Free Republic

Caster Semenya, woman who rocked athletics world, 'is hermaphrodite' Rick Broadbent and Fred Bridgland in Johannesburg Sex tests carried out on Caster Semenya, the world 800 metres champion, show that she is a hermaphrodite, a source close to the case claimed last night. If the allegation is backed up by the official results, the South African may find herself stripped of her gold medal and banned from racing. The IAAF, the world governing body, refused to comment on the claim last night, but earlier in the day its general secretary, Pierre Weiss, said: “It is clear that she is a...

"Something's wrong with this baby," my ultrasound technician told me. She had just scanned Mrs. Jones (a fictitious name) at 20 weeks and went on to describe her findings, findings that surely meant little chance of survival for that baby. As I later spoke with Mrs. Jones to relay the findings, she wept. I arranged an appointment with a maternal-fetal medicine (MFM) specialist. The next day I received an urgent call from my patient. Through more tears, she described her visit in which the MFM doctor confirmed the grim prognosis. The baby would die, probably within a week or two....

July 28, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Scientists are stunned to discover that a ten-year-old German girl's brain has rewired itself to allow her to see out of one eye as though she has two, even though half of her brain tissue was entirely missing from birth. In a report published this week in the online version of the journal of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, Lars Muckli, a neuroscientist at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, said, "Despite lacking one hemisphere, she's capable of living a normal life."The girl, called AH in the study, was born with only one...

Pedigree Dogs Exposed Documentary - BBC Narrator: "and there's the rub -- the problems of dogs (like this champion neapolitan mastiff) are all too obvious to outsiders, but within the breed, they are blind to them. David Hancock -- dog historian "We have allowed some breeds to become too heavy, some too short-faced, some too heavy-coated, some too short-legged, others too short-lived, all in the pursuit of cosmetic points, not sound anatomical points."

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan - Travelers to Africa and Asia all have their favorite forms of foreign aid to "make a difference." One of mine is a miracle substance that is cheap and actually makes people smarter. Unfortunately, it has one appalling side effect. No, it doesn't make you sterile, but it is just about the least sexy substance in the world. Indeed, because it's so numbingly boring, few people pay attention to it or invest in it. (Or dare write about it!) It's iodized salt. Almost one-third of the world's people don't get enough iodine from food and water. The result...

The Day I Considered Abortion: Could I trust God despite my baby's potential birth defects? by Andrea Stone I had no reason to suspect I was pregnant; my period was only a day or two late. But all weekend, I just didn't feel right. So first thing Monday morning, I took a pregnancy test. Positive. I felt as though a lightning bolt struck me. The test couldn't be right. Two years earlier, my husband, Joe, had had a vasectomy. Joe and I'd been married seven years, and we already had two children—a four-year-old daughter and a not-quite-two-year-old son. We were...

We have had LOTS of wonderful information come out since we held a fast as a group and I will begin sharing that with you over the next few days. One is important enough, it all is, but this is very critical information so I will get it right out tonight. I did not want to overwhelm you with it all at once. Now . . . those of you who know me well know that I do not get political . . . UNTIL it comes to hurting people with these deadly drugs or killing innocent people.... Party means...

GUEST COMMENTARY by BRENT ROONEY * In the 15 October 2008 McCain/Obama debate AUTISM was mentioned at the beginning and at the end of the debate. Three times as many families are affected by the serious behavioral problems of autistic children than the number of families affected by CP(Cerebral Palsy). Male infants have higher autism risk than do female infants; gastrointestinal problems are a likely autism risk factor. Whether vaccinations elevate autistic risk is not a settled issue. There is evidence than metal poisoning (e.g.s. mercury, lead) raises autistic risk. Estimates of the prevalence of autism vary by a factor...

The Risk of Love July 23rd, 2008 by Mark Shea Recently a reader wrote me to say, “I read a story on the Internet about a Catholic couple whose new baby was diagnosed with spina bifida and anencephaly (no brain). They chose to abort it. How on earth would you deal pastorally with such a horrible situation?” Such questions involve several parts. What does God think? What would I do? What should I make of those people over there? We feel torn between obeying God’s commands “Don’t kill” and “Don’t judge.” And in our culture, “Don’t judge” has much the...

Arranged marriages between British Asians raise the risk of in-breeding and birth defects, a Government minister has said. Phil Woolas, a junior environment minister, came under fire from Muslim groups already concerned about the public reaction to the Archbishop of Canterbury's remarks about sharia law. Mr Woolas, the Labour MP for Oldham East and Saddleworth, said that marriages between first cousins are a factor in birth defects and inherited conditions. He said: "Part of the risk, I am told by the health service, is first-cousin marriages. If you are supportive of the Asian community then you have a duty to...

Cody Hall was born with a hemangioma, a tumorous birthmark that distorted the shape of her face and grew larger as she got older. When she was 1-year-old, her doctors in England told her parents that nothing could be done about her condition, so her parents took her to see surgeons in the U.S. Fourteen years and 18 reconstructive surgeries later, most of them at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital in New York, the girl who once had a hopelessly deformed face was flashing a beautiful smile at the prom.

science editor A major medical row will erupt this month when scientists and health experts hold two key meetings to discuss the controversial subject of marriages between cousins and their impact on health in Britain. The debates will be held by the Royal Society of Medicine as part of its 100 Years of Medical Genetics celebrations on 23 May, and by the Progress Educational Trust at Clifford Chance in east London on 29 May. Both will reveal deep divisions among scientists. Some researchers and politicians say inter-cousin unions, which are highly prevalent among British Pakistanis, have led to a striking...

AP Business Writer Health regulators warned again Friday that Roche and Novartis drugs prescribed to organ transplant patients can cause miscarriages and birth defects when used by pregnant women. The Food and Drug Administration last October said it received reports of miscarriages and infants born with ear and mouth birth defects after their mothers took Roche's CellCept. At the time, FDA added its most serious warning to CellCept and a similar Novartis AG drug, Myfortic. FDA spokesman Christopher Kelly said the agency has not received any new reports of pregnancy-related problems, but was concerned some doctors may not have seen...

Marijuana is among the most frequently used illicit drugs by women during their childbearing years and there is growing concern that marijuana abuse during pregnancy, either alone or in combination with other drugs, may have serious effects on fetal brain development. There is strong evidence that THC, the main psychoactive component of marijuana, crosses the placenta, that maternal marijuana abuse results in intrauterine growth retardation and that infants exposed to marijuana exhibit a temporary syndrome that includes lethargy and decreased muscle tone. Fetal exposure to THC can also result in attention deficits, learning disabilities and behavioral problems. A new study...

A government minister has warned that inbreeding among immigrants is causing a surge in birth defects - comments likely to spark a new row over the place of Muslims in British society. Phil Woolas, an environment minister, said the culture of arranged marriages between first cousins was the “elephant in the room”. Woolas, a former race relations minister, said: “If you have a child with your cousin the likelihood is there’ll be a genetic problem.” The minister, whose views were supported by medical experts this weekend, said: “The issue we need to debate is first cousin marriages, whereby a lot...

ANN ARBOR, MI – In oral arguments last week, the Thomas More Law Center asked Maryland state circuit court judge William Rowan III to overturn a Maryland Board of Education ruling that approves of public schools in Montgomery County, Maryland, teaching 8th and 10th graders that homosexuality is innate—meaning they are born that way. The schools also show how to use condoms in anal and oral sex. Montgomery educators were forced to defend their new sex curriculum that promotes anal sex, homosexuality, bisexuality and transvestitism despite strong opposition from several pro-family groups. The controversial new curriculum was adopted as a...

Wanting to have children who follow in one’s footsteps is an understandable desire. But a coming article in the journal Fertility and Sterility offers a fascinating glimpse into how far some parents may go to ensure that their children stay in their world — by intentionally choosing malfunctioning genes that produce disabilities like deafness or dwarfism. The article reviews the use of preimplantation genetic diagnosis, or P.G.D., a process in which embryos are created in a test tube and their DNA is analyzed before being transferred to a woman’s uterus. In this manner, embryos destined to have, for example, cystic...

Recently, while wandering through my local grocery, I turned the corner, heading up the cereal aisle. I had no more walked ten feet when I caught the attention of a stranger – a young man in his mid-twenties – walking toward me. Upon seeing me, his face lit up and a smile spread from ear to ear. I smiled in return, his pace quickened and he marched straight over to me and with a welcoming voice said, "Hello, how are you?" I stopped, we exchanged a few friendly words and then after a hardy “goodbye,” he moved on to greet...

(BEIJING) - Growing numbers of Chinese children are being born with deformities due to pollution, later pregnancies and unhealthy lifestyles, state media said on Thursday quoting a medical expert. About 1 million Chinese children were born each year with congenital heart problems, cleft palettes, nerve defects, limb abnormalities and other physical defects, director of China's National Centre for Maternity and Infant Health, Li Zhu, told the China Daily. The number of such congenital deformities was rising and the current occurrence rate of 60 out of every 1,000 births was three times that of developed countries, Li said. Chinese parents, especially...

SEMEY, Kazakhstan (CNN) -- Kazakhstan's nuclear orphans are a distressing sight. The first child I met in the local orphanage was lying limply in his crib. His giant, pale head was perched on his tiny shoulders, covered in bed sores, like a grotesquely painted paper-mâché mask. Peering out, a pair of tiny black eyes darted around. It took me a few seconds to understand what I was seeing. The doctor told me he was 4 years old. Through the bars in the next crib, I saw another child, twisted with deformities. His fragile legs and arms turned in impossible contortions....

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Food and Drug Administration advisors on Wednesday urged the federal health agency to place fewer restrictions on the acne drug Accutane and generic versions of it. The drug has caused significant problems, such as birth defects, for unborn children since it was first introduced in 1982. Accutane, also known as isotretinoin, was approved by FDA in 1982 for use in cases of severe recalcitrant cystic acne unresponsive to other therapies including systemic antibiotics. The drug received a FDA pregnancy category X rating because it caused birth defects in animals and the agency said Accutane should not...

In what is being called a "wrongful birth" case, a jury awarded more than $21 million to a couple who claimed a doctor misdiagnosed a severe birth defect in their son, leading them to have a second child with similar problems. But because the doctor works for the University of South Florida, the family will have to persuade the Legislature to award most of the money. State law limits negligence claims against government agencies at $200,000. Daniel and Amara Estrada, whose two young sons aren't able to communicate and need constant care, sought at least enough money to care for...

LONDON, England, July 24, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A recent British study shows that children conceived by IVF have increased health problems and spend almost double the time in hospital than naturally conceived children, the Daily Mail reports.The 7-year follow-up study, done in conjunction with Finnish studies, compared the hospital costs of IVF-conceived children to naturally conceived children. It examined 303 IVF-conceived children as well as 567 naturally-conceived children, all of whom were born between the years 1990 and 1995. Prior studies had reviewed the pregnancies of these children, their medical history and neo-natal health as well as the case notes of...

SARAHLYNN LESTER, 32, considers herself a supporter of abortion rights. She gives money to the National Abortion Rights Action League and volunteers for Planned Parenthood. But as a woman who continued a pregnancy after learning that her child would have Down syndrome, she also has beliefs about the ethics of choosing, or not choosing, certain kinds of children. “I thought it would be morally wrong to have an abortion for a child that had a genetic disability,” said Ms. Lester, a marketing manager in St. Louis. As prenatal tests make it possible to identify fetuses that will have mental retardation,...

Editor's note: For more than thirty years, the Pro-Life Movement in the United States has been fighting the anti-life policies and programs of the March of Dimes. During these same thirty plus years the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' Pro-Life Secretariat has defended the eugenic policies of the March of Dimes------a position backed by a majority of the American bishops. Mrs. Engel is calling for a fair and open hearing and a re-assessment of these policies by the Catholic hierarchy of the United States. We heartily agree and we encourage our readers to follow the Plan of Action outlined...

<p>Scientists are conducting experiments to change the sexuality of “gay” sheep in a programme that critics fear could pave the way for breeding out homosexuality in humans.</p> <p>The technique being developed by American researchers adjusts the hormonal balance in the brains of homosexual rams so that they are more inclined to mate with ewes.</p>

TOKYO — Japanese researchers said Sunday that a bottlenose dolphin captured last month has an extra set of fins that could be the remains of back legs, a discovery that may provide further evidence that ocean-dwelling mammals once lived on land. Fishermen captured the four-finned dolphin off the coast of Wakayama prefecture (state) in western Japan on Oct. 28, and alerted the nearby Taiji Whaling Museum, according to museum director Katsuki Hayashi.

A bottlenose dolphin has been found with an extra set of fins, providing further evidence that ocean-dwelling mammals once had four legs and lived on land, scientists have claimed.

SHREWSBURY, Mass. -- Saved from being put to death, a two-faced cat has shown that beating the odds only takes a little love and faith. Milbury native Marty saved the cat from being euthanized almost seven years ago. "I just fell in love with him," Marty said. "I'm a bleeding heart." Marty named the cat Frank and Louis so each face would have a name. Frank and Louis have altogether two mouths, two noses and two working eyes. Cats with two faces are extremely rare. Most die within a few days of being born, but not Frank and Louis. "Everyday...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The President's Council on Bioethics held a meeting last week and members said they are concerned that the advancement of medicine is leading to tests showing disabilities in unborn children that may prompt abortions. Prenatal testing is leading to "eugenic" abortions, several members of the panel said. The panel called the information gathered from such prenatal testing "toxic knowledge" because such a high percentage of pregnancies involving disabled babies end in abortion. Dr. William Hurlbut, a biology professor at Stanford University, called such information "learning more than you want to or more than you can handle,"...

Police are investigating a hospital doctor who admitted suffocating a severely disabled newborn baby 34 years ago. In a magazine article written in 1988, the unnamed doctor said he placed a pillow over the baby girl until she stopped breathing. The then senior house officer in paediatrics claimed he killed the baby at a north London hospital in the summer of 1972 to spare her parents further suffering. They had been led to believe that their child, who was born without her brain, would be born dead. Writing under the pseudonym of Ivy Walker, he said in New Society magazine...

A couple of weeks ago Wake Forest University physicians described the first human recipients of a laboratory-grown organ. In the prestigious medical journal "The Lancet," Dr. Anthony Atala, director of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine, detailed a series of patients (children and teenagers) who received urinary bladders grown from their own cells. WHAAAAT? Did somebody say "laboratory organs?!" Yes. Perhaps like you, the first reaction of some who heard the news was, “why would anyone need a new bladder?” Well, many infants are born with congenital birth defects a very serous one is spina bifida (incomplete closure of the spine)....

snip - The child was diagnosed with a rare chromosomal disorder, known as cyclopia. She was born with a single eye in the center of her forehead, no nose and her brain fused into a single hemisphere. With such severe deformities, it was a miracle that the girl survived even a few minutes after delivery. Yet now, 11 days later, she has lived significantly longer than other cyclopean cases.-Snip

Via ACLU website: The American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland applauded today’s decision by the Maryland Court of Appeals unanimously ruling that the reckless endangerment statute does not apply to women who take drugs while pregnant. “The ACLU of Maryland is heartened that the high court agrees that prosecuting drug-dependent pregnant women is not what the state of Maryland considers good policy,” said David Rocah, staff attorney for the ACLU of Maryland. “We believe that using criminal law to regulate a pregnant woman’s conduct on the theory that it might harm a fetus or her newborn child is counterproductive, illegal,...

Planned Parenthood Celebration Jolted by Abortion Survivor    TED HARVEY She sings the anthem to applause, then her secret is revealed to stunned silence. Gianna Jessen I want to share with you an awesome experience I had in the Colorado House of Representatives on May 8. It is a humbling experience to look back and realize that God used me to play a role in His divine orchestration. I was leaving the House chambers for the weekend when our Democrat speaker of the House announced that the coming Monday would be the final day of this year's General Assembly. He...

British fertility specialists have developed a powerful new way to test embryos for inherited diseases, offering hundreds of couples their first realistic chance of having healthy children. The procedure has been hailed as a big advance, boosting the number of diseases clinics can test for from about 200 to nearly 6,000. It will allow doctors to test for the first time a vast array of inherited diseases for which the specific genetic mutation is not known, such as Duchenne's muscular dystrophy (DMD) and some forms of cystic fibrosis. Using the technique, doctors can examine every embryo created for a couple...

AP SCIENCE WRITER Some blood pressure drugs previously thought to be safe when taken early in pregnancy now appear to substantially raise the risk of major birth defects, doctors say. Babies whose mothers took ACE inhibitors in their first trimester were more than twice as likely to be born with serious heart and brain problems than those not exposed to any pressure-lowering medicines, a large study in Tennessee found. Other types of blood pressure drugs did not raise the risk to babies. The research raises troubling questions about the lack of safety data for many drugs prescribed to pregnant women....

As men get older, their sperm deteriorates, a new study has found, and it is likely that the damaged sperm of older men is a significant factor in certain specific birth defects and in increasing the risk of abnormal pregnancies. Deteriorating sperm are associated with dwarfism and other disorders. Birth rates since 1980 have increased by 40 percent in men 35 to 40 and decreased by 20 percent in men under 30, according to background information about the findings, published yesterday in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The rising age of fathers has been associated with reproductive...

EXCLUSIVE Children exposed to high levels of city air pollution while in the womb are nearly three times more likely to have mental deficiencies than other kids, an explosive Columbia University study has found. The analysis compared the learning ability of 183 3-year-olds from Harlem, Washington Heights and the South Bronx with the level of pollutants they were exposed to before birth. The moms wore air monitors while they were pregnant, and the kids are being studied over a number of years. The study found that 42 kids exposed to the highest readings of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in utero -...

SHANGHAI, China - Doctors in Shanghai on Tuesday were considering surgery options for a two-month old boy born with an unusually well-formed third arm. Neither of the boy's two left arms is fully functional and tests have so far been unable to determine which was more developed, said Dr. Chen Bochang, head of the orthopedics department at Shanghai Children's Medical Center. "His case is quite peculiar. We have no record of any child with such a complete third arm," Chen said in a telephone interview. "It's quite difficult to decide how to do the operation on him." The boy, identified...

Making sacrifices in Stone Age societies Bruce Bower From San Juan, Puerto Rico, at the Paleoanthropology Society and Society for American Archaeology meeting Double and triple burials at 23,000-to-27,000-year-old sites in Europe and western Asia suggest prehistoric human sacrifices, says Vincenzo Formicola of the University of Pisa in Italy. Of 30 known burials from that time period and area, 6 held more than one person. These graves contain two or three children, adolescents, or young adults apparently buried at the same time, positioned in curious ways, and accompanied by unusually valuable objects, Formicola says. Most of the multiple burials include...

Again, mature topic, recommended for sophomoric viewers only. :-) See for example this thread first. Which side will the DUmmies come down on? All Dems agree on saving the environment, but given the number of gender feminists, and sandal-clad, effeminate Euroweenies in the party, the purported side effects of pesticides might be too good to pass up! I just read a frightening report that pesticides can make men, ..."short". Enviros are mad but fem'nists are glad Politics, strange bedfellows, I retort!

The stated mission of the MARCH OF DIMES [MoD] is to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects, premature birth, and infant mortality. This organization carries out its intent through research, community services, education and advocacy to save babies’ lives.Gail Wilson, State director for the Illinois Chapter of MoD www.marchofdimes.com/illinois was quoted in the Pioneer Press recently: “We’re trying to make sure every baby born is as healthy as possible.”“Walk America,” the organization’s largest fund raiser, kicks off its Chicago walk on Sunday, April 30th, gathering in thousands of participants for its cause. Last year, $3 million was...

Evidence is growing that in vitro fertilization causes serious birth defects and genetic anomalies. The most recent study has shown that babies born from IVF have three times the rate of genetic brain disorders. The survey examines nearly all of the 1,105 IVF babies born in Ireland since 1989. The study particularly notes a comparatively high incidence of Beckwith-Wiedemann Syndrome (BWS) and Angelman Syndrome (AS) at almost three times that of the general population.  The study said that although the number of incidents of brain disorders are small, "there are strong circumstantial observations that suggest a cause-and-effect relationship between assisted...

BABIES conceived through in vitro fertilisation (IVF) are almost three times more prone to have two genetic brain disorders, a study by consultants at two Irish hospitals has found. The authors have surveyed the families of almost all the 1,105 IVF babies born in Ireland since 1989. While the number with the brain disorders was tiny, the consultants have called for similar research to be carried out worldwide. The two genetic disorders, Beckwith-Wiedemann Syndrome (BWS) and Angelman Syndrome (AS) are rare, occurring in about one in 15,000 births in the general population. But the study found they were almost three...

Attorneys representing Carlitos Candelario, the Immokalee boy born 14 months ago without arms and legs, announced Wednesday they had filed suit against his parents' agricultural employer claiming the firm's negligence with pesticides caused the catastrophic birth defects. The suit claims that the employer, Ag-Mart Produce Inc., based in Plant City, failed "to provide reasonably safe conditions for the fetuses of its pregnant female workers and to warn of hazardous conditions" caused by pesticide use. The suit filed for the child's parents, Francisca Herrera, 19, and Abraham Candelario, 21, holds the company liable for medical and hospital costs, liftetime care costs,...

HARLINGEN - Tortillas made with contaminated corn may have caused a rash of newborns with missing or rudimentary brains in the Rio Grande Valley in the 1990s, new data suggest. According to the February issue of the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, researchers now have human studies linking a toxin in corn mold called fumonisin with babies' neural tube defects. Scientists have been searching more than a decade for answers to the surge of anencephalic babies - babies born without brains or with underdeveloped brains - in the Rio Grande Valley from 1990-92. There were six such cases in six weeks...

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Women have yet another reason to stop smoking while pregnant. In the largest study of its kind, plastic surgeons found smoking during pregnancy significantly elevates the risk of having a child with excess, webbed or missing fingers and toes, according to the January issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery®, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS). In fact, the study found that smoking just half a pack per day increases the risk of having a child born with a toe or finger defect by 29 percent. “Reconstructive surgery to repair limb,...

GREAT BRITAIN, January 6, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) –Screening unborn babies for birth defects is poised to leap to a whole new level. Research by British scientists suggests it will soon be possible to screen human embryos for thousands of genetic disorders. In most cases, current screening techniques are carried out on babies conceived through in vitro fertilization (IVF), before the child is implanted in the womb. In such cases, a child carrying a recognized genetic disorder is “discarded.”The new procedure builds upon existing methods of testing babies, conceived in vitro, for disease before they are implanted in the womb. These advances...

FINLAND, December 23, 2005, (LifeSiteNews.com) – 43 babies out of every thousand conceived using in vitro fertilization techniques are born with a serious deformity, according to yet another study indicating the dangers of IVF. A report by Stakes, Finland’s National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health, found a significant increase in the rate of birth deformity among IVF infants. Normal rates would be 29 per thousand. In particular, the study found a higher rate of genital malformation among IVF boy babies. There have been increasing numbers of studies linking infant health problems with IVF techniques over the past...