http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15066221/

Sounds a little crazy…..but some of these crazy remedies may truely work. They seem to think that they have even treated certain tumors in mice. Some other remedies are when you have a back pain to plug in your headphones and if you have bad breath screw in a lightbulb. Who knows they may work?

Crazy Cures

At approximately 6:46a.m. Tuesday, Americal reached a milestone. Someone unkowingly moved into history as the 300 millionth American. In 1915, the United States population hit 100 million. More and more the population keeps exceding to new heights. According to the U.S. Census Burear, the population grows by one American every 11 seconds. Can you honestly imagine that? Although the number is just an educated guess its still unbelievable to think. The Census Burear doesn’t keep track of every single person who is born or every single person who crosses the boarder, but its still amazing to think that there really could be 300 million people living in the United States.

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http://www.stnews.org/News-2908.htm

Picking pink or blue

Techniques for sex selection offer options for balancing families but raise ethical issues

By John A. Robertson

(July 17, 2006)

LOOKING FOR THE RIGHT GENDER: Science can help parents pick their baby’s gender, but it can’t answer if that’s ethically right or wrong.


(Source: Clara Natoli/Morguefile)

Developments
in assisted reproduction and genetic screening have led some people to
speculate that we are on the verge of routinely choosing the traits of
our children before they are born. This is highly unlikely.

Most nonmedical traits are genetically complex and influenced by
environmental and developmental factors. Because of that, the option of
picking children in advance for their intelligence, height, beauty or
other characteristics may not be possible for many years — if it ever
is.

The one exception is selection of a baby’s sex. Sex selection by
infanticide or abortion of females has occurred in India and China for
many years, leading to much higher birth rates for males than females.
Only recently have less harsh methods of choosing a baby’s sex become
available — a development that could greatly expand the demand for
these types of techniques.

One technique is to sort out the X- and Y-bearing sperm by flow
cytometry. A sperm sample is labeled with fluorescent dye that adheres
to chromosomal DNA. A laser beam separates the heavier X-bearing, or
female, sperm from the lighter Y-bearing, or male, sperm, allowing the
sperm to be sorted into one group for male babies and another for
female babies. The prospective mother is then inseminated with
whichever sperm is likely to combine with the X of the egg to form
either a girl or a boy.

A second technique — called preimplantation genetic diagnosis or PGD
— has a high accuracy rate for males or females but requires a cycle of
in vitro fertilization to produce several embryos needed in the
process. In PGD, a cell is removed from the four- or eight-cell stage
of an embryo, and its chromosomes are analyzed to determine whether it
is an XX or XY embryo. One or more embryos of the desired sex are then
placed in the uterus.

As expected, preconception or preimplantation sex selection raises
ethical hackles. Most opponents of sex selection accept its use for
medical indications — for example, to prevent the birth of a child with
X-linked diseases. But they draw the line at using the technique for
nonmedical reasons. A main concern is that it is sexist and will
reinforce the oppression of women. Another is that it will undermine
the welfare of children by forcing them into rigidly conceived sex
roles. A much larger population of males could also lead to major
social problems.

The easy fix is to allow parents to use sperm and embryo screening
for nonmedical reasons only when they already have children and they
want a child of the opposite sex to create gender variety or balance in
the family. Creating gender variety or balance in a family can be
important because it offers a different experience for parents and
siblings without elevating the worth of one sex over the other.

What should public policy be on this issue?

There should not be legal constraints on people who want to use
either sperm separation or PGD to vary the gender of children in their
families. Although Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and other
countries ban the practice, imposing restrictions would raise serious
questions of constitutionality in the United States. Reproductive
rights are not limited to the decision of whether or not to have a
child and could extend to some control over offspring genes.

Medical professionals should be free to offer these techniques when
they are shown to be safe and effective. Practices should also be put
in place to ensure that parents are informed of the risks and benefits
of particular procedures and counseled about the need for children of
the chosen sex to develop as individuals.

John A. Robertson holds the Vinson & Elkins Chair in Law at the University of Texas Law School in Austin, Texas.

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