LIFEAlerts

Abortion Northern Ireland – Plan for abortion expansion meets stunning defeat USA – Ohio defunds Planned Parenthood, redirects $1.3 million USA – Abortion Clinics Closing at Record Pace Alternative Medicine New Zealand – Feedback on natural health product regulations extended Euthanasia USA – Dutch psychiatric patients may get euthanasia too easily Netherlands – Dutch report applies the brakes on ‘completed life’ euthanasia USA – Oregon releases its 2015 ‘death with dignity’ stats IVF& Surrogacy UK – ‘Natural’ fertilisation device for IVF Medical Ethics USA – Three parent babies, but only males UK – Green light for UK CRISPR embryo research Brazil – Zika: still wrapped in mystery Scotland – Edinburgh to host world bioethics conference Pedophilia USA – New Requirements for Sex Offenders Traveling Abroad Pornography   Indonesia – Indonesia blocks Tumblr because it hosts pornography USA – School leaders, prosecutor discuss child pornography victim care USA – Rampant Exchange of Porn Emails among State Officials South Africa – FPB seeks two years in jail or a fine for revenge porn Same Sex Attraction USA – Advocate Compares March For Marriage To Civil Rights Movement USA – Doctor fired from Boston hospital for objecting to its LGBT policy UK – Campaigner Peter Tatchell backs bakers in gay cake appeal Sexual Exploitation Indonesia – A way to deal with prostitution in the country by 2019 USA – More slaves today than during 400 years of the African Slave Trade UN – Officials Call for Strengthened Partnerships to Combat Trafficking UK – Tourists who pay for prostitutes abroad ‘should face prosecution in UK’ Substance Abuse UK – Study sheds light on source of drug addicts risk-taking behaviour USA – Marijuana Use May Lead to Abuse of Other Substances USA – New High: Legal Marijuana Sales Hit $5.4 Billion for 2015 Australia – “Medical marijuana” legalized in Australia   Abortion   Northern Ireland – Plan for abortion expansion meets stunning defeat The National Assembly, though divided into nine parties by religion and policy, managed to coalesce into a decisive majority to defeat two amendments to the law on abortion, one which would have allowed it in the case of children with fatal abnormalities (by 59 votes to 40), and when the pregnancy resulted from rape (by 64-30). Abortion advocates “are getting more and more vociferous,” Liam Gibson, Northern Ireland spokesman for the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, warned. “This issue will not go away. The judge said the current law did not represent the will of the people, but this decisive defeat of both amendments by the people’s elected representatives says otherwise.” https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/plan-for-northern-ireland-abortion-expansion-meets-stunning-defeat   USA – Ohio defunds Planned Parenthood, redirects $1.3 million Governor John Kasich signed legislation that will defund Planned Parenthood by forbidding the state from making health service contracts with any abortion-providing organization. Ohio is the 10th state in the union to take action to eliminate public subsidies to the abortion giant. The bill takes approximately $1.3 million per year that Planned Parenthood facilities in the state had been receiving, and instead directs it to federally qualified health centers, health departments, and other non-abortion health providers. There are 10 comprehensive health care clinics in Ohio for every Planned Parenthood facility. http://liveactionnews.org/ohio-defunds-planned-parenthood-redirects-roughly-1-3-million/   USA – Abortion Clinics Closing at Record Pace Abortion clinics are closing at a record pace across the country as they fail to meet new health and safety requirements and the demand for their business drops, according to a Bloomberg analysis. Many factors are involved, including the lack of business and fewer doctors willing to do abortions. Fewer women actually want abortions as more pro-life groups offer women alternatives to abortion and more women have access to the education and resources to choose life for their unborn babies. Since 2011, at least 162 abortion clinics have shut or stopped doing abortions. A report from Operation Rescue also showed 53 abortion clinics closed in 2015 alone. http://www.lifenews.com/2016/02/24/abortion-clinics-closing-at-record-pace-as-more-babies-saved-from-abortions/   Alternative Medicine   New Zealand – Feedback on natural health product regulations extended The government extended a deadline for feedback on regulations for a bill that will create a register and regulator for natural health products. The bill, supported by Natural Products NZ, an umbrella group that represents about 90{01b0879e117dd7326006b2e84bcaac7e8fa1509c5c67baf2c9eb498fe06caff4} of the $1.4 billion industry, missed the cut for a final reading in the pre-Christmas legislative logjam. The regulatory regime will help boost exports and provide assurance to consumers that products are safe. Natural Products NZ executive director Alison Quesnel says she is disappointed at what she calls scaremongering and misinformation over the proposed law change. The register already has 5500 ingredients approved for use in natural remedies and supplements and the list is expected to increase. http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/health-freedom-groups-win-extension-feedback-natural-health-product-regulations-b-184583   <Back to Top>   Euthanasia   USA – Dutch psychiatric patients may get euthanasia too easily The Journal of American Medical Associations, JAMA Psychiatry, has presented an alarming picture of physician evaluation of euthanasia requests in the Netherlands. Psychiatrist Dr. Scott Y. H. Kim examined 66 psychiatric cases which confirmed loneliness as a key driver behind requests by those suffering from mental illness. Dr. Paul S. Appelbaum, a professor of psychiatry, medicine and law at Columbia University commented, “the idea that people are leaving their treating physician and going to a clinic that exists solely for this purpose, and being evaluated not by a psychiatrist but by someone else who has to make these very difficult decisions about levels of suffering and disease, it seems to me like the worst possible way of implementing this process.” http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/the-dangers-of-euthanasia-for-the-mentally-ill/11750   Netherlands – Dutch report applies the brakes on ‘completed life’ euthanasia Although euthanasia in the Netherlands is often regarded as an unstoppable juggernaut, a government commission has suggested that the brakes be applied. Activists have been pressing for euthanasia on the basis of “completed life”, that is, for people who have simply lost interest in living, regardless of age or state of health. However, after a lengthy study, the Schnabel Commission has declared that expanding the boundary of euthanasia is not advisable. It believes that current legislation already provides for cases of “completed life”, which are equivalent to the symptoms of old age, in any case. The Dutch right-to-die association (NVVE) was surprised by the conservatism of the government’s response. http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/a-dutch-report-applies-the-brakes-on-euthanasia/11756   USA – Oregon releases its 2015 ‘death with dignity’ stats Oregon’s annual “Death with Dignity” reports for 2015 shows the figures are not as straightforward as they might seem. During 2015, 218 people received prescriptions for lethal medications, but only 132 people died. Although uncontrolled pain is often seen as sufficient justification for legalized assisted suicide, relatively few people even mentioned it. The three main reasons were “less able to engage in activities making life enjoyable” (96{01b0879e117dd7326006b2e84bcaac7e8fa1509c5c67baf2c9eb498fe06caff4}); “losing autonomy” (92{01b0879e117dd7326006b2e84bcaac7e8fa1509c5c67baf2c9eb498fe06caff4}); and “loss of dignity” (75{01b0879e117dd7326006b2e84bcaac7e8fa1509c5c67baf2c9eb498fe06caff4}). One curious detail from the statistics is that since 1997, 6 patients have regained consciousness after taking a lethal dose of medication. http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/oregon-releases-its-2015-death-with-dignity-stats/11761   <Back to Top>   Same Sex Attraction   USA – Advocate Compares March for Marriage to Civil Rights Movement The president of an anti-gay organization, Brian Brown, has compared the group’s recent protest against same-sex marriage to the Civil Rights movement in America. Slate reports that a diverse crowd of over 5,000 people showed up for the march  NOM’s  (National Organization for Marriage) mission is “protecting marriage and the faith communities that sustain it,” according to its website. The March for Marriage was meant to show support for California’s Proposition 8 and the federal Defence of Marriage Act (DOMA), laws that seek to define marriage as between a man and woman only. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/anti-gay-movement   USA – Doctor fired from Boston hospital for objecting to LGBT policy A respected member of the Harvard Medical School faculty has officially been expelled from his position at a major Boston hospital for voicing concerns about the hospital’s promotion of the LGBT lifestyle. His response noted the “evidence is irrefutable that behaviours common within the homosexual community are unhealthy and high risk for a host of serious medical consequences.” The board of directors of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre (BIDMC) informed Dr. Paul Church, from the Harvard faculty and a doctor for nearly 30 years at the hospital, that they will uphold his dismissal and that his medical privileges have been permanently rescinded. http://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/dr.-church   UK – Campaigner Peter Tatchell backs bakers in gay cake appeal Mr. Tatchell has changed his mind about Asher’s Bakery in Belfast, who was found to have broken anti-discrimination laws when they declined an order by activist Gareth Lee for a cake with the slogan ‘support gay marriage’. He said: “Much as I wish to defend the gay community, I also want to defend freedom of conscience, expression and religion. It is an infringement of freedom to require private businesses to aid the promotion of ideas to which they conscientiously object. Discrimination against people should be unlawful but not discrimination against ideas and opinions. Should a Muslim printer be obliged to publish cartoons of Mohammed or a Jewish one the words of a Holocaust denier?” http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3427354/Tatchell-backs-bakers-gay-cake-appeal-Campaigner-says-changed-mind-firm-broke-anti-discrimination-laws-wants-defend-freedom-religion.html   <Back to Top>   IVF&Surrogacy   UK – ‘Natural’ fertilisation device for IVF A private UK fertility clinic is offering couples a new form of IVF treatment that lets conception occur in the womb rather than in the lab. Doctors hope that making fertilisation more natural will mean healthier pregnancies. The Complete Fertility clinic in Southampton is first in the UK to use the AneVivo device method. It is a tiny tubular capsule that is loaded with the sperm and egg before being placed into the uterus. Prof Macklon, head of the clinic said: “The aim is to maximise the time spent in the body rather than in the lab. The immediate benefit is reducing exposure at this very vulnerable time of human development when genes are being switched on and off.” http://www.bbc.com/news/health-35344195   <Back to Top>   Medical Ethics   USA – Three parent babies, but only males The US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine has recommended that US government allow mitochondrial DNA transfer in male embryos. The report argues that the procedure should be limited to male embryos because it is prudent to minimize the dangers of ‘passing on’ adverse effects of the procedure to future generations, and one way to do this is to begin with males only: “Intrauterine transfer for gestation [should be] limited to male embryos in order to prevent potential adverse and uncertain consequences of MRT from being passed on to future generations”. The sons-only recommendation has been criticized by researchers in the UK, whose parliament gave the go-ahead for mitochondrial replacement therapy last year without any such restriction. http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/three-parent-babies-but-only-males/11739   UK – Green light for UK CRISPR embryo research Developmental biologist Kathy Niakan has received permission from the UK Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority (HFEA) to edit the genome of human embryos using the new CRISPR technology. “The reason why it is so important is because miscarriages and infertility are extremely common, but they’re not very well understood”, she said. Peter Saunders, of the Christian Medical Fellowship, is doubtful about the ability of embryonic gene-editing to redress genetic abnormalities: “Genetic abnormalities which result in implantation failure (either in IVF or naturally) or miscarriages are chromosomal abnormalities, not abnormalities in single genes. But only abnormalities in single genes can be fixed with gene editing of the sort that the Crick Institute is proposing. Gene editing does not fix chromosomal abnormalities.” http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/green-light-for-uk-crispr-embryo-research/11738   Brazil – Zika: still wrapped in mystery The World Health Organization says the Zika virus epidemic is a “Public Health Emergency of International Concern”. In the New England Journal of Medicine, Slovenian clinicians reported they had found the virus in the aborted remains of a baby with microcephaly whose mother contracted the disease in Brazil. But a report in the WHO’s Bulletin says a spike in microcephaly cases began in 2012, before the Zika epidemic in 2014. So there are still quite a few mysteries surrounding the virus. According to bioethicist Art Caplan and Lee H. Igel of New York University the situation is serious enough to cancel the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro this year. Given the risk to pregnant women holding them is “irresponsible”. http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/zika-still-wrapped-in-mystery/11747   Scotland – Edinburgh to host world bioethics conference Edinburgh is the venue for the 2016 world congress of the International Association of Bioethics, whose theme is “Individuals, Public Interests and Public Goods: What is the Contribution of Bioethics?” and  will take place from June 14 to 17. According to the conference’s website, the event will be “… less of a traditional academic conference and more of a festival of knowledge that seeks to build a bridge between the questions and answers of how bioethics can contribute to some of the most pressing issues of our time – from genetic research to global pandemics, and from scarce resources to climate changes that affect us all.” http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/edinburgh-to-host-world-bioethics-conference/11748   <Back to Top>   Pedophilia   USA – New Requirements for Sex Offenders Traveling Abroad Sex offenders must now provide to the appropriate official any information relating to their intended travel outside of the United States. Under this new law, sex offenders convicted of sex crimes involving minors will have to have a passport with a unique identifying mark. “This is the first time in the history of our country that any American citizen will have a unique identifier on their passport, it violates so many constitutional rights of our citizens”, said lawyer Janice Bellucci from the California Reform Sex Offender Laws. “Who is the next group? Is it going to be Muslims if Donald Trump becomes president? This law is also designed to prevent the practice of “sex tourism” globally. http://www.lawyerherald.com/articles/31289/20160202/bill-make-harder-sex-offenders-travel-abroad-heads-obamas-desk.htm   <Back to Top>   Pornography   Indonesia – Indonesia blocks Tumblr because it hosts pornography Indonesia has banned Tumblr because the site hosted pornographic content. They banned them first and told them afterwards. Along with hosting adult content, Tumblr offers a quick way to make and search for photographs, supports conversations about mental health, and it even has a clothing line. Indonesian media recently banned nearly 500 sites in a broad crackdown, and earlier this month the Information and Communication Ministry demanded app maker Line remove LGBT-friendly stickers from its store. The country’s largest internet service provider, a state-owned company called Telekom Indonesia, blocked Netflix in January over concerns about the content it offered. http://www.engadget.com/2016/02/17/indonesia-blocks-tumblr-over-porn/   USA – School leaders, prosecutor discuss child pornography victim care Prince George’s County school leaders and the county’s state’s attorney are discussing how to help the young alleged victims of a man charged with making child pornography. There are at least 17 victims. They want to make sure the children involved in these cases have all the help and therapy they need so they can heal and they won’t be perpetrators themselves. http://wtop.com/prince-georges-county/2016/02/school-leaders-prosecutor-meet-to-discuss-child-pornography-victim-care   USA – Rampant Exchange of Porn Emails among State Officials The Pennsylvania government remains in a state of disarray after the state attorney general, recently exposed the rampant exchange of pornographic and vulgar emails by government officials. Attorney General Katherine Kane announced her findings about the inappropriate emails resulting in the resignation of Environmental Protection Secretary Christopher Abruzzo and Board of Probation and Parole member Randy Feathers. Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Seamus McCaffery also stepped down as well as Justice J. Michael Eakin. Police Commissioner Frank Noonan and Kevin Harley, former spokesperson for then Gov. Tom Corbett, were also cited in the discovery. Kane found the pornographic correspondence while looking into why it took the state three years to prosecute now convicted child molester Jerry Sandusky. http://christiannews.net/2016/02/21/pennsylvania-in-mess-after-exposure-of-rampant-exchange-of-porn-emails-among-state-officials/   South Africa – FPB seeks two years in jail or a fine for revenge porn Communications Minister Faith Muthambi and the Film Publications Board (FPB) will present this bill to Parliament’s communications committee. The bill, introduced to Parliament in November 2015 seeks to amend the Films and Publications Act by closing gaps in relation to online content regulation. “Revenge porn” is the distribution of private sexual photographs and films without consent from the individual featured. If passed, offenders could face up to two years in jail or a fine of up to R150 000. In terms of the proposed new law, no person may post private photos or films on the internet and social media sites without the consent of the person. http://www.timeslive.co.za/scitech/2016/02/22/FPB-seeks-two-years-in-jail-or-a-fine-of-up-to-R150000-for-revenge-porn   <Back to Top>   Sexual Exploitation   Indonesia – A way to deal with prostitution in the country by 2019 The Indonesian government announced a plan to close all 168 red-light districts across Indonesia by 2019 in order to deal with prostitution in the country. They managed to close Jakarta’s most notorious red-light districts and replace them with parks as the situation got out of control. As child sex tourism has become an issue at the resort islands many believe that red-light districts will affect children who live nearby negatively. Many women in Indonesia were indirectly forced to become prostitutes because the money was good and a way out of poverty. In other cases, the women were forced to enter prostitution by “family” and “friends. http://neurope.eu/article/government-plans-to-fight-prostitution-in-indonesia/   USA – More slaves today than during 400 years of the African Slave Trade Central Florida has become a slave-trafficking hotspot writes Rosie Reitze in the Central Florida Future. Earlier this year, Governor Rick Scott declared the month of January Human Trafficking Awareness Month. Scott signed four bills into law that went into effect to raise awareness of human trafficking. Jodi Cobb, an international photographer and author, photographed and produced the documentary “21st-Century Slaves” for National Geographic in 2003. “I think there’s a huge interest in human trafficking which has really grown since I did my story, the problem is, so has trafficking,” she said. “When I photographed it, there were more slaves in the world than the four centuries of the African slave trade combined, and now there’s even more.” http://www.centralfloridafuture.com/story/news/2016/02/10/modern-day-slavery-surrounds-ucf-orlando/80190768/   UN – Officials Call for Strengthened Partnerships to Combat Trafficking The scourge of Human Trafficking has victims spread across 152 different citizenships in 124 countries. “The promotion of human rights is central to our strategy,” Mogens Lykketoft said, urging all Member States to ratify and fully implement the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. In September, the United Nations will convene a high-level summit on “Addressing Large Movements of Refugees and Migrants”. UN assembly President Mogens Lykketoft noted that the General Assembly agreed to hold a high-level meeting in late 2017 to conduct the second appraisal of the Global Plan of Action against Trafficking in Persons, adopted in 2010. http://allafrica.com/stories/201602101555.html   UK – Tourists who pay for prostitutes abroad ‘should face prosecution in UK’ The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Prostitution by the campaigning group End Demand says payment for sex in the UK should be made illegal and “strongly considers” extending the offence to payments abroad. Research published by the British Medical Journal in 2014 found that among the 11 per cent of men in Britain aged 16 to 74 who have paid for sex, the majority (63 per cent) reported buying sex outside of the UK, mainly in Europe. http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/love-sex/sex-industry/sex-tourists-who-pay-for-prostitutes-abroad   <Back to Top>   Substance Abuse   UK – Study sheds light on source of drug addict’s risk-taking behaviour The study provides insight into how the brains of drug addicts may be wired differently. The findings which appear in the journal Psychopharmacology show that while drug users have strong motivation to seek out “rewards,” they exhibit an impaired ability to adjust their behaviour and are less fulfilled once they have achieved what they desire. Addressing this disconnect between the craving for a drug and the ability to regulate behaviour may be one of the keys to breaking the cycle of addiction. John Foxe, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Neuroscience at the University of Rochester Medical Centre said “It appears that the integrity of this system of assessment and self-regulation is impaired in substance abusers and this may contribute to their risk-taking behaviours and poor decision-making.” http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/02/160210135211.htm   USA – Marijuana Use May Lead to Abuse of Other Substances Based on national surveys three years apart, researchers found that adults who reported using pot in the first survey were two to nine times more likely to have a substance abuse problem by the time of the second survey.”Patients who may be considering using cannabis should know that by using cannabis they are approximately doubling their risk of developing a drug use disorder over the next few years,” said senior study author Dr. Mark Olfson of Columbia University Medical Centre and the New York State Psychiatric Institute in New York City. http://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/marijuana-use-may-lead-abuse-other-substances-n523071   USA – New High: Legal Marijuana Sales Hit $5.4 Billion for 2015 Legal U.S. pot sales soared to $5.4 billion for 2015, up 17.4 percent from $4.6 billion in 2014, according to data released Monday by the ArcView Group, which tracks the cannabis markets. The figures include medical and adult consumer sales. However, the annual gain was largely fuelled by the explosive growth in consumer sales, as some states have approved adult recreational marijuana use. Adult use sales grew to $998 million from $351 million in 2014, according to the research. http://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/new-high-legal-marijuana-sales-hit-5-4-billion-2015-n508851   Australia – “Medical marijuana” legalized in Australia The Australian parliament passed new national laws making the use of cannabis legal by people with “painful and chronic illness”. Amendments to the Narcotic Drugs Act permit legally-grown cannabis for the manufacture of medicinal cannabis products in Australia. The changes put “medical cannabis”, in the same category as restricted medicinal drugs such as morphine. Recreational cannabis cultivation and use remains illegal with state-based criminal laws still in place. http://www.businessinsider.com.au/medical-marijuana-is-now-legal-in-australia-2016-2   <Back to Top>   Disclaimer: the views and opinions expressed in these articles do not necessarily reflect those of Doctors for Life International]]>

Abortion USA – March for Life aims to defend rights of the unborn Brazil – Activists use Zika epidemic to press for abortion USA – D.A. Who Indicted Daleiden Received Cash from Abortionists Attorney USA – Ohio Senate De-Funds Planned Parenthood by $1 Million Alternative Medicine UK – Alternative medicine faces ban USA – Kratom Can Offer Relief but Sometimes a Relapse Euthanasia Canada – First euthanasia case – but was it legal? USA -American medical Association debates assisted suicide Belgium – Euthanasia continues to rise in Belgium IVF& Surrogacy UK – Genetic pattern in womb linked to IVF failure Vietnam – Surrogacy offered to parents who qualify Medical Ethics UK – On the verge of editing the genome of human embryos USA – Embryo custody battles on the rise USA – Complications of “effective referral” UK – London sperm bank allegedly promoting eugenics Pedophilia Indonesia – Sex abusers of children to be chemically castrated UK – Viewers of child sex abuse could lose homes Pornography   USA – Man puts up Billboard Addressing the Destructive Nature of Porn USA – Porn viewing escalates in India even though it is banned Canada – Police are warning teenagers of the dangers of “sexting” Canada – Sex Education curriculum to be released soon Same Sex Attraction USA – Republican lawmaker seek bans on LGBT conversion therapy Sexual Exploitation USA – The 2016Polaris Project Report United Arab Emirates – A centre of human trafficking and prostitution USA – Victims of Human Trafficking Must Be Treated As Victims USA – Five Harmful Myths About Human Trafficking Substance Abuse South Africa – Children are overprescribed mind-altering drugs USA – Drug Overdoses Hit Record High USA – Supportive Home Environment Helps Kids of Meth Addicted Moms Canada – Teens who use cannabis at risk of schizophrenia   Abortion   USA – March for Life aims to defend rights of the unborn On Jan. 22, 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down all existing state laws protecting unborn children from abortion. The National Right to Life Committee estimates that over 58 million unborn children have been aborted in the United States since then. After 42 years of abortion on demand, numerous studies show that abortion hurts women spiritually, physically and emotionally. Post-abortive women have higher rates of sterility, miscarriage, substance abuse, and suicide as well as breast cancer. This year marks the 42nd annual March for Life in Washington, D.C. The March for Life is the longest consecutive demonstration in U.S. history. http://www.stltoday.com/news/opinion/mailbag/march-for-life-aims-to-defend-rights-of-the-unborn/article_f2959756-0ec8-5d41-b28d-b10d8e2c45a2.html   Brazil – Activists use Zika epidemic to press for abortion The abortion debate has been reignited in Brazil amid fears about severe birth defects linked to the Zika virus which causes defects such as microcephaly in foetuses, though the link is yet to be scientifically proven. A group of Brazilian academics and activists has created a petition to ask the country’s Supreme Court to allow abortions for women who have contracted the virus. The group, based around the Anis Institute of Bioethics, Human Rights and Gender at Brazilia University, successfully campaigned in 2012 to add a third exception to Brazil’s ban on abortion. Now in addition to medical emergencies and rapecases, women can legally seek an abortion if their child is suffering from anencephaly. http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/zika-and-abortion-in-brazil/11733#sthash.h3JVL0yh.dpuf   USA – D.A. Who Indicted Daleiden Received Cash from Abortionists Attorney Devon Anderson’s re-election campaign received more than $25,000 from attorney, Chip Lewis who works for late-term abortionist, Douglas Karpen. Anderson’s personal relationship with Karpen’s attorney may have contributed to the failure of the grand jury to indict Karpen. Operation Rescue commented, “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire, and there’s just way too much smoke blowing Planned Parenthood’s way in Harris County for us to feel remotely comfortable that Anderson’s office can conduct a fair and impartial investigation”.  A Planned Parenthood board member Lauren Reeder also works for Anderson as an assistant district attorney. Although Anderson indicates Reeder had no role in the Daleiden indictment, there’s really no way of knowing if that is truly the case. http://www.lifenews.com/2016/01/28/d-a-who-indicted-david-daleiden-received-over-25000-from-attorney-for-late-term-abortionist/   USA – Ohio Senate De-Funds Planned Parenthood by $1 Million Legislation to de-fund Planned Parenthood (H.B. 294) was approved by the Ohio Senate on a 22-8 vote as the House passed the legislation, 62-30. House Bill 294 now heads back to the Ohio House for concurrence, and then on to the desk of Governor John Kasich, who has signed 16 Ohio Right to Life initiatives over the last five years. “With an infant mortality crisis like Ohio’s, our State has to be very deliberate in ensuring that funds combating that crisis go to programs that respect the whole continuum of life,” said Stephanie Ranade Krider, executive director of Ohio Right to Life. http://www.lifenews.com/2016/01/27/ohio-senate-de-funds-planned-parenthood-after-it-sells-aborted-baby-parts-cuts-1-million/   Alternative Medicine   UK – Alternative medicine faces ban Ministers in the United Kingdom recently announced that the National Health Service could ban doctors from prescribing homeopathic remedies. ”We need governments around the world to recognize the dangers of promoting homeopathy for life-threatening illnesses,” said Robert Hagan, a biomolecular scientist at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. We are calling on the WHO to condemn the promotion of homeopathy for treating TB, infant diarrhea, influenza, malaria and HIV. Homeopathy does not protect people from, or treat, these diseases. Paula Ross, chief executive of the Society of Homeopaths, agreed with the concerns about promoting homeopathy remedies. http://www.salon.com/2015/12/24/the_homeopathy_backlash_is_on_alternative_medicine_faces_ban_in_u_k_partner/   USA – Kratom Can Offer Relief but Sometimes a Relapse A Southeast Asian leaf called Kratom affects the brain like an opiate and can be addictive. “It’s a fascinating drug, but we need to know a lot more about it,” said Dr. Edward W. Boyer, University of Massachusetts Medical School and a co-author of several scientific articles on Kratom. Because it’s categorized as a botanic dietary supplement, the FDA cannot restrict its sale. The FDA did ban the import of Kratom into United States in 2014. However, the DEA has listed it as a “drug of concern” not a controlled substance, which would require proven health risks and abuse potential. Kratom’s narcotic effects have been known for centuries in its native Thailand who banned it decades ago amid widespread abuse. http://food.ndtv.com/opinions/an-alternative-for-addicts-kratom-can-offer-relief-and-sometimes-a-relapse-1261936   <Back to Top>   Euthanasia   Canada -Was the first euthanasia caselegal At least one person and perhaps three have been euthanized in Quebec since the Canadian province’s legislation went into effect in December. Dr Georges L’Espérance, president of the death-with-dignity group (l’Association québécoise pour le droit de mourir dans la dignité), said that he was not aware of the circumstances surrounding the deaths. Although the Supreme Court struck down the prohibition of assisted suicide and euthanasia in February 2015, the legality of the deaths is disputed, as the deaths in Quebec preceded the Supreme Court’s concession and thus were technically illegal. http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/first-euthanasia-case-in-quebec/11720   USA -American medical Association debates assisted suicide The latest issue of JAMA (Journal of American Medical Associations) showcases the views of leading American doctors and lawyers on physician-assisted suicide (PAS). The theme is captured by the headline above one of the articles: “Physician-Assisted Dying: Turning Point?” After California legalized it last year, other US states could follow. Nothing novel emerges from the discussion, other than a sense of impending change. http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/jama-debates-assisted-suicide/11721   Belgium – Euthanasia continues to rise in Belgium The latest statistics released by Belgium’s Federal Evaluation and Control Commission for Euthanasia, put the total of recorded cases in 2015 at 2021 (a rise of over 100 cases from 2014).Wim Distelmans, head of the commission, attributes the surge to an increase in the reporting of euthanasia by doctors. Distelmans said the actual total of deaths in 2015 might be much higher than reported. “Remember, there could be some euthanasia cases carried out but which are not declared so we cannot say for certain what the position is”. http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/euthanasia-continues-to-rise-in-belgium/11735   <Back to Top>   Same Sex Attraction   USA – Republican lawmaker seek bans on LGBT conversion therapy A Republican lawmaker is proposing legislation in New Hampshire to ban therapy aimed at changing the sexual orientation of minors, a move that is sure to cause friction within the party. Eric Schleien said he doesn’t think it’s possible to change someone’s sexual orientation through so-called conversion therapy but some fellow Republican lawmakers say the effort could undermine religious liberty and parental rights. If Schleien’s bill passes, New Hampshire would become the fifth state to ban the practice. The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to legalize gay marriage nationwide last year ignited a new fight over religious liberty, with some people arguing that being forced to recognize gay marriage violates religious freedom. http://www.benningtonbanner.com/state/ci_28971669/republican-lawmaker-seek-bans-lgbt-conversion-therapy-new?source=rss_viewed   <Back to Top>   IVF&Surrogacy   UK – Genetic pattern in womb linked to IVF failure ‘Many women undergo a number of In- Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) cycles without success despite having good quality embryos and, up to now, it has been unclear whether or not the lining of the womb may be the cause of that,’ said Nick Macklon, Chair in obstetrics and gynaecology at the University of Southampton in UK.In this new study, scientists have identified a genetic pattern in the womb that could predict whether or not IVF treatment is likely to be successful. The discovery would help clinicians understand why IVF fails repeatedly in some women. The study was published in the journal Scientific Reports. http://www.financialexpress.com/article/lifestyle/health/genetic-pattern-in-womb-linked-to-ivf-failure-study/201800/?   Vietnam – Surrogacy offered to parents who qualify As Thailand closes its doors to commercial surrogacy, another South East Asian nation has tentatively begun to utilize surrogacy for couples unable to have children.Early last year Vietnam amended its marriage and family legislation to allow altruistic surrogacy. Altruistic surrogacy means a practice whereby a woman agrees, for no financial gain, to become pregnant and bear a child for another person or persons to whom she intends to transfer the child’s care at, or shortly after, the child’s birth.Under new regulations, couples must have not yet had a child, and must show that they are unable to conceive, even with IVF. http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/surrogacy-comes-to-vietnam/11725#sthash.QZJ3HLyI.dpuf   <Back to Top>   Medical Ethics   UK – On the verge of editing the genome of human embryos Scientists at the Francis Crick Institute could begin genetically engineering human embryos as early as March if approved.A team led by Kathy Niakan plans to study how embryos develop by systematically disabling genes using CRISPR. However, Dr Calum MacKellar, Director of Research of the Scottish Council on Human Bioethics says:“Allowing gene editing of embryos opens the road to genetically modifying all the descendants of a person as well as full blown eugenics which was condemned by all civilized societies after the Second World War. It is the very future of the way in which societies accept persons with disabilities that is at play since such gene editing procedures infer that they should not have been brought into existence.” http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/uk-on-verge-of-editing-genome-of-human-embryos/11714   USA – Embryo custody battles on the rise Two embryos were “left over” after Jalesia McQueen and Justin Gadberry used IVF to have twins, now 8. A Missouri County Court ruled that the now divorced couple ‘jointly’ owns the remaining embryos. She wants more children and he wants the embryos destroyed. McQueen’s appeal to the Missouri Court of Appeals is indicative of a broader trend in embryo disputes: affected parties are increasingly appealing to the legal status of embryos as persons to prevent their destruction. Although no US jurisdiction treats embryos as persons entitled to constitutional protection, the Chicago-based Thomas More Society, which is providing legal assistance to McQueen, says that there is legislation in a number of US jurisdictions stating that life begins with conception. http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/embryo-custody-battles-on-the-rise/11724   USA – Complications of “effective referral” Whether doctors with a conscientious objection to abortion or euthanasia have an obligation to refer patients is hotly debated. The Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons, for instance, strongly supports “effective referral” for euthanasia. However, the trial of a 95-year-old former healthcare worker at Auschwitz might make the position of conscientious objectors more plausible. 94-year-old Oscar Groening, dubbed “the bookkeeper of Auschwitz”, was convicted and sentenced to four years in jail, even though he had no direct involvement in the deaths of the camp’s inmates. Perhaps it makes sense for doctors to have misgivings about being complicit in controversial procedures. What is legal now may be condemned in the future and “effective referral” might not be accepted as an excuse. http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/the-challenge-of-conscientious-objection/11722   UK – London sperm bank allegedly promoting eugenics Following complaints about a London Sperm Bank, the Human Fertility and Embryology Authority has asked why donors with medical conditions are being excluded. Fred Fisher, a 30-year-old dyslexic Oxford graduate software engineer was rejected by the sperm bank. “I told them this was eugenics. Would they turn away Richard Branson or Albert Einstein? Steve O’Brien, chair of the Dyslexia Foundation commented: “This is eugenics. It’s trying to say that dyslexics shouldn’t be in society.” A spokesperson for the London Sperm Bank denied that the company’s policy was eugenicist. However, in a now-withdrawn leaflet, it stated that it excluded men with certain conditions to “minimize the risk of transmitting common genetic diseases or malformations to any children born”. http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/london-sperm-bank-allegedly-promoting-eugenics/11730   <Back to Top>   Pedophilia   Indonesia – Sex abusers of children to be chemically castrated President Joko Widodo is set to issue a regulation which stipulates a harsher sanction for anyone who commits sexual violence against children. This will involve injecting a hormone to reduce libido and sexual activity, in an attempt to minimize the chances of re-offending. http://www.iol.co.za/news/world/sex-abusers-to-be-chemically-castrated-1979784   UK – Viewers of child sex abuse could lose homes People who view images of child sex abuse could lose their homes or pensions under new US-style laws being proposed by a powerful coalition of children’s charities demanding action from the British government. The act would force offenders to pay damages that would help their victims to pay for medical services, therapy, lost income and legal fees.  John Carr, the coalition’s secretary, said a new law was urgently needed. Estimates suggest that pedophiles in the UK alone could be holding between 150 million and 360 million images of child abuse. “I think this could be a very effective. If guys know they could lose their house or their pension, they’ll think twice.” http://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/jan/16/internet-paedophiles-pay-damages-childrens-charities-michael-gove   <Back to Top>   Pornography   USA – Man puts up Billboard Addressing the Destructive Nature of Porn A Wisconsin 73-year old retired insurance broker, Jim Guell, got tired of seeing billboards advertising adult stores near his home, so he decided to take action. He struggled with pornography as a young man, so he knows how destructive it can be.Guell teamed up with a Catholic fraternal association and raised funds to design billboards which have slogans like “Porn Destroys Love” to counter the billboards being displayed.People are taking notice of the new billboard and have mentioned it to Guell who hopes it will make a difference. http://www.christianheadlines.com/blog/wisconsin-man-starts-effort-to-erect-billboard-stating-porn-destroys-love.html   USA – Porn viewing escalates in India even though it is banned Ban or no ban, India is watching more porn than ever. In 2015, India knocked out Canada to grab the third position behind the US and Britain in visiting one of the world’s largest adult websites Pornhub. PornHub received 21.2 billion visits in 2015 – 40,000 visits every minute or 2.4 million per hour. Visits from Smartphone’s alone now account for 53 percent of traffic shares, up from just 45 percent last year. http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/ban-or-no-ban-india-watching-more-porn-than-ever-survey-1264719   Canada – Police are warning teenagers of the dangers of “sexting” Police are warning teenagers of the dangers of “sexting” after numerous students are facing consequences for sending nude photos to one another.Durham Regional Police said a parent reported that nude photos of her child’s female classmate were being circulated by a male classmate.An investigation was launched after learning that there were some very disturbing images being passed between students at different schools according to Sgt. Bill Calder.Police have entered into “diversion contracts” with the teens, which are agreements that must be followed in order to prevent criminal charges being laid. http://globalnews.ca/news/2390587/police-issue-warning-on-sexting-after-ontario-teens-reprimanded-over-nude-photos/   Canada – Sex Education curriculum to be released soon Students will learn about the benefits and potential dangers of online activity in Grade 1 and about “sexting” in Grade 4 under Ontario’s revised sex education curriculum.The guide says students in Grades 1, 2 and 3 will learn initial searching skills and strategies for safe Internet use, including “how to get help for themselves or others if harassment or abuse happens either face-to-face or online.”The primary grade students will also learn the difference between real and fictional violence, in the media or with online games, and “respectful communications” in the gym, classroom and schoolyard. http://globalnews.ca/news/1844024/sexting-risks-part-of-ontarios-revised-sex-ed-curriculum/   <Back to Top>   Sexual Exploitation   USA – The 2016Polaris Project Report Thisreport provides 2015 data from the National Human Trafficking Resource Centre (NHTRC) hotline.In 2015, the NHTRC received 21,947 calls, 1,535 web-forms, 1275 emails and 1,472 SMS’s.Of these communications 5973 referenced potential cases of human trafficking.252 of the human trafficking cases reported occurred overseas.In total, 25,696 trafficking cases have been reported through the NHTRC since December 2007.More than 1,600 survivors of human trafficking reached out for help in 2015, a 24{01b0879e117dd7326006b2e84bcaac7e8fa1509c5c67baf2c9eb498fe06caff4} increase over 2014.The top venue for sex trafficking was commercial front brothels and the top industry for labor trafficking was domestic work. https://polarisproject.org/resources/2015-hotline-statistics https://traffickingresourcecenter.org   United Arab Emirates –Dubai known as centre of human trafficking and prostitution Dubai, one of seven emirates, is known as a centre for prostitution and sex tourism in the Middle East. Some estimates have 30,000 sex workers there alone where prostitutes offer their services openly. Even though prostitution is strictly forbidden in the UAE and Sharia courts can impose flogging, Dubai, Sharjah and Ras al-Khaimah have shelters combating human trafficking after a law was passed in 2006 criminalizing it. In 2014 only 15 women took their cases to court. An activist for migrants’ rights from one of the Persian Gulf countries, who asked not to be named, says that “literally on a monthly basis” they receive reports about domestic workers sold into sex slavery upon arrival in Dubai. http://www.smh.com.au/world/dubai-in-united-arab-emirates-an-epicentre-of-human-trafficking-and-prostitution-20160115-gm6mdl.html#ixzz3xm11ZTY0   USA – Victims of Human Trafficking Must Be Treated As Victims January was Human Trafficking Awareness Month writes Preston Ship, a former prosecutor turned criminal justice reform advocate. It is estimated that half of the victims of human trafficking are children, with an average age between 11 and 14 years old when they enter the world of sex trafficking. Many of these children have run away from abusive or neglectful homes, are living on the streets and are forced into the commercial sex trade to acquire food, shelter, and clothing necessary for survival. They are easy targets for traffickers, who lie, manipulate, threaten, and violently force them into prostitution. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/preston-shipp/victims-of-human-trafficking_b_9090210.html   USA – Five Harmful Myths of Human Trafficking The Honorable Judy Harris Kluger, executive director of the Sanctuary for Families in the US says human trafficking is kept under wraps, overlooked and often ignored. Few reliable studies exist about its prevalence and it is important to dispel some often-repeated myths about trafficking. Kluger summarizes them as follows:1: Human trafficking only happens in countries far away from the United States.2: Only women are victims of human trafficking.3: Human trafficking requires physical force or restraint.4: Human trafficking is a small, underground industry that doesn’t affect many people.5: There is nothing I can do to end human trafficking. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/hon-judy-harris-kluger/five-harmful-myths-about-_b_8994544.html   <Back to Top>   Substance Abuse   South Africa – Children are overprescribed mind-altering drugs South Africa reports having one of the highest rates in the world of prescribed stimulants for children labelled with so-called Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder – a rate even higher than in the U.S. South Africa also shows antidepressants are being prescribed to children aged two and younger and powerful antipsychotics like Risperdal are approved to treat disruptive behaviour in children older than 5 with mental retardation. Wanting South Africa to avoid the epidemic of psychotropic drug abuse of children seen in the U.S., Citizens Commission on Human Rights International (CCHR) has launched a campaign to inform South African parents and teachers about prescribed psychotropic drug risks in children. http://www.health24.com/Medical/ADHD/ADHD-and-school/south-african-toddlers-prescribed-mind-altering-stimulants-antidepressants-and-antipsychotics-20160129   USA – Drug Overdoses Hit Record High In 2014 more than 47000 Americans died from drug overdoses fuelled largely by the abuse of narcotic painkillers and heroin- a 14 percent increase over 2013. Since 2000 nearly 500000 people have died from overdoses, according to a new report from the U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. “The increasing number of deaths from opioid overdose is alarming,” CDC director Dr. Tom Frieden said in a statement. “To curb these trends and save lives, we must help prevent addiction and provide support and treatment to those who suffer from opioid use disorders,” he said. Oxycodone and hydrocodone, continue to be among the most commonly prescribed narcotic painkillers, and are responsible for more overdose deaths than any other narcotic. http://health.usnews.com/health-news/articles/2015-12-18/drug-overdoses-hit-record-high-cdc   USA – Supportive Home Environment Helps Kids of Meth Addicted Moms Abuse of methamphetamine during pregnancy remains a significant problem as a new study discovers nearly one-fourth of pregnant women seeking treatment at federal facilities were methamphetamine users. The study, scheduled for publication in The Journal of Paediatrics, found that while prenatal methamphetamine exposure can lead to targeted behavioural issues, a supportive home environment significantly decreases the severity and risk of these issues.“In the first study of its kind, we followed children who experienced prenatal methamphetamine exposure, up to the age of 7.5 years and found that adversities, such as poverty and continued drug abuse by a parent, contributed to behavioural and emotional control issues,” said Lynne M. Smith, M.D., lead researcher and corresponding author of the study. http://psychcentral.com/news/2016/01/25/supportive-home-environment-helps-kids-of-moms-hooked-on-meth/98145.html   Canada – Teens who use cannabis at risk of schizophrenia Researchers from Western University in Ontario have shed light on the significant, long-term impacts of THC on the adolescent brain, after exposing adolescent rodents to THC. Using a combination of behavioral and molecular analyses with in vivo neuronal electrophysiology, results showed substantial and persistent behavioral, neuronal and molecular changes that are identical to neuropsychiatric conditions, such as schizophrenia. Adolescent rodents with THC exposure were socially withdrawn and demonstrated increased anxiety, cognitive disorganization and abnormal levels of dopamine. This is consistent with sub-cortical DAergic dysregulation, a key characteristic of schizophrenia. Several prefrontal cortical molecular pathways were also profoundly altered. These changes continued into early adulthood, well past the initial exposure. Dr Steven Laviolette, PhD, led the research. http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/305151.php   <Back to Top>   Disclaimer: the views and opinions expressed in these articles do not necessarily reflect those of Doctors for Life International]]>

LIFEalerts 22 January 2016

Abortion	USA – President Obama vetoes legislation defunding Planned Parenthood USA – Kansas Governor defunds Planned Parenthood Medicaid funding
Alternative Medicine	No news today
Euthanasia	Netherlands – Demented patients can now be euthanized
HIV/AIDS	No news today
Homosexuality	No news today
IVF & Surrogacy	USA – The more cycles the better says study Italy – Treat surrogate parents as sex offenders says Italian minister
Medical Ethics	USA – The top tech ethical issues of 2016 USA – Clinics obliged to offer fertility services to transgender people USA – Most research using fetal tissue is on infectious diseases
Pedophilia	Japan – Can Child Dolls Keep Pedophiles from Offending? USA – Actor arrested for images of child sexual exploitation
Pornography	USA – Study: Watching Porn Can Make You Sexually Aggressive USA – Possible link between pornography and dating abuse among teens USA – More than one in ten youth pastors addicted to porn USA – PornhHub statistics
Prostitution &Trafficking	Netherlands – Sex is now acceptable tender for driving lessons USA – FBI has new plan to stop Super Bowl prostitution
Stem Cells & Cloning	No news today
Substance Abuse	USA – Planned Parenthood gunman was a “marijuana newcomer” USA – Over 400 conditions co-occur with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders USA – Spike in Newborn Drug-Withdrawal Australia – Marijuana and Your Health: 20 Years of Research

  Abortion   USA – President Obama vetoes legislation defunding Planned Parenthood President Barack Obama vetoed legislation that would have ended $400 Million of the over $500 Million in forced taxpayer funding going to Planned Parenthood for 1 year. The measure would have shifted PP’s public subsidies to comprehensive health care clinics that offer more health services and outnumber the abortion giant 20 to 1. Bill H.R. 3762, which included efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, is the first bill to pass both houses of congress and make it to the president Obama’s desk. Obama shows blatant disregard for what the American people want and shows his close affiliation with PP and his pro abortion stance is clear. http://liveactionnews.org/breaking-president-obama-vetoes-legislation-defunding-planned-parenthood/   USA – Kansas Governor defunds Planned Parenthood Medicaid funding In his state address, Kansas governor Sam Brownback announced Planned Parenthood will no longer receive public funding through the state’s Medicaid program. Addressing a joint session of the Legislature, Brownback encouraged lawmakers to make the mandate state law.“The time has come to finish the job,” the governor urged. Brownback has ordered the state’s Department of Health and Environment to ensure “not a single dollar of taxpayer money goes to Planned Parenthood,” making Kansas the eighth state to defund the abortion giant. http://liveactionnews.org/kansas-defunds-planned-parenthood-blocks-group-from-receiving-medicaid-funds/   Alternative Medicine   No news today   <Back to Top>   Euthanasia   Netherlands – Demented patients can now be euthanized The Netherlands health ministry has revised its guidelines to allow severely demented patients to be euthanized. The guidelines acknowledge that patients often do not seem to be suffering unbearably because of their dementia. However, they still suffer from conditions like severe anxiety and pain. “In those cases a doctor may give euthanasia, even if a patient cannot make it clear in words or gesture,” says the ministry. “But there has to be a written request for euthanasia, that the patient drew up earlier.” http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/demented-patients-can-be-euthanized-in-netherlands/11706   <Back to Top>   HIV/AIDS & STI’s   No news today   <Back to Top>   Homosexuality   No news today   <Back to Top>   IVF &Surrogacy   USA – The more cycles the better says study Research published in The Journal of The American Medical Association looked at the likelihood of achieving a live birth from up to 9 cycles. The study included 157,000 UK-based women who received almost 260,000 IVF ovarian stimulation cycles between 2003 and 2010 and were followed up until June 2012. The median age at start of treatment was 35 years and the median duration of infertility for all cycles was 4 years. Professor Lawlor from the University of Bristol said: “These findings support extending the number of IVF cycles beyond 3 or 4. Scientists at the universities of Bristol and Glasgow said patients should not view the process as a “single shot”. Chances of success increased with the number of treatments. http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/ivf-two-thirds-of-couples-conceive-by-sixth-cycle-of-treatment-study-says-a6783341.html   Italy -Treat surrogate parents as sex offenders says Italian minister Surrogate parents should be treated as sex-offenders and jailed, according to Italy’s interior minister, Angelino Alfano. He described surrogacy as “the most vile, illegal trade that man has invented” in an interview. “We want wombs-for-rent to become a universal crime, punished with a jail term just as it happens for sex crimes.” 56 http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/treat-surrogate-parents-as-sex-offenders-says-italian-minister/11704#sthash.7CpOg5RN.dpuf   <Back to Top>   Medical Ethics   USA – The top tech ethical issues of 2016 The John J. Reilly Centre for Science, Technology and Values at the University of Notre Dame has released its annual list to get people thinking before controversial science or technology goes mainstream. Here are some of the ethical issues; CRISPR/Cas9 technology for gene editing; Rapid whole genome diagnosis – a way to record and catalogue the genomes of newborns in order to improve disease detection; Head transplants – a procedure that one doctor has promised to develop by 2017. Artificial wombs – the potential to grow a human foetus outside of a woman’s body is creating concerns with women’s rights advocates; Exoskeletons for the elderly – technology that helps people be more mobile and keep working but postpones retirement. http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/the-top-tech-ethical-issues-of-2016/11696#sthash.QpgjDiKU.dpuf   USA – Clinics obliged to offer fertility services to transgender people The Ethics Committee of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine has issued a formal opinion that there are no reasons to view transgender parenting unfavourably. The committee argues that it would actually be wrong to deny patients this right. “Professional autonomy, while a significant value in deciding whom to treat, is limited in this case by a greater ethical obligation, and in some jurisdictions, a legal duty, to regard all persons equally, regardless of their gender identity.”  “The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry affirms that ‘there is no evidence to support that parents who are … transgender are per se deficient in parenting skills, child-centered concerns, and parent-child attachments compared with heterosexual parents’.” http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/us-clinics-obliged-to-offer-fertility-services-to-transgenders/11697   USA – Most research using fetal tissue is on infectious diseases Fetal tissue research has featured prominently in the headlines this year, after Planned Parenthood was filmed talking about sales of fetal parts to researchers. But less is known about what the scientists do with the tissue. Meredith Wadman, a journalist for Nature, found that the National institutes of health had funded 164 of these projects, at a cost of US$76 million – only 0.27{01b0879e117dd7326006b2e84bcaac7e8fa1509c5c67baf2c9eb498fe06caff4} of its grants. Here is what Nature found: 39{01b0879e117dd7326006b2e84bcaac7e8fa1509c5c67baf2c9eb498fe06caff4} was used for HIV research, 18{01b0879e117dd7326006b2e84bcaac7e8fa1509c5c67baf2c9eb498fe06caff4} for developmental biology, 14{01b0879e117dd7326006b2e84bcaac7e8fa1509c5c67baf2c9eb498fe06caff4} for eye development and disease, 13 percent for infectious diseases like hepatitis, 8{01b0879e117dd7326006b2e84bcaac7e8fa1509c5c67baf2c9eb498fe06caff4} for miscellaneous such as type 1 diabetes, 7{01b0879e117dd7326006b2e84bcaac7e8fa1509c5c67baf2c9eb498fe06caff4} for in utero diseases, toxic exposure and congenital conditions, and 1{01b0879e117dd7326006b2e84bcaac7e8fa1509c5c67baf2c9eb498fe06caff4} as a fetal tissue repository. http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/most-research-using-foetal-tissue-focuses-on-infectious-diseases/11691   <Back to Top>   Pedophilia   Japan – Can Child Dolls Keep Pedophiles from Offending? Takagi a non-offending pedophile has founded a company that produces life-like child sex doll imitations of girls as young as five to clients around the world. “We should accept that there is no way to change someone’s fetishes,” Takagi said. “I am helping people express their desires, legally and ethically. So far, there is no research to indicate whether or not Takagi’s dolls would be successful, and Peter Fagan from the John Hopkins School of Medicine is skeptical that there ever will be. Citing cognitive-behavioral theory, the paraphilia researcher believes that contact with Trottla’s products would likely have a “reinforcing effect” on pedophilic ideation and “in many instances, cause it to be acted upon with greater urgency.” http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/01/can-child-dolls-keep-pedophiles-from-offending/423324/#article-comments USA – Actor arrested for images of child sexual exploitation                                                                                               Mark Salling has been found with more than 1000 images of “child sexual exploitation” on his computer. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 5, the “extensive use of pornography depicting prepubescent children is a useful diagnostic indicator of a Pedophilic Disorder.” Researchers are still not sure what causes pedophilia. “The best information we have now suggests that it is really on the nature side,” said clinical psychologist James Cantor, an associate professor at the University of Toronto, Faculty of Medicine. Cantor says evidence suggests that a pedophile can’t be turned into a non-pedophile, but there are treatments, such as sex-drive-reducing medication and psychotherapy. https://www.yahoo.com/health/mark-salling-child-porn-215241330.html   <Back to Top>   Pornography   USA – Study: Watching Porn Can Make You Sexually Aggressive Spending too much time watching pornography can make you sexually aggressive, new research has found. The analysis of 22 studies from seven different countries found that pornography consumption is associated with sexual aggression across the countries among both males and females. Although the researchers acknowledge that “many pornography consumers are not sexually aggressive”, they ultimately concluded that “the accumulated data leave little doubt that, on the average, individuals who consume pornography more frequently are more likely to hold attitudes conducive to sexual aggression and engage in actual acts of sexual aggression than individuals who do not consume pornography or who consume pornography less frequently”. http://www.newindianexpress.com/world/Watching-Porn-Can-Make-You-Sexually-Aggressive-Study/2016/01/04/article3211300.ece   USA – Possible link between pornography and dating abuse among teens Teenagers who were victims of dating abuse reported viewing pornography twice as often as non-victimized peers, suggesting a possible link between dating abuse and pornography exposure, according to a new study led by a School of Public Health researcher, Emily Rothman, associate professor of community health sciences. The study was published in the journal Behavioral Sciences. The study found that more than half of all participants (51 percent) had been asked to watch pornography together by a dating or sexual partner. Overall, 44 percent of the youths reported that they had been asked to do something sexual that a partner saw in pornography. http://www.bu.edu/sph/2016/01/11/link-between-pornography-use-and-dating-abuse-among-urban-teens/   USA – More than one in ten youth pastors addicted to porn Josh McDowell Ministries commissioned the Barna Group to conduct a national survey of 3,000 people, including teens, pastors, and others. The survey claims to be the “most comprehensive, in-depth and wide-ranging study to date on pornography among the American population.” The massive survey found that teens, both boys and girls view porn weekly, and 41 percent have “sexted” a sexually explicit image. But perhaps the most disconcerting discovery of the McDowell survey is the high number of pastors at 21 percent of youth ministers and 14 percent of pastors who admit they struggle with pornography. Moreover, twelve percent of youth pastors and five percent of pastors admit they are addicted to internet porn. https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/porn-phenomenon-survey-finds-more-than-one-in-ten-youth-pastors-addicted-to   USA – PornhHub statistics People watched 4,392,486,580 hours of porn on PornHub in 2015. That means that in one year people around the world spent 501,425 years watching pornography, on one porn site. On PornHub, people watched 87,849,731,608 porn videos. As the porn site hastened to point out, that’s 12 porn videos viewed for every single person on the planet. https://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/pornhub-just-released-their-2015-statistics.-and-its-sickening   <Back to Top>   Prostitution & Trafficking   Netherlands – Sex is now acceptable tender for driving lessons The Dutch have introduced a new law which says any driving student can use sex as payment as long as they are over the age of 18.  Prostitution is legal in the country with sex workers requiring an escort license and to pay taxes on a self-employment basis. The law has a thin line: driving students cannot offer sex for driving lessons. As long as the instructor makes the deal, two consenting adults have the green light to enter into such a contract. http://www.thesouthafrican.com/in-holland-sex-is-now-acceptable-tender-for-driving-lessons/   USA – FBI has new plan to stop Super Bowl prostitution For the first time in its efforts to crack down on sex trafficking during the Super Bowl, the FBI will try to reach out to women and girls selling sex. The FBI and local law enforcement agencies announced the arrests in February of 360 sex buyers and 68 traffickers and the recovery of 30 juvenile victims in a six-month operation in anticipation of the 2015 Super Bowl.” We want to do everything we can to put that victim at ease and put them in a situation where they feel more safe”. http://nypost.com/2016/01/12/fbi-has-new-plan-to-stop-super-bowl-hookers/   <Back to Top>   Stem Cells & Cloning   No news today   <Back to Top>   Substance Abuse   USA – Planned Parenthood gunman was a “marijuana newcomer” Robert Dear’s arrival in Colorado was part of a frenetic migration some locals derisively call the “green rush.” Just as people rushed haphazardly into the Rockies for gold in 1858, many of Hartsel’s newcomers moved there from across the country after recreational marijuana was legalized in 2012, rancher Keith Wells said. Locals identify Dear, the man accused of killing three people at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, with the marijuana migration because they often live in squalid, makeshift homes on the high plains. According to a New York Times profile, Dear sought companions with whom he could smoke marijuana in North Carolina, where he lived before moving to Colorado in 2014. http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_29214166/planned-parenthood-gunman-was-marijuana-newcomer-say-rural?source=infinite-up   USA – Over 400 conditions co-occur with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Researchers at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) have identified 428 distinct disease conditions that co-occur in people with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD), in the most comprehensive review of its kind. The results were published in The Lancet. “We’ve systematically identified numerous disease conditions co-occurring with FASD, which underscores the fact that it isn’t safe to drink any amount or type of alcohol at any stage of pregnancy, despite the conflicting messages the public may hear,” says Dr. Lana Popova, Senior Scientist in Social and Epidemiological Research at CAMH, and lead author on the paper. “Alcohol can affect any organ or system in the developing fetus.” http://www.statnews.com/2016/01/04/fda-2016-agency-agenda/   USA – Spike in Newborn Drug-Withdrawal More babies are being born with drug withdrawal syndrome, due to increased use of powerful prescription painkillers by pregnant women, according to the director of the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse. It’s estimated that 14{01b0879e117dd7326006b2e84bcaac7e8fa1509c5c67baf2c9eb498fe06caff4}-22{01b0879e117dd7326006b2e84bcaac7e8fa1509c5c67baf2c9eb498fe06caff4} of pregnant women in the US are prescribed narcotic “opioid” painkillers. These drugs include brands such as OxyContin and Percocet. In addition, there has reportedly been an increase in the rate of painkiller abuse among pregnant women. Between 2000 and 2009, the incidence of drug withdrawal syndrome among newborns, also called neonatal abstinence syndrome, rose from 1.2 to 3.4 per 1,000 live births, NIDA Director Dr. Nora Volkow reported in an article published in the Jan 2016 edition of the BMJ. http://health.usnews.com/health-news/articles/2016-01-12/spike-in-newborn-drug-withdrawal-tied-to-prenatal-painkiller-use   Australia – Marijuana and Your Health: 20 Years of Research In a review, author Wayne Hall, a professor and director of the Centre for Youth Substance Abuse Research, University of Queensland in Australia, examined scientific evidence on marijuana’s health effects between 1993 and 2013. He found that adolescents who use cannabis regularly are about twice as likely as their nonuser peers to drop out of school, as well as experience cognitive impairment and psychoses as adults. Studies have also linked regular cannabis use in adolescence with the use of other illicit drugs, according to the review, published in the journal Addiction. It’s likely that middle-age people who smoke marijuana regularly are at an increased risk of experiencing a heart attack. These are a few of the statistics from the review. http://www.livescience.com/48171-marijuana-research-health-effects-review.html?cmpid=514627_20160114_56869406&adbid=10153190695391761&adbpl=fb&adbpr=30478646760   <Back to Top>   Disclaimer: the views and opinions expressed in these articles do not necessarily reflect those of Doctors for Life International]]>

Abortion Dominican Republic – Court Upholds Abortion Ban Alternative Medicine No news today Euthanasia South Africa – Sean Davidson fails to comply with own controls HIV/AIDS No news today Homosexuality No news today IVF & Surrogacy China – Set to be the biggest IVF market in the world Poland – New Government Pulls State Funding for IVF  Sweden – Study concludes that Surrogacy is Mostly Positive Mexico – Tabasco bans surrogacy for same sex and foreign people Medical Ethics USA – So Forced feeding is not OK in Guantanamo but is in nursing homes USA – Summit fails to ban genetic engineering of human embryos Pedophilia

No news today

Pornography No news today Prostitution &Trafficking USA – Trafficking in Persons (Act) Report 2015 USA – Services for survivors of domestic sex trafficking Ireland – Increase in number of sex workers seeking help Vietnam – Trafficking of Women and Girls for Sexual Exploitation Stem Cells & Cloning No news today Substance Abuse South Africa – Methamphetamine sold as sweets to school children USA – FDA approves Naloxone nasal spray to reverse opioid overdose USA – DEA Chief Says Medical Marijuana Is a ‘Joke’ USA – Ohio Votes Against Marijuana USA – School Seniors More Likely to Smoke Pot Than Cigarettes   Abortion   Dominican Republic – Court Upholds Abortion Ban The Dominican Republic is holding fast to its pro-life principles after its highest court blocked a new law that would have legalized abortions. Last year, the country’s congress and President Danilo Medina approved amendments to their criminal code to allow abortion in cases of rape, incest, fetal deformity or danger to the woman’s life. However, several pro-life groups filed a complaint against the law, saying it violated the country’s constitution. The high court agreed that the amendments were unconstitutional. The amendment states:  “the right to life is inviolable from conception until death,” and passed 128 to 32. Central and South American countries are very pro-life, though they have witnessed a growing push from abortion advocates to legalize abortion. http://www.lifenews.com/2015/12/04/dominican-republic-court-upholds-abortion-ban-saving-unborn-children-from-abortions/   Alternative Medicine   No news today   <Back to Top>   Euthanasia   South Africa – Sean Davidson fails to comply with own controls Sean Davison and Dignity SA failed to answer a question on controls posed to him at the UCT Bioethics symposium and via a letter published in the Cape Times. The euthanasia issue will be back in the news in early 2016 when the Stransham-Ford appeal is heard.  Central to the motivation by Dignity SA is that if legalised, there would be ‘strict controls’ on euthanasia. Nevertheless, Sean Davison has admitted to violating his own proposed criteria twice and may have done so a third time, an allegation he has refused to confirm or deny four times.  How do Davison and Dignity SA expect such ‘strict controls’ to be enforced if he fails to comply with his own proposed controls himself? http://www.rootshosting.co.za/docforlife/philip-rosenthal-email-euthanasia/   <Back to Top>   HIV/AIDS & STI’s   No news today   <Back to Top>   Homosexuality   No news today   <Back to Top>   IVF &Surrogacy   China – Set to be the biggest IVF market in the world “Here we can do IVF with gender selection and you don’t need lots of documentation,” a doctor at the Guangdong clinic said, adding there had been a 50{01b0879e117dd7326006b2e84bcaac7e8fa1509c5c67baf2c9eb498fe06caff4} jump in consultations since the one-child policy announcement. Patients and doctors in China said state IVF centres were often over-stretched – little surprise given each clinic serves around 3.8 million people, compared with 700,000 people per clinic in the United States. “Clinics are so busy it’s unbearable. Whichever hospital you go to it’s always rammed with people,” said a junior doctor at an IVF clinic in Shanghai, who asked not to be named. http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/11/30/china-population-ivf-idUSL3N13C13U20151130?rpc=401#hlAZLxLuMtEqUlKB.97   Poland – New Government Pulls State Funding for IVF In-vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment is used by couples who are unable to conceive. It consists of fertilizing an egg outside a woman’s body to produce an embryo that can then be implanted in her womb. In Poland, the previous liberal administration had introduced state funding for IVF, despite staunch opposition from the influential Catholic Church. But, now the new right-wing government has decided to cut this state funding for IVF. http://www.medindia.net/news/polands-new-right-wing-government-pulls-state-funding-for-ivf-155952-1.htm   Sweden – Study concludes that Surrogacy is Mainly Positive The Swedish government is considering a change of legislation to make surrogate motherhood legal in Sweden. The move is backed by research from a Nordic study that established that surrogacy as a rule works well for both the child and the surrogate mother. Among the published results…Children born as a result of surrogacy have no more health issues than children born from ordinary IVF. There are no negative signs concerning the child’s development up to the age of 10. Most surrogate mothers are well motivated, with a desire to help childless couples. Only a small number of surrogates have problems in handing over a child born as a result of this method. http://www.sensiblesurrogacy.com/swedish-study-concludes-that-surrogacy-is-generally-positive/ http://humupd.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2015/10/09/humupd.dmv046.short?rss=1   Mexico – Tabasco bans surrogacy for same sex and foreign people The Gulf coast state of Tabasco is currently the only Mexican state that allows surrogacy, supposedly on a non-commercial basis. It has attracted many foreign and same sex couples looking to have children. But the Tabasco state legislature voted 21-9 on Monday to restrict the option to Mexicans. It also says that couples looking for a child must include a mother aged 25 to 40 who can present proof that she is medically unable to bear a child. Mexico has become a low-cost alternative to the United States, where surrogacy can cost $150,000 or more. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/15/mexico-tabasco-state-surrogacy-gay-men-foreign-couples   <Back to Top>   Medical Ethics   USA – So Forced-feeding is not OK in Guantanamo but is in nursing homes Dr. Haider Javed Warraich of Duke University Medical Centre has compared the practice of force feeding elderly patients to Guantanamo Bay. Tube feeding is often a result of family refusing to accept a disease has progressed beyond remedy. But doctors are often to blame. “… a survey revealed that almost two-thirds of them erroneously believed feeding tubes would improve survival in their patients. In fact, given that tube feeding has now been shown to be harmful in patients with dementia, it should not even be offered to this population.“ The article comes after a widely publicized court case involving an elderly Canadian woman who was fed by her doctors despite a directive asking for this not to happen. http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/run-that-past-me-again-forced-feeding-is-not-ok-in-guantanamo-but-is-ok-in/11679   USA – Summit fails to ban genetic engineering of human embryos Gene-editing with the four-year-old CRISPR technique is already so promising that a meeting of American, British and Chinese scientists has been held in Washington to discuss how it should be regulated. The most controversial item on the agenda was genetic editing of human embryos and germ cells. Unsurprisingly, the International Summit on Human Gene-Editing declared that it would be “irresponsible to proceed with any clinical use of germline editing” until the risks were better understood. But it failed to endorse even a moratorium on human germline gene-editing, let alone a blanket ban. Harvard’s George Church argued that a ban would be unrealistic because it cannot be enforced so research will continue in countries where it is not banned. http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/summit-fails-to-stop-genetic-engineering-of-human-embryos/11683   <Back to Top>   Pedophilia   No news today   <Back to Top>   Pornography   No news today   <Back to Top>   Prostitution & Trafficking   USA – Trafficking in Persons (Act) Report 2015 “This year’s 382 page, report places emphasis on human trafficking globally. It highlights the hidden risks, that workers encounter when seeking employment, and the steps that governments and businesses can take to prevent trafficking.” The bottom line is that this is no time for complacency. Across the globe, victims of human trafficking are daring to imagine the possibility of escape, the chance for a life without fear, and the opportunity to earn a living wage. I echo the words of President Obama and say to them: We hear you, and we will do all we can to make that dream come true. We will not rest until modern slavery is ended.” said John F. Kerry, Secretary of State. http://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/2015/index.htm http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/245365.pdf   USA – Services for survivors of domestic sex trafficking The last decade has seen advances in both scholarship and advocacy regarding the domestic sex trafficking (DST) of women and children, culminating in federal and state legislation addressing this human rights issue, writes Tasha Menaker in The Journal of Crime and Justice, Issue 3 2015. Prostituted women and girls continue to face stigma and blame for victimization. Studies have yet to fully explore perceptions of DST as it intersects with these forms of gendered violence. The current study uses a student sample of survey questionnaires to examine subject perceptions of gendered violence, with a focus on victim and perpetrator blame and appropriate social service responses for victims. Future research directions and policy implications are also discussed. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0735648X.2014.996321   Ireland – Increase in number of sex workers seeking help An organisation helping women affected by prostitution says there has been an increase in the number of cases of sex trafficking dealt with last year. Based in Dublin, NGO Ruhama, says there has been an 8.5{01b0879e117dd7326006b2e84bcaac7e8fa1509c5c67baf2c9eb498fe06caff4} increase in street prostitution and that they supported over 300 women from 37 different countries, including 88 victims of sex trafficking .The penalties for trafficking are extremely small compared to the enormous profits that can be gained and Ruhama has called for tougher sanctions to be imposed on those convicted.  The Garda National Protective Services Bureau, which is responsible for investigating the crime, needs to be adequately resourced as a matter of urgency. http://www.rte.ie/news/2015/1207/751734-prostitution/   Vietnam – Trafficking of Women and Girls for Sexual Exploitation Although the Vietnamese Government has many policies and laws to protect women’s rights and prevent violence against women, trafficking in women and children for sexual exploitation is increasing rapidly and complexly in Vietnam, says The Journal of US-China Medical Science, December 2015. Girls and young women from many provinces in Vietnam are trafficked daily to China. Many new chains of trafficking have been established and they are difficult to identify. Police and border guards cannot control all of them. It is estimated around 30 million women have been trafficked in Asia over the last several decades. http://www.davidpublisher.org/Public/uploads/Contribute/5631cb2e0bc14.pdf   <Back to Top>   Stem Cells & Cloning   No news today   <Back to Top>   Substance Abuse   South Africa – Methamphetamine sold as sweets to school children School children in Johannesburg, the Western Cape and KZN are being hooked on crystal meth when they buy sweets packaged to look like flavoured sugar straws. They are giving school children in Johannesburg a rush that only lasts a few seconds, but which is followed by a high which lasts for several hours. “Strawberry quick got its name from an urban legend, which became an actual reality in Johannesburg,” said Quintin van Kerken from the Anti-Drug Alliance SA. Prices vary dramatically, some dealer’s give them away for free the first few times, while others sell them from between R5 and R30. It all boils down to the dealer getting children addicted. 119 http://www.health24.com/Lifestyle/Street-drugs/News/drug-warning-crystal-meth-sold-as-sweets-to-schoolkids-20151127   USA – FDA approves Naloxone nasal spray to reverse opioid overdose The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health, is pleased to announce that intranasal naloxone –a nasal spray formulation of the medication designed to rapidly reverse opioid overdose – has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In 2013, more than 16,000 people died from a prescription opioid overdose, or approximately 44 people per day. In addition, another 8,000 died from heroin-related overdoses, a rate that has nearly quadrupled between 2002 and 2013. This FDA-approved intranasal delivery system could reduce the thousands of opioid-related deaths each year, and give patients a second chance to enter into long term addiction treatment. http://www.drugabuse.gov/news-events/news-releases/2015/11/fda-approves-naloxone-nasal-spray-to-reverse-opioid-overdose   USA – DEA Chief Says Medical Marijuana Is a ‘Joke’ DEA chief Chuck Rosenberg said the idea that marijuana can be used as medicine is a “joke.” “What really bothers me is the notion that marijuana is also medicinal — because it’s not,” Rosenberg said. “We can have an intellectually honest debate about whether we should legalize something that is bad and dangerous, but don’t call it medicine, that is a joke.” “..if you talk about smoking the leaf of marijuana, which is what people are talking about when they talk about medicinal marijuana, it has never been shown to be safe or effective as a medicine.” http://time.com/4101340/dea-medical-marijuana-joke/   USA – Ohio Votes Against Marijuana Ohio voters decided against legalizing marijuana and instead voted for the legislation that would disallow using the state constitution to create a monopoly. Sixty four percent of voters voted no, while thirty five percent voted yes. http://www.forbes.com/sites/debraborchardt/2015/11/04/ohio-votes-against-marijuana-and-monopolies/   USA – School Seniors More Likely to Smoke Pot Than Cigarettes For the first time, more U.S. high school seniors are smoking marijuana than tobacco, a new survey shows. Daily marijuana use remained relatively stable at 6 percent, while those seniors who said they smoked cigarettes every day dropped from 6.7 percent in 2014 to 5.5 percent, the researchers found. The same trend has been seen on college campuses, with a recent report showing that more college students (6 {01b0879e117dd7326006b2e84bcaac7e8fa1509c5c67baf2c9eb498fe06caff4}) now smoke a joint each day than light up a cigarette (5 percent). NIDA funded the survey, which was conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan. http://health.usnews.com/health-news/articles/2015-12-16/high-school-seniors-now-more-likely-to-smoke-pot-than-cigarettes-survey   <Back to Top>   Disclaimer: the views and opinions expressed in these articles do not necessarily reflect those of Doctors for Life International]]>

Abortion	USA – Five abortion clinics shut down in the past five weeks USA – Planned Parenthood Clinic becomes Pro-Life Pregnancy Center
Alternative Medicine	The Philippines – Bill seeks to regulate practice of acupuncture China – YangZheng XiaoJi May Stop Cancer Metastasis
Euthanasia	Belgium – Expanding physician-assisted death to psychiatric cases Germany – Germany’s defeat of liberalized assisted suicide laws
HIV/AIDS	No news today
Homosexuality	UK – Sperm donor child ordered to develop relationship with father
IVF & Surrogacy	UK – New drug provides safer IVF treatment India – Research Council Officially Ends Surrogacy in India Cambodia – Clinics Shift Business to “Lawless” Cambodia
Medical Ethics	UK – Delusional but autonomous
Pedophilia	UK – Is Pedophilia a Deviance or Disease Abu Dhabi – Tech industry fights online child sexual exploitation Italy – Androgen deprivation therapy and pedophilia
Pornography	Sweden – ‘Braille porn’ for blind people created by Swedish artist UK – Report claiming porn reduces the size of your brain UK – Police K-9s trained to sniff out child pornography USA – The Impact of pornography on individuals, families and children
Prostitution &Trafficking	USA – Amnesty’s Human Rights Scandal USA – Guess who supports ditching prostitution laws  South Africa – High rate of disease among prostitutes in cities USA – Prostitution the most dangerous working environment Sweden – A prostitutes perspective on the Swedish model
Stem Cells & Cloning	USA – Is the great stem cell debate over? USA – End ‘stem cell tourism,’ experts urge
Substance Abuse	Syria – Captagon: The amphetamine fuelling Syria’s civil war USA – Medical doctor convicted of legal drug dealing

  Abortion   USA – Five abortion clinics have shut down in the past five weeks A total of 21 Abortion facilities have closed so far in 2015. Troy Newman, President of Operation Rescue said “When abortion numbers come out for 2015, we expect that abortions will have decreased in each state where abortion clinics have closed”. Between September 28 and October 29, 2015, operations ceased at abortion facilities in Florida, Illinois, Wisconsin, Connecticut and Virginia. https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/five-abortion-clinics-shut-down-in-five-weeks   USA – Planned Parenthood Clinic becomes Pro-Life Pregnancy Center The Planned Parenthood facility where abortion center manager-turned pro-life advocate Abby Johnson worked is now a functioning pro-life pregnancy center. Hope Pregnancy Centers of Brazos Valley purchased the Bryan, Texas Planned Parenthood building last year after the abortion center closed. “What was once a place of death and grief where an estimated 6,400 abortions were performed has been transformed into a place of life,” Tracy Frank, executive director of Hope Pregnancy, said in a statement. Its free services include pregnancy tests, ultrasound, counseling about pregnancy options, baby supplies, STD testing, and more. http://www.lifenews.com/2015/11/09/former-planned-parenthood-abortion-clinic-re-opens-as-a-pro-life-pregnancy-center/   Alternative Medicine   The Philippines – Bill seeks to regulate practice of acupuncture Senator Miriam Santiago has filed a bill to regulate the practice of acupuncture in the country. Senate Bill 2966 seeks to standardize the practice of acupuncture to ensure that only licenses acupuncturists can perform the treatment. Under the bill, a Board of Acupuncture shall be created under the Department of Health. The board will be consisted of two licensed acupuncturists and one layperson who has never been an acupuncturist or member of any closely related profession. Santiago said any person is prohibited to practice acupuncture unless licensed. To become licensed acupuncturist the person must have completed a board-approved national certification process and have passed an examination administered by the board. http://www.sunstar.com.ph/manila/local-news/2015/11/02/bill-seeks-regulate-practice-acupuncture-439193   China – YangZheng XiaoJi May Stop Cancer Metastasis A study led by Cardiff University and Peking University, has found that a cocktail of non-toxic chemicals found in fruits and vegetables can be the key to stopping cancers from spreading. The study has found that YangZheng XiaoJi targets the formations of new blood vessels that supports tumor growth, blocks the pathway, and stops the spread of cancer cells, therefore stopping cancer metastasis. Clinical trials of YangZheng XiaoJi and its effects on lung and other cancers have started and it is showing positive results. http://www.healthaim.com/yangzheng-xiaoji-traditional-chinese-herbal-medicine-may-stop-cancer-metastasis/32692   <Back to Top>   Euthanasia   Belgium – Expanding physician-assisted death to psychiatric cases The latest addition by Hastings Center fellow Bonnie Steinbock, suggests assisted death for psychiatric cases is the logical consequence of current euthanasia legislation. Steinbock suggests that no good argument has been made in defense of the current prohibitions on euthanasia for the mentally ill.  She discusses the potential objections that could be made to broadening the scope of the law, and suggests that none of them is convincing. Many argue that the “terminal illness” requirement is appropriate. But Steinbock asserts that terminal illness is rarely the real motivation for patients seeking euthanasia. http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/the-case-for-expanding-physician-assisted-death-to-psychiatric-cases/11640   Germany – Germany’s defeat of liberalized assisted suicide laws The German parliament has decided not to legalize organizations that promote or offer assisted suicide and to continue barring doctors from offering such assistance as a regular medical service. Lawmakers instead toughened the national stance against commercialized assisted suicide. Such acts will now be punished with up to three years in jail, even if a doctor claims to have acted to relieve a patient’s suffering. The bill was passed with 360 out of 602 votes. http://www.jewishjournal.com/world/article/german_jewry_applauds_defeat_of_liberalized_assisted_suicide_laws   <Back to Top>   HIV/AIDS & STI’s   No news today   <Back to Top>   Homosexuality   UK – Sperm donor child ordered to develop relationship with father A UK High Court has ordered a donor-conceived-girl to develop a relationship with her father and his same sex partner. She had been brought up since birth by her biological mother and her mother’s lesbian partner, but seven years ago her biological father petitioned the courts to have contact with her. High Court Justice Stephen Cobb ruled that the girl should have ‘indirect’ and ‘limited’ contact with her father, saying that “the significant void in their lives is the lack of any meaningful relationship with their fathers.”The decision, the culmination of a long running legal battle between the girl’s biological mother and father, goes against the will of the daughter, and she believes that litigation has “ruined her life”. http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/teenage-sperm-donor-child-ordered-to-develop-relationship-with-her-father/11623   <Back to Top>   IVF &Surrogacy   UK – New drug provides safer IVF treatment During conventional IVF treatment doctors inject patients with the hormone human chorionic gonadotropin, which helps ovaries mature eggs that are later harvested. A potential side effect during this step is ovarian hyper-stimulation syndrome (OHSS), a potentially life-threatening condition. Severe OHSS occurs in up to 2{01b0879e117dd7326006b2e84bcaac7e8fa1509c5c67baf2c9eb498fe06caff4} of all patients but women with polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) are at much higher risk, with up to a quarter of such patients suffering severe OHSS. Researchers from Imperial College London, working with clinicians from Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, found that using Kisspeptin as an alternative hormone to HCG did not lead to OHSS, even in women at high risk of developing the condition. http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-11/sfe-ndp110215.php?   India – Research Council Officially Ends Surrogacy in India A letter from the Indian Council of Medical Research has officially ended surrogacy services for non-Indians, effectively immediately. The letter was issued at the behest of the Health Ministry and tells fertility clinics not to entertain any foreigners wanting surrogacy services in India. In a related move the government has banned the import of human embryos for IVF and surrogacy purposes. In a notification the “Import policy of the item ‘Human Embryo’ …has been changed to “Prohibited except for research purposes based on the guidelines of the Department of Health Research.” The government also told the Supreme Court this week that foreigners cannot rent a womb in India. Surrogacy services would only be available for Indian couples. http://www.sensiblesurrogacy.com/icmr-officially-ends-surrogacy-in-indi/   Cambodia – Clinics Shift Business to “Lawless” Cambodia The international market for surrogacy is proving to be very resilient in the face of legal and social disruption. Now that India, Nepal and Thailand have banned international clients from using local surrogates, clinics and brokers are shifting their business to Cambodia. Clients who travel to Cambodia to get a baby are taking a big risk. The business has sprung up overnight, as Cambodia’s first IVF baby was born in 2014 according to the Fertility Clinic of Cambodia. No laws govern surrogacy there and the legal system is “murky and corrupt”. If the authorities do step in, they could treat surrogacy as human trafficking. The future of the clients, the surrogate mothers and the babies could be at risk. http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/surrogacy-business-shifts-to cambodia/11638#sthash.xFaXJl8o.dpuf   <Back to Top>   Medical Ethics   UK – Delusional but autonomous Can a confused, lonely, bi-polar 73-year-old with religious convictions refuse a life saving operation? Mr B will die of infection unless his leg is amputated below the knee. In the opinion of the judge he does not have the mental capacity to make a rational decision about his illness but points out that “Mr. B’s mental health and well-being will be further compromised following an operation. Further to that, his religious sentiments will undoubtedly continue and he will believe that the amputation was carried out against the Lord’s wishes.” The judge therefore decided that Mr. B’s best interests were to do what he wanted rather than what was good for him. His right to autonomy trumps his right to health. http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/delusional-but-autonomous/11641   <Back to Top>   Pedophilia   UK – Is Pedophilia a Deviance or Disease Gunjan Sharma, a medical student at the Cardiff University School of Medicine writes in The MSPress Journal, Vol 2, No 2 (2015) that pedophilia is often described as society’s darkest taboo. This essay looks at Pedophilia from the perpetrator’s perspective, at how we can provide help to people before the offence takes place. Also the primary prevention strategies used across Europe and the difficult position the clinician may be placed under. Ultimately, this essay looks at pedophilia as a medical disorder and the pedophile as the patient, focusing on alleviating suffering for both the patient and for society. http://www.themspress.org/index.php/journal/article/view/112   Abu Dhabi – Tech industry fights online child sexual exploitation The world’s biggest search engine Google, social media and software firms have pledged to fight the abuse of the internet for online child sexual exploitation by developing new technology, tools and expertise by developing innovative technology like the Child Abuse Image Database. Yahoo has piloted the use of a Google tool which identifies indecent videos of children and Microsoft will enable more organizations to find indecent images of children using Photo DNA.  A dedicated team of Facebook engineers will be assisting in a technology upgrade for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) in the USA, to help them manage the increase in the number of reports resulting from the growing global collaboration to tackle online child sexual abuse. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/tech-industry-fights-online-child-sexual-exploitation

Italy – Androgen deprivation therapy and pedophilia

A research paper by Silvani, Mindaini and Zucchi in The Journal of Medicine and the Person, discusses andrology as an evolving discipline which embraces social problems like pedophilia. While international legislation aims to defend childhood it does not provide for compulsory treatment. Regarding chemical castration, the andrologist may perform an important role as part of a team of specialists and most literature refers to the use of leuprolide acetate rather than medroxyprogesterone and cyproterone acetate which presents more side effects. Current opinions on chemical castration for pedophilia are discordant. Some surveys confirm that therapy reduces sexual thoughts and fantasies, especially in pedophiles who relapse into the crime. However, others report that chemical castration does not modify the pedophile’s personality.

http://hlsjournal.org/index.php/aiua/article/view/aiua.2015.3.222   <Back to Top>   Pornography   Sweden – ‘Braille porn’ for blind people created by Swedish artist A Swedish artist, Nina Linde, 33, who created a ‘sensual Braille book’ for blind readers, has presented the saucy publication for the first time to the country’s national library. The tactile features X-rated images and is believed to be the first written material of its kind to offer erotic stimulation to the visually impaired. The book was created in 2010, but an official copy was given to the National Library of Sweden in Nov 2015. Lind insists that despite its graphic content, it should not be labelled ‘porn. And she said that she was inspired to produce it after visiting the Braille Library in Stockholm and discovering there was no dirty stuff for the visually impaired. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/swedish-artist-creates-braille-porn-for-blind-people-a6711496.html   UK – Report claiming porn reduces the size of your brain Conservative peer Ian McColl, a former surgeon, speaking in the House of Lords, has claimed that the constant use of pornography can reduce the part of your brain that registers pleasure. The study which examines 64 healthy men as they viewed sexually explicit videos and non-sexually explicit materials – found that constant pornography consumption can reduce the parts of the brain related to reward. He added that researchers involved in the study found participants who used pornography excessively needed increased amounts of stronger material in order to maintain similar levels of pleasure. There is increasing evidence to suggest that brain activity of those individuals who consume large volumes of pornography is similar to the brain activity of those with other addictions. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/house-of-lords-debate-porn-conservative-peer-cites-report-claiming-porn-reduces-the-size-of-your-a6722451.html   UK – Police K-9s trained to sniff out child pornography Sheriff’s deputies in Texas are using a new kind of cyber-crime detective to help them track down child pornography offenders. K-9s are being trained to sniff out storage media being used to keep child porn images. What the dogs actually smell is the glue that binds the electronic media – thumb drives and SD cards, which offenders go to great lengths to try and hide. A specially trained K-9 was a part of the raid on former Subway pitchman Jared Fogle’s home this past summer. In 2004, Fogle established the Jared Foundation, a nonprofit organization focused on raising awareness about childhood obesity through educational programs and tools provided to parents, schools, and community organizations. http://6abc.com/news/police-k-9s-trained-to-sniff-out-child-pornography/1080669/   USA – The Impact of pornography on individuals, families and children A 2015 study by the American College of Paediatricians reveals that: Male subjects demonstrated increased callousness toward women. Subjects considered the crime of rape less serious. They were more accepting of non-marital sexual activity and non-coital sexual practices such as oral and anal sex. They became more interested in more extreme and deviant forms of pornography. Subjects were more likely to say they were dissatisfied with their sexual partner and were more accepting of sexual infidelity in a relationship. They valued marriage less and were twice as likely to believe marriage may become obsolete. Men experienced a decreased desire for children, and women experienced a decreased desire to have a daughter. Subjects showed a greater acceptance of female promiscuity. http://www.acpeds.org/the-college-speaks/position-statements/the-impact-of-pornography-on-children?utm_source=email+marketing+Mailigen&utm_campaign=Pres+Message{01b0879e117dd7326006b2e84bcaac7e8fa1509c5c67baf2c9eb498fe06caff4}3A+Pornography+Developments&utm_medium=email   <Back to Top>   Prostitution & Trafficking   USA – Amnesty’s Human Rights Scandal Alejandra Gil the Vice President of the Global Network of Sex Work Projects (NSWP) that officially advised UNAIDS on its prostitution policy was jailed on Thursday 12th March for sex trafficking in Mexico City. Over 200 prostitutes were involved in a prostitution ring she was operating. Amnesty International also reference NSWP and the Advisory Group it co-chaired in its draft policy calling for brothel keeping to be decriminalised. NSWP is no fringe group. In 2009 it was appointed Co-Chair of the UNAIDS ‘Advisory Group on HIV and Sex Work’. So why is Amnesty International about to adopt their policy proposals? http://www.faber.co.uk/blog/a-human-rights-scandal-by-kat-banyard/   USA – Guess who supports ditching prostitution laws  The National Center on Sexual Exploitation is hosting White Ribbon week as a protest against pornography and request that people take a more personal role in combating porn by being aware of its harm, educating the public and fighting exploitation on another front in its ongoing fight with Amnesty International. Amnesty is working to decriminalize prostitution, which empowers sex trafficker and pimps around the world – not women. A group lobbying for “sex workers” was once led by a woman convicted of sex trafficking.  “These are the kinds of people who provided input to Amnesty’s policies,” says Lisa Thompson of National Center. “So it’s sort of like the fox guarding the hen house if you will.” http://www.onenewsnow.com/culture/2015/10/29/guess-who-supports-ditching-prostitution-laws   South Africa – High rate of disease among prostitutes in cities In Pretoria, a total of 1152 prostitutes compete for business at 30 different sites. This is according to a study on the state of homelessness conducted by the University of Pretoria and Unisa. The report, “Path Out of Homelessness”, warns of a multiplicity of social situations in the inner city where diseases proliferate. The report says that on average, 10 prostitutes ply their trade at a single site, but this can in places rise to as many as 200. Of 416 sex workers screened for HIV and TB since October last year, 187 were HIV-positive and of these 177 also had significant TB symptoms. http://www.timeslive.co.za/thetimes/2015/11/10/Disease-hookers-throng-capital-city   USA – Prostitution the most dangerous working environment The mortality data for prostitutes is staggering. The American Journal of Epidemiology published a meticulous study by a group of researchers, amongst whom, John J. Potterat, epidemiologist, formerly with the El Paso County Health Department, finding that the “workplace homicide rate for prostitutes” is 51 times that of the next most dangerous occupation for women, working in a liquor store. The average age of death of the prostitutes in the study was 34. “Women engaged in prostitution face the most dangerous occupational environment in the United States,” The Journal concluded. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/13/opinion/13kristof.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0 http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/content/159/8/778.full   Sweden – A prostitute’s perspective on the Swedish model In “Lies about sex work in Sweden” Isabella Lund, a Swedish prostitute and debater espouses her experiences and details of why the Nordic Model implemented by Sweden in 1999 is not as effective as made out to be. Amongst other points; prostitutes must pay taxes for their incomes although nobody knows how, and they risk being evicted if found selling sexual services. They also risk losing custody of their children. She writes compellingly about the options available to prostitutes and that the effect of the legislation has just resulted in prostitution becoming much more hidden from society at large. She refers to numerous flaws in the model being touted by certain feminists as the solution to legislation regarding prostitution. https://sensuellqkonsult.wordpress.com/2007/05/26/lies-about-sexwork-in-sweden/   <Back to Top>   Stem Cells & Cloning   USA – Is the great stem cell debate over? Ten years ago the most controversial issue in bioethics was the use of human embryonic stem cells. Since these can only be obtained by destroying human embryos nearly every Western legislature had bitter debates. But then Shinya Yamanaka developed induced pluripotent stem cells which have all the potential of embryonic cells without the ethical baggage. Now a paper in Nature Biotechnology has suggested that iPS cells and hES cells are really functionally equivalent – meaning that there is no need to destroy embryos for research or for therapies. The report has not attracted a single comment but according to the findings of Konrad Hochedlinger and colleagues at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston it seems that the debate is over. http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/is-the-great-stem-cell-debate-over/11629 http://news.sciencemag.org/biology/2015/10/reprogrammed-stem-cells-work-well-those-embryos   USA – End ‘stem cell tourism,’ experts urge According to a paper in BMC Medical Ethics by Kirstin Matthews of Rice University and Ana Iltis of Wake Forest University, disillusioned patients tired of waiting for stem cell cures they were promised more than 10 years, are approaching clinics around the world offering experimental stem cell-based interventions instead of waiting for scientists in the US to complete clinical trials. Central problems of stem cell tourism include the lack of patient protection, US liability standards, regulation of clinical sites and clinician licensing. “These interventions have insufficient evidence of safety and efficacy; patients may be wasting money and time, and they may be forgoing other opportunities for an intervention that has not been shown to be safe and effective,” they write. http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/end-stem-cell-tourism-experts-urge/11656   <Back to Top>   Substance Abuse   Syria – Captagon: The amphetamine fuelling Syria’s civil war Separate investigations have found that the growing trade in Syrian-made Captagon, an amphetamine widely consumed in the Middle East, generated revenues of millions of dollars last year, some of which was almost certainly used to fund weapons, while combatants on both sides are turning to the stimulant to help them keep fighting. Saudi Arabia alone seizes 55m tablets a year, perhaps 10{01b0879e117dd7326006b2e84bcaac7e8fa1509c5c67baf2c9eb498fe06caff4} of the total thought to be smuggled into the kingdom. According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, Syria has long been a transit point for drugs coming from Europe, Turkey and Lebanon. But the breakdown of law and order, collapse of the country’s infrastructure and proliferation of armed groups have turned it into a major producer. http://www.theguardian.com/world/shortcuts/2014/jan/13/captagon-amphetamine-syria-war-middle-east   USA – Medical doctor convicted of legal drug dealing A woman has become the first American doctor to be convicted of second degree murder for reckless prescriptions of painkillers. Dr. Lisa Tseng was found guilty of the deaths of 3 patients. Tseng prescribed crazy, outrageous amounts of medication to patients who didn’t need the pills. She ignored the deaths of several patients, even though one patient overdosed in her office and had to be revived. When she learned that she would be investigated, she fabricated medical records. Tseng earned about $5 million in three years. “You can’t hide behind a white lab coat and commit crimes,” said Deputy District Attorney John Niedermann. http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/la-pill-mill-doctor-convicted-of-murder/11639#sthash.jQHaVgV0.dpuf   <Back to Top>   Disclaimer: the views and opinions expressed in these articles do not necessarily reflect those of Doctors for Life International]]>

Abortion

USA – Over five hundred babies saved from abortion in Arizona

Nepal – The scary advance of gendercide in Nepal

USA – Planned Parenthood to stop receiving payments for fetal tissue

China – government to end one-child policy and allow two children

Alternative Medicine

South Africa – Proposed new bill to better manage medication backlogs

USA – ‘Health’ supplements send 23,000 to emergency rooms

Swaziland – Missing man found mutilated and stuffed in bags

USA – FDA Issues Warnings on Homeopathy for ADHD Patients

Euthanasia

California – Assisted Suicide and Suicide Contagion

Netherlands – Euthanasia on the Rise

Australia – ‘Dr Death’ forced to stop promoting suicide

Belgium – Not enough doctors to staff Belgium’s euthanasia commission

HIV/AIDS

No news today

Homosexuality

South Africa – Dutch Reformed Church to recognize same sex marriage

USA – More LGBT Americans come out on Facebook than last year

IVF & Surrogacy

Canada – IVF success rates improved with stem cells

UK/USA – Novel DNA test could more than double success rates

USA- Baby farming business is exploding

India – New Delhi moves toward banning surrogacy in India

Medical Ethics

France – UN panel calls for moratorium on editing human genome

USA – Gene editing technique makes pig organ transplants possible

USA – 23andMe to resume supplying health data

USA – A fine way to give blood

Pedophilia

Indonesia – Government to use chemical castration for pedophiles

Pornography

USA – Playboy magazine to stop publishing nude images

South Africa – South Africans’ secret porn viewing habits

Germany – Porn may reduce your brain size

South Africa – Violent porn may be to blame for sexual coercion

Prostitution &Trafficking

USA – Legalizing prostitution is prison for the exploited

UK – Family jailed for trafficking Hungarian women for prostitution

USA – What Amnesty Did Wrong Regarding Prostitution

Stem Cells & Cloning

Australia – Researchers grow organ in Petri-dish

Substance Abuse

UK – Use of Legal Highs on the Increase

USA – Promising new target for addiction treatment

Switzerland – Study: THC doesn’t reduce postoperative nausea or vomiting

Scotland – Massive rise in heroin and methadone drug problems

USA – New study on the use of “Novel Psychoactive Substances”

Abortion

USA – Over five hundred babies saved from abortion in Arizona

Abortions in Arizona dropped 3.7 percent in 2014, according to a report from the state Department of Health Services. There were 12,900 abortions reported last year, compared to 13,401 in 2013. In between 2009 and 2014, Governer Jan Brewer signed into law 24 life-saving measures that have directly contributed to the drop in abortions. Existing law prohibits partial-birth abortion, late-term abortion, and sex-selection abortions. Arizona also requires a 24-hour waiting period with an ultrasound, informed consent about abortion risks and fetal development, parental consent for minors’ abortions, and medical standards for abortion mills. The state also places a variety of prohibitions on taxpayer funding for elective abortions.

http://liveactionnews.org/501-babies-saved-from-abortion-in-arizona-as-abortion-rate-falls-3-7-percent/

Nepal – The scary advance of gendercide in Nepal

Sex-selective abortion in Nepal is incredibly high, even though the practice is technically prohibited and hardly ever mentioned in Western media. University of Oxford demographer Melanie Dawn Frost was the lead author of a paper in BMJ Open about widespread sex-selective abortion in Nepal since abortion was legalized in 2002. “Nepal has seen one of the most dramatic fertility declines in history, with the total fertility rate falling from 4.1 to 2.6 in just 10 years,” she observed. In the late 2000s (2007-2010) the sex-ratio for second-order births was drastically skewed, with just 742 girls being born per 1000 boys. Prior to legalization of abortion (1998-2000), that ratio was 1021 to 1000.

http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/the-scary-advance-of-gendercide-in-nepal/11611#sthash.9veK4aor.dpuf

USA – Planned Parenthood to stop receiving payments for fetal tissue

Planned Parenthood has announced that it will no longer accept any form of reimbursement for supplying fetal tissue, says president Cecile Richards in an open letter to National Institutes of Health director Dr. Francis S. Collins. “Planned Parenthood’s policies on fetal tissue donation already exceed the legal requirements,” Ms. Richards wrote. “Now we’re going even further in order to take away any basis for attacking Planned Parenthood to advance an anti-abortion political agenda.” The organization’s critics are far from convinced. David Deleiden of the Center for Medical Progress depicted Planned Parenthood’s shift as “an admission of guilt”. “If the money Planned Parenthood has been receiving for baby body parts were truly legitimate ‘reimbursement,’ why cancel it?” he asked.

http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/planned-parenthood-to-stop-receiving-payments-for-foetal-tissue/11607#sthash.Hc4tKAIC.dpuf

China – government to end one-child policy and allow two children

The one child policy introduced nationally in 1979, is estimated to have prevented about 400 million births. Couples who violated the one-child policy faced a variety of punishments, from fines and the loss of employment to forced abortions. The decision to allow families to have two children was designed “to improve the balanced development of population” and to deal with an aging population, according to the statement from the Community Party’s Central Committee. Currently about 30{01b0879e117dd7326006b2e84bcaac7e8fa1509c5c67baf2c9eb498fe06caff4} of China’s population is over the age of 50. The total population of the country is around 1.36 billion. “As long as the quotas and system of surveillance remains, women still do not enjoy reproductive rights,” said Maya Wang of Human Rights Watch.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-34665539

Alternative Medicine

South Africa – Proposed new bill to better manage medication backlogs

Opposition parties have rallied around the proposal of a new bill that will better manage backlogs in medication and ensure its quality. DA MPL Dr Imram Keeka said the Medicines and Related Amendments Bill looks to rectify the shortcomings of Act 101 from 1965. Keeka said the bill seeks to establish new authority, called the South African Health Product Regulatory Authority, which would deal with the medication backlog and regulate alternative and prepared traditional medicines. Keeka said although the natural, alternative and complimentary medication sectors would be affected by following a regulatory process for selling medicines, it was “only fair”. “At the end of the day, it is the public’s safety that is the main concern,” Keeka said.

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Proposed-new-bill-to-better-manage-medication-backlogs-20151006

USA – ‘Health’ supplements send 23,000 to emergency rooms

Dietary supplements – those “all natural” products people consume for weight loss, extra energy or to self-treat various conditions send +-23,000 people, many of them children, to the emergency room in the U.S. each year. Just over 9{01b0879e117dd7326006b2e84bcaac7e8fa1509c5c67baf2c9eb498fe06caff4} require hospitalization. Many patients report heart symptoms. Supplements include herbal products, amino acids, vitamins, minerals and other “complementary” nutrition products hawked for a wide range of uses, often with little or no testing to back up claims. The new study “illustrates that something that’s ‘natural’ is not necessarily safe, and these products do not come without risk,” said Curtis Haas, director of pharmacy for the University of Rochester Medical Center and a past-president of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/14/us-health-supplements-toxicity-idUSKCN0S82QN20151014

Swaziland – Missing man found mutilated and stuffed in bags

Magidi Mlambo, a man from the Mambane area who was reported missing has been found dead, with his body mutilated. The recovery of the deceased’s body comes only a day after police took in two traditional healers for questioning concerning the disappearance of the man. The witch doctors led the police to the mountains on Monday evening, where the body was found with some parts missing. Mlambo went missing after he went to the forest to collect some herbs with a well known traditional healer from the area. Traditional healers then led police to the indvuna who is said to have assisted in transporting some of the parts which were eventually sold to another traditional healer at Hosea.

http://www.observer.org.sz/news/76608-missing-man-mutilated-stuffed-in-bags.html

USA – FDA Issues Warnings on Homeopathy for ADHD Patients

Recent reports say the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has taken measures on the widespread use of homeopathic treatments, especially in children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Reports have reached the FDA in which children diagnosed with ADHD turn out to be victims of quackery or fraudulent treatments. The FDA has issued warnings about side effects such as stunted growth and psychiatric problems and has tightened their regulations on such treatments.

http://qna.mortgagenewsdaily.com/questions/fda-issues-warnings-on-homeopathy-on-adhd-patients

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Euthanasia

California – Assisted Suicide and Suicide Contagion

Ten percent of Americans now have access to assisted suicide after Jerry Brown, governor of California, approved Assembly Bill 15. Physician Assisted Suicide (PAS) is now legal in California, Oregon, Washington, Montana and Vermont, as well as throughout Canada. Will California’s new assisted suicide law actually result in fewer people committing suicide as its supporters have promised? Dramatic new findings about the Oregon experience with PAS have been published in the Southern Medical Journal which suggest that this is not true.  In a fine-grained statistical analysis of the experience in the 4 American states where PAS is currently legal, British academics David Albert Jones and David Paton show that the introduction of PAS induces more self-inflicted deaths than it inhibits.

http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/assisted-suicide-now-legal-in-california/11601#sthash.dV2nBbdi.dpuf

http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/fears-of-suicide-contagion-after-victory-in-california/11600#sthash.FUsnYDj5.dpuf

http://sma.org/southern-medical-journal/article/how-does-legalization-of-physician-assisted-suicide-affect-rates-of-suicide/

Netherlands – Euthanasia on the Rise

Deaths by euthanasia in the Netherlands have increased by 10{01b0879e117dd7326006b2e84bcaac7e8fa1509c5c67baf2c9eb498fe06caff4} in 2014 according to a new report released by the regional euthanasia review committee of Holland. A total of 5306 cases of assisted dying were reported to the regional committees in 2014, including 5033 cases of euthanasia (a 10{01b0879e117dd7326006b2e84bcaac7e8fa1509c5c67baf2c9eb498fe06caff4} increase on the 4501 cases reported in 2013). The overall number of reported cases has doubled since 2009.

http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/euthanasia-on-the-rise-in-netherlands/11605#sthash.FDF2wtH9.dpuf

https://www.euthanasiecommissie.nl/overdetoetsingscommissies/jaarverslag/

Australia – ‘Dr Death’ forced to stop promoting suicide

The world’s foremost promoter of assisted suicide and euthanasia, Australia’s Dr Philip Nitschke, has agreed to cease his advocacy in exchange for retaining his medical registration. The Medical Board of Australia (MBA) said that these measures were necessary “to protect the public”. The agreement puts “an end to his involvement in providing any advice or information to any patient or member of the public about how to commit suicide. This includes workshops, the Peaceful Pill Handbook, videos or on-line information”. An immediate consequence of the MBA’s decision is that Dr Nitschke has been forced to resign as director of Exit International, the organization he founded to promote methods of committing suicide.

http://www.mercatornet.com/careful/view/australias-dr-death-forced-to-stop-promoting-suicide/17085

Belgium – Not enough doctors to staff Belgium’s euthanasia commission

Belgium’s Federal Evaluation and Control Commission for Euthanasia have lost its mandate after failing to find replacements for vacancies on its executive committee. The minister for Health, Maggie De Block, gave her word in Parliament that the wheels were turning smoothly and that Belgians had nothing to fear from illegal euthanasia – even though news of the vacancies had already emerged in the press. This does not inspire much confidence that anyone really knows what is going on.

http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/not-enough-doctors-to-staff-belgiums-euthanasia-commission/11625

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HIV/AIDS & STI’s

No news today

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Homosexuality

South Africa – Dutch Reformed Church to recognize same sex marriage

A landmark vote means same sex relationships will now be recognized by the Dutch Reformed Church. With a 64 percent majority the church voted in favor of acknowledging same sex unions and allowing same sex ministers to be ordained without the need for them to be celibate. Dutch Reform Church moderator Nelis Janse van Rensburg said, it is historical because with this decision we actually are at a point where there can be no doubt that the Dutch Reformed Church is serious about human dignity. The church will also help ministers to get the necessary legal documentation to ratify civil unions.

https://www.enca.com/south-africa/dutch-reformed-church-recognise-gay-marriage

USA – More LGBT Americans come out on Facebook than last year

A new study out of Facebook’s research and data science division indicates that people in the US who identify as LGBT are now saying so on the social network at a rapidly increasing pace. 6 million of US users identify as LGBT, 800,000 of which came out last year. The number of users coming out per day has tripled since then. Since June’s Supreme Court ruling which legalized same sex marriage, one out of every five people come out on Facebook. LGBT pages have increased by 25 percent this year and the top 300 most popular LGBT people get support from 5.7million Americans.

http://www.theverge.com/2015/10/15/9541431/facebook-social-research-LGBT-study

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IVF &Surrogacy

Canada – IVF success rates improved with stem cells

Doctors in Canada have begun a new chapter in medical history, delivering the first in a wave of babies expected to be born through a technique some experts think can dramatically improve the success rate of IVF. This is a possible solution to infertility caused by poor egg quality by using pristine stem cells of healthy, yet-to-be developed eggs that can help make a woman’s older eggs act young again. Unlike other kinds of stem cells, which have the ability to develop into any kind of cell in the body these precursor cells can only form eggs. It’s not available in the U.S., since the Food and Drug Administration considers the process of introducing mitochondria a form of gene therapy.

http://time.com/3849127/baby-stem-cells-augment-ivf/

UK/USA – Novel DNA test could more than double success rates

In the US, the majority of women undergoing IVF have a success rate of 20-35{01b0879e117dd7326006b2e84bcaac7e8fa1509c5c67baf2c9eb498fe06caff4}. Now, researchers have created a test that they say could boost success rates to as much as 80{01b0879e117dd7326006b2e84bcaac7e8fa1509c5c67baf2c9eb498fe06caff4}. The test, called MitoGrade, works by measuring the levels of abnormal mitochondrial DNA present in embryos, allowing doctors to determine which embryos are most viable for a successful pregnancy. It emerged in recent years that the number of chromosomes in an embryo can influence the outcomes of IVF. More recently, researchers from the University of Oxford and genetics laboratory Reprogenetics, both in the UK, found that the levels of mitochondrial DNA in embryos are a key factor in IVF success.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/301257.php

USA – Baby-farming business is exploding

“American women are being paid to put themselves at significant physical risk every day in this country to produce babies for others,” said Jennifer Lahlof the Centre for Bioethics and Culture Network. These women are injected with powerful hormones and other drugs to maximize chances of pregnancy, virtually without government oversight. Surrogacy is booming following the legalisation of same-sex marriage, as same sex couples look to have families. Celebrities and wealthy American women are increasingly using surrogates to carry their own children, to avoid the body changes that come with pregnancy. Idaho has become a hotspot for surrogacy because of its permissive legislation and lower costs. Parents from all over the world are coming to Idaho to have children.

http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/idaho-surrogate-mother-dies-from-pregnancy-complications/11614#sthash.XJNAFIMi.dpuf

India – New Delhi moves toward banning surrogacy in India

New legislation proposed by the Indian Health Ministry aims to regulate and supervise clinics performing IVF and surrogacy in India, as well as to ensure the safe and ethical practice of fertility services. The bill also includes provisions that would ban surrogacy for all foreign couples. According to a 2012 study, the estimated value of the commercial surrogacy business in the country was pegged at more than $400 million a year, with more than 3,000 practicing clinics. In 2012 the country added restrictions to the practice, allowing surrogacy only for married, heterosexual couples from countries where surrogacy was allowed by law. Other than India, only a select number of countries allow surrogacy; USA, UK, Australia, Mexico, Canada, Russia, and Ukraine.

http://www.sensiblesurrogacy.com/law-would-ban-surrogacy-in-india/

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Medical Ethics

France – UN panel calls for moratorium on editing human genome

A United Nations panel has called for a moratorium on “editing” the human genome, pending wider public debate lest changes in DNA be transmitted to future generations or foster eugenics. While acknowledging the therapeutic value of genetic interventions, the panel stressed that the process raises serious concerns, especially if editing the human genome be applied to the germline, thereby introducing hereditary modifications. The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) said in a report by its International Bioethics Committee, that “Interventions on the human genome should be admitted only for preventive, diagnostic or therapeutic reasons and without enacting modifications for descendants.” The alternative would “jeopardize the inherent and therefore equal dignity of all human beings and renew eugenics.”

http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/un-panel-calls-for-moratorium-on-editing-human-genome/11597

USA – Gene editing technique makes pig organ transplants possible

A team led by George Church, of Harvard, has used the CRISPR gene editing technique to remove all 62 copies of a pig retrovirus which is dangerous for humans. This is a significant step on the road to generating pig organs for possible xenotransplantation. Worldwide, human organs for transplant are in short supply. While pig organs have long been considered a viable option, porcine endogenous retroviruses in all pigs’ DNA can be transmitted to humans and cause disease. This has resulted in a worldwide moratorium on these transplants. In an article in Science, the researchers reported that they had managed to modify more than 60 genes in pig embryos – ten times more than have been edited in any other animal.

http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/gene-editing-technique-makes-pig-organ-transplants-possible/11612

USA – 23andMe to resume supplying health data

After some operations of genetic company 23andMe were suspended in 2013 CEO Anne Wojcicki reports the FDA has authorized tests for inherited diseases and profiling customer ancestry and personal traits. Customers will receive reports on 36 inherited conditions like cystic fibrosis and sickle cell anemia, a breakdown of genetic predispositions including non-medical inherited traits like lactose intolerance, and cosmetic characteristics like dimples or curly hair. The test will not screen for conditions that last raised concerns like heart attack, asthma and hip fractures. “The new product focuses on carrier mutations, or specific gene changes, known to cause health issues when children receive them from both parents,” Brian Zikmund-Fisher at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, told New Scientist.

http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/23andme-to-resume-supplying-health-data/11624

USA – A fine way to give blood

Judge Marvin Wiggins told a courtroom crowded with people to be fined for offences ranging from hunting after dark to drug possession that they would get a US$100 credit toward their fines if they donated blood. Apart from concern about the legality and even constitutionality of the unusual option, there is an obvious bioethical angle. The offenders were effectively being forced to participate in donating an organ, something which must always be voluntary, even if donating blood is the least onerous of all organs. “What happened is wrong in about 3,000 ways,” said bioethicist Art Caplan, of NYU Langone Medical Center. “You’re basically sentencing someone to an invasive procedure that doesn’t benefit them and isn’t protecting the public health.”

http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/a-fine-way-to-give-blood/11621

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Pedophilia

Indonesia – Government to use chemical castration for pedophiles

President Joko Widodo has voiced approval for a law that provides for chemical castration for convicted pedophiles. Social Affairs Minister Khofifah Indar Parawansa said the president supported castration in addition to jail terms for child sex offenders. The chemical castration could involve injecting a female hormone to reduce the sex drive of the offender. Indonesia will join a small group of nations that allows such punishment, including Poland, Russia, and Estonia, as well as some U.S. states. In 2011, South Korea became the first Asian country to use chemical castration as a punishment.

http://www.news24.com/World/News/Child-sex-offenders-to-be-chemically-castrated-20151021

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Pornography

USA – Playboy magazine to stop publishing nude images

Playboy will no longer publish nude photographs of women, the New York Times reported in an article quoting Scott Flanders, the company’s chief executive. Founder and Editor-in-chief Hugh Hefner, 89, who in his trademark silk pajamas has embodied the Playboy lifestyle, agreed last month with a suggestion by top editor Cory Jones to stop publishing images of naked women, the Times said. At a time when every teenage boy has an internet connected phone and the web is rife with pornography, the magazine has opted to continue featuring women in provocative poses, just not completely nude.

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=wm#inbox/150662698a08e9ed

South Africa – South Africans’ secret porn viewing habits

South Africa is not one of the top 20 countries in the world who spend their time watching porn online, but they do watch. On average, South Africans spend 10 minutes and 14 seconds per visit. This is 21 seconds less compared to 2013 but still higher than the world average of 9 minutes and 16 seconds of which 71{01b0879e117dd7326006b2e84bcaac7e8fa1509c5c67baf2c9eb498fe06caff4} is watched on mobile devices, according to research done by Pornhub on their website. But there are consequences. There is the risk of losing a partner, an increase in marital or relationship problems, feelings of spiritual emptiness, feelings of hopelessness and despair, failed efforts to control your sexual behavior, acting against your own values and beliefs, and a decrease in work productivity.

http://www.health24.com/Sex/News/Kim-Kardashian-what-SA-looks-for-when-watching-porn-20150121

Germany – Porn may reduce your brain size

Men who report watching a lot of pornography tend to have less volume and activity in regions of the brain linked to rewards and motivation, according a new German study published in JAMA Psychiatry. The results provide the first evidence for a link between pornography consumption and reductions in brain size and activity. The researchers found that the volume of the striatum, a brain region that has been associated with reward processing and motivated behaviour was smaller the more pornography consumption the participants reported. Another brain region that is also part of the striatum and is active when people see sexual stimuli shows less activation the more pornography participants consume.

http://www.health24.com/Medical/Vaginal-discharge/News/Porn-may-reduce-your-brain-size-20140602

South Africa – Violent porn may be to blame for sexual coercion

Nearly one in 10 teenagers and young adults has coerced or forced a peer to engage in some form of sexual activity, and violent pornography is partly to blame, according to a new study.

The study of more than 1 000 young people aged 14 to 21 found that 9{01b0879e117dd7326006b2e84bcaac7e8fa1509c5c67baf2c9eb498fe06caff4} reported forcing or pressuring a peer to engage in sexual activity. Perpetrators were five times more likely to have been exposed to X-rated media that showed a person being physically hurt during sex, the study found, according to study co-author Michele Ybarra, president and research director of the Centre for Innovative Public Health Research in San Clemente, California. The young people also recounted a disturbing lack of consequences for their actions.

http://www.health24.com/Sex/News/Violent-porn-to-blame-for-sexual-coercion-20131008

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Prostitution & Trafficking

USA – Legalizing prostitution is prison for the exploited

Lisa Thompson of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation says,” oppose Amnesty International’s proposal to decriminalize prostitution worldwide for people over 18. It is a bad idea. No Amnesty for Pimps”. Prostitution is where people are supplied as public sexual commodities and it is rife with violence and crime. When suggesting that sex is work you’re also suggesting sexual exploitation is part of the job. In countries that have decriminalized prostitution violence is not reduced and sexually transmitted infections still prevail. Decriminalization increases demand giving full license when criminal penalties are removed. If there is more demand there will be a need for more supply. That supply, will come from poor countries, exploited women and children.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/culture/2015/10/14/legalizing-prostitution-is-prison-not-freedom-for-exploited

UK – Family jailed for trafficking Hungarian women for prostitution

A family who trafficked and enslaved two Hungarian women and forced them into prostitution have been jailed. Police rescued the women aged 30 and 21 from a home in Manchester. Four family members pleaded guilty to sex trafficking offences and were jailed for between three and six years each. Judge Peter Davies, passing sentence, described the victims’ ordeal, which lasted for more than six months, as a life “characterized by fear”. http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-manchester-34358630

USA – What Amnesty Did Wrong Regarding Prostitution

In an extended document by Anna Djinn from a feminist blog, thirteen points are addressed and expanded on regarding Amnesty Internationals mistakes regarding their decision to support the legalization of prostitution. What we found particularly interesting was the fact that the first version of the policy was written by Douglas Fox, a very successful pimp. In “The Equality Illusion: The Truth About Women and Men Today”, Kat Banyard identifies Douglas Fox as “founder and business partner of Christony Companions – one of the UK’s largest escort agencies.”

http://prostitutionresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/What-Amnesty-did-wrong.pdf

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Stem Cells & Cloning

Australia – Researchers grow organ in Petri-dish

A team of researchers from Murdoch Children’s Research Institute at the University of Queensland have grown a mini-kidney in a laboratory, opening the possibility for powerful non-human clinical drug and therapy trials.  The kidney was grown from human induced pluripotent stem cells. The researchers reported in Nature they had generated kidney organoids which “represent powerful models of the human organ for future applications, including nephrotoxicity screening, disease modeling and a source of cells for therapy”. Stem cell biologist Melissa Little said the approach could be used for drug screening in two years, potentially saving drug developers hundreds of millions of dollars. The kidney is one of the organs typically poisoned by drugs, along with the liver and heart.

http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/researchers-grow-organ-in-petri-dish/11610

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Substance Abuse

UK – Use of Legal Highs on the Increase

Incidents involving legal highs have more than doubled in 2 years from 1,431 in 2013 to 3,807 incidents in 2014, according to data compiled by the Centre for Social Justice. Ms Harrison, an advanced paramedic said health workers are also seeing a surge in the number of people overdosing after taking legal highs. Biochemists from Liverpool’s John Moore University analysed 5 separate brands of legal high, marketed as Ching, Cherry Bomb, Pandora’s Box Unleashed, Gogaine and Exodus Damnation. In three of the products they discovered a mismatch between the ingredients listed on the packet and what the substance actually contained. The chemicals are made in countries like China and India and then packaged and distributed throughout Europe.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-34603665

USA – Promising new target for addiction treatment

The latest issue of Biological Psychiatry presents the results of three studies implicating metabotropic glutamate receptor 2 (mGluR2) as a new molecular target for the treatment of addiction. These three studies were conducted using different addictive substances. All the studies suggest that the use of compounds that selectively target mGluR2 have the potential to successfully treat addiction. Dr. John Krystal, Editor of Biological Psychiatry, summarized, “It is unusual to have three papers supporting a new treatment mechanism emerge at the same time. Enhancing mGluR2 function may hold promise for the treatment of addiction.”

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/09/150914110551.htm

http://www.biologicalpsychiatryjournal.com/article/S0006-3223(15)00126-2/abstract

http://www.biologicalpsychiatryjournal.com/article/S0006-3223(15)00083-9/abstract

http://www.biologicalpsychiatryjournal.com/article/S0006-3223(15)00129-8/abstract

Switzerland – Study: THC doesn’t reduce postoperative nausea or vomiting

Intravenous THC had a “negligible” effect on postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV), as well as having “unpredictable psychotropic and sedative side effects,” according to a clinical trial by Dr. Lorenz G. Theiler and colleagues of University of Bern, Switzerland. At a time of growing interest in the uses of medical marijuana, the results suggest that marijuana compounds (cannabinoids) aren’t a good option to prevent PONV.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/10/151006124001.htm

http://journals.lww.com/anesthesia-analgesia/pages/articleviewer.aspx?year=9000&issue=00000&article=98206&type=abstract

Scotland – Massive rise in heroin and methadone drug problems

Massive rises in heroin and methadone-related drug problems amongst over-40s have driven drug-related hospital stays to a record high, official figures show. The number of hospital stays linked to opioids, have risen fivefold from 791 in 1996/97 to 4,511 in 2014/15. The rate of opioid-related admissions per head of population has risen even faster, from around 10 per 100,000 population to almost 90, figures from NHS Scotland’s Information Services Division (ISD Scotland) show. There were almost as many hospital stays linked to opioid use as there were for alcohol dependence (4,747) in 2014/15. Scotland’s controversial methadone substitution therapy for heroin addicts is fuelling the drug problem and is of major concern to many politicians and academics.

http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/13843922.Figures_show_massive_rises_in_heroin_and_methadone_drug_problems_among_over_40s/

USA – New study on the use of “Novel Psychoactive Substances”

In recent years, there has been an increase in emergence and use of a variety of new drugs, so-called “novel psychoactive substances” (NPS) in the US and worldwide. A new study, published in Drug and Alcohol Dependence by researchers affiliated with New York University’s Centre for Drug Use and HIV Research, examined self-reported use of 57 different new. The researchers found that almost all (95{01b0879e117dd7326006b2e84bcaac7e8fa1509c5c67baf2c9eb498fe06caff4}) subjects who reported use of a new drug also reported lifetime use of alcohol, marijuana, or cigarettes, and lifetime use of ecstasy (79.4{01b0879e117dd7326006b2e84bcaac7e8fa1509c5c67baf2c9eb498fe06caff4}), opioids (79.1{01b0879e117dd7326006b2e84bcaac7e8fa1509c5c67baf2c9eb498fe06caff4}), cocaine (74.3{01b0879e117dd7326006b2e84bcaac7e8fa1509c5c67baf2c9eb498fe06caff4}), and LSD (73.7{01b0879e117dd7326006b2e84bcaac7e8fa1509c5c67baf2c9eb498fe06caff4}).

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/09/150915105940.htm

http://www.drugandalcoholdependence.com/article/S0376-8716(15)01622-1/abstract

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Disclaimer: the views and opinions expressed in these articles do not necessarily reflect those of Doctors for Life International

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LIFEalerts 19 October 2015

Abortion	USA – 11th New Video: Harvesting intact brains from aborted babies USA – Website to Find Alternatives to Planned Parenthood
Alternative Medicine	Korea – Research on positive effects of turmeric on diseased livers USA – Yohimbine Supplements Contain Drug Like Doses
Euthanasia	UK – Assisted dying sinks in UK Parliament by 3-1 margin Belgium – Unbearable suffering” questioned in Belgian euthanasia Canada – Ontario doctors squeezed on objection to assisted suicide Netherlands – Dutch doctor sued for not approving the euthanasia
HIV/AIDS	No news today
Homosexuality	No news today
IVF & Surrogacy	UK – Widespread incompetence at IVF Clinics Switzerland – Court: Homosexual Surrogacy is “reproductive tourism” says USA – For Sale: “High Quality” designer babies Denmark – Fertility treatment can succeed with fewer hormones
Medical Ethics	Canada – Coerced sterilization of Canadian indigenous women Italy – European court strikes down challenge to embryo law USA – New research ethics guidelines planned for US UK – Researcher applies for embryo gene-editing license
Pedophilia	USA – Association between hypersexuality and pedophilic interest
Pornography	USA – FBI has new tactic to fight child pornography
Prostitution &Trafficking	USA – John’s more likely to rape and commit sexually aggressive acts Germany – Legalized Prostitution Does Increase Human Trafficking
Stem Cells & Cloning	No news today
Substance Abuse	Canada – City grants new medical marijuana business licenses USA – Case Report: Levamisole-contaminated cocaine South Africa – Study by the MRC reveals the extent of drug abuse USA – Landmark study: Substance Abuse & Cognitive Development

  Abortion   USA – 11^th New Video: Harvesting intact brains from aborted babies During an interview with Live Action President Lila Rose on TV, David Daleiden of The Centre for Medical Progress released never-before-seen footage showing a Texas Planned Parenthood abortionist Dr. Amna Dermish, who does abortions up to 24 weeks, describing how she manipulates the child into “breech” position, which resembles illegal partial-birth abortion, in order to obtain more intact body parts. Rose, who co-hosted the program, noted that the children being killed in Planned Parenthood abortion facilities are viable and able to survive outside the womb. Five states have defunded Planned Parenthood, and multiple federal and state investigations into the abortion giant have been launched. http://liveactionnews.org/new-video-planned-parenthood-abortionist-jokes-about-harvesting-intact-brain-from-aborted-babies/   USA – Website to Find Alternatives to Planned Parenthood GetYourCare.org features an interactive map that allows people to search for health care providers in their local area. The website’s goal is to give women everywhere in America access to information about the thousands of quality health care options women have. The Charlotte Lozier Institute and Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) contend there are many health care centers that should receive federal funding instead of Planned Parenthood. Some states have already defunded Planned Parenthood and are sending funds to health clinics. Casey Mattox, senior counsel with ADF, explained, “What these graphics put into pictures is what the data has been telling us for a long time. Planned Parenthood is really a small part of the national health care picture in America.” http://www.lifenews.com/2015/09/18/pro-life-groups-launch-website-to-help-patients-find-alternatives-to-planned-parenthood/   Alternative Medicine   Korea – Research on positive effects of turmeric on diseased livers Turmeric is one of the most popular therapeutic spices nowadays. It is a major ingredient of herbal companies who manufacture dietary supplements. The spice is popularized by its therapeutic ingredient called curcumin which is believed to have antibacterial antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. A new clinical trial in the journal BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine has shed some light on the impressive liver-protective and regenerative properties of turmeric. The Clinical Trial Center for Functional Foods Chonbuk National University Hospital’s South Korean researchers conducted research to test their hypothesis about turmeric having the ability to improve liver function. It reduces enzymes associated with liver damage (asparate transaminase and gamma-glutamyltransferase). http://www.menafn.com/1094351770/Research-Highlights-The-Positive-Effects-Of-Turmeric-On-Diseased-Livers   USA – Yohimbine Supplements Contain Drug Like Doses A supplement touted for revving up sex lives contains doses of a natural compound so high that the product acts like a drug, with dangerous side effects. Researchers analyzed the contents of about 50 dietary supplements sold in the United States that contained the ingredient Yohimbine, a compound found in small amounts in the bark of an African tree called Pausinystalia Johimbe. Supplements made from Johimbe bark extract are expected to have low levels of Yohimbine; the new study found high doses of up to 12 milligrams in the supplements, prescribed doses are 5 to 10 milligrams. “What was surprising was how much Yohimbine,” was in supplements, said study co-author Dr. Pieter Cohen, an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. http://www.livescience.com/52255-yohimbine-supplements-drug.html   <Back to Top>   Euthanasia   UK – Assisted dying sinks in UK Parliament by 3-1 margin A private member’s bill to legalise assisted suicide has been defeated in the British House of Commons by a crushing 3 to 1 margin. Despite high-profile support from the former director of public prosecutions, Sir Keir Starmer, now a Labour MP, and former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey, MPs defied opinion polls and voted against the measure by 330 votes to 118. However, the issue is far from dead. Sarah Wootton, chief executive of the group Dignity in Dying, which lobbied hard for the bill, says that the battleground will shift to Britain’s courts, which have sympathised with the view that assisted suicide is a human right. http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/assisted-dying-sinks-in-uk-parliament-by-3-1-margin/11561#sthash.0bpcsMdG.dpuf   Belgium – Unbearable suffering” questioned in Belgian euthanasia Journalist Brett Mason interviews two patients about their request for euthanasia and asks a number of doctors and public figures whether the increasing number of cases for unbearable suffering can be justified. Peter Ketelslegers is a 33-year-old father of two who suffers from cluster headaches which according to Belgian doctors – is untreatable. Simona de Moor is 85, physically fit and mentally sharp. But five minutes after her beloved daughter died, she decided on euthanasia. Dr Van Hoey is an old hand at euthanasia. How many has he killed, Mason asks? “To be frank, I don’t know, maybe hundreds, or over a hundred,” he replies. http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/unbearable-suffering-questioned-in-documentary-on-belgian-euthanasia/11574   Canada – Ontario doctors squeezed on objection to assisted suicide The legalization of physician-assisted suicide in Canada after February’s decision by the Supreme Court is starting to affect doctors. The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario has quietly issued a directive that conscientious objectors must help them find someone willing to do so. This policy requires physicians who are unwilling to provide procedures for reasons of conscience or religion to make “an effective referral to another health-care provider”. This is defined as “a referral made in good faith, to a non -objecting, available, and accessible physician, other health-care professional, or agency.” http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/ontario-doctors-squeezed-on-conscientious-objection-to-assisted-suicide/11572   Netherlands – Dutch doctor sued for not approving the euthanasia The death of nineteen year old Milou de Moor could become an important legal precedent. She suffered from lupus. It had severe psychological effects, depression, mood swings, anger, blackouts and nerve pain. Three years ago she requested euthanasia and it appeared that all the necessary people had agreed in accordance with the Dutch law. Her parents supported her decision and a date was set for her death. The doctor reneged and said that she did not believe that euthanasia was appropriate and so the hospital declined to go ahead. When Milou heard the news, she went off in a panic and hanged herself. The family feels stabbed in the back and has filed a complaint with the Medical Regulatory Board to sue the doctor for refusing permission. http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/dutch-doctor-in-hot-water-for-refusing-to-approve-euthanasia/11584   <Back to Top>   HIV/AIDS & STI’s   No news today   <Back to Top>   Homosexuality   No news today   <Back to Top>   IVF &Surrogacy   UK – Widespread incompetence at IVF Clinics IVF clinics have been accused of incompetence by a High Court judge as 5 heterosexual couples and 2 same-sex couples were victims of sloppy paperwork. After the baby was born they learned that they might not be the legal parents. This is not the first time that the IVF sector has been embarrassed by lack of attention to detail. In 2013, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) found that 51 clinics 46{01b0879e117dd7326006b2e84bcaac7e8fa1509c5c67baf2c9eb498fe06caff4} had anomalies in their records. The HFEA revealed that there have been a further 75 of these anomalies.1 parent interviewed said clinics had made simple clerical mistakes and appeared to be blasé about their legal responsibility to ensure our children were just that in name and in law. http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/widespread-incompetence-in-uk-ivf-clinics/11573#sthash.JrJedtxe.dpuf   Switzerland – Court: Homosexual Surrogacy is “reproductive tourism” In 2011 two Swiss men who lived in the US registered their partnership. Two months later, they had a child through surrogacy. Once back in Switzerland in 2014, the federal court ruled against the status they acquired in the US. The Swiss court stated that the principles informing the decision weren’t informed by considerations on same-sex parenting, but rather by an ethical stand on surrogacy itself. The court explained; a child must be protected from being downgraded to a commodity which can be ordered from a third party. The two men knowingly bypassed the Swiss law, recognizing their status would encourage “reproductive tourism.” The Swiss law on assisted reproduction only allows IVF that doesn’t require egg or sperm donation. http://www.sensiblesurrogacy.com/gay-surrogacy-is-reproductive-tourism-says-swiss-courts/   USA – For Sale: “High Quality” designer babies A documentary profiles a former Facebook executive, 46-year-old Natalie Lovett, who decided on single motherhood and a designer baby. She had to select both a sperm donor and an egg donor. She designed the embryos carefully, specifying that the donors had to have tertiary qualifications and no addictions. She discovered that the clinic had created 25 embryos for her. Reluctant to give them to science or to destroy them, she decided to advertise her “high quality embryos” to prospective mothers. They had to sign an agreement stipulating that the children and their families have to get together once a year. The agreement is called “Lexi’s Village”. Doctors for Life does not support embryo enhancement, except in as a valid medical reason. http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/creating-lexies-village/11595   Denmark – Fertility treatment can succeed with fewer hormones Women undergoing IVF treatment have had to use a hormonal gel on a daily basis for at least 14 days after embryo transfer. This increases the chances of pregnancy but it may also cause some side effects in the form of irritation and discharge. Two test groups and a control group were examined in this randomized trial. The women had standard care including the hormonal gel, whereas the test groups only administered a small daily injection of the pregnancy stimulating hormone HCG over a 2-week period. “The chances of becoming pregnant are equally good although the study group who was treated with daily injections perceived this as considerably more patient friendly,” says Professor Peter Humaidan. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/08/150825103115.htm   <Back to Top>   Medical Ethics   Canada – Coerced sterilization of Canadian indigenous women Coerced sterilization of indigenous Canadian women did not end until at least 1974 and according to Karen Stote, professor of women’s studies at Wilfrid Laurier University; the problem was far wider than was previously known. “Consent forms (for sterilizations) were not translated into indigenous languages, people weren’t necessarily understanding what was happening in the doctor’s office … In some areas, they (doctors working for the government) were promoting birth control to reduce the size of indigenous communities.” Dr Stote claims that “the government also wanted to reduce their population to lessen the state’s responsibilities under treaties it had signed with indigenous groups.” http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/more-revelations-about-past-sterilization-of-canadian-indigenous-women/11562#sthash.YeNBINdJ.dpuf   Italy – European court strikes down challenge to embryo law The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that Adelina Parillo, who with her partner created five embryos in 2002, does not have a right to donate her embryos to scientific research. Parillo claimed that existing Italian law regulating embryo research violated the right to privacy and private property. The court found 16-1 that Italy had not contravened Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights on the right to respect for private and family life and was to be given considerable room for maneuver due to the lack of a European consensus, and international texts on the issue. There was also no evidence the woman’s deceased partner would have wished to donate the embryos for medical research. http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/european-court-strikes-down-challenge-to-embryo-law/11558#sthash.IyjfpKy7.dpuf   USA – New research ethics guidelines planned for US The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has proposed an overhaul of existing human research ethics guidelines in an attempt to deal with advances in science. The suggestions include proposals to modify informed consent for bio specimen research, improve the understandability of consent forms, and mandate single institutional review board (IRB) oversight of research. Many researchers and policy-analysts say that the existing framework is inadequate for studies involving new genomic technologies, and hinders multi-site research. The proposed changes will have significant implications for a wide range of stakeholders across the life sciences and health care industries, including drug and device manufacturers, hospitals, academic medical centers, universities and medical schools, IRBs, contract research organizations, laboratories, and tissue banks. http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/new-research-ethics-guidelines-planned-for-us/11578   UK – Researcher applies for embryo gene-editing license Just months after the release of a controversial Chinese study into embryo gene-editing, British scientists have requested permission to genetically modify human embryos using the ground-breaking CRISPR-CAS9 technique. Dr Kathy Niakan, a leading developmental biologist affiliated with the Francis Crick Institute in London, believes the research would provide us with “fundamental insights into early human development”. Niakan’s application to the Human Fertilization and Embryo Authority (HFEA) comes in the wake of an important statement released by a group of leading British gene-editing research funders. In that document, the funding bodies expressed cautious support for embryo gene-editing research, and encouraged the broader community to explore the ethical and regulatory considerations in a ‘timely manner’. http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/uk-researcher-applies-for-embryo-gene-editing-license/11583   <Back to Top>   Pedophilia   USA – Association between hypersexuality and pedophilic interest Much is currently known about hypersexuality among sexual offenders; the degree to which hypersexual behavior is linked to paraphilic and especially pedophilic interests in non-forensic populations has not been established. A recent online study by Alexander Schmidt from University of Luxembourg, suggests that there is no association between aggregated sex drive, and sexual abusive behavior in the multivariate analyses. 8,718 German men participated in the study. http://orbilu.uni.lu/handle/10993/21100   <Back to Top>   Pornography   USA – FBI has new tactic to fight child pornography The FBI is taking bold steps to stop the making and distribution of child pornography by taking over websites and keeping them up and running so they can catch predators in the act. This is a relatively new investigative technique the FBI is using. A child pornography website was seized but not immediately shut down and the FBI continued to run it for two months. During that time, investigators were monitoring the log-ons of users on that website. The technique allows the FBI to catch those running the website and those using the website to share pictures of child pornography. Federal prosecutors have said catching users of child pornography websites is just as important as shutting down the websites. http://www.click2houston.com/news/fbi-has-new-tactic-to-fight-child-pornography/35674978   <Back to Top>   Prostitution & Trafficking   USA – John’s more likely to rape and commit sexually aggressive acts Neil Malamuth, professor of communication and psychology at UCLA said “Findings indicate that men who buy sex share certain key characteristics with men at risk for committing sexual aggression”. “Both groups tend to have a preference for impersonal sex, a fear of rejection by woman, a history of having committed sexually aggressive acts and a hostile masculine self-identification.  Those who buy sex, on average, have less empathy for woman in prostitution and view them as intrinsically different from other woman.” Traits of sexual aggression include antisocial behavior, a preference for impersonal sex and “hostile masculinity”, a narcissistic personality trait. One man who was interviewed for the study said prostitutes were like coffee cups: “When you’re done, you throw it out.” http://www.medicaldaily.com/prostitution-and-sexual abuse-men-who-pay-sex-may-be-more-likely-commit-rape-350700   Germany – Legalized Prostitution Does Increase Human Trafficking Countries with legalized prostitution are associated with higher human trafficking inflows than countries where prostitution is prohibited. These are among conclusions from a study concluded at the University of Heidelberg in Germany conducted by Prof. Dr. Axel Dreher, President of the European Public Choice Society. Countries with legalized prostitution report a greater incidence of human trafficking inflows. The effect of legal prostitution on human trafficking inflows is stronger in high-income countries than middle-income countries. Because trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation requires that clients in potential destination countries have sufficient purchasing power, domestic supply is a constraint. Criminalization of prostitution in Sweden resulted in the shrinking of the prostitution market and the decline of human trafficking inflows. http://journalistsresource.org/studies/international/human-rights/legalized-prostitution-human-trafficking-inflows   <Back to Top>   Stem Cells & Cloning   No news today   <Back to Top>   Substance Abuse   Canada – City grants new medical marijuana business licenses In two separate votes, Kimberley City Council granted business licenses to two more medical marijuana businesses. Each business will be allowed to dispense medical cannabis products, but each with a limitation – there will be no production allowed. The businesses must source their product from growers elsewhere. The Council was unanimous in granting the business license. All councillors agreed it was just another business for Kimberley, although they also all agreed to limit the license to dispensing, not growing. Mayor Don McCormick said that the federal government appeared to have the goal of having a few large manufacturers rather than small growers. http://www.dailybulletin.ca/breaking_news/327704191.html   USA – Case Report: Levamisole-contaminated cocaine “Doctors, in particular, dermatologists and rheumatologists are seeing more and more people who are affected by levamisole-contaminated cocaine,” said Dr. Anthony Rossi, a dermatologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre in New York City. Skin lesions like those of the woman in a case report are a classic symptom, they occur when blood vessels near the surface of the skin are severely damaged; without enough blood, the skin dies. It’s unknown why levamisole is added to cocaine, but one possible explanation is that both drugs are similar in appearance; they’re both white powders, so the addition may be intended to increase the weight of cocaine in a way that users won’t notice. There’s also speculation that levamisole may cause euphoria. http://www.livescience.com/52169-contaminated-cocaine-docs-puzzled.html   South Africa – Study by the MRC reveals the extent of drug abuse Ecstasy, LSD and methamphetamine are commonly used by younger persons as is the inhaling of solvents. Dagga, Mandrax and glue are used predominantly by people in disadvantaged communities. Cocaine and Ecstasy are more commonly used by middle and upper class strata. Dagga, Mandrax, alcohol and crack cocaine are both frequently used by sex workers. Excluding alcohol, the most common ingestion of drugs in South Africa is via smoking. Local research has found rates of foetal alcohol syndrome in excess of 30 per 1000 in high risk communities, at least 3x higher than the highest rates reported in high risk communities in the USA. The Medical research Council estimates that crime committed to support drug users’ habits is in excess of R10 billion per year. http://www.health24.com/Mental-Health/Drugs/Drug-abuse-trends-in-SA-20120721   USA – Landmark study: Substance Abuse & Cognitive Development The National Institutes of Health awarded 13 grants to research institutions around the USA as part of a landmark study about the effects of adolescent substance use on the developing brain. The Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study will follow 10,000 children, ages 9 to10, before they initiate drug use, through the period of highest risk for substance use and other mental health disorders. Scientists will track exposure to substances (including nicotine, alcohol, and marijuana), academic achievement, cognitive skills, mental health, and brain structure and function using advanced research methods. “With advances in neuroimaging and other investigative tools, we will be able to look in greater detail at the impact of substance use on young people,” said Nora D. Volkow, M.D., director of NIDA. http://www.drugabuse.gov/news-events/news-releases/2015/09/nih-launches-landmark-study-substance-use-adolescent-brain-development   <Back to Top>   Disclaimer: the views and opinions expressed in these articles do not necessarily reflect those of Doctors for Life International]]>

LIFEalerts 16 September 2015

Abortion	USA – 2,030 Babies Saved After Three Abortion Clinics Close Down USA – 662 Babies Saved After Planned Parenthood Funding Cut USA – Protests planned at Planned Parenthood Clinics in 300 Cities
Alternative Medicine	South Africa – Combining herbal remedies & medical drugs can be harmful USA – High use of alternative medicine in oncology patient seniors
Euthanasia	Australia – Children contest will of Nitschke follower UK – Anscombe Centre Releases New resource on euthanasia USA – Euthanasia in Belgium and the Netherlands on a Slippery Slope Netherlands – Euthanasia activists send ‘educational kits’ to schools
HIV/AIDS	No news today
Homosexuality	No news today
IVF & Surrogacy	Australia – New technique uses signalling molecule in mother’s uterus Australia – Couple denied IVF because of fears they would harm the child India – New surrogacy laws in India alarm conservatives USA – Egg Donor vs. Egg Bank: What is the difference?
Medical Ethics	UK/USA – The eternal return of the embryo debate USA – Trust in the system USA – Policy analysts criticize non-medical sex-selection
Pedophilia	No news today
Pornography	UK – New Revenge Porn Laws Are ‘Having an Impact’ Canada – Police face battle against ‘unspeakable’ child porn Australia – MPs propose private members bill banning revenge porn USA – Adult videos being phased out at Hilton properties
Prostitution &Trafficking	Netherlands – Control methods used for sexual exploitation in trafficking United States – Prostitution Ideology and Trafficking: Australia and US South Africa – Foreign national arrested for human trafficking
Stem Cells & Cloning	Japan – Skepticism greets new stem-cell regulations in China USA – Witherspoon institute calls for cloning ban
Substance Abuse	USA – Teens Using E-Cigarette Devices to Smoke Marijuana Scotland – Heroin substitute methadone linked to half of drugs deaths Mexico – Stopping the Drug Menace in its Tracks USA – Lack of Meaning in Life Linked to Substance Abuse, Depression

  Abortion   USA – 2,030 Babies Saved After Three Abortion Clinics Close Down A new Ohio health department report shows 21,186 abortions in 2014, which is down from 23,216 abortions in 2013 – showing 2,030 babies saved. Mike Gonidakis, president of Ohio Right to Life credits new pro-life provisions in the state budget and the closing of three abortion clinics in 2014 for helping lower the number of abortions. In July, Ohio Governor John Kasich signed into law a pro-life state budget that funds pregnancy centers providing women with abortion alternatives and could close abortion clinics that can’t meet basic health and safety standards expected of legitimate medical centers. http://www.lifenews.com/2015/09/02/2030-babies-saved-from-abortion-in-ohio-after-three-abortion-clinics-close-down/   USA – 662 Babies Saved in After Planned Parenthood Funding Cut A newly released Department of Health Services report shows there were 6,462 abortions performed in 2013 and 5,800 in 2014 – 662 fewer abortions after cuts in taxpayer funding to Planned Parenthood. In 2013, Gov. Scott Walker signed an ultrasound bill (Senate Bill 206) giving women the opportunity to see their unborn children It also requires abortionists to have admitting privileges within thirty miles of their facility. Abortion clinics have closed down that can’t comply with basic health and safety requirements. http://www.lifenews.com/2015/08/26/662-babies-saved-from-abortions-in-wisconsin-after-planned-parenthood-fund   USA – Protests planned at Planned Parenthood Clinics in 300 Cities Tens of thousands of pro-lifers are expected to protest at over 300 Planned Parenthood locations in 47 states and 5 countries in response to its selling of aborted babies and their body parts. “The media is finally starting to pay attention to the atrocities that Planned Parenthood has made a central part of their business model. They are too horrific and gruesome to ignore,” Troy Newman of Operation Rescue told LifeNews. “We need to show the politicians that the American people are waking up. They are seeing exactly what happens in these Planned Parenthood houses of horror, and they want it stopped.” http://www.lifenews.com/2015/08/21/pro-life-people-will-protest-at-planned-parenthood-clinics-in-over-300-cities-tomorro   Alternative Medicine   South Africa – Combining herbal remedies & medical drugs can be harmful A popular herbal remedy Moringa Oleifera (MO)‚ interferes with antiretroviral treatment (ART) and can have toxic effects when used with ART and other conventional medicine. “In South Africa up to 8 in 10 people with HIV use traditional medicines‚” says Dr Charles Awortwe‚ a researcher in Clinical Pharmacology at Stellenbosch University. Taking MO as an herbal supplement could potentially worsen the health conditions of patients on drug treatment. Herbal products interfere with the enzymes responsible for the chemical breakdown of drugs in the body. According to Awortwe‚ one-third of cases of acute kidney failure in Africa are estimated to be caused by traditional medicines. “Patients already taking MO as supplement should inform their doctors about this to avoid further harm.” http://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/2015/08/30/combining-herbal-remedies-with-conventional-drugs-can-be-harmful-researcher-warns   USA – High use of alternative medicine in oncology patient seniors Many seniors with cancer are using complementary or alternative medicines that could interfere with their cancer treatment. CAMs are thought to be harmless and helpful for a wide range of discomforts and illnesses. Although they’re marketed as “natural,” they often contain active ingredients that can react chemically and biologically with other therapies. Few oncologists are aware of the alternative medicines their patients take, says Ginah Nightingale, PharmD, and Assistant Professor of Pharmacology at Thomas Jefferson University.  A number of CAMs interfere with certain cancer treatments, for example St. John’s wart can make some cancer therapy less effective, and others can interfere with anesthesia during surgery for cancer. Dose and potency can vary widely between products, and between patients. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/08/150826093018.htm   <Back to Top>   Euthanasia   Australia – Children contest will of Nitschke follower Bill O’Brien a healthy 89-year-old Australian man, who lived in Perth, went to a hotel room and took a lethal dose of Nembutal in July last year. He left his 1.8 million estate to Exit International to be spent on hiring a full-time political lobbyist, but only $5,000 each to his son and daughter. He was a personal friend of Dr Nitschke and one of three directors of Exit. Dr Nitschke said that Mr. O’Brien was not close to his children and that in any case they are “wealthy adults”. http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/children-contest-will-of-nitschke-follower/11548   UK – Anscombe Centre Releases New resource on euthanasia As debate over end-of-life issues intensifies in the UK, the Anscombe Centre has released a comprehensive ‘evidence guide’ on the issue of euthanasia. The aim is “to help people assess and judge for themselves whether they are reassured or whether they are alarmed by the experience of countries where euthanasia or assisted suicide is legal.” David Albert Jones, director of the Anscombe Centre, says that “the evidence from all these countries [where assisted dying has been legalized] shows a steady increase in deaths by assisted suicide or euthanasia, a steady expansion to include patients with different conditions, and a steady decrease in the use of safeguards such as psychiatric assessment.” http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/new-resource-about-euthanasia/11531   USA – Euthanasia in Belgium and the Netherlands on a Slippery Slope According to a report by Art Caplan and co-author Barron H. Lerner in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Belgium and the Netherlands are on a slippery slope to the abuse of vulnerable groups. Although pro Euthanasia supporters all over the world say abuse in non existent these bioethicists say that statistics out of Belgium and Holland should raise alarm bells even for the USA. http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleID=2426425   Netherlands – Euthanasia activists send ‘educational kits’ to schools A secondary school in Amsterdam was the first ever to use a new “educational kit” developed by the Dutch “Voluntary End of Life Association” (NVVE) on September 3, the annual “Living Will Day” in the Netherlands. The propaganda package was officially presented at the Hyperion Lyceum by NVVE’s new president, Robert Schurink. The kit was created in order to supply facts, figures, and other information about euthanasia to Dutch high school students, who are required to conduct debates about contemporary issues. Euthanasia is currently the subject that is chosen most often. https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/dutch-voluntary-end-of-life-association-creates-educational-propaganda-kit   <Back to Top>   HIV/AIDS & STI’s   No news today   <Back to Top>   Homosexuality   No news today   <Back to Top>   IVF &Surrogacy   Australia – New technique uses signalling molecule in mother’s uterus IVF will soon benefit from an option that cultures an embryo in an environment that closely mimics what occurs naturally in a mother during conception. The GM-CSF molecule protects the embryo from stress, making it stronger and more robust in the days following conception. Embryos are cultured for an additional 2 days (to the blastocyst stage), so that the best embryo can be selected on day 5 and implanted. Associate Professor Louise Hull, researcher at University of Adelaide’s Robinson Research Institute and Fertility Specialist at Fertility SA, is leading the first Australian BlastGen clinical trial. “This is a great example of how good medical research can translate into a treatment that makes a real difference in people’s lives,” she says. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2015-06-ivf-technique-molecule-naturally-mother.html   Australia – Couple denied IVF because of fears they would harm child A couple are being denied fertility treatment because of concerns they would harm the child, in a rare ruling by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal. The tribunal heard that the couple, who had never lived together and who were both on pensions, had five children, four of whom had been removed from their custody by the Department of Child Protection at various times. They are still able to try conceiving naturally if they choose. http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/aug/17/victorian-couple-denied-ivf-because-of-fears-they-would-harm-child   India – New surrogacy laws in India alarm conservatives Indian mothers whose children were born by surrogacy in India will be entitled to maternity leave, following a high court ruling in Delhi. Opponents fear that this could open the door for legalizing surrogacy for gay couples. The judgement essentially rules that motherhood is not based on the circumstances of child’s birth, and that the intrinsic need of the mother and child to bond is not limited to the baby’s birth mother. Commercial surrogacy in India is legal, although regulations stopped most foreign couples and all same-sex couples from using Indian surrogate mothers to carry their children. Now only men and women who have been married for two years are granted visas for the purpose of surrogacy in India. http://www.sensiblesurrogacy.com/surrogacy-laws-in-india-alarm-conservatives/   USA – Egg Donor vs. Egg Bank: What is the difference? A study has shown that fresh donations have a higher rate of successful pregnancies and live births. Surrogates undergoing IVF are less likely to give birth if they use frozen eggs instead of fresh donor eggs. “Our research demonstrated that contrary to some claims made mostly by commercial interests, frozen eggs offer a lower chance of pregnancy and delivery chance after IVF than fresh eggs,” said Dr. Norbert Gleicher, medical director and chief scientist with the Centre for Human Reproduction in New York City. “Patients should be made aware of this fact.” Donors have no idea that their eggs are being resold to several couples that they had never met or heard of, while being paid for just a single donation. http://www.sensiblesurrogacy.com/egg-donor-vs-frozen-egg-bank/ Study: http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2425734   <Back to Top>   Medical Ethics   UK/USA – The eternal return of the embryo debate A statement by the Wellcome Trust, Medical Research Council and other leading funding bodies urges “global stakeholders” to actively review existing restrictions on embryo experimentation, in light of the possibilities arising from new biotechnological developments: They encourage “biomedical and social scientists, ethicists, healthcare professionals… and the public” all to engage in the debate. But while British funding bodies are keen to reconsider embryo experimentation, the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) are very apprehensive. In a statement published in Nature, NIH director Francis Collins says that the question of editing embryos is not a new one, and is “viewed nearly universally as a line that should not be crossed. NIH will not fund any use of gene-editing technologies in human embryos.” http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/the-eternal-return-of-the-embryo-debate/11556   USA – Trust in the system In the latest edition of the American Journal of Bioethics Drs Maureen Kelly (Oxford) and Sandra Soo-Jin Lee (Stanford) consider how patients perceive consent to Research on Medical Practices (ROMP). “Research on medical practices, including medical record reviews, comparative effectiveness research, quality improvement interventions, and point-of-care randomization is critically important to improving medical care, reducing risks to patients, and decreasing costs.” The authors found that developing relationships of trust are crucial to ensuring patient confidence and “The simple act of ‘being asked’ bolstered a sense of trust. Harvard health policy lecturer Emily A. Largent commented that doctors need to be transparent with patients about the distinction between patient care and research (done for the good of society and future generations). http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/trust-in-the-system/11540   USA – Policy analysts criticize non-medical sex-selection Leading bioethicists have criticized the practice of non-medical sex-selection in American IVF clinics which involves a woman producing embryos which are genetically tested before implantation.  The process is known as “family balancing”. Bioethicist Arthur Caplan warned that this could easily become a smoke screen for families who want boys.  “When you are treating the fertile in order to produce something that they prefer as opposed to a disease, I do think you’re really opening the door to a potential slope toward eugenics,” he said. Family-balancing services are advertised prominently on many IVF clinics’ websites and about half of the patients seeking the service come from overseas. http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/policy-analysts-criticise-non-medical-sex-selection/11532   <Back to Top>   Pedophilia   No news today   <Back to Top>   Pornography   UK – New Revenge Porn Laws Are ‘Having an Impact’ New laws designed to tackle revenge porn are “having an impact” in bringing offenders to justice. Ahead of sentencing of a 21-year-old man who posted, texted and emailed intimate photos without a woman’s consent, the Director of Public Prosecutions remarked that it was right for revenge porn to be a recognized offence. The offence can now carry a maximum of two years’ imprisonment. The DPP described the crime, often committed by vengeful ex-partners, as “a violation of trust between two people, with a purpose to publicly humiliate”. Police across the UK are currently tackling the largest ever volume of revenge porn cases and potential victims range from 11-year-olds to pensioners. http://news.sky.com/story/1531730/new-revenge-porn-laws-are-having-an-impact   Canada – Police face battle against ‘unspeakable’ child porn Investigators are battling an inundation of child pornography cases but are having a tougher time fighting the “unspeakable” crimes as they contend with legal hurdles and offenders who find new ways to share graphic images. According to Alberta Law Enforcement investigations have grown increasingly difficult and complex as it’s an on-going challenge to stay a step ahead of the technology. In addition, a ruling by the Supreme Court of Canada in 2014 means police must now get a warrant to obtain Internet subscriber information, which adds time to their investigations. Many arrests have been made but it is a drop in the bucket. The reality is, child sexual abuse photos and videos are being shared at a growing rate. http://calgaryherald.com/news/crime/eight-albertans-charged-in-child-porn-sting   Australia – MPs propose private members bill banning revenge porn So-called revenge porn could be outlawed under legislation being flagged by the federal opposition. The bill would make it a criminal offence to distribute sexually explicit images of an ex-partner without their consent. Both Victorian and South Australian governments have moved to criminalize the act, along with the United Kingdom and New Zealand. The Federal Parliament also needed to tackle the issue and a strong message should be sent to men that the taking of private, intimate, sexual pictures should be viewed in the same way as other illegal sexual conduct. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-09-03/labor-mps-propose-private-members-bill-banning-revenge-porn/6747764   USA – Adult videos being phased out at Hilton properties At the Hilton Doubletree Hotel and other Hilton properties worldwide adult videos will no longer be available in rooms as the chain will be phasing them out. According to the National Centre on Sexual Exploitations, Dawn Hawkins, Hilton will be taken off the so called “Dirty Dozen” list. She is very grateful for this decision because pornography is causing a public health crisis and it leads to increased demand for sex trafficking, and child exploitation. Hawkins also remarked that Marriott hotels changed their policy a few years ago and that’s when we turned out attention to Hilton. We are now also going after retailers. http://www.myfoxorlando.com/story/29808445/adult-videos-being-phased-out-at-hilton-properties   <Back to Top>   Prostitution & Trafficking   Netherlands – Control methods used for sexual exploitation in trafficking This study examines control methods used against 137 victims of human trafficking for sexual exploitation. A multidimensional scaling analysis of 23 control methods derived from a content analysis of police files from the Netherlands revealed three distinct forms of control. These could be interpreted in terms of Canter’s Victim Role Model that has been the basis for differentiating offending styles in other violent interpersonal offences. Further analysis showed a relationship between these control styles and different types of prostitution. The three, Victim as Object, Victim as Vehicle and Victim as Person modes are consistent with different control methods identified in previous research. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17440572.2014.979915#abstract   United States – Prostitution Ideology and Trafficking: Australia and USA Debates over the legitimacy and legality of prostitution have characterized human trafficking discourse for the last two decades. An article in the Journal of Women, Politics & Policy identifies the extent to which competing perspectives concerning the legitimacy of prostitution have influenced anti-trafficking policy in Australia and the United States and argues that each nation-state’s approach to domestic sex work has influenced trafficking legislation. The legal status of prostitution in each country, and feminist influences on prostitution law reform, has had a significant impact on the nature of the legislation adopted. http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/ah7p67d2Gh2uXpmGkaVW/full#.VfAqidKqqko   South Africa – Foreign national arrested for human trafficking A 30-year-old Nigerian national has been arrested in Johannesburg for human trafficking following the escape of a victim in May this year‚ the South African Police Service (SAPS) said. Two women allegedly lured the victim to a house “under the pretence that they were going to meet one of the ladies’ boyfriends. Upon arrival the victim was drugged and forced to wear a miniskirt and was used as a sex slave. “The Hawks are still hot on the heels of the two women who are believed to be the ones used by the main suspect to recruit women to be used as prostitutes. “The suspect will appear before the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court.” http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/2015/09/03/Nigerian-national-arrested-for-human-trafficking   <Back to Top>   Stem Cells & Cloning   Japan – Skepticism greets new stem-cell regulations in China China’s National Health Commission says all stem cell treatments are deemed experimental, except bone marrow transplants. There must be informed consent, clinical-grade stem cells must be used, and treatment may only happen at authorized hospitals which do not advertise or charge. However, Douglas Sipp, stem-cell policy expert at the RIKEN Centre for Developmental Biology in Japan, told Nature News: “In principle, I applaud any efforts to rein in practice of predatory clinics that take advantage of patients. But the fact that these new rules do not appear to have penalties leaves open the question of how effective they will be. I have seen China crack down on stem-cell clinics at least twice in the past, and the results were inconclusive.” http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/scepticism-greets-new-stem-cell-regulations-in-china/11547   USA – Witherspoon institute calls for cloning ban While cloning may have tiptoed out of news rooms, it lingers in laboratories, says bioethics group the Witherspoon Council on Ethics and the Integrity of Science, which includes former members and staffers from the Presidents Council on Bioethics. With the lull in the debate, now is the time for legislative reform to ban all forms of human cloning and the creation of embryos for research. “The justification for engaging in cloning-for-biomedical-research is weaker than ever before, thanks to the availability of viable alternative sources of pluripotent stem cells.  The practice of science in a free society is not exempt from democratic oversight, and in the case of cloning, such oversight is urgently needed. The time to act is now.” http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/us-bioethics-group-calls-for-cloning-ban/11552   <Back to Top>   Substance Abuse   USA – Teens Using E-Cigarette Devices to Smoke Marijuana A Yale University study published in the journal Pediatrics, found that of 3,847 Connecticut high school students surveyed, 28 percent reported using e-cigarettes. Of those, 18 percent have used the devices to vaporize concentrated liquid marijuana or hash oil, which contain concentrated THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), the principal psychoactive ingredient in cannabis. Users said they prefer vaping because it offers secrecy and cannot easily be detected. But researchers said the practice can produce a higher-potency high that can be injurious to teens and young adults during crucial brain-development years. Meghan E. Morean, Ph.D., is the lead author of the study. http://www.healthline.com/health-news/teens-using-e-cigarette-devices-to-smoke-marijuana-090915#6   Scotland – Heroin substitute methadone linked to half of drugs deaths A new report on drug mortality has highlighted a worrying trend in Ayrshire, with the heroin substitute methadone contributing to more than half (25 out of 43) of Ayrshire’s drug deaths in 2014. Authors of the National Record of Scotland report have branded the figure “unusually high” and it has led to renewed calls for a review of the controversial program which treats recovering addicts. Ayr MSP John Scott said “The attempts of recent years to simply manage the problem, based on harm reduction and an over-reliance on methadone, have just not worked. The challenge is to expand the range of rehabilitation services on offer and move to abstinence and recovery.” South Ayrshire currently treats 485 on methadone. http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/local-news/heroin-substitute-methadone-linked-more-6375513   Mexico – Stopping the Drug Menace in its Tracks Mexico’s drug cartels hold a firm grip on the lucrative U.S. drug trade, controlling 70{01b0879e117dd7326006b2e84bcaac7e8fa1509c5c67baf2c9eb498fe06caff4} of all drugs trafficked into the U.S. and over 90{01b0879e117dd7326006b2e84bcaac7e8fa1509c5c67baf2c9eb498fe06caff4} of the cocaine trade. Each year, more than 8,000 minors under 18 are recruited into the cartels, many as young as 10 or 12 years old and it’s not rare for a child of 10 to use cannabis and quickly progress to harder drugs. While Mexican police forces say they are powerless to keep minors from slipping into the drug world, there are organizations training police in Mexico who guard them in schools, distribute pamphlets and speak to them about their choices and drugs. http://www.drugfreeworld.org/newsletter/2015-summer-stop-drug-menace-in-mexico.html   USA – Lack of Meaning in Life Linked to Substance Abuse, Depression A lack of ultimate meaning in life, considered an important dimension of spirituality, is associated with alcohol abuse and drug addiction, as well as other mental health problems including anxiety and depression, according to a new study at Florida Atlantic University (FAU). They found that encouraging people’s creative talents (painting, writing), giving them opportunities to serve others, and helping them to connect to core values and their true self through prayer and meditation helped them to discover ultimate purpose and meaning as part of their recovery process. The study is published in the Journal of Social Service Research. http://psychcentral.com/news/2015/08/15/lack-of-meaning-in-life-linked-to-substance-abuse-depression/90907.html   <Back to Top>   Disclaimer: the views and opinions expressed in these articles do not necessarily reflect those of Doctors for Life International]]>

LIFEalerts 26 August 2015

Abortion	USA – Planned Parenthood Selling Aborted Babies without Patient Consent USA – Planned Parenthood on How to Break Law to Sell Aborted Babies
Alternative Medicine	Australia – Alternative menopause therapies not best choice Uganda – Child sacrifice for wealth and power in Uganda
Euthanasia	South Africa – Doctors fight assisted suicide ruling Belgium – Patients with depression most likely to use euthanasia Netherlands – Sharp rise in euthanasia for psychiatric patients
HIV/AIDS	No news today
Homosexuality	No news today
IVF & Surrogacy	Australia – Cancer survivor gives birth after ovarian tissue transplant Nepal – Illegal Surrogacy Trade Revealed
Medical Ethics	USA – Taking a swing at bioethics USA – ‘I can see what you’re saying’ USA – Incoming World Medical Association head under a cloud
Pedophilia	Australia – Pedophiles need specialist preventative counseling
Pornography	Australia – Victoria: New internet child pornography laws close loopholes India – India blocks 857 websites citing pornography’s threat to decency USA – Survey of US men shows over 60s and 70s viewing pornography USA – Symposium looks at evidence of the destructiveness of pornography
Prostitution &Trafficking	UK – Amnesty International approves decriminalization of sex trade India – Prostitution should not be legalized USA – Law takes new tack in fight against prostitution South Africa – US State department 2014 Trafficking in Persons Report
Stem Cells & Cloning	No news today
Substance Abuse	South Africa – Do not legalise Nyaope says Depression and Anxiety Group USA – Oregon airports adjust to new ’Carry-on cannabis’ law

  Abortion   USA – Planned Parenthood Selling Aborted Babies without Patient Consent A new video includes Holly O’Donnell, a licensed phlebotomist, describing tissue procurement workers’ coordination with abortion providers, the pressure placed on patients, and disregard for patient consent. According to O’Donnell, Planned Parenthood gave StemExpress workers access to patient records and schedules so that the harvesting company could plan for the days when patient “supply” would be greatest. David Daleiden, the head of The Center for Medical Progress, comments that Planned Parenthood is not a safe place where vulnerable women can be cared for, but a harvesting ground for saleable human ‘product.’ http://www.lifenews.com/2015/08/12/6th-shocking-video-catches-planned-parenthood-selling-aborted-babies-without-patient-consent/   USA – Planned Parenthood on How to Break Law to Sell Aborted Babies New undercover footage shows Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains’ (PPRM) Vice President and Medical Director, Dr. Savita Ginde, negotiating a fetal body parts deal, agreeing multiple times to illicit pricing per body part harvested, and suggesting ways to avoid legal consequences. Ginde also suggests ways for Planned Parenthood to cover-up its criminal and public relations liability for the sale of aborted body parts. “Putting it under ‘research’ gives us a little bit of an overhang over the whole thing,” Ginde remarks. “If you have someone in a really anti state that’s going to be doing this for you, they’re probably going to get caught.” Ginde implies that PPRM’s lawyer, Kevin Paul, is helping the affiliate skirt the fetal tissue law. http://www.lifenews.com/2015/07/30/4th-video-catches-planned-parenthood-vp-discussing-how-to-break-the-law-to   Alternative Medicine   Australia – Alternative menopause therapies not best choice Too many Australian women are using treatments for menopause symptoms that don’t work. If you’re using complementary and alternative medicines like phytoestrogens, evening primrose oil, black cohosh or ginseng to help, you’re wasting your money. Nearly 500,000 women a month are using these medicines to control vasomotor symptoms like night sweats and hot flushes says Dr Roisin Worsley, from Monash University’s School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine.” But none of these [remedies] have been proven in scientific studies to actually be of any benefit,” Worsley says. Most alternative menopause therapies cause short term side effects including nausea, headache and upset stomach. Side effects of ginseng include hypertension, diarrhea and sleeplessness. http://www.abc.net.au/health/features/stories/2015/08/06/4288056.htm   Uganda – Child sacrifice for wealth and power in Uganda Kanani and Sylvia a brother and sister aged 9 and 8, were grazing cattle in rural Uganda. Sperito Bisekwa accused them of allowing cows to eat his fodder; he dragged them into a forest and attacked Kanani. The boy awoke with a machete wound on his neck. Sylvia’s body had been gruesomely mutilated for use in witchdoctor rituals. Child sacrifice is a phenomenon in Uganda and the government has established a special taskforce. Activists say child sacrifice is not about tradition but greed. People seek quick routes to wealth or power and with elections due in 2016 killings will increase. Bisekwa admits sending body parts to his brother, a witch doctor, in exchange for $16,500. http://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/2015/06/15/child-sacrifice-for-wealth-and-power-in-uganda   <Back to Top>   Euthanasia   South Africa – Doctors fight assisted suicide ruling Three months ago, the Pretoria High Court gave cancer patient Robin Stransham-Ford the go-ahead to get a doctor to help him die. But council president Professor Samuel Mokgokong said the council had joined the ministers of justice and health in appealing against the decision as assisted suicide was “unethical”. Dr Mzukisi Grootboom, the chairman of the SA Medical Association, agreed with Mokgokong, saying that “doctors should never use their medical skill to assist patients to commit suicide”. http://www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/doctors-fight-assisted-suicide-ruling-1.1893237#.Vb8t17VGSeg   Belgium – Patients with depression most likely to use euthanasia Study co-author Dr. Lieve Thienpont, of University Hospital Brussels in Belgium, and colleagues published their findings in the journal British medical Journal Open. More than one psychiatric illness was identified among 90{01b0879e117dd7326006b2e84bcaac7e8fa1509c5c67baf2c9eb498fe06caff4} of patients, according to the team, with depression being the most frequent diagnosis, affecting 58 patients. Personality disorders were the second most common mental illness and affected 50 patients. http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/297348.php   Netherlands – Sharp rise in euthanasia for psychiatric patients In the first six months of this year, 18 people with severe psychiatric problems have been helped to die at a special euthanasia clinic. This is more than double the total figure of 17 in 2014. In addition, almost 100 psychiatric patients are on the waiting list for help. The clinic was set up in 2012 to help people whose doctors are unwilling to grant euthanasia requests and operates a nationwide network of teams made up of doctors and nurses. Last year, some 14,000 people in the Netherlands were helped to die, most of who were suffering from cancer. http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2015/07/sharp-rise-in-euthanasia-for-psychiatric-patients/   <Back to Top>   HIV/AIDS & STI’s   No news today   <Back to Top>   Homosexuality   No news today   <Back to Top>   IVF &Surrogacy   Australia – Cancer survivor gives birth after ovarian tissue transplant In 2006, the then 37-year-old had a small piece of ovarian tissue removed and frozen before starting chemotherapy and radiotherapy for breast cancer. “Her only option was to freeze a little bit of her tissue, and when I saw her there were only one or two pregnancies in the world from this technology,” Dr Burmeister said. In April 2012, the tissue was re-implanted and the now 44-year-old began ovulating again, even though she had gone through menopause. The woman then began IVF treatment and four months later she conceived. The successful pregnancy offers hope for thousands of women, with doctors effectively reversing the effects of menopause and turning back the biological clock. http://monashivf.com/another-first-for-monash-ivf-breast-cancer-survivor-has-given-birth-to-a-little-miracle-after-her-fertility-was-restored-following-an-australian-first-ovary-transplant/   Nepal – Illegal Surrogacy Trade Revealed After the 2013 Indian government ban on the use of local surrogates by non-married, homosexual or single parents, surrogacy agents have turned to Nepal where the procedure is less regulated. While Nepalese locals tend not to act as surrogates, there is no official government ban and scores of migrant women rent their wombs in cities like Kathmandu. Surrogacy agencies in Nepal lure clients on the Internet with rates that are about a fourth of the prices in the United States. The packages cost between $35,000 and $65,000. The mothers earn between $5,000 and $6,000 of that, the price of a house in that part of Asia. The rest goes into the pockets of doctors and agencies. http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/nepalese-surrogacy-unearthed/11492   <Back to Top>   Medical Ethics   USA – Taking a swing at bioethics One of America’s leading intellectuals’, psychologist Steven Pinker says: “the primary moral goal for today’s bioethics can be summarized in a single sentence. Get out of the way.” “A truly ethical bioethics should not bog down research in red tape, moratoria, or threats of prosecution based on nebulous but sweeping principles such as ‘dignity,’ ‘sacredness,’ or ‘social justice.’* First, slowing down research has a massive human cost. Even a one-year delay in implementing an effective treatment could spell death, suffering, or disability for millions of people. Second, technological prediction beyond a horizon of a few years is so futile that any policy based on it is almost certain to do more harm than good.” http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/a-wild-swing-at-bioethics/11507   USA – ‘I can see what you’re saying’ In a study published in the journal Frontiers of Neuroscience scientists were able to observe how the brain planned speech acts and then activated the muscles before the speech itself became audible. Duke University Professor Nita Farahany has previously addressed questions about ‘mental privacy’ and, literally, ‘freedom of thought’ saying: “Some of the forward-looking questions we should be deliberating about now are whether individuals have a legal interest to mental privacy that could safeguard against being compelled to submit to EEG, fMRI, or other brain-based interrogations? What role could or should neuroscience play in helping to validate eyewitness memory? Should we as a society protect freedom of thought? Does neuroscience challenge any of our existing norms upon which legal and constitutional doctrines are built? http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/i-can-see-what-youre-saying/11500 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4235375/pdf/fnins-08-00373.pdf   USA – Incoming World Medical Association head under a cloud The World Medical Association is in turmoil over its incoming president, Dr Ketan Desai, of India, who is fighting allegations he corruptly conspired to lobby to allow a medical school to add more students. Charges which were brought in 2009 and 2010 are unlikely to be resolved by 2016, when he is scheduled to take office. “The whole force of the WMA is its moral authority,” Arthur Caplan told Reuters. “You can’t have a compromised leader, you just can’t…. people will just point toward your president and say: “Why should we care? You have a leader who is morally suspect. You’re not in a position to lecture us about anything.” http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/incoming-world-medical-association-head-under-a-corruption-cloud/11513   <Back to Top>   Pedophilia   Australia – Pedophiles need specialist preventative counselingDr Kelly Richards a criminologist from Queensland University of Technology and other researchers are urging Australia to adopt a German initiative, called The Prevention Project Dunkelfeld (PPD). PPD is persuading pedophiles – including those who have abused children – to undergo confidential therapy. Dr Kelly Richards said between 3 and 5 per cent of the adult population has an inappropriate attraction to children. In Australia, psychologists are required to notify authorities if they believe a child is at risk. Dr Richards said this prevents many men from seeking help, even if they want to stop. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-07-15/specialist-counselling-needed-to-prevent-paedophiles-offending/6622980   <Back to Top>   Pornography   Australia – Victoria: New internet child pornography laws close loopholes New laws will be introduced into the Victorian Parliament, making it easier to catch and prosecute those who engage in the “absolutely evil trade” of internet child pornography, according to Victoria’s Attorney-General. Three new offences will be created to tighten a number of loopholes and the maximum penalty for child porn offences will be doubled to 10 years’ imprisonment. The new offences include administering a child porn website, encouraging the use of a website dealing with child porn, and a new offence about providing assistance to any other person. Every one of these child pornography images has come at the expense of an innocent child. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-08-04/new-internet-child-pornography-laws-to-close-loopholes-on-27ev/6670060   India – India blocks 857 websites citing pornography’s threat to decency India ordered Internet service providers to block access to 857 pornographic and humor websites posing a threat to public morality in the world’s second-most populous country. Among those listed by the Department of Telecommunications are humor site 9GAG, CollegeHumor and Playboy. ISPs were told to immediately confirm compliance with the order, which also mentioned websites Barstool Sports and Adult Friendfinder. The ban comes after a lawyer petitioned the Supreme Court to block sites featuring pornography on grounds that they fueled crimes against women and children and were a threat to public order. India has the world’s second-largest number of Internet users with about 350 million people accessing the Web on personal computers and mobile devices. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-08-04/india-blocks-857-websites-citing-pornography-s-threat-to-decency   USA – Survey of US men shows over 60s and 70s viewing pornography A study of 2000 men over 50 in the US has found porn is being watched by a large number of older men, many in their 60s and 70s. The survey, undertaken for Stop Procrastinating, a productivity research website, found that 47{01b0879e117dd7326006b2e84bcaac7e8fa1509c5c67baf2c9eb498fe06caff4} of men over 60 had admitted to viewing porn in the last two months. Almost all respondents said their use of porn had increased since they had access to the Internet. Tim Rollins, research director at Stop Procrastinating, said: “Our survey shows that Internet pornography is now affecting every generation. Older men are either turning to pornography out of loneliness or because they have access to it through the Internet.” http://www.gilmermirror.com/view/full_story/26775283/article-Survey-of-US-men-shows-over-60s-and-70s-viewing-pornography?instance=lead_story_left_column   USA – Symposium looks at evidence of the destructiveness of pornography The National Centre on Sexual Exploitation held a symposium exposing pornography as a public health crisis and how porn fuels sex trafficking, child exploitation and sexual violence. “Pornography is one of the root causes of sexual exploitation,” said Dawn Hawkins, vice president and executive director of the Centre. Neurosurgeon, Don Hilton from the University of Texas, presented evidence of the impact pornography can have on the human brain. The more pronounced pornography usage, the more shrinkage occurs in the reward area of the brain that occurs, he said. Former president and CEO of the National Centre for Missing & Exploited Children, Ernie Allen, called upon Congress to pass legislation to curb the availability of graphic online pornography. http://www.thebostonpilot.com/article.asp?ID=174268   <Back to Top>   Prostitution & Trafficking   UK – Amnesty International approves decriminalization of sex trade Amnesty International approved a controversial policy to endorse the de-criminalization of the sex trade, rejecting complaints from women’s rights groups who say it is tantamount to advocating the legalization of pimping and brothel owning. Amnesty’s decision is important because it will use its heft to lobby governments around the world to accept its point of view. Women’s’ groups believe a serious mistake has been made. The organization Against Trafficking in Women, has argued that while it agrees with Amnesty that those who are prostituted should not be criminalized, full de-criminalization would make pimps “businesspeople” who could sell the vulnerable with impunity. It really is a slap in the face to survivors and women’s rights groups around the world. http://www.foxnews.com/world/2015/08/12/amnesty-international-approves-policy-to-decriminalize-sex-trade-rejecting/?intcmp=hphz11   India – Prostitution should not be legalized Every hour four girls enter prostitution, three of them against their will. There are 2.8 million prostitutes and poverty and illiteracy are the main causes which drive them into prostitution. A survey conducted by the Indian Health Organization states that 20 percent of prostitutes are children who are usually abducted and sold, and that 6 percent were raped and sold. Minor girls between ages 9-20 are brought every year from Nepal and 15 percent of women in prostitution have been sold by their husbands. Most men refuse to wear condoms and 200 million prostitutes suffer from STD’S like gonorrhea, genital herpes and HIV AIDS. Prostitutes do not gain respect and recognition but will be exploited and discriminated against. http://www.topcount.co/5-reasons-why-prostitution-should-not-be-legalized/ /   USA – Law takes new tack in fight against prostitution Authorities have made arrests under a new state law that shifts prosecution to the people who profit from the sale of sex. The new tack in the fight against prostitution focuses on the rehabilitation of women, and more severe consequences to the men who profit from the sex-for-sale business. The law criminalizes the effort to lure women into sex trafficking and increases the prospect of prison time. It also dramatically increases prison time in cases where a juvenile is involved and criminalizes the mere recruitment of females into the sex trade. http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/va-law-takes-new-tack-in-fight-against-prostitution/2015/07/10/0f7c5916-26e3-11e5-b621-b55e495e9b78_story.html   South Africa – US State department 2014 Trafficking in Persons Report South Africa is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking but the government has failed to reduce the overall demand for commercial sex. Although the Cape Town Vice Squad arrested nine males for soliciting sex from trafficking victims, the South African National Defense provided anti-trafficking training to South African troops prior to deployment abroad, and prosecuted troops who perpetrated sex crimes while serving on missions abroad, the report says the government did not undertake efforts to reduce the demand for forced labor or commercial sex acts during the reporting period. http://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/countries/2014/226816.htm#st_refDomain=&st_refQuery Report: 2014 Trafficking in Persons Report   <Back to Top>   Stem Cells & Cloning   No news today   <Back to Top>   Substance Abuse   South Africa – Do not legalise Nyaope says Depression and Anxiety Group Professor Jannie Hugo says legalising nyaope, which contains heroin, dagga, ARVs and rat poison, would make the drug addiction manageable. “Legalise the drug, I’m not apologetic about it. I know there might be other effects but we work with nyaope-addicted children and I am telling you, it would be better if this thing was legal,” said Hugo. “Legalise nyaope so that you can control it. We need to focus on controlling it but now the focus is on the crime part of it.” But the SA Depression and Anxiety Group (SADAG) is having none of it. “Legalising the drug will open up more problems. It will be accessible and lead to more people being addicted,” said director Cassey Chambers. http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/2015/08/06/Legalise-nyaope-says-UP-professor   South Africa – WHO says 15{01b0879e117dd7326006b2e84bcaac7e8fa1509c5c67baf2c9eb498fe06caff4} of population have a drug problem Drug abuse in South Africa is nothing new but the problem is on the rise. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 15{01b0879e117dd7326006b2e84bcaac7e8fa1509c5c67baf2c9eb498fe06caff4} of South Africa’s population have a drug problem. This high level of drug abuse costs South Africa over R20-billion a year. These statistics have earned the country the dubious reputation of being one of the drug capitals of the world. Dr. David Bayever from the Central Drug Authority (CDA) said “The drug problem in South Africa remains very serious with drug usage being twice the world norm in many cases…and we are only dealing with what we know about.” http://www.health24.com/Medical/Addiction/About-addiction/15-of-South-Africans-have-a-drug-problem-20150625   USA -. Oregon airports adjust to new ’Carry-on cannabis’ law It’s now fine to fly out of Oregon’s Portland International Airport with cannabis if you’re flying to one of the 4 other Beaver State airports. Signs in the PDX terminal remind passengers that state and federal laws prohibit taking marijuana across state lines. “But it is permitted to travel [with pot] within the state, provided you’re 21 or over and in possession of the legal amount,” said Kama Simonds, spokeswoman for Portland International Airport. The new rule applies to travelers flying in-state from Portland to Redmond, Pendleton, Eugene or North Bend airports and was adopted on July 1, when Oregon joined Alaska, Colorado, Washington and the District of Columbia in legalizing recreational marijuana. http://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/flights/2015/07/21/oregon-airports-marijuana-law/30457135/   <Back to Top>   Disclaimer: the views and opinions expressed in these articles do not necessarily reflect those of Doctors for Life International]]>