USA – Oklahoma College Offers Pro-Life Courses
USA – Activists Attack Governor for Shutting Down Abortion Clinic
China – Traditional Chinese Medicine Seen to Block Lung Fibrosis in Mice
Belgium – Will Belgium grant euthanasia for unwanted sexual attraction?
Holland – Let’s increase organ transplant rates by encouraging euthanasia
France – Top court allows export of sperm to circumvent dead donor rule
USA – Bioethicists clash over death of terminally ill 5-year-old
No news today
Peru – First Research to show the risks of chest binding
USA – Amnesty International defends pimps and traffickers
Canada – A case for arresting Vancouver’s Johns and pimps
UK – The dangers of rebranding prostitution as ‘sex work’
South Africa – Human trafficking thrives as economy slows
Abortion
USA – Oklahoma College Offers Pro-Life Courses
Oklahoma Wesleyan University (OKWU) plans to offer students an applied bioethics certificate for training in pro-life activism and pregnancy centre management. The program is in partnership with the Life Training Institute, a pro-life apologetics organization, and CareNet, one of the largest pregnancy resource organizations in the world. University spokeswoman Megan England said OKWU wants the program to train “leaders who are prepared to defend and protect the innocent in ways that are more than abstract.”
USA – Activists Attack Governor for Shutting Down Abortion Clinic
Kentucky’s new pro-life Governer Matt Bevin has done a lot to protect unborn babies and crack down on the abortion industry. His administration has filed two lawsuits against abortion clinics after state inspectors discovered they were aborting without a state license. Bevin also signed the first pro-life law to reach a Kentucky governor’s desk in more than a decade. His administration recently won a court victory when a judge ruled the state could shut down a filthy abortion clinic that was masquerading as a doctor’s office. Bevin also signed the first pro-life law to reach the governor’s desk in more than a decade. The law requires consultation between a doctor and woman at least 24 hours before having an abortion.
Alternative Medicine
China – Traditional Chinese Medicine Seen to Block Lung Fibrosis in Mice
Salvianolic acid B, a compound isolated from red sage and a main component of the traditional Chinese medicine known as Yiqihuoxue formula, prevented fibrotic changes both in bleomycin-treated mice and in cell culture models. Research from Fudan University in China recently found that traditional blend could lessen skin and lung fibrosis. The study indicated that this was likely mediated by preventing changes in gene expression and cell signaling pathways, induced by TGF-β. Findings, published in the journal Scientific Reports, showed that Salvianolic acid B also had similar properties when tested in a cell type derived from human lung epithelium, where scientists triggered fibrosis using both TGF-β and TNF-α, an inflammatory molecule also believed to be involved in fibrotic processes.
http://pulmonaryfibrosisnews.com/traditional-Chinese-medicine-ingredient-blocks-fibrosis-in-mice
Euthanasia
Belgium – Will Belgium grant euthanasia for unwanted sexual attraction?
Along with unbearable physical pain, mental suffering, and dementia, a new reason for seeking euthanasia in Belgium has emerged in the media – pedophilia. Gilles Genicot, a bioethicist at the University of Liege, also a member of Belgium’s euthanasia review committee said: “It’s more likely he has psychological problems relating to his sexuality. I cannot find a trace of actual psychic illness here. But what you cannot do is purely rule out the option of euthanasia for such patients.”
http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/will-belgium-grant-euthanasia-for-unwanted-sexual-attraction/11911
Holland – Let’s increase organ transplant rates by encouraging euthanasia
Ethicists and transplant specialists say, according to an article in the Journal of Medical Ethics that about 40 people in Belgium and the Netherlands have successfully combined euthanasia with organ donation since 2005. The doctors are so enthusiastic about the procedure that they have proposed legal changes which will speed up the procedure and maximize the number of donations. Although the numbers are still low, the idea is becoming more popular in both countries, according to the authors.
http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/lets-increase-organ-transplant-rates-by-encouraging-euthanasia-patients-to/11912#sthash.SrKgMBD8.dpuf
IVF&Surrogacy
Medical Ethics
France – Top court allows export of sperm to circumvent dead donor rule
A French Court has ruled in favour of allowing a dead man’s sperm to be sent to a foreign IVF clinic, despite France’s prohibition on insemination using sperm from deceased males. The Council of State ruled in favour of Spanish national, Nicola Turri, who requested that the sperm of her deceased Italian husband be exported to Spain where she lives now. Mr Turri was diagnosed with cancer of the lymphatic system and froze his sperm before starting chemotherapy, a routine procedure due to the treatment causing infertility. The court acknowledged that Spanish law permits post-mortem insemination, and decided that the denial of the application would constitute “an excessive interference” with the widow’s “rights to respect for private and family life”.
USA – Bioethicists clash over death of terminally ill 5-year-old
Julianna Snow, a terminally ill five-year-old girl who suffered from a common inherited neurodegenerative condition called Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease has died. After undergoing painful medical, Julianna expressed to her parents a desire to forgo treatment even if it meant her death. New York University bioethics professor Arthur Caplan said, “This doesn’t sit well with me. It makes me nervous. I think a 4-year-old might be capable of deciding what music to hear or what picture book they might want to read. But I think there’s zero chance a 4-year-old can understand the concept of death. That kind of thinking doesn’t really develop until around age 9 or 10.”
http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/bioethicists-clash-over-death-of-5-year-old/11928
Pedophilia
No news today
Pornography
USA – Rhode Island prohibits malicious practice of “Revenge Porn”
The Rhode Island House of Representatives has passed legislation that would prohibit a malicious practice known as “revenge porn.”Attorney General Peter Kilmartin announced that lawmakers approved the bill which would prohibit the posting of naked pictures on a website without the permission of the person in the photos. The images are often posted by ex-spouses, former partners or extortionists demanding ransoms to remove the photos. A person convicted of revenge pornography would face up to a year in prison. Second and subsequent convictions would be felonies punishable by up to three years behind bars. Extortion involving sexually explicit images would result in up to five years in prison.
http://www.dailyjournal.net/view/story/593db011727e413b94c30c5b9cd6e3e4/RI–Revenge-Porn-Bill
USA – New Gallup Poll: How Accepted is Pornography in America?
A Gallup poll found that pornography is viewed as largely unacceptable by the majority of Americans with 61{01b0879e117dd7326006b2e84bcaac7e8fa1509c5c67baf2c9eb498fe06caff4} finding pornography unacceptable. The movement against pornography and all sexual exploitation is gaining momentum across ideological and political spheres. TIME magazine recently ran a cover story on the physiological harms of pornography. The Washington Post ran a series addressing the negative impact pornography has on public health and gender equality. Utah has also declared pornography a public health crisis.
http://endsexualexploitation.org/articles/new-gallup-poll-accepted-pornography-america/
Same Sex Attraction
South Africa – Hopes and worries about hate crime legislation
The threat of violence against people because of their sexual orientation is not uncommon in South Africa, but will new laws help? Although South Africa has anti-discrimination legislation to address unfair bias, the Prevention and Combating of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Bill distinguish hate crimes and hate speech as independent categories and provide specific sentencing guidelines. The bill is set to be tabled in Parliament in September, after local elections, and will undergo a public consultation process. The bill has not been free of controversy and the concern is that such legislation will limit freedom of speech.
http://www.groundup.org.za/article/targeting-hate-crime/
Peru – First research on the risks of chest binding
For the first time ever some well known information about chest binding has finally been done by the International Association for the Study of Sexuality, Culture and Society empirically and published in Culture, Health and Sexuality: An International Journal for Research, Intervention and Care. The data was collected in the form of an online survey, where participants self-reported about their preferences, habits, and symptoms, as it relates to binding their chests. The sample size was 1,800 people, from 38 countries, ages 18-66 years old, who were either assigned female at birth or intersex. 97.2{01b0879e117dd7326006b2e84bcaac7e8fa1509c5c67baf2c9eb498fe06caff4} of respondents reported at least one negative outcome from binding. The most common symptoms were: back pain, rib or spine changes, shoulder joint “popping”, fatigue, weakness, and digestive issues.
https://janitorqueer.com/2016/06/21/28-risks-of-chest-binding
Sexual Exploitation
USA – Amnesty International defends pimps and traffickers
Dawn Hawkins, executive director of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation says Amnesty International’s new policy of advocating full decriminalization of prostitution “is a gift to pimps, sex buyers, and sex traffickers. Through their “irresponsible policy”, pimps and exploiters become mere “sex business operators” and “customers” while sexual violence and abuse inherent to prostitution is normalized as a form of ‘work. They have undermined the human rights of persons in the sex trade, mainly females, and has advocated for impunity for perpetrators of sexploitation. By decriminalizing pimps and sex buyers, they are sanctioning the abuses experienced by those in prostitution. Decriminalization of prostitution in no way rectifies the conditions of inequality, abuse, violence and dehumanization in prostitution.
http://www.wnd.com/2016/06/amnesty-international-defends-pimps-and-traffickers/#dKuLsvDU7pFKgdmT.99
Canada – A case for arresting Vancouver’s Johns and pimps
A situation has united people who have been calling on Vancouver Police and city to stop demand by stopping the men who buy women. Not a single charge has yet been made against a John under Canada’s prostitution laws. Amy, a resident of a Vancouver neighborhood, says she’s frustrated watching the sex trades operate right in front of her house. She understands some people may see prostitution as a choice, but says she sees girls who are young and manipulated, and clearly living in poverty. She says the trade comes with its trappings, like drugs and discarded needles, and that the trolling Johns are raising concerns among women.
http://www.cknw.com/2016/06/14/draft-the-prostitution-trade-in-vancouver/
UK – The dangers of rebranding prostitution as ‘sex work’
The steady creep of “sex work” into 21st-century vernacular is neither incidental nor accidental. The term didn’t just pop up and go viral. The Global Network of Sex Work Projects, an organization that openly campaigns for brothel-keeping and pimping to be recognized as legitimate jobs, credits itself as largely responsible for “sex work” replacing “prostitution” as the terminology for institutions such as the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/Aids (UNAIDS). The notion that being paid to perform sex acts should be recognized as a kind of service work is the rationale underpinning legalized prostitution regimes.
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#search/The+dangers+of+rebran/155297cf4bcc382f
South Africa – Human trafficking thrives as economy slows
As the economy declines there is an increase in human trafficking because criminals view it as an easier crime to get into, as little or no capital input is needed, said advocate Dawn Coleman-Malinga of the Sexual Offences and Community Affairs Unit of the National Prosecuting Authority. It generates billions in profit each year and is one of the world’s fastest growing criminal activities. Internationally, it is the third most profitable business of organized crime after drug dealing and the small arms trade. Victims are seduced by offers of legitimate employment due to poverty, unemployment, lack of education, domestic violence and ignorance. Stockholm syndrome, which is a psychological phenomenon in which hostage’s express empathy and sympathy towards their captors, is also a problem.
http://www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/human-trafficking-thrives-as-economy-slows-2036895
Substance Abuse
USA – Long-term marijuana use changes brain’s reward circuit
Chronic marijuana use disrupts the brain’s natural reward processes, according to researchers at the Centre for Brain Health at The University of Texas at Dallas. In a paper published in Human Brain Mapping, researchers demonstrated for the first time with functional magnetic resonance imaging that long-term marijuana users had more brain activity in the mesocorticolimbic-reward system when presented with cannabis cues than with natural reward cues.“This study shows that marijuana disrupts the natural reward circuitry of the brain, making marijuana highly salient to those who use it heavily.” said Dr. Francesca Filbey, director of Cognitive Neuroscience Research in Addictive Disorders.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/06/160607151239.htm
USA – lifelong marijuana use correlated with troubled middle age
In a study in the journal Clinical Psychological Science researchers followed about 1,000 people from birth to age 38. “Our study found that regular cannabis users experienced downward social mobility and more financial problems such as troubles with debt and cash flow,” said Magdalena Cerdá, an epidemiologist at the University of California. “Regular long-term users also had more antisocial behaviours at work i.e. stealing money or lying to get a job and experienced more relationship problems, such as intimate partner violence and controlling abuse.” At age 18, those who went on to use marijuana heavily were no different from the rest of the cohort in their IQ, motivation, or impulsivity.
http://www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/newsroom/pdf/2016_APS_Persistent-cannabis-dependence.pdf
UN – World drug abuse statistics
An estimated quarter of a billion people between the ages of 15 and 64 years, abused at least one drug in 2014 but that figure and the number of drug-related deaths have remained relatively steady over recent years, according to a U.N. report. At the same time, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report said that the number of heroin users in the United States in 2014 was nearly triple that of 2003 with five times as many deaths related to the drug than in 2000. UNODC put all drug-related fatalities at an estimated 207,400 worldwide in the 15-64 age groups.
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2016-06-world-drug-abuse-deaths-pretty.html
Disclaimer: the views and opinions expressed in these articles do not necessarily reflect those of Doctors for Life International
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