Life Links 6/24/10

Researchers in Italy have published a paper in the New England Journal of Medicine detailing the long term success of their work in using stem cells to treat patients who were blinded in one eye by chemical burns. From the AP:

In the Italian study, the doctors removed scar tissue over the cornea and glued the laboratory-grown stem cells over the injured eye. In cases where both eyes were damaged by burns, cells were taken from an unaffected part of the limbus.

Researchers followed the patients for an average of three years and some as long as a decade. More than three-quarters regained sight after the transplant. An additional 13 percent were considered a partial success. Though their vision improved, they still had some cloudiness in the cornea.

Patients with superficial damage were able to see within one to two months. Those with more extensive injuries took several months longer.

The Times of India has a piece on a study by Sri Lankan researchers which found abortions tripled the risk of women getting breast cancer later in life. It was a smaller study with 300 women.


A psychiatrist in Oregon is planning on opening a “Death with Dignity house” where individuals can kill themselves.

Weisberg told KGW-TV he felt compelled to act after watching a TV interview with Dr. Jack Kevorkian, who pioneered assisted suicide.

A 14-year-old girl in Texas has been arrested after giving birth at home and then getting an adult neighbor to throw the infant boy’s body in the trash.

Houston police said no adults were present — only another 14-year-old and two 11-year-olds — when the girl gave birth April 16, and the group learned about child birth from the Internet. The newborn was placed on a mattress and was "alive for some time," but died after his head was covered with the amniotic sac, Senior Officer C.P. Abbey said.

The UK’s Telegraph has an article on a woman who had an abortion after suffering from hyperemesis gravidarum. Prolife advocate Ashli Foshee McCall wrote a book entitled, Beyond Morning Sickness: Battling Hyperemesis Gravidarum, to help women suffering from hyperemesis gravidarum.