Brain-Dead VA Woman's Baby Born 3Aug05 (with 5 Aug update)

New Study: Having More Children Protects Women from Cancer

Synthetic Testosterone May Affect Fertility

Average Age of Mothers at First Birth, 2002

John Roberts' Wife and Feminists For Life...

For the previous month's Life Matters, click here.

BRAIN-DEAD VA WOMAN'S BABY BORN  – The baby of brain-dead pregnant woman Susan Torres, 26, who is on life support, was born 3Aug05. Susan Torres, 26, lost consciousness from a stroke on May 7 after aggressive melanoma spread to her brain. Her husband, Jason Torres, said doctors told him his wife's brain functions had stopped. "The situation is pretty stable," said the brother-in-law, who is serving as the family's spokesman. "Susan, we have said from the beginning, is the toughest person in that I.C.U. room." Cecilia was one possible name the couple had discussed before the stroke. www.susantorresfund.org has helped raise about $400,000 in donations to pay the mounting medical bills from around the world: Germany, Britain, Ireland, Japan, even a check with no note from a soldier in Iraq. "She would have wanted us to fight for this baby - there's no doubt in our minds," he said. Ms. Torres's melanoma has spread to lymph nodes and taken over her vital organs, but they continue to function. Since 1979, there have been at least a dozen similar cases published in English medical literature, said Dr. Winston Campbell [dir, maternal-fetal medicine, Univ of CT Health Ctr]. [AP, 20July05; http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/21/health/21fetus.html?pagewanted=all 21July, N.Valko RN]

[5 August 2005] Two days after the birth of Susan Anne Catherine Torres and the death of her brain-dead mother, groups now believe this "miracle baby" will help preserve life and convince abortion rights supporters to switch sides.

Amber Dolle [American Life League, Cybercast News Service]: "It has shown the humanity of the child in the womb".

Abortion rights groups such as Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice America have remained silent regarding the baby's birth. The silence "tells me that these groups don't recognize that in a situation like this, this child ... had every right for her life to be protected ... as would any other person living outside the womb," Dolle said.

She suggested that the birth of the Torres child is a problem for abortion rights groups because the baby could have been aborted "by law even if she were perfectly healthy."

The Supreme Court's landmark rulings in 1973 - Roe vs. Wade and Doe vs. Bolton - allowed for abortion to take place at any point during the nine months of a pregnancy.

Dolle: "It's a human and civil rights issue."

Supporters who sent donations to the Susan M. Torres Fund, helping the family pay their huge medical bills, recognize the difference, Dolle said, that "this isn't a blob of tissue, or a part of this woman's body."

Susan Anne Catherine Torres' birth might also affect the public's position on stem cell research, Dolle said. Advocates of increased stem cell research support the destruction of frozen embryos - fertilized eggs - in order to extract the stem cells. But "if at 24 weeks, if at 10 weeks, at 14 weeks we believe it is a human person, then why don't we believe that after 1 or 2 weeks?" Dolle asked.

"If we believe it is a life and believe that it has humanity and that it has rights in this country, then we have to make that belief consistent across all lines, and I think this case can certainly help to promote that idea and promote that way of thinking," she said.

The average American, he said, will see Susan Anne Catherine Torres and recognize that "we have no right to take that child's life."

Paul Schenck [exec dir of NPLAC] stated in a press release that the birth "exemplifies the greatest gift we can ever be given" which is "life." The Torres baby's birth "has reaffirmed the incalculable value and sanctity of every human life from conception to natural death,' Schenck added.[CNSNews.com, 5Aug05] 

NEW STUDY FINDS HAVING MORE CHILDREN PROTECTS WOMEN FROM CANCER - A study published in the medical journal Twin Research and Genetics has found that women who have children have a reduced risk of developing certain types of cancer, and that the risk is further reduced with each pregnancy.

Researchers from the Queensland Institute of Medical Research in Australia studied medical data for more than 1.2 million Swedish women who had given birth between 1961 and 1996.

Women who had more children had a lower risk of developing breast, uterine, ovarian, and colorectal cancers than women who had fewer children.

The authors noted that it appeared that "an increase in the hormones produced during pregnancy are protecting against cancer," but scientists have not figured out why. The study found that women who had children earlier in life had a lower rate of breast cancer than women who delayed pregnancy.

Other studies have also found that pregnancy and childbirth offer women protection against certain cancers. The authors of the new study said that doctors should be aware of the cancer risks so they can provide more frequent cancer screening for women with fewer or no children.

The study was initially designed to study cancer risks in women who had twins, since they are exposed to different hormone levels than women who have single pregnancies. While the researchers did find lower cancer rates among mothers of twins, it was not enough to be considered significant, they said.

[Neale RE, Darlington S, Murphy MF, Silcocks PB, Purdie DM, Talback M. The effects of twins, parity and age at first birth on cancer risk in Swedish women. Twin Res Hum Genet. 2005 Apr;8(2):156-62]

SYNTHETIC TESTOSTERONE SEEMED LIKE A GOOD IDEA. THEN CAME FERTILITY ISSUES Browse the Internet for information about anabolic steroids, and you will discover a story of turbocharged manhood: huge muscles, adoring women, and youthful energy...

But for men also hoping to father children, there may be some vital information missing. Using testosterone supplements can most likely cause a man's sperm count to plummet, often to zero.

Getting it back can be costly and take years.  Among heavy steroid users, it may never return.

Even in the medical community, the effects of testosterone on a man's ability to reproduce are often misunderstood. Several top fertility experts say they often see patients whose regular doctors have placed them on testosterone replacement therapy to treat various ailments - often successfully - without explaining that it might also make them infertile.

When artificial testosterone is introduced into the body, the pituitary gland in the brain senses its presence and shuts off the supply of hormones that stimulate the testicles to make their own testosterone and sperm. The brain cannot differentiate natural testosterone from synthetic, so it shuts down its own sperm-making mechanisms.

"There's a chemical castration going on," said Dr. Paul J. Turek [assoc prof, urology, Univ of CA, San Francisco]. Dr. Turek said it was odd that men abuse testosterone to increase their manliness. "In fact, they've become less of a man," he said. "They can't do what men are supposed to do."

Dr. Rebecca Z. Sokol  [male-fertility specialist & prof, Keck School of Medicine, Univ of Southern Cal]  said that about 10 percent of her patients were seeking to reverse the damage from testosterone supplements. She estimated that half of those patients were taking the steroids under a doctor's care and half bought them on the black market. The typical black-market steroid user often doesn't admit he has been taking them, Dr. Sokol said.

"Most of them have no comprehension that this can make you sterile," she said. "These guys won't tell you what they're taking or how much…If they don't tell me they're taking testosterone, and they don't take my hint to go off it, there's nothing else I can do," she said.

Eric, a 39-year-old bodybuilder in San Francisco, who spoke on the condition that his last name not be used, said that such denial is rampant among bodybuilders. That makes it difficult for men to share reliable information about potential health threats. "I've been in these gyms for 20 years," said Eric, who has two children but has watched close friends struggling with infertility.  "You don't hear about fertility problems at all. People are very uncomfortable talking about it." Testosterone supplements are not only used by athletes and bodybuilders, but are also becoming more popular among older men. "I am seeing a ton of guys who are 55 years old and older, who want to be 25," Dr. Turek said.

This is particularly unsettling, he said, because it has not been determined if the use of testosterone might accelerate the progression of prostate cancer, which is most common among older men.  In addition, he said, these men - often affluent - tend to have younger wives who may want children. Many professional and other high-level athletes take excessive amounts of the drugs, while the dosages among amateur users can vary widely.

For those who take relatively small doses, sperm counts can return to levels approaching normal within 6 to 12 months after they stop using. Thomas McNutt, a patient of Dr. Sokol who lives in Las Vegas, was receiving testosterone replacement therapy because a pituitary disorder had caused his body to stop producing the hormone about seven years ago. Mr. McNutt and his wife, Carol, who have a 7-year- old child, hope to have another.

McNutt's urologist treated him and prescribed a testosterone patch. Mr.McNutt said the medication made him feel somewhat better, but he hadn't known it would make him infertile. "No one told me that if I used this synthetic testosterone it wouldn't allow me to produce sperm," he said.

"I didn't find out for another year. A lot of men may not even go to doctors to find out because it was very embarrassing. The essence of being a man is testosterone, and I didn't have any."

Some temporary side effects occur when a man stops taking testosterone supplements. He may not feel well for a couple of weeks, at least until his body starts making the hormone itself again, Dr. Sokol said.

Common symptoms of low testosterone include fatigue, depression and poor erections. If waiting doesn't work, a patient can sometimes be treated with a series of hormone injections that kick-start the testicles back into action, Dr. Sokol said. The typical regimen includes a combination of the pituitary hormones LH and FSH, which are the same hormones given to women undergoing in- vitro fertilization. Men usually require two or three injections a week for a year or longer, a cost that can reach several thousand dollars a month.

If a man's sperm count still does not improve after the injections, another procedure may work. Under general anesthesia, a man can have sperm retrieved from his testicles and combined with a woman's egg in the laboratory to create a test-tube baby. McNutt hopes that more men will be aware of the potential risks of testosterone supplements: "People need to look at how it's going to affect all aspects of their life, not just the body beautiful." [20 Jun 2005, New York Times; Peter McFadden, nfpprofessionals; Karen Alexander]

JUDGE RULES BAN ON CONTRACEPTIVE COVERAGE AS DISCRIMINATION - U.S. District Judge Laurie Smith Camp in Omaha, NE, ruled 22July05 that Union Pacific Railroad -- which employs about 49,000 workers nationwide, including 1,300 women – illegally discriminated against female employees by not providing contraceptive coverage in its health plans. Although Smith Camp did not order the company to begin covering contraceptives, she said Union Pacific's policy violated the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employers with 15 or more employees from discrimination based on gender or pregnancy. The class-action lawsuit -- which was filed by two female Union Pacific employees, who were represented by Planned Parenthood of Western Washington -- sought to require the company to provide coverage for FDA-approved prescription contraceptives for women employees and the female family members of male employees covered by the company's policies. Smith Camp ruled that the health plan policy was discriminatory because it covered many preventive health medications -- including drugs for erectile dysfunction -- but not contraception (O'Hanlon, AP/Yahoo! News, 7/25). The company argued that it did not need to provide contraceptive coverage "because fertility is 'normal'" therefore birth control is not "medically necessary."

In her ruling, Smith Camp acknowledged that fertility is normal but added, "There is also no doubt that pregnancy is a condition that has a profound impact on a woman's health." Later rulings will determine what Union Pacific must change about its current policies in order to comply with the Civil Rights Act. Union Pacific spokesperson Mark Davis said the company likely will appeal the ruling (AP/Yahoo! News, 7/25). Davis said the company's union during its most recent labor agreement agreed to not provide contraceptives in its negotiated health care plan
[Los Angeles Times, 7/26; Kaiser Daily Reproductive Report (not prolife), 7/27/05: 5. Federal Judge Rules Union Pacific Discriminated Against Female Employees by Barring Contraceptive Coverage,  http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=31645; Sorid, Reuters, 7/25; N Valko RN, 29July05]

B.C. CANADA COUPLE SEEKS MANDATORY HOMOSEXUAL SCHOOL CURRICULUM WITHOUT PARENTAL OP-OUT–they filed a complaint vs. the B.C. Ministry of education [1999] alleging that the Ministry’s curriculum didn’t adequately “address issues of sexual orientation” [one is an elementary school teacher]. 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, parents will not retain the right to choose to pull their children from the offensive portion of the curriculum, &  another extraordinary exception from normal rules will be allowed because it has been insisted upon by homosexual activists; they have already won exceptions from laws regarding public nudity, sexual solicitation, public sex acts, group sex in so-called "bath houses", normal medical safeguards to contain the transmission of communicable diseases, the posting of sexually explicit billboards etc. The Human Rights Complaint seeks to remove sexual orientation from the list of ‘sensitive’ issues. Recent passing of Bill C-38 [Canadian Parliament] greatly increases the likelihood that the case will be heard by the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal. [VANCOUVER, B.C. 11July05 LifeSiteNews.com]

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

JOHN ROBERTS' WIFE AN ATTY FOR FEMINISTS FOR LIFE of America for more than a decade. Mrs. Roberts, an attorney at the high-powered Washington law firm of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, currently serves as the pro bono legal counsel for the organization, which focuses on how abortion is a disservice to women. From 1995 to 1999 she served as Executive Vice President on Feminist for Life's board of directors.

"Jane is a brilliant attorney," says FFL executive director Serrin Foster. However, Foster told the Chicago Tribune that Jane Sullivan Roberts' views doesn't have a bearing on the Supreme Court nominee's philosophy. "In today's world people know that spouses do different things," Foster said. "He is not associated with FFL. Her work and what she does should stand alone." [DC, LifeNews.com]