as she joined the case and through her public testimony. In her statement, Keira Bell said: “I made a brash decision as a teenager, (as a lot of teenagers do) trying to find confidence and happiness, except now the rest of my life will be negatively affected.” The court found that the transgender clinic did not keep any record on the ages of children treated with puberty blockers or the number of young people referred by the clinic for blockers who have a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder or any other mental health diagnosis. The clinic did not investigate these possibilities before putting children on blockers. The clinic failed also to track children on blockers into adult services and to track the outcomes. More

Canada – Concerned mother fights for her daughter’s medical safety and sanity

A judge prohibited a doctor from performing surgery to remove the breasts of a 17-year-old girl who wants to look like a male, and that against the objections of the mother. In disbelief that clinical standards and medical protocols could permit doctors to treat traumatized teenage girls caught up in a trend this way, and shocked that the government supports such unscientific and dangerous experimentation, the mother demands to review all the protocols that led the physicians, neither of whom are specialists, to arrive at the conclusions they have. An endocrinologist warned that the teen is presently being “severely overdosed” on testosterone because it raises her female levels to 100 times above normal. This is dangerous because it increases the risk for heart attacks, Severe liver dysfunction, permanent deepening of the voice, erythrocytosis, hypertension and other serious conditions.

According to a study by Kaiser in 2019, a review of medical records of thousands of transgender identified youth found when compared to non-transgender peers, transgender youth were 7 times more likely to have had psychological disorders and also 25-54 times more likely to have expressed suicidal thoughts prior to identifying as transgender. Many teens who have gone down this road have expressed regret and are warning others against taking their feelings at face value or concluding that their feelings, which are subject to change all the time, to be the sole determining factor to doubt their biological reality. All this suggests that the mother is right to resist this type of treatment for her daughter who is none the wiser.

Article, Teens who speak out, More teens share transgender regret, Teen calls transgender surgery a Frankenstein hack job, Women regrets transgender surgery.

LIFEalerts – Abortion

Abortion

Ireland – New Study shows doctors suffer emotionally when performing abortions

In a new study based on interviews with ten doctors who perform abortions in Irish hospitals under the country’s new abortion law reveals what doctors go through. The doctors described Late-Term Abortion (LTA) procedures as “‘brutal’, ‘awful’ and ‘emotionally difficult’, referring to it as ‘stabbing the baby in the heart’, and held themselves responsible for the death of the baby”. Doctors expressed emotional difficulty describing LTA as creating a ‘psychological burden’. LTA kills the baby in the womb by injecting potassium chloride directly into the baby’s heart.

The administration of potassium chloride in executions in the USA is considered so painful that it is necessary to first administer an anaesthetic before its use. There is, however, no such obligation to use painkillers in late term abortions, despite the mounting evidence that the unborn baby is capable of experiencing pain and distress. There have been cases of abortion following a misdiagnosis of disability. In 2019, a baby boy was thought to have Trisomy 18 and only after the abortion was it shown that the child was perfectly healthy. Article, Study

Russia – Lessons learned from Russia’s 100 years legalized abortion

Soviet Russia was the first country to legalize abortion in 1920 believing that this would reduce the harm caused by dangerous, illegal procedures and gradually make abortion non-existent. The opposite happened instead, and abortion rose by 400% which caused a falling birth rate and a plunging population. The opposite also happened in after Roe v. Wade became U.S. law in 1973, and also the opposite of what happened to Ireland in 2018. As a result, Russia tried disseminating birth control and eventually made abortion illegal again in 1936 because it wasn’t working. The general feeling however was that women needed to limit the number of children because of societal conditions at the time and women needed abortions so they could work or attend school. Medical dangers of abortion often go unacknowledged because this belief persists today that abortion is necessary for women’s social well-being.

Back in the 20th century, researchers attempted to warn the Russian public about abortion risks, Professor M. Malinovsky wrote: “…People do not see or do not want to see the dangers inherent in abortion. The fact that the operation goes unpunished and is relatively safe has created an illusion of the complete harmlessness of the operation. It is our duty to dispel this misconception.” One hundred years later, abortion has not corrected societal or familial injustices or inequalities against women or their children — because an injustice perpetrated against an entire class of human beings can never lead to justice for anyone else. More

Ireland – Opposition to DIY abortions grows in the medical sector

A leading Scottish medic, Northern Ireland’s Health Minister, and 277 healthcare workers are opposing the DIY abortion programme, calling it “unsafe and “unacceptable.” The abortion pills are sent through the post and women perform their own abortion at home with no medical supervision or support. The letter stated: “We find it sadly ironic that, at a time when the whole of society is constraining itself to prevent sickness and death for our at-risk friends and family, there is a push to expedite the ending of the lives of its most vulnerable member, the unborn child. Concerns include; forced abortion on women in abusive relationships or victims of trafficking, sepsis and significant bleeding is also of great concern.

Healthcare workers oppose DIY Abortion, Scottish Medic concerned about trauma caused of at-home abortions, Article.

USA – Activists are promoting new way to cushion consciences on abortion

The Missed Period Pill (MPP) is a new type of abortion pill which would bring on bleeding like a menstrual period, and which would terminate the pregnancy for nearly all people who were pregnant. The key point is that they would never know whether or not they had been pregnant. What was interesting to researchers was despite decades of feminism, culminating in groups like Shout Your Abortion, many women still appear to be ashamed of having an abortion. Some would use this because they’d feel less guilty about killing their baby because they’d never know if they were pregnant or not. Why else would women feel ashamed unless something instinctively tells them that this is a life being taken? More.

LIFEalerts – Euthanasia

Euthanasia

Belgium – Investigates alleged illegal euthanasia deaths

Belgium officials are investigating around ten euthanasia cases which may not have murder. In an anonymous letter to the public prosecutor, they say: “Our family member passed away two years ago, and we were told that euthanasia was presumed to have been carried out without the doctors informing us or following the necessary procedure. This is a very traumatic experience for us.” Two doctors were named in the letter. Belgium’s chief euthanasia overseer says that not every case of euthanasia gets reported to the committee, as it should, and doctors freely admit that. Potential for abuse was the among the concerns of euthanasia opponents and cases like these prove their concerns were right about the slippery slope. More

South Africa – New legal challenge attempts to legalise euthanasia

A new legal challenge was instituted in the Johannesburg High Court in August 2017 in an attempt to legalise physician assisted suicide (PAS) and active voluntary euthanasia (PAE). Currently, South African law deems these acts are prohibited and are treated either as murder or culpable homicide. The new case is expected to proceed to trial in early 2021 and Cause For Justice (CFJ) will be contributing to the case by legal arguments. CFJ’s main concern is that legalized euthanasia will result in a “cultural shift and slippery slope towards acceptance of death as a solution to human pain and suffering” (which has been the case in countries that have legalized it). See Fatal Flaws Documentary. More, Fatal Flaws.

Netherlands – Doctors can sedate dementia patients before euthanizing them

Doctor no longer have to agree with a patient on the time or manner in which euthanasia will be given, sedation is permissible if a patient is unable to communicate or becomes disturbed, agitated or aggressive in cases of severe dementia. Family members no longer need to be consulted either. This came when a doctor sedated a 74-year-old patient without her knowledge before killing her, was cleared of wrongdoing. Dutch euthanasia doctor Bert Keizer admitted that “those who embark on euthanasia venture down a slippery slope along which you irrevocably slide down to the random killing of defenceless sick people”. More

LIFEalerts – Paedophilia

Paedophilia

USA – New Legislation aims to ban sales & possession of sex dolls

A bill aiming to ban the sale and possession of sex dolls that look like children is before the U.S. House. This legislation is called the CREEPER Act 2.0. Patrick Trueman, the CEO and president of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation said “Recently, a mother discovered that an image of her 8-year-old daughter’s face was used on a sex doll being sold on the Internet.” The bill’s detractors say that sex dolls would be a form of harm reduction that meets the needs of individuals who would want to avoid harming real children, but no research exists to prove that this would prevent the actual abuse of children. Research does however exist that repeating this behaviour (especially sexual behaviour) actually has a normalising effect.

The Australian Institute of Chronology did a literature review on the research surrounding child sex dolls and found that it desensitizes the user from the harm that child sexual abuse causes because dolls don’t give any kind of emotional feedback that indicates pain and discomfort, maybe it even increases the risk of objectifying children and viewing them as sex commodities. Just like pornography which has been found to drive the demand for increased sexual exploitation. Some individuals start off watching normal soft porn but end up watching more extreme content to achieve the desired results. Extreme content includes violence against women, degrading of women, and an appetite for younger and younger ages. More

LIFEalerts – Pornography

Pornography

South Africa – No child is immune to the dangers online

The East Rand Child Protection (ERCP) Hotline was launched in October this year by Danie van Loggerenberg, the 13th Child Protection Hotline to be established in South Africa. Their goal is to take on any cases of child abuse, bullying or child neglect that can be reported to 071 523 9215. So far 1,000 children have been helped by ERCP and their network. Covid-19 has forced most children to online platforms for school, but at the same time opened them up to an ocean of pedophiles and bullies. One incident involved a 16-year-old boy who raped a 13-year-old girl after threatening to share explicit images of her far and wide. More, even more.

LIFEalerts – IVF & Surrogacy

IVF & Surrogacy

South Africa – Essentials and non-essentials during the covid-19 pandemic

Amrita Pande, an associate professor in the sociology department at the University of Cape Town, questions whether SA can justify investments in cutting-edge reproductive technology as essential during the pandemic while our health system is in a permanent state of crisis. Fearing that critical and scarce resources like personal protective equipment; hospital beds; operating rooms and emergency care, would be burdened if we pursue treatments that are not life-threatening. The causes of infertility, such as sexually transmitted infections, and poor medical treatment during an earlier birth or abortion, require affordable preventable measures rather high-cost and high-tech interventions that such patients cannot afford. More

LIFEalerts – IVF & Surrogacy

IVF & Surrogacy

USA – Study shows IVF babies are at greater risk for cancer

According to a study published in the journal JAMA Network Open this week, when compared to children conceived naturally, Children conceived with in vitro fertilization (IVF)  have a higher risk of developing cancer which authors of the study say is at a 2-fold increased risk. IVF-conceived children were also at a one-third greater risk of birth defects compared to their naturally-conceived counterparts. The study covered more than a million children conceived naturally and approximately 53,000 conceived by IVF. “With IVF births rising worldwide, further investigations into these associations are warranted,” the authors write. Read more

Japan – MP promotes IVF to boost birth rate

Japan’s biggest long-term problems are a low birth rate and a shrinking population. Incoming Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has pledged to provide insurance coverage for infertility treatments. He will also promote paternity leave for working fathers to ease the burden on working mothers. He has promised more help for single-parent households, more than half of which are living in poverty. Suga’s predecessor, Shinzo Abe, regarded the rapidly ageing population and falling number of births as a “national crisis,” and introduced free preschool education and day-care services. Read more

LIFEalerts – Alternative Medicine

Alternative Medicine

South Africa – Warning Over Bogus Beauty Treatment

Oxygen chamber therapy is a popular procedure in which users climb into an ozone pod with their head out of the top of the pod, while steam and oxygen mixture circulates inside the unit. It’s often punted as an anti-aging and detoxifying treatment. Typically, the marketing will claim that ozone therapy helps with everything from weight loss to skin rejuvenation, however medical doctor, Doctor Harris Steinman, Director – food and allergy consulting & testing Services says ozone therapy is a scam which can have harmful health consequences, not just to the skin, on inhalation, it can cause lung damage and there have been reported deaths from ozone therapy, he warns that unqualified people are administering ozone and making false health claims without any regulatory oversight. Read more

Australia – Immunity, stress relief vitamin                                                                                                                                 

The country’s chief group of general practitioners is warning consumers to treat alternative and complementary medicine products with a “great deal of caution.” Prof Shenouda said “Many alternative treatments lack any scientific evidence base of effectiveness to support their use. These products might have no beneficial effect and could even cause harm,” “My advice for anyone stressed or concerned about COVID-19 and their mental health is to avoid ‘quick fix’ products with no scientific basis, and instead contact your GP. “Your GP can give you expert medical advice on a whole range of treatment options, both medical and non-medical, that are right for you and your situation.” Read more

India – Ayurveda claims have no scientific basis  

Despite years of research and backing from the Indian government, as well as mainstream scientists speaking out about the misguided belief in “cow-pathy” which is faith in the protean curative properties of cow products – milk, cow urine, and dung. Currently, no cow product-based cure exists yet for any specific disease. This hasn’t however, prevented the Hindu government from using the coronavirus pandemic as an opportunity to promote the pseudoscience of AYUSH which stands for Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, and Homeopathy. Ayurveda has no scientific basis grounded in rigorous research. No evidence exists to make such claims. Yes, it is ancient, and it is uniquely Indian. But none of that makes it remotely scientific. Science is a set of ideas, hypotheses and results that are testable and tested, and either accepted or discarded depending on the objective evidence gathered in research studies that meet certain standards of reproducibility and repeatability. read more

Britain – Delaying cancer treatment, even by a month, sharply raises death risk                                                    

Researchers found that delays in treatment – whether for surgery, radiotherapy or other treatments such as chemotherapy – for seven types of cancers had a significant impact on patient mortality “There has never been a systematic attempt to look at all the evidence on what delays in different types of treatment mean for cancer patient outcomes,” said co-author Ajay Aggarwal, a clinical oncologist and associate professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. “Because we know this is happening to cancer patients during the Covid-19 pandemic, it is essential to understand the real impact. “The study found that even a month postponement could mean a patient had a 6-13% higher risk of dying. Read more

Philippines – Integrative Medicine Vs Patent Medicine

Testimonials seem to show that alternative medicine works. However, medical testimonials are unacceptable in scientific journals, and court as well as for Food and Drug Administration approval, for three reasons. First, since some conditions are self-limiting, the improved condition may not be due to the intervention. For example, common colds disappear in about one week. Some cancers simply disappear without intervention.

Second, the symptoms of some diseases vary. Thus, the cessation of a symptom may not be due to the intervention. Third, the cure may be due to the placebo effect. Accepting an untested medical cure has three dangers. First, if the cure does not work, you will have wasted money. Secondly, if you don’t avail yourself of or discontinue a mainstream cure, you might deteriorate. Thirdly, if the unconventional approach is dangerous, your life will be at risk. For example, some leaves used as herbal medicine may contain toxic alkaloids. Read more

LIFEalerts – Paedophilia

Paedophilia

USA – Pedophilia Is Overlooked in Popular Culture

“Call Me By Your Name” is just one of the latest pieces of media to subtly justify its portrayal of pedophilia. One of the biggest consequences of pedophilia in popular culture on young children is that they begin to view themselves as sex objects, believing that their self-worth is based on sex and attraction. Furthermore, it creates a distorted image of what love and relationships should look like because this viewpoint is based on women being controlled and dominated by men rather than being treated equally. Pedophilia needs to be resolutely and visually punished when presented in media. If it is not, this form of media needs to be boycotted and not treated as socially acceptable in any way. Read more

USA – Maxwell denies witnessing ‘inappropriate’ activities

Miss Maxwell had long fought to keep the testimony secret. She will go on trial in a criminal case next year and has pleaded not guilty.  She is accused of helping Epstein traffic and sexually abuse underage girls and of perjury for denying involvement in such a scheme when she gave her deposition under oath.  In the deposition, which spans more than 400 pages, she repeatedly denies and dismisses numerous allegations, and insists she never saw the financier have sex with anybody.  McCawley, a lawyer for Miss Giuffre, said the unsealing of the deposition was “a long time coming and a welcome step towards revealing the evidence of the scope and scale of the Epstein and Maxwell sex trafficking ring.” Read more