Baby Cut from Mother Found Alive

Girl with Half Her Brain Missing Lives Normal Life: Researchers Amazed

Teen Voice 2009: The Untapped Strengths of 15-Year-Olds

7th Circuit Court of Appeals Upholds Illinois Parental Notice Act

Mexican State of Yucatan Becomes 14th to Pass Pro-Life Constitutional Amendment...

Baby Cut from Mother Found Alive...
two days after the woman's body was discovered, US police have said.   A woman who had the baby with her when found in New Hampshire was charged with being a fugitive from justice.   The girl was said to be in "fairly good health," according to Worcester police Sergeant Kerry Hazelhurst. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8175813.stm
BBC; ALL Pro-Life Today, 30July09]

Girl with Half Her Brain Missing Lives Normal Life: Researchers Amazed. 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 cerebral hemisphere after the right side of her brain stopped developing at seven weeks gestation. She was also missing most of her right eye. Neurological researchers are astonished that an fMRI revealed her retinal ganglion-cells "changed their predetermined crossing pattern" and re-mapped in her brain to create nearly normal bi-scopic vision.

"The human cerebral cortex," the report says, "contains continuous topographic
maps" that help the person process visual, auditory and other sensory information. "It is believed that these maps result from a self-organizing process that is supported by complex interactions between molecular cues and neuronal activity." The fact that AH's vision was nearly normal, "suggested a drastic reorganization" of her sensory or receptor neurons, "from the normal left eye to the intact left hemisphere."

AH, described by the researchers as a "unique" case, lives a normal life, attending school with other children her own age and participating in sports. She has a history of seizures in early childhood and suffers only a slight weakness on her left side.

Dr. Muckli said, "This study has revealed the surprising flexibility of the brain when it comes to self-organising mechanisms for forming visual maps.

"The brain has amazing plasticity but we were quite astonished to see just how well the single hemisphere of the brain in this girl has adapted to compensate for the missing half."

Muckli added, "Despite lacking one hemisphere, the girl has normal psychological function and is perfectly capable of living a normal and fulfilling life. She is witty, charming and intelligent."

The discovery may help to rekindle a debate on eugenic abortion that was recently sparked by comments from US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, who said that abortion could help eradicate unwanted sections of the population. "Frankly I had thought that at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don't want to have too many of," Ginsburg told Emily Bazelon of the New York Times.

Increasingly abortion, coupled with in-utero diagnosis, is being called into question by disability rights campaigners, who have criticised it as a deadly form of prenatal discrimination.

Most countries that allow abortion include permission to kill a child deemed to be defective in the womb. The legislation in the UK allows abortion "when there is a substantial risk that if the child were born it would suffer from such physical or mental abnormalities as to be seriously handicapped." In Britain, a diagnosis of possible "abnormalities" - such as those suffered by AH - means the child can be killed without a legal gestational time limit, up to the stage of full development.

Related:
Supreme Court Justice Ginsburg: I Thought Roe Would Help Eradicate Unwanted Populations Through Abortion
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/jul/09070901.html
[28July09, Hilary White, www.LifeSiteNews.com]
[http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/jul/09072902.html Life Site News; ALL Pro-Life Today, 30July09]

TEEN VOICE 2009: THE UNTAPPED STRENGTHS OF 15-YEAR-OLDS
This research confirms the optimism educators feel for this generation and expands their understanding of attitudes most prevalent among the nation’s 15-year-olds. It shows:
• Most teens have deep talents, interests, and passions (what we call “sparks”). They are eager to use these strengths to make a difference in areas that matter to them.
• However, many don’t have the kinds of relationships and opportunities they need to help them tap their spark during this important time in life when they are on the cusp of young adulthood.
• When they are surrounded by people and places that nurture their sparks, they’re much more likely to be engaged in school and in life, and to contribute to society in meaningful ways.  (JUL 15, 2009,
http://www.at15.com/sites/all/themes/bb_at15_new/assets/_pdf/TeenVoiceReport_FINAL.pdf)

7th Circuit Court of Appeals Upholds Illinois Parental Notice Act
 The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit today dissolved the federal injunction against the Illinois Parental Notice of Abortion Act.  As a result of the court's decision in Zbaraz v. Hartigan, for the first time Illinois law will entitle parents to notification before their minor daughters are taken for abortions. 

The decision is the culmination of four years work by the Thomas More Society, particularly TMS Special Counsel Paul Linton, who devised the legal strategy which ultimately led to the lifting of the injunction. 
 
"This is an incredible victory for Illinois parents and their children," said Peter Breen, Executive Director and Legal Counsel of the Thomas More Society. 

"Parental involvement laws enjoy overwhelming public support.  These laws promote the integrity of the family and ensure that parents are consulted so that their children are not forced into an abortion decision.  A wealth of social science data indicates that parental involvement laws lead to lower pregnancy rates, out-of-wedlock births and abortions."
 
The Parental Notice Act has been in legal limbo for more than ten years because of the Illinois Supreme Court's refusal to issue the rules necessary to make the Act effective.  Since the passage of the Act in 1995, over 50,000 Illinois minors have obtained abortions, more than 4,000 of whom were 14 years old or younger, without any requirement to notify their parents beforehand.
 
Following Linton's legal strategy, representatives of pro-life organizations met with DuPageCounty State's Attorney Joseph Birkett in the spring of 2005 to ask him to petition the Illinois Supreme Court to adopt the rules required by the 1995 Act.  Birkett agreed and filed his petition in June 2006. 

On September 7, 2006, the Thomas More Society, representing a range of interested organizations, filed a supplemental petition with the state supreme court.  Less than two weeks later, the Illinois Supreme Court, under the leadership of Chief Justice Bob Thomas, unanimously adopted Supreme Court Rule 303A.
 
After various delays, Attorney General Lisa Madigan returned to federal court in March 2007 and petitioned Judge David Coar to lift the permanent injunction which had been issued eleven years earlier. 

After Judge Coar denied the petition, the Thomas More Society intervened in the case on behalf of State's Attorneys Stu Umholtz and Ed Deters to press an appeal against the injunction. That effort has led to the lifting of the injunction today.
[CHICAGO, Illinois, July 14, 2009, www.LifeSiteNews.com]



Mexican State of Yucatan Becomes 14th to Pass Pro-Life Constitutional Amendment: Legislators also add text defending marriage. The Mexican state of Yucatan became the fourteenth to pass a pro-life amendment to its constitution yesterday, adding to a wave of opposition to Mexico City's policy of permitting and funding abortion on demand.

The amendment reads, "The state of Yucatan recognizes, protects, and guarantees the right to life of every human being, expressly affirming that, from the moment of fertilization, he comes under the protection of the law, and is to be treated like a human being that has been born for all corresponding legal effects, until his natural death, with exceptions already foreseen in ordinary laws."

The state's legislators also passed an amendment to defend the institution of marriage, defining it as "an institution by means of which a juridical union is established between a man and a woman, with equality of rights, and duties, and obligations, with the possibility of bringing about human reproduction in a free, responsible, and informed manner. 

"The State recognizes that it is of vital interest for society that, in the union of man and woman for procreation, limits should be established regarding age, and psychological and physical health."

The amendments were passed in response to a popular initiative by a group of organizations under the banner of the Pro-Yucatan Network.  Although the group also advocated the definition of the family based on the traditional definition of marriage, legislators opted for a broader definition that includes ties based on "affinity."

Legislators also left intact the existing exceptions in the state's criminal code for abortion, which depenalize the procedure in cases of "economic hardship" in which a woman already has at least three children, as well as rape, fetal deformity, and danger to the mother's life.

The proliferation of pro-life and pro-family amendments at the state level in Mexico comes in response to the depenalization of abortion on demand during the first trimester of pregnancy in Mexico City in 2007, which was followed by the legalization of homosexual "civil unions."

Previous LifeSiteNews coverage:

Thirteenth Mexican State Passes Pro-Life Constitutional Amendment with Overwhelming Majority
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/may/09052701.html

Mexican State of Guanajuato Passes Pro-Life Constitutional Amendment: 11th State to Do So
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/may/09051108.html

Two More Mexican States Pass Pro-Life Amendments by Overwhelming Majorities
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/apr/09041415.html

Pro-Abortion Forces Sue to Overturn State Pro-Life Amendment in Mexican Supreme Court
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/jan/09013008.html

Mexican State of Sonora Passes Pro-Life Constitutional Amendment
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/oct/08102213.html
[ 16July09, MC Hoffman, Latin America Correspondent MERIDA, YUCATAN, www.LifeSiteNews.com]