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NYT Opinion Piece Calls For 'Reasonable Distinction-Making' Between Abortions At Various Stages Of Pregnancy
The case of George Tiller, the Kansas abortion provider who was recently murdered, "helps explain why so many people believe that abortion should be available at any stage of pregnancy," New York Times columnist Ross Douthat writes. Because Tiller provided abortions in the third trimester of pregnancy, he "inevitably ... handled the hardest of hard cases," according to Douthat. He continues that since Tiller"s murder, "there"s been an outpouring of testimonials, across the Internet, from women (and some men) who lived through these hard cases." Douthat adds that these patients" experiences "help explain why so many Americans defend [Tiller"s] right" to perform abortions later in pregnancy. However, "such narratives are not the only story about George Tiller"s clinic," as he "was a target of protests -- and, tragically, of terrorist violence -- because he performed late-term abortions, period," Douthat writes. According to Douthat, Tiller"s critics claim that he performed abortions later in pregnancy "not only in truly desperate situations, but in many other cases as well." Although a final determination about "how many of George Tiller"s abortions were performed on healthy mothers and healthy fetuses" might never be made, "most abortions in the United States bear no resemblance whatsoever to the hardest third-trimester cases," according to Douthat. He continues, "Yes, many pregnancies are terminated in dire medical circumstances," but "these represent a tiny fraction of the million-plus abortions that take place in this country every year," and the "same is true of the more than 100,000 abortions that are performed after the first trimester: Very few involve medical complications of any kind." Douthat writes, "The argument for unregulated abortion rests on the idea that where there are exceptions, there cannot be a rule." He adds, "As a matter of moral philosophy, this makes a certain sense," as a fetus either "has a claim to life or it doesn"t," and the "circumstances of its conception and the state of its health shouldn"t enter into the equation." However, he continues, "the law is not a philosophy seminar. It"s the place where morality meets custom, and compromise, and common sense," and "it can take account of tragic situations without universalizing their lessons." Douthat also writes that the "argument that some abortions take place in particularly awful, particularly understandable circumstances is not a case against regulating abortion." He adds, "It"s the beginning of precisely the kind of reasonable distinction-making that would produce a saner, stricter legal regime."According to Douthat, "If abortion were returned to the democratic process, this landscape would change dramatically," and "[a]rguments about whether and how to restrict abortions in the second trimester -- as many advanced democracies already do -- would replace protests over the scope of third-trimester medical exemptions." Douthat concludes, "The result would be laws with more respect for human life, a culture less inflamed by a small number of tragic cases -- and a political debate, God willing, unmarred by crimes like George Tiller"s murder" (Douthat, New York Times, 6/9).
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West Nile Virus Detected In Escambia County
The Escambia County Health Department announced that a sentinel chicken from the Riverview
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Printing New Organs: Foundation Funds Medical Technology That Replicates Human Tissue
Methuselah Foundation has identified Organovo, Inc. as a leader in the extraordinary science of bio-printing. The US Department of Health and Human Services predicts: "Within 20 years regenerative medicine will be the standard of care for replacing all tissue/organ systems in the body." Organovo, with the support of Methuselah Foundation, is applying its breakthrough organ printing technologies to make that prediction a reality.
Mental Health

Generation Of A Severe Memory-Deficit Mutant Mouse By Exclusively Eliminating The Kinase Activity Of CaMKIIalpha

Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II alpha (CaMKII alpha) is an enzyme that adds phosphates to a variety of protein substrates to modify their functions. CaMKII alpha is enriched in the hippocampus, the memory center of the brain, and is believed to be an essential mediator of activity-dependent synaptic plasticity and memory functions. However, the causative role of the enzymatic activity of CaMKII alpha in such processes has not been demonstrated yet, because this enzyme has multiple protein functions other than the kinase activity. A Japanese research group, led by Dr Yoko Yamagata of the National Institute for Physiological Sciences, Japan, has successfully generated a novel kinase-dead mutant mouse of the CaMKII alpha gene that completely and exclusively lacks its kinase activity. They examined hippocampal synaptic plasticity and behavioral learning of the mouse, and found a severe deficit in both processes. They reported their findings in the Journal of Neuroscience, published on June 10, 2009. The research group successfully generated a novel CaMKII alpha (K42R) knock-in mouse that completely lacks the kinase activity of CaMKII alpha, and examined the effects on structural, functional, and behavioral expression of synaptic memory. In the K42R brain, tetanus-induced long-term potentiation (LTP), a proposed cellular mechanism of memory, and sustained postsynaptic spine enlargement, a structural basis for LTP, were both impaired, whereas dynamic postsynaptic movement of CaMKII alpha protein was preserved. In addition, the K42R mouse showed a severe deficit in inhibitory avoidance learning, a form of memory dependent on the hippocampus. The research group concluded that the mutant mouse could not form memories and did not remember the events that had just happened. "We demonstrated that the mutant mouse has a severe memory deficit because of the lack of the kinase activity of CaMKII alpha. This finding supports the idea that the kinase activity of CaMKII alpha is essential to memory functions. Such a memory-deficit mutant mouse could serve as an animal model to study the molecular mechanisms of memory, and be a useful tool for the development and screening of therapeutic reagents for memory-deficit disorders. It may also help open a new therapeutic approach to memory dysfunctions in patients.", said Dr Yamagata. This research was carried out in collaboration with Profs. Shigeo Okabe, Toshiya Manabe, Yuchio Yanagawa, Keiji Imoto, Kunihiko Obata and others. Dr Yoko Yamagata and Prof Yuchio Yanagawa have applied for a patent on this technology through Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST). Dr. Yoko Yamagata National Institute for Physiological Sciences


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