National Pro-Life T-Shirt Day

Common Virus Kills Cancer Cells, Study Finds

Dead Dogs Revived After 3 Hoursl Technique May Save Lives

Australian Idol Winner, Uses Fame & Fortune to Build a Pro-Life Counseling Center for Women

Average Age of Mothers at First Birth

NATIONAL PRO-LIFE T-SHIRT DAY was a smashing success. The pro-life message was out in force, especially at public high schools where sex ed is taught and teen pregnancy is the consequence. Thousands upon thousands of shirts were worn on 26Apr, stirring up countless conversations, changing hearts and minds to the truth. Next year’s T-shirt day will be 25April 2006; please help publicize!

AVERAGE AGE OF MOTHERS AT FIRST BIRTH, 2002 - The average age of mothers at first birth increased steadily during the preceding 30 years, to 25.1 years in 2002, an all-time high for the nation. In 2002, by state, the average age of mothers at first birth ranged from 23 years to 28 years. Mothers living in northeastern states were the oldest at first birth; mothers living in AR, LA, MS, NM, OK, & WY were the youngest. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr52/nvsr52_19acc.pdf. [National Vital Statistics System, annual file; 2003. Available at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/births.htm]

COMMON VIRUS KILLS CANCER, STUDY FINDS - A common virus that is harmless to people can destroy cancerous cells in the body and might be developed into a new cancer therapy, U.S. researchers said on 21June. The virus, called adeno-associated virus type 2, or AAV-2, infects an estimated 80 percent of the population. "Our results suggest that adeno-associated virus type 2, which infects the majority of the population but has no known ill effects, kills multiple types of cancer cells yet has no effect on healthy cells," said Craig Meyers [prof, microbiology & immunology, Penn State College of Medicine, PA]. "We believe that AAV-2 recognizes that the cancer cells are abnormal and destroys them. This suggests that AAV-2 has great potential to be developed as an anti-cancer agent." He said at a meeting [American Society for Virology] that studies have shown women infected with AAV-2 who are also infected with a cancer-causing wart virus called HPV develop cervical cancer less frequently than uninfected women do. AAV-2 is a small virus that cannot replicate itself without the help of another virus. But with the help of a second virus it kills cells. For their study, Meyers and colleagues first infected a batch of human cells with HPV, some strains of which cause cervical cancer. They then infected these cells and normal cells with AAV-2. After six days, all the HPV-infected cells died. The same thing happened with cervical, breast, prostate and squamous cell tumor cells. All are cancers of the epithelial cells, which include skin cells and other cells that line the insides and outsides of organs. "One of the most compelling findings is that AAV-2 appears to have no pathologic effects on healthy cells," Meyers said. "So many cancer therapies are as poisonous to healthy cells as they are to cancer cells. A therapy that is able to distinguish between healthy and cancer cells could be less difficult to endure for those with cancer." AAV-2 is being studied intensively as a gene therapy vector -- a virus modified to carry disease-correcting genes into the body. Gene therapy researchers favor it because it does not seem to cause disease or immune system reaction on its own. [21Jun05  Reuters, Washington; http://reuters.myway.com/article/20050621/2005-06-21T202145Z_01_N21629972_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-HEALTH-CANCER-VIRUS-DC.html; Hospice Patients Alliance http://www.hospicepatients.org, 22June05]

SCIENTISTS HAVE CREATED “ZOMBIE” DOGS, reanimating the canines after several hours of clinical death in attempts to develop suspended animation for humans. US scientists have succeeded in reviving the dogs after three hours of clinical death, paving the way for trials on humans within years. Pittsburgh's Safar Centre for Resuscitation Research has developed a technique in which subject's veins are drained of blood and filled with an ice-cold salt solution. The animals are considered scientifically dead, as they stop breathing and have no heartbeat or brain activity. But three hours later, their blood is replaced and the zombie dogs are brought back to life with an electric shock. Plans to test the technique on humans should be realised within a year, according to the Safar Centre. However rather than sending people to sleep for years, then bringing them back to life to benefit from medical advances, the boffins would be happy to keep people in this state for just a few hours. But even this should be enough to save lives such as battlefield casualties and victims of stabbings or gunshot wounds, who have suffered huge blood loss. During the procedure blood is replaced with saline solution at a few degrees above zero. The dogs' body temperature drops to only 7C, compared with the usual 37C, inducing a state of hypothermia before death. Although the animals are clinically dead, their tissues and organs are perfectly preserved. Damaged blood vessels and tissues can then be repaired via surgery. The dogs are brought back to life by returning the blood to their bodies, giving them 100 per cent oxygen and applying electric shocks to restart their hearts. Tests show they are perfectly normal, with no brain damage. "The results are stunning. I think in 10 years we will be able to prevent death in a certain segment of those using this technology," said one US battlefield doctor. [Nick Buchan, NEWS.com.au; http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,15739502-13762,00.html 27June05]

B.C. COUPLE SEEKS MANDATORY HOMOSEXUAL SCHOOL CURRICULUM WITHOUT PARENTAL OP-OUT–they filed a complaint against the B.C. Ministry of education in 1999 alleging that the Ministry’s curriculum didn’t adequately “address issues of sexual orientation.” That case is slated to be heard beginning 11July. What many are finding deeply disturbing is that the couple is not only seeking inclusion of explicitly homosexual material in the curriculum, promoting homosexuality as a normative and safe lifestyle option, but also that they wish to ensure that the material is mandatory. If successful, the case will ensure that parents do not retain the right to choose to pull their children from the offensive portion of the curriculum and provide yet another extraordinary exception from normal rules because it has been insisted upon by activists. Homosexual activists have won exceptions from laws regarding public nudity, sexual solicitation, public sex acts, group sex in their so-called "bath houses", normal medical safeguards to contain the transmission of dangerous communicable diseases, the posting of sexually explicit billboards and much more. The gay couple’s lawyer, Timberg, said, “The second issue is there’s an opting-out provision in the curriculum that where a subject is deemed to be sensitive, the school teachers are under an obligation to in advance advise parents that they’ll be raising a sensitive issue in the classroom.” The Human Rights Complaint seeks to remove sexual orientation from the list of ‘sensitive’ issues. “If we are going to be providing and promoting curriculum that treats homosexuality as just a normal thing that’s really no different than heterosexuality, we will be trampling on the religious freedoms of thousands of British Columbia families,” said Derek Rogusky [v-p, family policy, Focus on the Family]. “Already what the schools are teaching and what’s going on in the schools are often in opposition to what parents are teaching at home and what they hold up as the ideal,” he said, “and this will just further that.” Although the complaint was filed in 1999, the recent passing of Bill C-38 in the Canadian Parliament greatly increases the likelihood that the case will receive the ear of the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal. [VANCOUVER, B.C. 11July05 LifeSiteNews.com]

AUSTRALIAN IDOL WINNER USES FAME/FORTUNE TO BUILD PRO-LIFE COUNSELING CENTER Guy Sebastian, Australian Idol winner: "I…think women deserve the right to make an informed and educated decision. Most women never get over the psychological effects of abortion, and without the right counseling, it affects their relation-ships, confidence, self-esteem for life."[Sydney, LifeSiteNews.com, 26May05]