from Talk to Action

In last Sunday's New York Times Magazine, Russell Shorto sounded a long-delayed alarm in Contra-Contraception, a comprehensive overview of the religious right's war on birth control. It was past time for a publication of influence to "discover" what many of us have known for years.

The wheels of history have a tendency to roll back over the same ground. For the past 33 years '

Our beloved Our Word member Moiv has a must read post up at Talk to Action called, De-Funding the 'Contraceptive Mentality.' It discusses the efforts by the Christian right to limit access to contraception.

As usual, she is articulate, thorough, and informative. Must read...

I've just spent an enthralled hour reading the website of some guy who put a dead possum (he calls it an "opossum", which I suppose is the correct way of saying it in some parts of the country) into a bucket of water, then documented the results.

If you don't like maggots and descriptions of strong smells, don't go here. If you're like me and have a morbid curiosity, go ahead and have fun.

Just thought I'd lighten everybody's day a little bit.

America's health care system has been under some pressure for some time, now. Starting in the early 1980's, the phrase "cost containment" came into being in health care. What does that mean? It means trying to set a price on things.

On the face of it, it comes across as a plan to cut wasteful spending. The reasoning went that the United States spent more per capita on health care than any other nation and this was pitched as being out of step with the rest of the world. Personally as someone who has traveled in the "rest of the world," ever look at the health care in those countries? Apart from a very few, what I saw was not so good. Germany, BENELUX, and Scandinavia were pretty good - and I am not speak of the quality of personnel - many fine physicians and health care workers everywhere - it was their budgets and distribution.

From foetus to full term - without a mother's touch

Sorry to be a blog hog today but what do you all think about the potential development of fetuses developing in artificial wombs? An article from the Times today says:

ARTIFICIAL wombs, to bring a foetus of a human being to full term outside a woman s body, could become a reality within 20 years, scientists have predicted.

My initial reaction: as someone who wants children but is not eager to go through 9 months of pregnancy and horrendously painful childbirth, I'm rather excited about the possibility. Although I can definitely see that it raises a lot of other issues and questions. And I really can't imagine that such a technology could really be equal or superior to a natural womb. But who knows?