Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Life Links 9/18/12

A Pennsylvania man attacked and tried to kill girlfriend after demanding she get an abortion.
From the Express-Times:

Jashua Kinch-Rodriguez, 24, approached Jessenia Rosario about 9 p.m. Friday as she pulled into her apartment in the 100 block of South 12th Street, police said.

Kinch-Rodriguez started arguing with her as she sat in her car's seat, demanding she abort the baby and calling her a "whore," according to court records.

He then punched Rosario in the stomach and genitals with an open fist while screaming at her and threatening to kill her, police said. He also allegedly closed the car door on her legs.

After Kinch-Rodriguez walked away, Rosario got out of the car and started going up the stairs to her second-floor apartment, where four other people were already inside, police said.

Kinch-Rodriguez then produced a gun and started firing several shots into the apartment, nearly striking Rosario, according to court documents.

The NY Times has a long piece on researchers using adult stem cells to create organs.
Implanting such a "bioartificial" organ would be a first-of-its-kind procedure for the field of regenerative medicine, which for decades has been promising a future of ready-made replacement organs — livers, kidneys, even hearts — built in the laboratory.

For the most part that future has remained a science-fiction fantasy. Now, however, researchers like Dr. Macchiarini are building organs with a different approach, using the body's cells and letting the body itself do most of the work......

So far, only a few organs have been made and transplanted, and they are relatively simple, hollow ones — like bladders and Mr. Beyene's windpipe, which was implanted in June 2011. But scientists around the world are using similar techniques with the goal of building more complex organs. At Wake Forest University in North Carolina, for example, where the bladders were developed, researchers are working on kidneys, livers and more. Labs in China and the Netherlands are among many working on blood vessels.

I'm struggling to comprehend how these parents can be some "me" oriented and have such a pathological desire to obtain a daughter. It's sickening how they see their children as products to be bought and discarded if they're not "useable." No details are provided to how many of her daughter's unborn siblings were killed solely because they were male.
Three days after arriving in California, Simpson underwent egg retrieval surgery. Eighteen eggs were retrieved; of these, 11 were mature and were fertilized.

Her husband left after the surgery to return home and take care of their three boys. After resting for five days, Simpson returned to the clinic for her embryo transfer.

She was met with devastating news: all of her embryos were found to be chromosomally abnormal. None were useable.

"I cried. And cried some more," recalled Simpson. "All that money, the drugs, the travel, time off work. The money."

Despite the financial and emotional setbacks, she wanted to try PGD again, soon. Three months later, she was back in Laguna Hills. She had taken out $15,000 on a line of credit to pay for the second attempt.

She went through the whole process again. This time, the embryos were good to go. An ultrasound was used to guide a catheter containing the embryos into her uterus. Six days later, Simpson took a pregnancy test. It was positive.....

After nearly four years and $40,000, Simpson's dreams of being a "girl-mommy" were finally going to come true.

Simpson gave birth to her daughter during a home delivery in her bathtub in 2009. "The moment she was born, I asked if it was still a girl," she recalled.

Simpson had to work six days a week right up until the delivery and months afterward to repay the loan she took.

"My husband and I stared at our daughter for that first year. She was worth every cent. Better than a new car, or a kitchen reno."

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