Human Trafficking Legislation Passes U.S. House Unanimously

China Admits to Sale of Organs From Prisoners

Intimate Partner Violence Injuries

Canada Makes Sex Clubs Legal for 14 Year Olds

Pro-Life Professor Receives National Teacher Award...

HUMAN TRAFFICKING LEGISLATION PASSES HOUSE UNANIMOUSLY in 12/05 to reauthorize the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. This legislation gives police the ability to investigate and to prosecute individuals involved in sex trafficking here in the United States. It also provides support for an international effort to confront slavery abroad.

It is estimated that between 600,000 and 800,000 men, women, and children are brought across international borders against their will each year. [letter from Ambassador John R. Miller, Director of the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons; posted 21Dec05, Abstinence Clearinghouse E-Mail Update, abstinence.net]

CHINA ADMITS TO SALE OF ORGANS FROM PRISONERS. Deputy Health Minister Huang Jiefu admitted that the practice of selling the organs of executed prisoners to foreign transplant recipients is common, while promising to change the policy. “We want to push for regulations on organ transplants to standardise the management of the supply of organs from executed prisoners and tidy up the medical market,” Huang said [UK’s Times on Line].

A liver sells to a foreign recipient for approximately $41,000 USD, the Times stated. Although a religious tradition in China maintains that the body must be whole and intact in order to enter the heaven, China is second only to the US in the number of transplants performed.

It would seem the Communists do not let much go to waste, as a previous LifeSiteNews.com report http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/sep/05091404.html revealed that the skin of prisoners was also sold for use in cosmetic products for export to Europe and North America.

Western human rights monitors estimate that the Chinese execute about 15,000 persons a year – more than the rest of the world's judicial executions combined. In addition, the role of defence lawyers is seriously underdeveloped and they have little impact in court cases.

When appeals against the death penalty are rejected, the sentence is carried out immediately, sometimes within hours. In addition to the enormous number of death sentences, the Chinese legal system makes use of the full array of traditional communist methods of suppression of political dissent. This includes the use of police-run “mental hospitals,” and “re-education through labour camps” where the few who have been released report regular use of torture.

China is widely recognized as one of the world’s worst human rights offenders. Canada and the US nonetheless have viewed China as a valued trade partner. Former US President Bill Clinton permanently normalized trade ties with China – without requiring that China cease its substantial human rights abuses and religious persecution – in 2000.

This year, in its annual report on Human Rights around the world, Amnesty International highlighted the abuses against women who violated the One Child policy. Such reports, however, have not deterred the United Nations, (supported by Canada) from giving its full support to the policy. The Chinese policy is largely in line – though with slightly less sqeamishness about its direct application – with the eugenic and population policies of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

The UNFPA has been proven to be complicit in the Chinese policy’s violent implementation. According to official figures, there are at least 26,000 prisoners in forced labour camps. China’s 670 prisons hold some 1.5 million prisoners and the judicial system, including the death penalty, is used, say some groups, as a tool by the ruling Party for terrorizing citizens. [Profit Triumphs Over Principles In US-China Trade Agreement
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2000/sep/00092005.html
China Moves from Bullets to Mobile Execution Vans to Improve International Image
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/nov/05110309.html
Forced Abortion Still a Reality in China Says New Amnesty Report http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/may/05052706.html
New Exposé Of Chinese ‘Gulag’ Prison Camp System
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2003/jan/03011005.html]
[http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/dec/05120504.html, 5Dec05, T.Vanderheyden, Beijing]

HAVING A BABY: RISK AND REALITY IN V-BIRTHS AND C-SECTIONS. Elective Caesarean sections have become more common in recent years, in part because many women and doctors believe that vaginal birth is a major risk factor for urinary incontinence. But a new study [published 12/05 Obstetrics and Gynecology] has found no support for this belief. Researchers sampled 143 pairs of postmenopausal biological sisters. In each pair, one had had a vaginal delivery and one had never had a baby. They completed questionnaires concerning symptoms of pelvic floor disorders, and 101 of the pairs were given clinical evaluations for urinary incontinence. The results ran counter to the conventional wisdom: 49.7 percent of the women who had given birth suffered some urinary incontinence, but so did 47.6 percent of their sisters, reflecting a difference that was statistically insignificant. The researchers concluded that in postmenopausal women family factors were more associated with urinary incontinence than with having had a vaginal delivery. Dr. Gunhilde M. Buchsbaum, the study's lead author and an associate professor of obstetrics at the University of Rochester, said she doubted that these results would affect clinical practice. "People have strong feelings and opinions about elective C-section one way or the other," she said. "For that reason, I doubt that the findings of our study will change any minds."
The authors acknowledged that they did not determine the age at which incontinence began, and that incontinence might occur earlier in women who delivered vaginally. The authors also pointed out that their finding pertained to white women only. [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/13/health/13chil.html?pagewanted=all By NICHOLAS BAKALAR; 13Dec05; N Valko RN, 19Dec05]

QUICKSTATS: RATE OF TRIPLET AND OTHER HIGHER-ORDER MULTIPLE BIRTHS, USA 1980-2003. The rate of triplet and other higher-order multiple births increased from 37 per 100,000 live births in 1980 to 194 in 1998, largely attributable to increased usage of fertility therapies. During 1999-2003, the rate of triplet and higher-order multiple births has remained stable. Older mothers and non-Hispanic white mothers are the most likely to have a triplet or higher-order multiple birth. [Births: final data for 2003. National vital statistics reports, vol. 54, no. 2. Hyattsville, MD: NCHS; 2005. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr54/nvsr54_02.pdf; Reynolds MA, Schieve LA, Martin JA, et al. Trends in multiple births conceived using assisted reproductive technology, United States, 1997--2000. Pediatrics 2003;111:1159—66; 20Oct05, CDC, MMWR]

INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE INJURIES. National data [1995 National Violence Against Women Survey] indicate that 22.1% of women and 7.4% of men experience IPV during their lifetimes and that 1.3% of women and 0.9% of men experience IPV annually. IPV results in an estimated $4.1 billion each year in direct medical and mental health-care costs, including $159 million in emergency dept (ED) treatments.

IPV might constitute as much as 17% of all violence-related injuries treated in EDs…OWHS data further suggest that ED treatment for IPV injuries represents only about 10% of women injured by a partner each year...Cases included only OK residents.[http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/about/otheract/ice/matrix10.htm; MMWR Weekly 21Oct05 / 54(41);1041-1045  MMWReport, CDC, HHS]

CANADA MAKES SEX CLUBS LEGAL FOR 14 YEAR OLDS. A ruling granted last week by Canada’s Supreme Court makes group sex legal in clubs across the country. With 14 the age of sexual consent in Canada, students in middle school will now be allowed to access and participate in group sex offered by clubs. [Abstinence Clearinghouse E-Mail Update, 01/04/06]

NOTED U.S. PSYCHOLOGISTS CONDEMN GAY ACTIVIST INFLUENCE ON APA
Accuse mental-health associations of allowing gay activists to distort research – Senior members of the psychological community delivered a scathing condemnation of the American Psychological Association (APA), at the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) conference 11/05. Dr. Nicolas Cummings, Ph.D, a former president of the APA, said pro-homosexual social activist influence has undermined the scientific legitimacy of psychological research within the organization.

Dr. Cummings charged that research by the APA is now limited to projects where “they know what the outcome is going to be…only research with predictably favorable outcomes is permissible.” (reported by Linda Ames Nicolosi for the NARTH website). Cummings expressed his concern over the APA’s backing for legalized gay marriage, which was recommended by the APA in 2004 because it would “promote mental health,” among members of the gay community. That decision, said Cummings, was based upon vague research which indicated “loving relationships are healthy’’ in a general sense.

“That was one of the worst resolutions,” Cummings said. “ When we speak in the name of psychology we are to speak only from facts and clinical expertise.” Otherwise “very soon the public will see us as a discredited organization—just another opinionated voice shouting and shouting.”

Dr. Rogers Wright, Ph.D, co-author with Cummings of their newly released book Destructive Trends in Mental Health, criticized the APA for failing to live up to the organization’s long-held ideal of openness to diversity. The organization deliberately avoided issuing a response to the book and, at first, forbade its member-publications from reviewing it.  “So much for diversity and open-mindedness,” said Wright.

Psychiatrist Jeffrey Satinover, M.D., spoke at length on the ethical misuse of scientific literature in recent legal cases that have laid the foundation for major changes in family-law policy. Satinover accused mental-health associations of allowing gay activists to distort research in order to support their own social and political agendas, on a scale he finds “appalling beyond imagination.”

Among the methods used to falsely support the gay agenda, he identified researchers who used their own work as references, who used active members of pro-paedophilia groups as sources, and who ignored current conflicting research in favor of obsolete, discredited work.

Dr. Dean Byrd, Ph. D, Chairman of NARTH’s Scientific Advisory Committee, read from a letter he sent to the APA, criticizing the organization for exercising a double standard toward individuals who express a desire to return to heterosexuality:
“Though not all of the patients that NARTH members treat are religious, many are. Is it not a blatant disregard for their religious values and an affront to real diversity to marginalize these individuals by failing to acknowledge their right to choose how they will adapt sexually? APA’s continuous message of respect for diversity rings hollow if it does not represent different worldviews…either you support client autonomy or you do not; either you support client self-determination or you do not; either your actions reflect diversity, or they do not.”

The American Psychological Association, in Washington, DC, is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the USA, and is the world’s largest association of psychologists.
APA Endorses Homosexual “Marriage”   http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2004/jul/04072902.html
APA Ignored Evidence that Homosexual Behavior is Part of Psychiatric Disorder Says Noted Psychiatrist http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/jul/05072502.html
For the full article on NARTH go to:  http://narth.com/docs/insiders.html    [LifeSiteNews.com, 20Dec05;  By Gudrun Schultz]

PRO-LIFE COLLEGE PROFESSOR RECEIVES NATIONAL TEACHER AWARD. Professor Lawrence F. Roberge of Goodwin College, a pro-life author and advocate, has been awarded the 2005 Connecticut Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education.

Professor Roberge is the author of "The Cost of Abortion: An Analysis of the Social, Economic, and Demographic Effects of Abortion on the Unites States," and has researched and written several pieces on the dangerous effects of RU-486, abortion vaccines, and human cloning. [LifeNews.com, 19Dec05; D.C.]

10,000 FOOT FREEFALL, FACE-FIRST LANDING AFTER PARACHUTE FAILS – PRAYS – SURVIVES. Her unborn baby also survives. First the main chute failed – at 10,000 feet – then the reserve chute wouldn’t open. At that moment on 9Oct05, Shayna Richardson, 21, started praying. “I heard a snap and I started spinning and I didn't know why. I didn't know what to do to fix it. I didn't know how to make it stop,” Richardson said. It is estimated that she hit the ground, face first, at 50 mph. She said the impact “eggshelled” her face and broke her pelvis and fibula. What she did not know at the time, however, was that she was 2 weeks pregnant at the time of the accident. Richardson said that she would not have jumped had she known she was pregnant.  After surgery and 16 days in hospital, both Richardson and her baby are recovering and Richardson hopes to return to skydiving after the birth, which is expected in June. [Hilary White, LifeSiteNews.com, 14Dec05, Joplin]

BOLTON ALREADY HAVING IMPACT ON UN. After only four months as the U.S. Ambassador, John Bolton has already gained the respect of some fellow members. Ambassador Mihnea Motoc of Romania, a temporary member of the Security Council explains, "he is having a definite impact. Others wish they could do things the same way." Ambassador Bolton has threatened to block the UN's budget for 2006-7 unless diplomats commit to "real reform" by the end of the year. Bolton thinks "it's important to say clearly what the U.S. position is....And I think when you say we hold this position and we hold it strongly, for some people, that is a new experience." [Los Angeles Times, 12-27-05; EF News & Notes, 30Dec05]

SPEAKING OF THE UN…The Financial Times has investigated the UN fund spent for Indian Ocean tsunami relief and says that up to a third of the $590 million has gone to pay for overhead. The newspaper also found that several UN agencies continue to refuse to disclose details of their relief expenditure in spite of earlier pledges of transparency by senior officials. [UPI, 12-23-05; EF News & Notes, 30Dec05]

DIABETES STUDY VERIFIES LIFESAVING TACTIC. A 17-year federal study has finally answered one of the most pressing questions about diabetes: Can tight control of blood sugar prevent heart attacks and strokes? The answer, reported today in The New England Journal of Medicine, is yes. Intense control can reduce the risk by nearly half. And, the study found, the effect occurred even though the patients had only had a relatively brief period of intense blood sugar control when they were young adults. Nonetheless, more than a decade later, when they reached middle age, when heart disease and strokes normally start to appear, they were protected. The study involved those with Type 1 diabetes, which usually arises in early in life and involves the death of insulin-secreting cells. "This is truly an important study," said Dr. Robert Rizza, a professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic and the president of the American Diabetes Association. "And I usually don't say that," he added. The findings are likely to affect clinical practice, encouraging doctors to put more effort into helping patients control their blood sugar, said Dr. John B. Buse, the director of the diabetes care center at the University of North Carolina. The study is "the most rigorously conducted to date," Dr. Buse said, and its authors are "exceptionally well known in the diabetes and medical world." Researchers knew that diabetes was linked to heart disease - at least two-thirds of diabetics die of heart disease. But although studies showed that controlling blood sugar protected against damage to the eyes, kidneys and nerves, there was no conclusive evidence that it would have the same effect on heart disease and stroke. "In that sense, this is a landmark study," said Dr. William Cefalu, a diabetes researcher at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La., who wrote an editorial accompanying the paper.
The study began with 1,441 people aged 13 to 39. Half were randomly assigned to intensive therapy, intended to keep their blood sugar levels low all the time. That meant injecting themselves with insulin three or more times a day or using an insulin pump to infuse the hormone. The others were assigned to conventional therapy, which meant one or two insulin injections a day, a regimen that was easier for patients but resulted in higher sugar levels. Blood sugar was assessed by measuring the amount of hemoglobin A1c in the participants' blood, a test that looks for hemoglobin with sugar attached to it. The goal for the intensive-therapy group was to keep those levels to 6 percent or less. They achieved an average level of 7 percent. Those assigned to conventional treatment had an average level of 9 percent. Normal levels for people without diabetes are 4 percent to 6 percent. After six and one-half years, both groups were told that intensive therapy had prevented injury to the eyes, kidneys and nerves but that it had not found an effect on heart attacks and strokes. Those who had had the conventional treatment were taught the intensive treatment regimen. Then, for the next 11 years, all the patients were followed but left to their own doctors' care. Soon the two groups had about the same hemoglobin A1c levels, about 8 percent. As the years went by and the patients started developing signs of heart disease, the researchers noticed a pronounced difference between the two groups in their rates of heart attack and stroke. Thirty-one of the patients who had had intensive treatment when they were young had a total of 46 cardiovascular events, including heart attacks, stroke and heart disease severe enough to require bypass surgery. Fifty-two of the conventionally treated patients had a total of 98 such events. "It was amazing," said Dr. David Nathan, a diabetes researcher at the Massachusetts General Hospital who was co-chairman of the study. "Therapy for six and one-half years seems to have driven a dramatic effect."
But the result also gives rise to questions: Does the same effect occur in people with Type 2 diabetes, which usually occurs later in life and involves an inability to respond to insulin? And why would tight control of blood sugar for one brief period have such a pronounced effect later? Dr. Fradkin said she expected that the results would hold for Type 2 diabetes. Another large federal study is addressing that question, she noted, but it is already known that tight control of blood sugar in Type 2 diabetes protects against nerve, kidney and eye damage, just as it does with Type 1 diabetes.
The immediate problem, Dr. Fradkin said, is that fewer than 40 percent of diabetics are keeping their hemoglobin A1c levels at 7 percent or below.
 [NYT, G. Kolata, 22Dec05, http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/22/health/22diabetes.html?pagewanted=all]