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Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Groundbreaking Stem Cell Surgery in London

12th Apr 10

Source: Family & Life

Doctors carried out groundbreaking surgery to rebuild the windpipe of a 10-year-old British boy with his own stem cells. If the procedure succeeds, they say it could bring a revolution in regenerative medicine. The operation, which lasted almost nine hours, took place at London’s Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital last month.

Doctors injected stem cells from the boy’s bone marrow into the fibrous collagen “scaffold” of a donor trachea (windpipe). Then they implanted the organ, which had first been stripped of its own cells, into the boy.

Over the next month, doctors expect the stem cells to start transforming themselves into internal and external tracheal cells. The boy, whose identity is a secret, is reportedly doing well and breathing normally. Because they are derived from his own tissue, there is no danger of the newly grown cells triggering an immune response. In an ordinary transplant, doctors would suppress the patient’s immune system with drugs to prevent rejection of the organ.

The new procedure was a big step forward from the pioneering surgery done in Spain two years ago on 30-year-old mother of two Claudia Castillo, the first person ever to receive a transplant organ created from stem cells. She received a section of tracheal airway rebuilt from stem cells, but using a much more complex and costly process.

Prof Martin Birchall, head of translational regenerative medicine at University College London, said, “This procedure is different in a number of ways, and we believe it’s a real milestone”. The Irish Times. March 23.

Friday, April 9, 2010

Human Rights China - Babies' bodies found in river

Friday, April 9th, 2010

As highlighted on SKY News last week, the bodies of 21 babies, believed dumped by hospitals, recently washed ashore on a riverbank in eastern China.

Video footage showed that the bodies "stashed in yellow plastic bags, at least one of which was marked 'medical waste'" included some infants several months old.

Some wore identification tags with their mothers' names, birth dates, measurements and weights. The official Xinhua News Agency said there were also female unborn babies among the bodies.

While this particular incident made the news the story itself is not entirely surprising given the imposition in China of the one-child policy which results in 13 million babies being aborted annually. As the recent cover story in The Economist magazine pointed out, the practice of gendercide or female foeticide means that female children are targeted both before and after birth through abortion, infanticide or neglect.

In addition to the massive human rights violations involved in ending the lives of children born and unborn the specific targeting of female babies has also created a huge gender imbalance where there are more unmarried young men in China than the entire population of young men in America.

How come radical feminist groups are turning a blind eye to this widespread gender based human rights abuse? Where is the genuine sense of outrage and concern for women’s rights? The truth is there is logic behind the silence. Marianne Mollman, spokesperson for abortion advocacy group Human Rights Watch* has publicly advised pro-choice groups not to campaign against laws permitting sex selection abortion. The reason is clear - if abortion advocates concede that the lives of some unborn children should be protected it would completely undermine their rigid dogma that unborn children have no rights throughout the nine months of pregnancy.

It is incumbent therefore on pro-life groups to continue to pressure the Irish government to adopt a more robust stand in opposition to human rights abuses in China.

*Human Rights Watch is the same group that recently critisised Ireland’s pro-life status.

Conjoined twin boys a 'gift' to their family

Friday, April 9, 2010

What an inspiring story the Benhaffaf family from Cork has to share. For those who haven’t already heard, the Benhaffaf’s youngest children – twin boys Hassan and Hussein - were born conjoined at the chest last December.

Yesterday the baby boys underwent a 14 hour operation at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London in an intricate surgery to separate them led by Cork born paediatric surgeon Edward Kiely. Thankfully the boys are stable after the surgery and doing well though their doctors have warned that getting through the next few days is key to their survival. The incidence of conjoined twins surviving separation operations and dying thereafter is high and so the Benhaffaf babies family are praying that their boys will endure.

The story of Hassan and Hussein’s lives in the womb is as sensational as their young lives have been so far. Their mother Angie Benhaffaf said her family’s world was turned upside down when they realised the babies were conjoined. She explained how the boys interacted in the womb “they were holding hands and were helping each other – they always mind one another” She explains that despite the struggles and doubts of her pregnancy, the children have been an extraordinary gift to their family.

“The first day I held the two boys in my arms I knew I was chosen. They were a gift. We do feel blessed by them. It was never expected that they would live or do as well as they probably have been doing so hence their name, "the little fighters".

Angie Benhaffaf wrote a poem to her babies as a tribute to them no matter what the outcome of the operation. In it she imparts in an ordinary way the struggles and joy of their lives from the moment she first knew the babies would be conjoined at just four weeks gestation.

"I loved you both from the very start, when doctors thought you shared one heart. I cried so much during that time, we did not think, that all would be fine. Your two big sisters got me through the worst; I really felt that I had been cursed. For eight months I was in such a lonely place, as the birth was something I thought I couldn't face. But then came that beautiful winter's morn, on the 2nd of December my "little fighters" were born!”

She continues “You both have given me courage and strength, What a wonderful "gift", we have been sent!.... Boys - you have filled us all with love and hope, Without you both, we would never cope….No matter how this will all end, I am forever grateful for the time we did spend.

Speaking to the media yesterday after the operation Mrs. Benhaffaf said “We are so proud of the courage and strength Hassan and Hussein have shown and they have both made the world a much better place with them in it”

The attitude of the Benhaffafs is inspiring. They are treating their time with the baby boys as a gift to be celebrated. As we reflect on the lives so far of the Benhaffaf twins we should also consider the many children who are not born because pre-natal diagnoses result in their parents choosing abortion. The Benhaffaf’s story proves that every life no matter how short or threatened is a gift to celebrate and a life worth living. The Benhaffaf babies have certainly brought inspiration to their family and to the country. Let’s hope ‘the little fighters’ persevere.

The mother of conjoined twins Hassan and Hussein Benhaffaf has written a poem in tribute to her sons as they undergo surgery to be separated.

The mother of Hassan and Hussein Banhaffaf pens a poetic tribute to them


Angie Benhaffaf penned For My Little Fighters for the boys, who are being operated on at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London.

Here is the full text of the poem:


I loved you both from the very start, When doctors thought you shared one heart.

I cried so much during that time, We did not think, that all would be fine.

Your two big sisters got me through the worst, I really felt that I had been cursed.

For eight months I was in such a lonely place, As the birth was something I thought I couldn't face.

But then came that beautiful winter's morn, On the 2nd of December my "little fighters" were born!

To hear you both cry was music to our ears, Your dad and I cried so many tears.

You both have given me courage and strength, What a wonderful "gift", we have been sent!

"Hassan" is the quiet one, and a minute older, "Hussein" is the naughty one - he's a little bit bolder!!

Two wonderful boys joined together in love, You truly are a "gift" sent from above.

I feel so honoured to be your mum, I need just one more miracle to come.

"The little fighters" is the name ye share, You have earned it well, as you fought to be here.

Your final battle is getting near, We are all behind you, so have no fear.

Boys - you have filled us all with love and hope, Without you both, we would never cope.

Keep on fighting to stay strong, Always remember your big sisters' song.

"You are not alone" is the song they sing for you, And those words could not be more true!

So as we prepare for the surgery ahead, Many a tear will be shed.

All I can ask of God now, is that ye feel no pain, I'm so proud of my boys - "Hassan and Hussein".

No matter how this will all end, I am forever grateful for the time we did spend.

You have brought the country together, in love and prayer, You have made 2010 a special year!

Always remember, "you are not alone", Please God someday, we'll all return home.

I feel I must be one of the luckiest mums, To have not one, but two precious sons.

Love you both with all my heart and soul

Mummy xx

Thursday, April 1, 2010

100 million ‘missing’ girls

By Jeff Jacoby, Globe Columnist | March 14, 2010
Source: Boston Globe

IN INDIA each year, it is estimated that as many as a million baby girls are aborted by parents determined not to raise a daughter. Those unborn girls are the victims of a fierce cultural preference for boys — and of modern imaging technology that makes it easy to learn the sex of a baby in the womb. Ultrasound scans started becoming widely available in India in the 1980s; since then, an estimated 10 million female babies have been destroyed during pregnancy.

Sex-selection tests are illegal in India. So are sex-selective abortions. But the laws are rarely enforced and easily circumvented. Rather than openly disclose the sex of a fetus after an ultrasound exam, for example, some Indian doctors signal the results by giving the parents pink or blue candies or candles. Others dispense with subtlety altogether, advertising their services with such brazen slogans as “Spend 500 rupees now and save 50,000 rupees later’’ — an allusion to the potentially crippling dowry that an Indian bride’s parents are expected to pay when their daughter gets married. Many couples have taken that deal. The result is an alarming shortage of young Indian women — and a growing population of young Indian men with little prospect of finding a wife.

It isn’t only in India that unborn girls are being killed on such a mass scale.

Last week, in a chilling cover story titled “The worldwide war on baby girls," The Economist noted that in many parts of China, the ratio of boys to girls is now 124-to-100. “These rates are biologically impossible without human intervention,’’ the magazine observed, and their consequences will be dire. The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences recently warned that within 10 years, 24 million Chinese men will find themselves condemned to permanent bachelorhood. Among Chinese 19 and younger, the prospects are even worse: By 2020, there will be 30 million to 40 million more males in this age group than females. That is a staggering number of what the Chinese call guanggun, or “bare branches’’ — young males with little prospect of marriage and a stable family life.

“In any country,’’ says The Economist, “rootless young males spell trouble; in Asian societies, where marriage and children are the recognized routes into society, single men are almost like outlaws. Crime rates, bride trafficking, sexual violence, even female suicide rates are all rising and will rise further as the lopsided generations reach their maturity.’’

The war against baby girls has spread to South Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan, to the former Soviet republics of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia, and even to Asian-American communities in the United States. And if you think that the antidote to this “gendercide’’ is modernization, better living standards, and more education, think again.

“It is not the country’s poorest but its richest who are eliminating baby girls at the highest rate, regardless of religion or caste,’’ the Times of London reported in 2007. “Delhi’s leafiest suburbs have among the lowest ratio of girls to boys in India, while the two states with the absolute lowest ratio are those with the highest per-capita income: Punjab and Haryana.’’ Similarly in China, the higher a province’s literacy rate or income per head, the more skewed its sexual disparities.

It is not material poverty that leads these cultures to blithely accept the killing of their very youngest girls. It is a poverty of values, an ancient prejudice that views daughters as a financial burden to be avoided, rather than a blessing to be cherished.

The Chinese writer Xinran Xue writes in a new book, “Message from an Unkown Chinese Mother,’’ about visiting a peasant family in Shandong while the mother is giving birth. The baby turns out to be a girl, and Xinran hears a man’s voice mutter: “Useless thing!’’ To her horror, the “useless thing’’ is thrown into a pail of slops to be drowned.

“That’s a living child,’’ I said in a shaking voice, pointing at the slops pail.

“It’s not a child,’’ she corrected me. “It’s a girl baby, and we can’t keep it. Around these parts, you can’t get by without a son. Girl babies don’t count.’’

On its cover, The Economist asks: “What happened to 100 million baby girls?’’ The answer is simple — and sickening: They didn’t count.

Jeff Jacoby can be reached at jacoby@globe.com.
 
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