A look into the mysterious roots of Shen Yun: Is the Morrison Center unknowingly hosting a front for a cult? Boise State University The Arbiter Online
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A look into the mysterious roots of Shen Yun: Is the Morrison Center unknowingly hosting a front for a cult? - Boise State University The Arbiter...
We write in advance of the 85th pre-session of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and its adoption of a list of issues prior to reporting regarding Benins compliance with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. This submission addresses article 10 of the Convention and includes information on teenage pregnancy and access to education.
Teenage Pregnancy and Access to Education (article 10)
In Benin from 2004 to 2020, the adolescent birth rate was 108 per 1,000 adolescent girls and women aged 15-19,[1] slightly higher than the subregional rate in West and Central Africa of 104, and 2.7 times the world rate of 40. However, also during this period, the adolescent birth rate in Benin has been steadily decreasing: In 2004, the adolescent birth rate was 113 per 1,000 girls, and in 2020, the rate was 80 per 1,000 girls.[2] In 2019, the Guttmacher Institute reported that there were 423,000 births among girls and women aged 15 to 49; 12 percent, or approximately 50,760 births, occurred among girls and women aged 15 to 19.[3]
In many countries in Africa, Covid-19 pandemic-related school closures have resulted in concerning reports of teenage pregnancies.[4] While up-to-date national data on pandemic-specific increases in teenage pregnancies is not yet available, media reports point to regional increases. In the Borgou department of Benin, for example, there were 547 pregnant students in the 2019-2020 school year, an increase from 431 in the previous school year, possibly linked to pandemic-related school closures.[5] Overall, the number of births has been increasing in recent years. UNFPA reported that the number of births in 2021 was higher compared to the same period in 2020.[6]
According to the Guttmacher Institute, 68 percent of the 140,000 girls and women aged 15 to 19 who want to avoid a pregnancy have an unmet need for contraception.[7] Of all pregnancies that occurred in Benin, 39 percent were unintended, higher than the Western African subregional average of 33 percent.[8] Of all unintended pregnancies, 37 percent ended in abortion, lower than the subregional average of 42 percent.[9] While these statistics show that Benin may be lacking behind its subregional neighbors, there are also signs of progress. Since 1990, for example, the unintended pregnancy rate declined by 17 percent, and the number of unintended pregnancies resulting in abortion have increased by 22 percent.[10]
Benins progress in sexual and reproductive health and rights is also reflected in the legalization of abortion. In October 2021, Benins Parliament voted to expand the circumstances under which abortion is legal,up to 12 weeks, and when the pregnancy is likely to aggravate or cause a situation of material, educational, professional or moral distress.[11] This law modified a previous abortion law passed in 2003. According to the nongovernmental organization Ipas, Benin now has one of the most liberal abortion laws in Africa.[12] Still, girls require parental consent to access an abortion.[13]
Benin has measures in place to protect the right to access education for students who are pregnant or are adolescent mothers, as identified in a recent Human Rights Watch analysis of all countries in the African Union.[14] Benins 2015 national Child Code grants pregnant girls the right to carry on going to school or to come back to school after giving birth.[15]
Despite the existence of this law to protect the right to education for pregnant adolescent students and mothers, many Beninese girls still face barriers to return to school once they become parents. Many young mothers drop out of school during pregnancy and do not return.[16] They may face stigma, are left with no support system, or have to prioritize working rather than going back to school.[17]
Human Rights Watch recommends that the Committee ask the government of Benin:
Human Rights Watch recommends that the Committee call on the government of Benin to:
[1] United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Seeing the Unseen: The case for action in the neglected crisis of unintended pregnancy, 2022, https://www.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/pub-pdf/EN_SWP22%20report_0.pdf (accessed September 23, 2022).
[2] World Bank, Adolescent fertility rate (births per 1,000 women ages 15-19) Benin, https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.ADO.TFRT?locations=BJ (accessed September 23, 2022).
[3] Guttmacher Institute, Adding It Up: Investing in Sexual and Reproductive Health 2019Methodology Report, July 2020, https://www.guttmacher.org/report/adding-it-up-investing-in-sexual-reproductive-health-2019-methodology (accessed September 23, 2022).
[4] Africa: COVID lockdowns blamed for increase in teenage pregnancies, DW, September 13, 2021, https://www.dw.com/en/africa-covid-lockdowns-teenage-pregnancy-increase/a-59166242 (accessed September 23, 2022); How COVID-19 has increased fertility, adolescent pregnancy and maternal deaths in East and Southern African countries, UNFPA news release, July 11, 2021, https://esaro.unfpa.org/en/news/how-covid-19-has-increased-fertility-adolescent-pregnancy-and-maternal-deaths-east-and-southern (accessed September 23, 2022); LAfrique face au Covid-19: les pics de grossesses prcoces mettent en peril lavenir des jeunes filles, Le Monde Afrique, February 1, 2022, https://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/article/2022/01/31/l-afrique-face-au-covid-19-les-pics-de-grossesses-precoces-mettent-en-peril-l-avenir-des-jeunes-filles_6111747_3212.html (accessed September 29, 2022).
[5] Akpdj Ayosso, 547 cas de grossesses dans les tablissements secondaires du Borgou, 24 Heures au Benin, December 12, 2020, https://24haubenin.info/?547-cas-de-grossesses-dans-les-etablissements-secondaires-du-Borgou (accessed September 23, 2022).
[6] UNFPA, How will the COVID-19 pandemic affect births? Technical Brief, December 21, 2021, https://www.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/pub-pdf/How%20will%20the%20COVID-19%20pandemic%20affect%20births.pdf (accessed September 23, 2022).
[7] Guttmacher Institute, Country Profile: Benin: Unmet needs for essential sexual and reproductive health services, https://www.guttmacher.org/regions/africa/benin (accessed September 23, 2022).
[8] Guttmacher Institute, Country Profile: Benin: Unintended pregnancy and abortion, https://www.guttmacher.org/regions/africa/benin (accessed September 23, 2022).
[11] Encadrement de lavortement au Bnin : Le Parlement a adopt la loi modificative, October 21, 2021, https://www.gouv.bj/actualite/1518/encadrement-avortement-benin-parlement-adopte-modificative/ (accessed September 23, 2022); Republic of Benin, Loi No. 2021 12 du 20 December 2021: modifiont et compltont la loi no. 2003-04 du 03 mars 2003 relative la sant sexuelle et la reproduction, December 2021, https://sgg.gouv.bj/doc/loi-2021-12/ (accessed September 23, 2022); Au Bnin, l'Assemble nationale vote la lgalisation de l'avortement, France 24, October 21, 2021, https://www.france24.com/fr/afrique/20211021-au-b%C3%A9nin-l-assembl%C3%A9e-nationale-vote-la-l%C3%A9galisation-de-l-avortement (accessed September 23, 2022).
[12] A bold step forward: Benins new abortion law, Ipas news release, May 9, 2022, https://www.ipas.org/news/a-bold-step-forward-benins-new-abortion-law/ (accessed September 23, 2022).
[13] World Health Organization and Human Reproduction Programme, Global Abortion Policies Database, Country Profile: Benin, May 2022, https://abortion-policies.srhr.org/country/benin/ (accessed September 29, 2022).
[14] Human Rights Watch, A Brighter Future: Empowering Pregnant Girls and Adolescent Mothers to Stay in School: Education Access across the African Union: A Human Rights Watch Index, August 29, 2022, https://www.hrw.org/video-photos/interactive/2022/08/29/brighter-future-empowering-pregnant-girls-and-adolescent.
[15] Republic of Benin, Loi no. 2015-08 portant code de lenfant en Rpublique du Benin, January 23, 2015, https://features.hrw.org/features/african-union/files/Benin%20-%20Loi%2018%20-%202015%20Code%20de%20l'Enfant.pdf (accessed September 23, 2022).
[16] Akpdj Ayosso, 147 cas de grossesses en milieu scolaire signals dans lAtacora, June 26, 2020, 24 Heures au Benin, https://www.24haubenin.info/?147-cas-de-grossesses-en-milieu-scolaire-signales-dans-l-Atacora (accessed September 26, 2022); Bnin: Dscolarisation des jeunes filles, un phnomne qui prend de lampleur dans le village dAdohoun, December 26, 2018, Agence Socit Civile Mdia, https://www.societecivilemedias.com/2018/12/26/benin-descolarisation-jeunes-filles-phenomene-prend-de-lampleur-village-dadohoun/ (accessed September 26, 2022); Les grossesses en milieu scolaire entravent la scolarisation des filles, 24 Heures au Benin, November 21, 2017, https://24haubenin.info/?Les-grossesses-en-milieu-scolaire-entravent-la-scolarisation-des-filles (accessed September 26, 2022).
[17] Sex Education For Young Girls In Benin: Digital Technology, The Best Way To Maximize Impact, Matin Libre, October 8, 2021, https://matinlibre.com/2021/10/07/education-sexuelle-des-jeunes-filles-au-benin-le-numerique-meilleur-moyen-pour-maximiser-limpact/ (accessed September 26, 2022); Fight against school pregnancies in Benin: need to take new measures, La Nouvelle Tribune, April 18, 2022, https://lanouvelletribune.info/2022/04/lutte-contre-les-grossesses-scolaires-au-benin-necessite-de-prendre-de-nouvelles-mesures/ (accessed September 26, 2022).
Artist and computer scientist Lauren Lee McCarthy has spent days working virtually as a human Alexa in strangers homes. Shes created a 24-hour machine-driven cocktail party where software controls the actions and conversation of the human host. Shes acted as a real-life follower for people curious about what it would be like to have an actual but hidden observer.
For McCarthy, there are few things more intriguing than examining how human beings are adapting to the prevalence of artificial intelligence and the surveillance, automation, and algorithmic living it brings to their lives.
The systems we build both technical and social shape the way we live together and relate to each other, she says. We tend to think of the apps and tools we use as a neutral presence, but theyre not neutral. There are so many design decisions that go into them based on an assumption of who the user is and what their goals are. These tools are reinforcing and accelerating the world were heading toward, and I feel its important to question all that.
McCarthy will be pursuing those questions as the 2022-23 Visiting Artist at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence. Currently on sabbatical from her position as an associate professor at UCLA Design Media Arts, McCarthy creates performance-based work using installations, video, software, photography, and sculpture to explore the technological and social systems humans simultaneously build for themselves.
McCarthy first found herself drawn to the intersection of art and technology as an undergraduate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Ive always liked art, but had gotten the message early that it was just a hobby, she says. Math was also a good fit for me, so I started out studying computer science. At that time in 2008, it felt like there was a lot of emphasis on technical possibilities without much questioning of the social implications of those possibilities. One day, I wandered into the art department and found people who were asking those questions. I began studying both fields simultaneously and putting them together.
Her award-winning work focuses largely on interactive performances that invite viewers to engage with her and with AI technology. In the series of work titled Lauren, for example, she assumes the duties of a virtual personal assistant for up to a week in homes equipped with custom-designed networked smart devices that allow her to control switches, door locks, faucets, and various electronic devices. Her attempt to be more effective than AI raises questions on the tension between intimacy and privacy, convenience versus agency, and the role of human labor in the future of automation.
Each project asks different questions, McCarthy says. In this series, I was wondering what it means to invite AI into our homes. Where is the boundary between an intimate private space and a public one that can be managed and optimized?
In another performance piece called Follower, McCarthy invites volunteers to download an app and sign up to be physically and surreptitiously followed by the artist for a day. Although participants are notified when the process begins, they never see their follower, receiving only a single photo of themselves at the end of the day. The project explores the desire on the part of some to share their lives without the complexity of forging a new relationship.
I follow all day, but maybe they never even notice me or see me, she says. I have an intense experience with this person for a day, and I think they have an intense experience with me, but we never speak.
McCarthy is also the creator of p5.js, an open-source art and education platform designed to increase access and diversity in learning to code. She developed the platform through The Processing Foundation, which works to expand communities of technology and the arts to include those who have not historically had access to learning to code.
When I started coding in tech spaces, I saw how the dynamics in many of them kept people from feeling welcome, she says. We decided to create p5.js with a different set of values, making it clear that the most important thing is that people feel they have access and are included. The community prioritizes that in every decision. The platform is very collaborative, and communities are springing up around it. It now has a user base of a few million people, has been translated into different languages, and is taught around the world.
At HAI, McCarthy anticipates hosting guest lectures and workshops and incorporating the perspective of students and the Stanford community into an ongoing project concerning human reproduction in the age of AI.
Im interested in the future of reproduction, as AI increasingly provides the ability to predict outcomes in areas such as DNA sequencing and screening in utero, she says. What does that mean in terms of making decisions about the start of life for someone? Im excited to talk with a lot of different people at HAI who might be thinking around these spaces and to see what art might come out of these discussions.
Artificial intelligence, McCarthy says, is changing the dynamics of the art world, as artists consider its implications through their work, use new technological tools to create art, and deal with algorithms that increasingly determine what art is viewed online. Artists, in turn, must be among those providing computer scientists with expanded insight into the design and deployment of AI that benefits all members of society.
If we want a world thats more equitable, then we need to look not only at what technology were building but whos doing the building, she says. Art is a way to bring different people into that conversation and to ask questions that arent always easy to ask within an engineering or science framework. Its a way of pointing out a possible future that we may not yet have imagined. As for myself, Im not saying Heres the future we should have. Im just asking What if?
Stanford HAI's mission is to advance AI research, education, policy, and practice to improve the human condition.Learn more.
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Lauren Lee McCarthy: Exploring the Human Relationship with AI - Stanford HAI
A serpentine man and woman with child, sculpted by Qaunaq Mikkigak of Cape Dorset, Nunavut. Photo: Ansgar Walk
Indigenous peoples have inhabited the Arctic since time immemorial, establishing rich regional cultures and governance systems long before the introduction of modern borders. The Arctic Institutes 2022 Colonialism Series explores the colonial histories of Arctic nations and the still-evolving relationships between settler governments and Arctic Indigenous peoples in a time of renewed Arctic exploration and development.
The intention of this research is to draw connections between historical and contemporary colonialism in so-called canada (canada), and the lack of reproductive justice for Arctic Indigenous communities. This research will demonstrate the ways in which colonialism has historically revoked reproductive justice from Indigenous communities, and in which the contemporary Arctic geopolitical circumstances further emphasize difficulties in accessing reproductive care. Further, this research will seek to identify a lack of Arctic Indigenous reproductive justice within a larger legacy of colonial genocide, by imposing measures intended to prevent the births of Indigenous children, and by forcibly displacing Indigenous children from their communities.
Though the scope of this work is focused on colonial genocide and reproductive justice in Arctic Indigenous communities, it is important to note the ways in which colonial genocide perpetrated through the revocation of reproductive justice impacted Indigenous communities across canada. Violence perpetrated through the separation of children, forced sterilizations, a lack of comprehensive and culturally-informed sexual education, and a lack of basic human needs to food, water, and shelter are not unique to Arctic Indigenous communities. As such, while this research will focus specifically on Arctic Indigenous communities, colonial genocide has impacted reproductive justice in Indigenous communities across canada. Further research should be devoted to the diversity of these impacts on different Indigenous communities.
It is also important to note that this work will specifically address forcible sterilization processes, predominantly tubal ligation; it does not cover canadas history of performing forced vasectomies on Indigenous people. This is due to the disproportionate percentage of tubal litigations forcefully performed on Indigenous people.1)Lombard AR (2018) Without Prejudice: Examination of Canadas State Report, 65th Session. Maurice Law, 15 October, https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CAT/Shared%20Documents/CAN/INT_CAT_CSS_CAN_32800_E.pdf. Accessed on 2 October 2022 Further research would be useful to identify how gender uniquely informed medical procedures forced onto Indigenous communities.
This paper spells canada in lower case to resist the legitimization of the colonial state and as a deliberate act of resistance. Finally, gender neutral language is used throughout this paper, to acknowledge the diversity of identities and Indigenous conceptualizations of the gender spectrum.
This work will begin by acknowledging the limitations of this research followed by a note on language used throughout. The paper focuses on reproductive justice in Arctic Indigenous communities followed by a section that expands the impact of colonialism on Arctic Indigenous reproductive justice. The final section expands on themes of colonialism, reproductive justice and genocide and outlines recommendations for future policy and research.
It is crucial that as researchers we situate our voices within the literature, and identify the limitations that may impact this work. As two settler and one First Nations researchers, we acknowledge the need to amplify Arctic Indigenous voices, and the ways in which our own research lacks this lived experience. This piece is intended to aid in stimulating conversation surrounding Arctic Indigenous reproductive justice, as an underrepresented topic in western academia. All conversations should center the voices of Arctic Indigenous communities.
Additionally, it is important to acknowledge the constraints imposed by western secondary research methods, which often underestimate the value of qualitative research and oral storytelling. This removal of emotion and depersonalization of research has had a negative impact on the way Indigenous communities have come to be represented in western academia.
This paper uses the Reproductive Justice Framework to guide an understanding of colonial impacts on Indigenous peoples autonomy over their health, bodies, and decisions.
In 1994, the Black Womens Caucus of the Illinois Pro-Choice Alliance determined the need to adopt a human rights framework for low-income communities and people of colour that addressed issues of bodily autonomy within reproductive decision-making.2)In Our Own Voice: National Black Womens Reproductive Justice Agenda. Reproductive Justice. https://blackrj.org/our-issues/reproductive-justice/. Accessed on 25 March 2022 As such, the Reproductive Justice Framework defines the human right to control ones sexuality, gender, work, and reproduction.3)In Our Own Voice: National Black Womens Reproductive Justice Agenda. Reproductive Justice. https://blackrj.org/our-issues/reproductive-justice/. Accessed on 25 March 2022 The reproductive justice framework moves beyond simply considering abortion rights, and addresses the social, economic, and political systems that impact an individuals capacity to make healthy decisions about their bodies, families, and communities.4)In Our Own Voice: National Black Womens Reproductive Justice Agenda. Reproductive Justice. https://blackrj.org/our-issues/reproductive-justice/. Accessed on 25 March 2022 The three main tenets of the Reproductive Justice Framework state: a) the right to have children; b) the right not to have children; and c) the right to nurture children in a safe and healthy environment.5)In Our Own Voice: National Black Womens Reproductive Justice Agenda. Reproductive Justice. https://blackrj.org/our-issues/reproductive-justice/. Accessed on 25 March 2022
This research will argue canadas actions impede on all three tenets of the Reproductive Justice Framework.
The Canadian Medical Protection Association specifies that in order for a medical patient to consent to a procedure, they must be properly informed, they must have the capacity to consent, and that consent must be voluntary.6)CMPA (2006) Consent: A guide for Canadian physicians (4th ed.) Canadian Medical Protective Association Any procedure performed when a patient is under the threat of coercion, or unaware of the full consequence of the procedure, is by nature, nonconsensual. As such, the use of the word forced is intentional throughout this paper.
In order to understand the ways in which colonialism revoked Arctic Indigenous reproductive justice, it is important to first establish the ways in which Arctic Indigenous reproductive justice is unique, making it a threat to colonial domination.
In pre-contact societies, Arctic Indigenous peoples held full autonomy of their bodies and sexual abilities. Artic pre-contact societies allowed for full fluidity of relationships; essentially referring to an individuals relationships outside of the western idea of what romantic and sexual relationships look like (i.e. monogamy). Pre-contact societies were often described by their freedom of autonomy.7)Chansonneuve D (2005) Reclaiming connections: Understanding residential school trauma among aboriginal people: A resource manual. Aboriginal Healing Foundation. This was true for adults in regards to their relationships and sexual freedoms; however, it also applied more broadly to relationships that community members created in their own lives and among other members of the community. This explained fluidity in relationships extends to communal relationships. Arctic Indigenous children were very freely accepted into other homes and many children came into the care of other community members, separate from their parents without judgment. These so-called adoptive parents acted as a community support to one another, ensuring that the children were taken care of and held safe. This role of customary adoption in Inuit communities was a clear representation of the interconnectedness of Inuit societies.8)PIWC (2006) The Inuit way: A guide to Inuit culture. Ottawa: Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada
These themes of sexual autonomy and community fluidity are exemplary of the strong foundations embedded in Inuit reproductive culture. As such, it is natural that these aspects of Arctic Indigenous culture became the base cause of violent assimilation tactics, used by colonizers to control Arctic Indigenous peoples.
This section will demonstrate the ways in which historical and contemporary colonial policies and practices have negatively impacted Arctic Indigenous communities rights to reproductive justice by infringing on their right to parent, right not to parent, and right to parent in a healthy and sustainable environment.
The government of canada has a vested interest in the removal of Indigenous peoples from their land and communities. Reproductive justice became a primary way of enacting this removal, and infringement on ones right to parent was enacted both by stealing Arctic Indigenous children from their families through the residential schooling and child welfare systems and by forcibly sterilizing Indigenous people.9)Chansonneuve D (2005) Reclaiming connections: Understanding residential school trauma among aboriginal people: A resource manual. Aboriginal Healing Foundation.
The government of canada began legislating residential schools in 1885 in order to legally remove Indigenous children from parental and community care.10)Chansonneuve D (2005) Reclaiming connections: Understanding residential school trauma among aboriginal people: A resource manual. Aboriginal Healing Foundation. The violent removal of Indigenous children from their families also meant the revocation of Indigenous peoples ability to parent. By 1964, 75% of Inuit school-age children were in attendance at residential schools.11)Chansonneuve D (2005) Reclaiming connections: Understanding residential school trauma among aboriginal people: A resource manual. Aboriginal Healing Foundation. These schools demonstrate the violent intentions of severing opportunities for Arctic Indigenous parenthood, as part of a grander colonial project.
The government continues to revoke Arctic Indigenous peoples right to parent through the child welfare system. Intergenerational trauma from colonial legacies such as residential schools has led to Indigenous communities experiencing high levels of poverty, alcohol abuse, and housing instability12)Healey GK (2017) What if our health care systems embodied the values of our communities? A reflection from Nunavut. The Arctic Institute, 20 June, https://www.thearcticinstitute.org/health-care-systems-values-communities-nunavut/. Accessed on 2 October 2022 all which are considered to be reasons for removal of children by the state.13)Badry D & Wight Felske A (2020) An examination of three key factors: Alcohol, trauma and child welfare: Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder and the Northwest Territories of Canada. First Peoples Child & Family Review 8(1): 130142. The states self-appointed power to remove children from their homes and communities allows for the continuous irrevocable traumatization of Arctic Indigenous children, families, and communities.
The other vile and invasive colonial revocation of Arctic Indigenous reproductive justice came in the form of forced sterilizations. The practice of forced sterilization in a canadian context dates back to the early 1900s and has been reported as an ongoing practice as recently as 2012.14)Lombard AR (2018) Without Prejudice: Examination of Canadas State Report, 65th Session. Maurice Law, 15 October, https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CAT/Shared%20Documents/CAN/INT_CAT_CSS_CAN_32800_E.pdf. Accessed on 2 October 2022; Stote K (2012) The coercive sterilization of Aboriginal women in Canada. American Indian Culture and Research Journal 36(3): 117150 Inuit sterilizations were carried out without patients consent both in the North and in provincial institutions throughout the 1900s.15)Stote K (2012) The coercive sterilization of Aboriginal women in Canada. American Indian Culture and Research Journal 36(3): 117150 A submission of data by the Medical Services Branch in 1976 brought about by a parliamentary inquiry found that Indigenous patients were disproportionately targeted by forced sterilization.16)Stote K (2012) The coercive sterilization of Aboriginal women in Canada. American Indian Culture and Research Journal 36(3): 117150 The inquiry found that between the years of 1966-1976, 70 sterilizations were performed on Arctic Indigenous community members.17)Stote K (2012) The coercive sterilization of Aboriginal women in Canada. American Indian Culture and Research Journal 36(3): 117150 The collection of Medical Services files omitted from the parliamentary inquiry, however, show that between the years of 1970-1973, 180 Indigenous people were sterilized across 33 Arctic Indigenous settlements.18)Stote K (2012) The coercive sterilization of Aboriginal women in Canada. American Indian Culture and Research Journal 36(3): 117150 It is important to note that the six Arctic Indigenous settlements selected for the parliamentary inquiry were the communities with the least number of sterilizations.19)Stote K (2012) The coercive sterilization of Aboriginal women in Canada. American Indian Culture and Research Journal 36(3): 117150
In some instances, medical professionals sought consent for tubal ligation using coercion, the leveraging of stressful situations, or misinformation.20)Lombard AR (2018) Without Prejudice: Examination of Canadas State Report, 65th Session. Maurice Law, 15 October, https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CAT/Shared%20Documents/CAN/INT_CAT_CSS_CAN_32800_E.pdf. Accessed on 2 October 2022 In other instances, doctors simply forewent seeking consent and performed these procedures without the patients knowledge.21)Lombard AR (2018) Without Prejudice: Examination of Canadas State Report, 65th Session. Maurice Law, 15 October, https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CAT/Shared%20Documents/CAN/INT_CAT_CSS_CAN_32800_E.pdf. Accessed on 2 October 2022 Morningstar Mercredi describes her traumatic experience of forced sterilization in her book Sacred Bundles Unborn.22)Mercredi M (2021) Sacred bundles unborn. Friesenpress It took place when she was alone and underage. In all cases, the violent and irreversible revocation of an Indigenous persons right to parent through the severance of reproductive organs is an ongoing practice of colonial genocide.
In sum, the right to parent poses obvious threats to any colonial project, as it ensures the opportunity for sustained Indigenous presence in canada. As such, canada used residential schools, child welfare practices, and forced sterilization in order to revoke this right, causing lasting negative impacts within Arctic Indigenous communities.
The second tenet of the Reproductive Justice Framework enshrines ones right not to parent. When considering the right to make a choice about having children, it is integral that one is fully equipped with knowledge and education surrounding their sexual health. The canadian state is responsible for a lack of comprehensive sexual health awareness and education in Arctic Indigenous communities, preventing youth from making informed decisions about reproduction.
A study conducted in 2015 by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) confirmed this, finding that sexual health education was inconsistent across the country as well as within provinces and territories.23)Hulme J, Dunn S, Guilbert E, Soon J & Norman W (2015) Barriers and facilitators to family planning access in Canada. Healthcare Policy | Politiques De Sant 10(3): 4863 The majority of family planning education in Arctic Indigenous communities remains culturally irrelevant, focused solely on the prevention of births and, in some cases, includes abstinence teachings24)Government of Yukon (2020) Find information about sex education programs. 5 November, https://yukon.ca/en/health-and-wellness/health-concerns-diseases-and-conditions/find-information-about-sex-education. Accessed on 25 March 2022; Hulme J, Dunn S, Guilbert E, Soon J & Norman W (2015) Barriers and facilitators to family planning access in Canada. Healthcare Policy | Politiques De Sant 10(3): 4863; Lys C & Reading C (2012) Coming of age: How young women in the Northwest Territories understand the barriers and facilitators to positive, empowered, and Safer Sexual Health. International Journal of Circumpolar Health 71(1).
Furthermore, the NCBI study found that Arctic Indigenous communities are particularly vulnerable to physician bias and outdated practices.25)Hulme J, Dunn S, Guilbert E, Soon J & Norman W (2015) Barriers and facilitators to family planning access in Canada. Healthcare Policy | Politiques De Sant 10(3): 4863 In a 2013 study which explored five personal stories of sexual health education and services in Yukon, participants shared that the lack of anonymity and access to health services such as STI testing led them to avoid these services altogether.26)Rudachyk L (2013) Womens stories of Access: Sexual Health Education and services in Yukon. Ottawa: Carleton University In addition, participants shared that when seeking an abortion, they hitchhiked for hours to other communities in order to access anonymous and judgement-free health care.27)Rudachyk L (2013) Womens stories of Access: Sexual Health Education and services in Yukon. Ottawa: Carleton University Access to abortion care is particularly limited in Arctic Indigenous communities, where 64% of the population lives 100km or more from the nearest physician.28)Lys C & Reading C (2012) Coming of age: How young women in the Northwest Territories understand the barriers and facilitators to positive, empowered, and Safer Sexual Health. International Journal of Circumpolar Health 71(1). This is further exacerbated by the fact that amongst Yellowknife, Nunavut and Yukon, there are only four total providers for safe access to abortion.29)Action Canada SHR (2019) Access at a Glance: Abortion Services in Canada. Action Canada for Sexual Health & Rights, https://www.actioncanadashr.org/resources/factsheets-guidelines/2019-09-19-access-glance-abortion-services-canada. Accessed on 2 October 2022
Combined, this data is vital in understanding the scale and scope of what constitutes a clear and comprehensive understanding of sexual health, and the ways in which that understanding has been historically and contemporarily denied to Arctic Indigenous youth. By failing to provide this, the canadian government actively infringes on the reproductive justice rights of Arctic Indigenous communities.
The right to parent healthily and sustainably is dependent on access to basic human needs such as water, food, and shelter. Yet, colonial policies such as relocations, settlement programs, and residential schooling have curtailed Arctic Indigenous mobility and subsequent access to adequate housing and food security since the 1900s.30)INFSS (2021) Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami. Ottawa: Inuit Nunangat Food Security Strategy When discussing the right to parent healthily and sustainably, it is important to note that inadequate Arctic housing infrastructure and food insecurity are two social determinants of health that have been heavily impacted by canadian colonial policies.
Access to adequate housing is necessary in ensuring the health and safety of ones child. The chronic housing shortage faced by Arctic Indigenous communities exacerbated by the lack of social support31)Tranter E (2020) Nunavut MLAs concerned about territorys high birth rate, taboo around accessing reproductive health services. Nunatsiaq News, 25 February, https://nunatsiaq.com/stories/article/nunavut-mlas-concerned-about-territorys-high-birth-rate-taboo-around-accessing-reproductive-health-services/ directly impacts the health of Arctic Indigenous communities, as living situations are often overcrowded, affecting indoor air quality and sanitation.32)Knotsch C & Kinnon D (2011) If Not Now When? Addressing the Ongoing Inuit Housing Crisis in Canada. Ottawa: National Aboriginal Health Organization As of 2016, in Inuit Nunangat, 51.7% of Inuit lived in crowded conditions, and 31% lived in houses requiring major repairs. Housing infrastructure is also a severe hindrance to socio-economic development, which relies on community infrastructure that can provide a good quality of life for community members.33)Mihychuk M (2019) A Path to Growth: Investing in the North. Ottawa: House of Commons Canada
Food insecurity is another social determinant of health that impedes on the right of Arctic Indigenous parents to raise their children in a healthy and sustainable environment. The severity of food insecurity among Arctic Indigenous communities is one of the longest-lasting public health crises in canada, and is attributable to intersecting driving factors, including but not limited to: poverty; climate change; inadequate infrastructure; high cost of living; and systemic racism.34)INFSS (2021) Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami. Ottawa: Inuit Nunangat Food Security Strategy In fact, food security statistics from the years 2011-2012 states that Nunavut had a food insecurity rate over four times that of the national average, and that the highest rates of food insecurity are found across the three Arctic territories.35)Roshanafshar S & Hawkins E (2015) Food insecurity in Canada. Ottawa: Statistics Canada
Beyond physical health, it is important to acknowledge the cultural and spiritual health impacts that canadian colonialism has had on Arctic Indigenous reproductive justice. Territorial policies related to childbirth and delivery systemically hastened cultural erosion, as most community members were required to be removed to a distant hospital or birthing clinic.36)Thibeault R (2002) Fostering Healing through Occupation: The Case of the Canadian Inuit. Journal of Occupational Science 9(3): 153158 This prevented the ability to perform birthing celebrations and rituals which are important to Arctic Indigenous cultural and spiritual health.
As such, the holistic perspective offered by the Reproductive Justice Framework is particularly useful in understanding that social and cultural determinants of health are integral to Arctic Indigenous reproductive rights. Arctic Indigenous communities deserved and continue to deserve to thrive through parenthood, both physically and culturally. However, it is these thriving communities that are considered antithetical to the success of the canadian colonial project.
So far, this paper has aimed to demonstrate the historical and contemporary impacts of the canadian colonial project on Arctic Indigenous communities access to reproductive justice. This colonial project was purposeful and could be interpreted as an intent to destroy in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group37)UN (1948) Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. United Nations, p.280 Revoking Indigenous reproductive justice was just one tool that the canadian state used to commit genocide against Indigenous people, by violating Article 2d and 2e of the United Nations Genocide Convention.
The UNGC defines genocide in five categorized acts: a) killing members of the group; b) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; c) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; d) imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; and e) forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.38)UN (1948) Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. United Nations, p280, Art. 2
The canadian states infringement on Arctic Indigenous reproductive justice could be considered genocide based on Article 2d and 2e of the UNGC. Specifically, Article 2d on the prevention of births is relevant to canadas history of forced sterilization of Arctic Indigenous women. In fact, the current lawsuit led by Alisa Lombard seeks justice for Indigenous victims of forced sterilization in Saskatchewan, with cases as recent as 2018.39)Lombard AR (2018) Without Prejudice: Examination of Canadas State Report, 65th Session. Maurice Law, 15 October, https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CAT/Shared%20Documents/CAN/INT_CAT_CSS_CAN_32800_E.pdf. Accessed on 2 October 2022; The Standing Senate Committee on Human Rights (2021) Forced and coerced sterilization of persons in Canada. Ottawa: Senate Canada Similarly, canadas responsibility for residential schools and its modern counterpart, the child welfare system could be considered a violation of Article 2e, which highlights forcible transfer of children.
The states 1966 decision to incorporate only UNGC Articles 2a and 2b into the canadian Criminal Code is further evidence of the intentionality behind canadas avoided accountability for their history of genocide.40)MacDonald DB (2019) Understanding Genocide: Raphael Lemkin, the UN Genocide Convention, and International Law in The Sleeping Giant Awakens: Genocide, Indian Residential Schools, and the Challenge of Conciliation. Toronto: University of Toronto Press
This research discusses the impacts of canadian colonialism on Arctic Indigenous reproductive justice, and its potential constitution as genocide under the UNGC Article 2d and e. This research is intended to be a contribution to the discussion on Arctic Indigenous reproductive justice, which should evolve as more research is conducted in new and innovative ways. As such, our recommendations are geared to researchers and academics who are interested in engaging with the topic of Arctic Indigenous reproductive justice:
Maya Crawford (she/her) is an Algonquin and settler woman from the Snimikobi Community in the Ottawa Valley. Currently an undergraduate student at the University of Ottawa, Maya is in her 4th year majoring in Conflict Studies and Human Rights with a minor in Indigenous Studies. As an Indigenous academic, Mayas research has focused on oral storytelling as knowledge, the reality and interconnectivity of Indigenous and Migrant lived experiences on Turtle Island, and providing Indigenous youth with a platform to educate. Jayde Lavoie (she/her) is a queer settler, artist, and academic situated on Tiohti:ke (Montreal), the unceded and unsurrendered territory of the Kanienkeh:ka Nation. A University of Ottawa graduate of Conflict Studies and Human Rights with a minor in Indigenous Studies, Jaydes research interests have predominantly focused on Canadas colonial history, climate justice, and Arctic policy. Reanne Bremner (she/her) is a graduate of Political Science with a focus on woman and gender studies and Indigenous feminisms from the University of Ottawa. As a queer settler currently situated on Tiohti:ke (Montreal), the unceded and unsurrendered territory of the Kanienkeh:ka Nation, Reannes work centers around human rights education, community-based programming, and youth empowerment with an emphasis on an intersectional and human rights based approach.
Carnivore keepers at the Smithsonians National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute (NZCBI) in Front Royal, Virginia, welcomed a litter of two cheetah cubs. First-time mother, 4-year-old female Amani, birthed the cubs Oct. 3 around 9:17 p.m. and 11:05 p.m. ET. This is also the first litter sired by 7-year-old father Asante. As the first offspring of both parents, the cubs are genetically valuable. They appear to be strong, active, vocalizing and nursing well. Animal care staff are closely monitoring Amani and her cubs behaviors via the Cheetah Cub Cam on the Zoos website. Virtual visitors can also observe Amani and her cubs on this temporary platform until the cubs leave the dens.
Keepers will leave Amani to bond with and care for her cubs without interference, so it may be some time before they can determine the cubs sexes. They will perform a health check on the cubs when Amani is comfortable leaving them for an extended period.
Seeing Amani successfully care for this litterher firstwith confidence is very rewarding, said Adrienne Crosier, cheetah biologist at NZCBI and head of the Association of Zoos & Aquariums Cheetah Species Survival Plan (SSP). Being able to watch our cheetah family grow, play and explore their surroundings is incredibly special. We hope this experience brings Cheetah Cub Cam viewers joy and helps them feel a deeper connection to this vulnerable species.
NZCBI is part of the Cheetah Breeding Center Coalitiona group of 10 cheetah breeding centers across the United States that aim to create and maintain a sustainable North American cheetah population under human care. These cubs are a significant addition to the Cheetah SSP, as each individual contributes to this program.
The SSP scientists determine which animals to breed by considering their genetic makeup, health and temperament, among other factors. Amani and Asante were paired and bred naturally July 2 and 3. Keepers trained Amani to voluntarily participate in ultrasounds, and veterinarians confirmed her pregnancy Aug 8. Since 2007, 17 litters of cheetah cubs have been born at NZCBIs Front Royal campus.
Significant scientific studies by NZCBI researchers have demonstrated that maintaining breeding males in group coalitions (as they would live in the wilds of Africa) promotes reproductive performance, specifically improving sperm quality. Other ongoing research focuses on gamete (sperm and egg) biology, health and disease, the influence of age on reproduction, as well as understanding the hormonal complexities of the species. Such data is used by conservationists to modify reproductive strategies for this vulnerable felid, including ensuring that prime-breeding-age cheetahs are maintained in spacious breeding centers, such as at NZCBI, to promote optimal reproduction and cub production.
Cheetahs live in small, isolated populations mostly in sub-Saharan Africa. Many of their strongholds are in eastern and southern African parks. Due to human conflict and poaching, habitat and prey-base loss, there are only an estimated 7,000 to 7,500 cheetahs left in the wild. The International Union for Conservation of Nature considers cheetahs vulnerable to extinction.
The Smithsonians National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute (NZCBI) leads the Smithsonians global effort to save species, better understand ecosystems and train future generations of conservationists. Its two campuses are home to more than 2,000 animals, including some of the worlds most critically endangered species. Always free of charge, the Zoos 163-acre park in the heart of Washington, D.C., features 1,800 animals representing 360 species and is a popular destination for children and families. At the Conservation Biology Institutes 3,200-acre campus in Virginia, breeding and veterinary research on 200 animals representing 20 species provide critical data for the management of animals in human care and valuable insights for conservation of wild populations. NZCBIs 305 staff and scientists work in Washington, D.C., Virginia and with partners at field sites across the United States and in more than 30 countries to save wildlife, collaborate with communities and conserve native habitats. NZCBI is a long-standing accredited member of the Association of Zoos & Aquariums.
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Jack London 1: The Call of the WildThe Wolf in Dogs Clothing [1]Jack London, The Call of the Wild, original edition of 1903
Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheeps clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves, warns Jesus (Matthew 7:15). According to Jesus, wolf is a metaphor for false prophet. According to American novelist Jack London, wolf is a metaphor for the fallen human race. In one of the most widely read novels of all time, The Call of the Wild, along with sequels White Fang and The Sea Wolf, London undresses the wolf hiding in human clothing.
Just a quick reminder of the plot. Buck, a pet dog from Santa Clara Valley in California, was dognapped and taken to Alaska to pull sleds. In the Klondike, away from civilization, Buck began to revert to an earlier stage of evolution. The dominant primordial beast was strong in Buck, writes London. After a fight with another dog, Spitz, Buck emerges triumphant over Spitz just as the wolf becomes triumphant over the dog. Buck stood and looked on, the successful champion, the dominant primordial beast who had made his kill and found it good (London, Call of the Wild).
What is true for the wolf within Buck is as true for the wolf within the human. The dog slaver gained dominance over Buck by hitting him with a club.
After a particularly fierce blow he [Buck] crawled to his feet, too dazed to rush. He staggered limply about, the blood flowing from nose and mouth and ears, his beautiful coat sprayed and flecked with bloody slaver. The man advanced and deliberately dealt him a frightful blow on the nose. All the pain he had endured was as nothing compared with the exquisite agony of this (London, Call of the Wild).
What Jack London himself witnessed in the Klondike that became background for his wolf books was human nature in the raw. When gold prospectors from California and the rest of the world converged on Alaska in the 1890s, they left their modern humanity behind. The civil became uncivil. The humane became inhuman. Law and order were discarded and replaced by the Law of Club and Fang. The primordial wolf, once suppressed, emerged again in both dog and human with ferocity and bloodshed. At any moment, London implied, what we know as orderly civilization could suddenly revert to an earlier stage of evolution where nature is blood red in tooth and claw (Tennyson, In Memoriam).
Might there be a dovetail between Jack Londons evolutionary anthropology and the public theologians understanding of original sin? Was the masterful teller of dog stories actually a literary philosopher exploring human nature? Was London even conscious that he was synthesizing science with religion?
Here are our existential questions: are we Homo sapiens more civilized than a wolf pack? If not, can we hope for redemption descending from heaven in the form a UFO coming to Earth to advance our civilization beyond the wolf stage of evolution? Will extraterrestrial aliens provide the grace we need to transcend our inherited wolf traits?
What!? UFOs!? How do these things fit together?
In this Patheos Public Theology series analyzing a portion of the corpus of prodigious California novelist and short story author, Jack London, we will apply the analytic tools developed in the field of Theology and Literature. Specifically, we will follow the path blazed by one of my favorite University of Chicago professors, Nathan A. Scott (1925-2006).
We have only one topical question: will we Homo sapiens evolve into civilized creatures that outgrow our wolflike tendencies toward violence? We will ask this one question multiple times as we review Jack Londons different writings. Heres whats coming.
Jack London 1: The Call of the Wild
Jack London 2: White Fang
Jack London 3: The Sea Wolf
Jack London 4: Lone Wolf Ethics
Jack London 5: Wolf Pack Ethics
Jack London 6: Wolf & Lamb Ethics
Jack London 7: The Red One
Oh, yes, multiple movies have been made ofThe Call of the Wildover the decades. Most recently in 2020 (Hulu online), The Call of the Wildfilm starred Harrison Ford. Ford played a man named John Thornton, not Buck. In the 1935 film, it was Clark Gable (full movie online). And, in the 1997 version, it was Rutger Hauer as John Thornton and Richard Dreyfuss as narrator. You can watch a 2009 childrens variant with Christopher Lloyd here.
The field of Theology and Literature has fallen on rough times. More frequently today, universities offer courses on Theology and Film.
I was privileged to study under Nathan A. Scott at the University of Chicago. Dr. Scott was a pioneer in the field of Theology and Literature (Scott 1994). He borrowed from Paul Tillich the notion that religion is the depth of culture and culture the form of religion, a notion amplified by Reinhold Niebuhr and Langdon Gilkey (Tillich 1951-1963, 3: 158). Scott applied this notionthe depth of cultureeffectively to his literary criticism. Not only did this provide a new set of insights regarding literature, it also enriched theology.
Christian theology, as a result of its dialogue with great literature of the modern period, will find itself more richly repaid (in terms of deepened awareness of both of itself and of the age) than any other similar transaction it may undertake.(Scott 1994) [2]
What I so appreciated as a student was the way Scott could make transparent the religious depth hidden beneath secular surfaces. Scott asked Tillichs question: what is ultimate? Scott did not ask any questions about science. But I certainly do.
May we expand Theology & Literature into Theology, Science & Literature? A Scott student now a professor at Baylor University, Ralph C. Wood, gives us permission. Both scientific and religious knowledge flourish when they engage present concerns by way of antecedent experience, and thus as they formulate judgments and principles via constant modification and enlargement. (Wood 2012, 31). London the fictional author provides the low hanging fruit of antecedent experience which the public theologian will find easy picking.
As you will soon see, I plan to ask questions about science. When we turn to Americas most widely read author of the first quarter of the twentieth century, Jack London, Charles Darwins theory of evolution explodes like fire works on the 4th of July. Without attending to the science, the reader could not grasp Londons anthropology. It is in the evolutionary anthropology where we find religious depth.
In 1915, the father of depth psychology, Sigmund Freud drew a conclusion Jack London had arrived at two decades earlier. The primitive, savage and evil impulses of mankind have not vanished in any individual, but are simply waiting for the opportunity to show themselves again.
Now to our topical question: does a ravenous wolf lurk within each of us? Only some of us? Must we remain ever alert to the danger that our repressed evolutionary past will surge forth in viciousness, chaos, destruction? Is our civilized order threatened at every moment with dissolving into a cauldron of primeval violence?
Jack London thought so while in Alaska during the Klondike God Rush, 1896-1899. Today, we ask with London: do both dogs and humans bear the genes of a common ancestor, the wolf? If so, must our future be determined by our evolutionary past?
There is more. Much more. The prescient Jack London a century ago asked a very contemporary question: did interstellar travelers intervene in Earths evolution in order to accelerate human development? Are we Homo sapiens a hybrid progeny of terrestrial apes and extraterrestrial geneticists? If so, why does the ravaging world still growl within the terrestrial soul?
Or, to put it another way, should we spend more time in front of our TVs watching Ancient Aliens?
On the one hand, according to London, todays Homo sapiens could without notice suddenly revert to our ravenous wolf past. On the other hand, according to London, Jesus points us to an egalitarian, humane, and socialist future. London had considered writing a short story about Jesus. Then, he thought better of it and abandoned the idea(Williams, Author Under Sail: The Imagination of Jack London 1902-1907. 2021, 37).
Lets say this again. On the one hand, Charles Darwins law of natural selection or Herbert Spencers survival of the fittest incarcerates Homo sapiens in a primeval past from which we can never on our own escape.
On the other hand, the science of Marxist socialismwhich enamored London the labor organizerpromises human transformation. It promises temporal transcendence. It promises an egalitarian, prosperous, and humane future. Redemption will come through revolution.
London was an supporter of the Bolshevik momentum leading to the revolution of 1917 in Russia. He endorsed Marxist socialism. The Call of the Wildbecame required reading for school children for many years in both the Soviet Union and Maoist China. Jack Londons name is engraved on a wall in the Kremlin. Just how, we ask, can we reconcile Londons atavism via evolution with his anticipation of a post-revolutionary utopia?
So, which is it? Are we imprisoned in our past or liberated for our future? That is the human struggle that points us to religious depth. At least as deep as London can dig.
Here, in this small bite, is the fare garnished and served up in thirty-nine books and countless short stories by Californias notorious author, Jack London (1876-1916). Just a little more than a century ago, this adventurer and novelist literally penned three fictional accounts of what I dub, The Wolves of Jack London.[3] The troika includes The Call of the Wild (1903), White Fang (1904), and The Sea-Wolf (1906). Whether in dogs or in their human masters, the convulsive combination of love for life and vicious cruelty surges up from the primordial Wild still lurking within us.
For London there are connections among evolutionary theory, criminality, and primitivism, observes Jay Williams. The impulse to commit crime is something that comes out of the mysterious unknown, or the unconscious(Williams, Author Under Sail: The Imagination of Jack London 1902-1907. 2021, 270). Theologians will think about original sin or even inherited sin here. Theologians will also think about the relationship between natural evil and moral evil.[4] But this is not Londons vocabulary.
Reversion is perennially a threat. At any moment we humans or our dogs may revert to an atavistic heritage that has been apparently lost for a hundred generations. Primeval ferocity is ever ready to pounce. In the 1901 short story, A Relic of the Pliocene, a prehistoric mammoth appears and engages a Klondike hunter in a life-and-death struggle. At any moment, the dead past can live again. Still we ask: can we look forward to a future where that threat will be no more?
White Fang would comprehend a most striking line that appears in David Brooks new book, The Second Mountain. Speaking of her daughter, a young mother says to Brooks, I found I loved her more than evolution required(Brooks 2019, 42). Can the love we share as civilized beings rocket us up and off from our evolutionary launch pad? Or, is the gravity of our ancestral instinct for survival so strong that well inevitably crash back to earth strewn with tooth gnawed bones?
Nature is blood red in tooth and claw, averred Alfred Lord Tennyson in the dinosaur canto of his In Memoriam in the middle of the nineteenth century. According to Michael Lundblad, the law of the jungle later in the nineteenth and early in the twentieth century meant the behavior of wild animals can be equated with natural human instincts not only for competition and reproduction but also for violence and exploitation(Lundblad 2013, 1). Is todays civilization condemned to remain in the past, governed solely by natural selection or the survival-of-the-fittest?
To repeat the theme: the dog becomes a wolf in The Call of the Wild. Buck, a dog from San Francisco goes to Alaska during the gold rush of the 1890s. Instincts hitherto repressed by domestication rush into Bucks consciousness, instincts borne through millions of evolutionary years. He must master or be mastered; while to show mercy was a weakness. Mercy did not exist in the primordial life. It was misunderstood for fear, and such misunderstandings made for death. Kill or be killed, eat or be eaten, was the law; and this mandate, down out of the depths of Time, he obeyed. Like Platos Meno, Buck the dog was learning what he already knew from a previous incarnation as a wolf.
After his reversion to the wolf, Buck was chasing a rabbit.
All that stirring of old instincts, which at stated periods drives men out from the sounding cities to forest and plain to kill things by chemically propelled leaden pellets, the blood lust, the joy to killall this was Bucks, only it was infinitely more intimate. He was ranging at the head of the pack, running the wild thing down, the living meat, to kill with his own teeth and wash his muzzle to the eyes in warm blood. (London, The Call of the Wild 1903)
Note that it is not only Buck the dog who washes his muzzle in warm blood. So does the human race.[5]
Philosophically, Jack London was a naturalist. Any naturalistic perspective in our post-Darwinian era must recognize that nature is blood red in tooth and claw, that survival-of-the-fittest determines the winners in the struggle for existence, that killer animals are our ancestors, and that their propensity for violence lives on in Homo sapiens.
Can we ground our ethics in nature understood this way? If nature alone is to provide a foundation for human ethical deliberation, must we construct our ethical superstructure on this evolutionary inheritance? The result would be wolf ethics. In short, a Darwinian naturalist would have no inclination to be nice. How might a public theologian assess this?
Whats next in our Patheos Public Theology series on Jack London? White Fang.Whereas Buck inThe Call of the Wildis a dog who goes to Alaska and becomes a wolf, White Fang is a wolf in Alaska who moves to California and becomes a dog. Look for the next post in this Patheos series on the wolves of Jack London.
Ted Peters is a Lutheran pastor and emeritus seminary professor, teaching theology and ethics. He specializes in the creative mutual interaction between science and theology. He co-edits the journal, Theology and Science. His one volume systematic theology is now in its 3rd edition, GodThe Worlds Future (Fortress 2015). His book, God in Cosmic History, traces the rise of the Axial religions 2500 years ago. He has undertaken a thorough examination of the sin-and-grace dialectic in two works, Sin: Radical Evil in Soul and Society (Eerdmans 1994) and Sin Boldly! (Fortress 2015). Watch for his forthcoming, The Voice of Christian Public Theology (ATF 2022). See his website: TedsTimelyTake.com and Patheos column on Public Theology, https://www.patheos.com/blogs/publictheology/.Ted Peters fictional series of espionage thrillers features Leona Foxx, a hybrid woman who is both a spy and a parish pastor.
I. Incontestably, animals and humans inhabit the same world, the same objective world even if they do not have the same experience of the objectivity of the object 2. Incontestably, animals and humans do not inhabit the same world, for the human world will never be purely and simply identical to the world of animals 3. In spite of this identity and this difference, neither animals of different species, nor humans of different cultures, nor any animal or human individual inhabit the same world as another the difference between one world and another will remain always unbridgeable, because the community of the world is always constructed, simulated by a set of stabilizing apparatuses nowhere and never given in nature. (Derrida, 2009, 8-9)
When applying Derridas view of worldview, Hannah Strmmen tries to reestablish human-animal continuity minus human sovereignty over the animals.
If part of animal studies is attempting to think the animal outside a logic of human sovereignty, and to attempt to rethink humananimal relationships outside, or other to, such a discourse of power, then a different kind of discourse is needed that can do precisely that (Strmmen, 2017, 408).
The power that humans exert over their dogs and other animals in Jack Londons stories stresses both human cruelty and human kindness. Both exemplify sovereignty. Yet, both are intended to convey the wolflike traits still operative at the human level.
Basket, Sam. 1996. Sea Change in The Sea Wolf. In Rereading Jack London, by eds Leonard Cassato and Jeanne Campbell Reesman, 92-109. Stanford CA: Stanford University Press.
Berkove, Lawrence. 2004. Jack London and Evolution: From Spencer to Huxley. American Literary Realism 36:3 243-255.
Berkove, Lawrence. 1996. The Myth of Hope in Jack Londons The Red One. In Rereading Jack London, by eds Leonard Cassuto and Jeanne Campbell Reesman, 204-216. Stanford CA: Stanford University Press.
Brandt, Kenneth. 2018. Jack London: An Adventurous Mind. In Jack London, by Kenneth K. Brandt. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press (Northcote).
Brooks, David. 2019. The Second Mountain. New York: Random House.
Derrida, Jacques. 2009. The Beast and the Sovereign. Vol. I, trans. Geoffrey Bennington. Chicago, IL and London: University of Chicago Press.
Deudney, Daniel. 2020. Dark Skies: Space Expansionism, Planetary Geopolitics, and the Ends of Humanity. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Ellis, James. 1978. A New Reading of The Sea Wolf. In Jack London: Essays in Criticism, by ed Ray Wilson Ownbey, 92-99. Santa Barbara CA: Peregrine Smith.
Faulstick, Dustin. 2015. The Preacher Thought as I Think. Studies in American Naturalism 10:1 1-21.
Kean, Sam. 5/6/2011. Red in Tooth and Claw Among the Literati. Science 332 654-656.
Labor, Earle. 1996. Afterword. In Rereading Jack London, by eds Leonard Cassuto and Jeanne Campbell Reesman, 217-223. Stanford CA: Stanford University Press.
Leder, Steve. 2019. The Beasts Within Us. Time Special Edition on The Science of Good and Evil 84-87.
London, Jack. 1903. The Call of the Wild.
. 1916. The Red One.
. 1906. The Sea Wolf.
. 1904. White Fang.
Lundblad, Michael. 2013. The Birth of a Jungle: Animality in Progressive Era US Literature and Culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Moritz, Joshua. 2008. Evolutionary Evil and Dawkins Black Box. In The Evolution of Evil, by Martinez J Hewlett, Ted Peters, and Robert John Russell, eds Gaymon Bennett, 143-188. Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
Niebuhr, Reinhold. 1941. The Nature and Destiny of Man, 2 Volumes. New York: Scribners.
Oliveri, Vinnie. 2001. Sex, Gender, and Death in The Sea Wolf. Pacific Coast Philology 38 99-115.
Reesman, Jeanne Campbell. 2012. The American Novel: Realism and Naturalism. In A Companion to the American Novel, by ed Alfred Bendixen, 42-59. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
Scott, Nathan. 1994. A Ramble on a Road Taken. Christianity and Literature 43 (2): 205-212.
Sinding, Mikkel-Holger S., et.al. 2020. Arctic-adapted dogs emerged at the Pleistocene-Holocene transition. Science 368:6498 1495-1499.
Stasz, Clarice. 1996. Social Darwinism, Gender, and Humor in Adventure. In Rereading Jack London, by eds Leonard Cassuto and Jeanne Campbell Reesman, 130-140. Stanford CA: Standord University Press.
Strmmen, Hannah. 2017. Literature and Theology 31:4: 405-419.
Tillich, Paul. 1951-1963. Systematic Theology. 1st. 3 Volumes: Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Wilkinson, David. 2013. Science, Religion, and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Williams, Jay. 2014. Author Under Sail: The Imagination of Jack London 1893-1902. Lincoln NB: University of Nebraska Press.
. 2021. Author Under Sail: The Imagination of Jack London 1902-1907. Lincoln NB: University of Nebraska Press.
Wood, Ralph. 2010. Flannery OConner, Benedict XVI, and the Divine Eros. Christianity and Literature 60:1 35-64.
Wood, Ralph. 2012. The Lady in the Torn Hair Who Looks on Gladiators in Grapple: G.K. Chestertons Marian Poems. Christianity & Literature 62:1 29-55.
Read more here:
Jack London 1: The Call of the Wild - Patheos
A September Campus meeting organised by the SIG Fertility Preservation reviewed approaches to fertility preservation in benign conditions such as endometriosis, POI and haematological diseases.
Indeed, the need for doctors to manage expectations in patients having procedures to retain fertility and recognise when the odds are against them was underlined by several presenters at this Campus meeting on fertility preservation for benign indications. Age, ovarian reserve, gender, disease severity, prior surgery/hormone therapy and treatment method were among the many factors cited which can dictate the chance of success.
An extensive range of benign conditions were considered during the meeting, including endometriosis, Klinefelter syndrome, premature ovarian insufficiency and haematological diseases such as sickle cell; data were also presented on FP approaches and outcomes for transgender men and women.
In his presentation on endometriosis, Professor Grynberg, from Antoine Beclere University hospital in Paris, attempted to answer when, how and if to offer FP. However, many unresolved questions remain, such as the timing and impact of controlled ovarian stimulation and egg retrieval on this disease which can present in many different ways - asymptomatic, as pain and as infertility (or in any combination).
However, Grynberg said there is almost no debate around FP for bilateral endometrioma, voluminous unilateral endometrioma, and expected repeated surgeries with intervention taking place ideally before age 35 in order to preserve gametes before a decrease in ovarian reserve.
What about LBRs from frozen eggs? Data on this are limited, said Grynberg, and vary according to several factors such as age and a history (or not) of surgery. A recent observational study described oocyte vitrification as a valid treatment for women with endometriosis, but found that ovarian response and LBR were higher in young (35 years) non-surgical patients than in those who had had surgey.(2)
In conclusion, he said the possibility of FP should always be kept in mind by all physicians dealing with endometriosis but some indications are debateable and evidence for success rates is as yet lacking.
Semen banking is advised for adult male patients who need aggressive gonadotoxic treatment for diseases such as sickle cell. Testicular tissue banking might be an alternative for teenage boys. Ellen Goossens from Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Belgium presented data from her clinic which has, since 2002, banked samples from over 100 patients of whom over half (57%) have non-malignant disorders.
Evidence on the efficacy of fertility restoration has progressed from births in mice to a macaque monkey, and Goossens now has ethical approval for human trials which will feature cryopreserved testicular tissue grafted to the testes and scrotum.
Should clinics offer PGT to patients with hereditary conditions who need FP? That was the question asked by Anne-Marie Gerdes, a former chairperson of the Danish Council on Ethics, who said demand has been increasing for PGT-M and new techniques are being developed.
In Denmark, the criteria for genetic analysis must be known and recognise a significantly increased risk that the child will develop a serious genetic disease or chromosomal aberration. However, there are grey areas in the law which raise ethical concerns. Gerdes said offering PGT can create a slippery slope from serious diseases to normal traits but not offering patients the procedure may encourage fertility tourism.
Freezing the gametes or tissue of someone about to undergo gender re-assignment surgery is another area of FP in benign conditions that brings challenges for clinicians, especially as the literature is limited. Kenny Rodriguez-Wallberg outlined the situation in Sweden where transgender men and women no longer have to be sterilised before they can legally change their gender following a law change in 2013.
Her clinic has redesigned their information brochure to make it acceptable to trans men leaflets now feature a body with ovaries but without feminine curves and adapted how staff interact with patients. A study of 15 patients found that gender incongruence and dysphoria were triggered by genital examinations and physical changes associated with discontinuation of testosterone or hormonal stimulation.(3)
Fertility outcomes for patients who have undergone gender-affirming hormone therapy (GAHT) are comparable to those whose gender identity corresponds to their sex assigned at birth. For trans women, Rodriguez-Wallberg said sperm banking should be offered prior to GAHT. A study of 212 patients found that previous hormone therapy was associated with significantly lower sperm counts and even patients with no prior GAHT history had a high proportion of sperm abnormalities.(4)
There is also a psychological impact for trans men and women. Many still believe fertility is the price to pay for gender transitioning and may face an uncertain future regarding parenthood, despite having FP options.
1. Grynberg M, Sermondade N. Fertility preservation: should we reconsider the terminology? Hum Reprod 2019; 34: 18551857. doi.org/10.1093/humrep/dez1602. Cobo A, Giles J, Paolelli S, et al. Oocyte vitrification for fertility preservation in women with endometriosis: an observational study. Fertil Steril 2020; 113: 836-844. DOI: doi.org/10.1016/j.fertnstert.2019.11.0173. Armuand G, Dhejne C, Olofsson JI, Rodriguez-Wallberg KA. Transgender men's experiences of fertility preservation: a qualitative study. Hum Reprod 2017; 32: 383390. doi.org/10.1093/humrep/dew3234. Hljestig J, Arver S, Johansson A, Lundberg FE. Sperm quality in transgender women before or after gender affirming hormone therapyA prospective cohort study; Andrology 2021; 9: 1773-1780. doi.org/10.1111/andr.12999
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No guarantee of success for preserving fertility ahead of treatment for benign conditions - ESHRE
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The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has precipitated a global health crisis of unprecedented proportions. Because of its severe impact, multiple COVID-19 vaccines are being rapidly developed, approved and manufactured. Among them, mRNA vaccines are considered as ideal candidates with special advantages to meet this challenge. However, some serious adverse events have been reported after their application, significantly increasing concerns about the safety and efficacy of the vaccines and doubts about the necessity of vaccination. Although several fertility societies have announced that COVID-19 mRNA vaccines are unlikely to affect fertility, there is no denying that the current evidence is very limited, which is one of the reasons for vaccine hesitancy in the population, especially in pregnant women. Herein, we provide an in-depth discussion on the involvement of the male and female reproductive systems during SARS-CoV-2 infection or after vaccination. On one hand, despite the low risk of infection in the male reproductive system or fetus, COVID-19 could pose an enormous threat to human reproductive health. On the other hand, our review indicates that both men and women, especially pregnant women, have no fertility problems or increased adverse pregnancy outcomes after vaccination, and, in particular, the benefits of maternal antibodies transferred through the placenta outweigh any known or potential risks. Thus, in the case of the rapid spread of COVID-19, although further research is still required, especially a larger population-based longitudinal study, it is obviously a wise option to be vaccinated instead of suffering from serious adverse symptoms of virus infection.
Keywords: ACE2; COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; angiotensin-converting enzyme 2; coronavirus disease 2019; fertility; mRNA vaccine; pregnant women; reproductive system; severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2.
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Effects of COVID-19 and mRNA vaccines on human fertility
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Vaginal anatomy has been poorly studied. This study aimed to measure baseline dimensions of the undistended vagina of women of reproductive age. METHODS: We combined baseline information collected from five clinical trials using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to quantify distribution of a vaginal gel. Seventy-seven MRI scans were performed on 28 women before gel application to establish baseline vaginal measurements. Average dimensions were calculated for each woman and for the population. The influence of potential covariates (age, height, weight and parity) on these dimensions was assessed. RESULTS: MRI measurements are reproducible. The SD surrounding the mean at each anatomical site, and with summary measurements, was significantly smaller with each subject compared with the population. Mean vaginal length from cervix to introitus was 62.7 mm. Vaginal width was largest in the proximal vagina (32.5 mm), decreased as it passed through the pelvic diaphragm (27.8 mm) and smallest at the introitus (26.2 mm). Significant positive associations were parity with vaginal fornix length, age with pelvic flexure width and the height with width at the pelvic flexure. CONCLUSION: No one description characterized the shape of the human vagina. Although there is variation among women, variables such as parity, age and height are positively associated with differences in baseline dimensions.
In comparison with other female pelvic organs, the anatomy of the vagina has been relatively poorly studied. Our knowledge of female pelvic anatomy is based on old descriptions derived from the dissection of a small number of female cadavers. These studies depict the vagina as a straight hollow tube extending vertically upwards towards the sacral promontory (Grant, 1943; Eycleshymer and Schoemaker, 1983; Sultan et al., 1993). In the late 19th century, Hadra in Lesions of the vagina and pelvic floor, discussed the possibility of differences in anatomy for a living patient, also noting that the vaginal axis is different in the upper and lower vagina (defined as the sections of the vagina above and below the pelvic diaphragm) (Hadra, 1888).
New research on pelvic imaging has focused on paediatric, premenopausal and post-menopausal groups; or disease entities like utero-vaginal anomalies, prolapse, fistula or pelvic malignancies. As the focus of past research has been mainly curative, limited study has been conducted on the normal anatomical variations of the vagina of young, healthy and sexually active women (Hafez and Evans, 1978).
The literature, to date, describes the relaxed vagina as a fibro-muscular tube that exists as a collapsed potential space. The shape of the tube is not symmetrical or similar to any known geometric shape. Rather, the vaginal lumen is a potential space with walls that are easily distensible. The overall shape and stretching of the vaginal canal are constrained by the elasticity of the vaginal wall and its relationship to other pelvic organs. The cross section of the relaxed vagina at the level of the cervical os has been classically characterized as an H shape. More recent data suggest that the shape may instead resemble a W (Barnhart et al., 2004a).
Studies have utilized casts to visualize the vagina in three dimensions and to compare vaginal shape, dimensions and surface contact in various ethnic populations. The casts consisted of wax, rapidly solidifying dental impression paste, polyvinyl siloxane, etc. (Morgan, 1961; Richter, 1967; Pendergrass et al., 1996). These studies were limited by the abnormal distension of the vagina; however, they suggested differences among vaginal shapes and dimensions in African-American, Caucasian and Hispanic women (Richter, 1967; Pendergrass et al., 2000). These studies have also suggested a uniform size of all the different shapes of the vagina, and hence have supported the development of the one size fits all vaginal product, formulation or microbicide (Pendergrass et al., 2003).
The goal of this project was to define baseline, nondistended dimensions of the vagina of women of reproductive age using noninvasive imaging. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is the optimal imaging modality for female pelvic organs because the images have excellent spatial resolution and inherently high soft tissue contrast (McCarthy and Vaqueno, 1986; Aronson et al., 1990; Barnhart et al., 2001, 2004b). A secondary goal was to explore the importance of the potential covariates to the dimensions of the human vagina including the impact of age, height, weight, gravity and parity. This information may help researchers optimize vaginal products and drug delivery.
This study was reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board of the University of Pennsylvania (Protocol CSA-03-333). This study is an analysis of the baseline MRI at entry in five clinical trials evaluating the distribution of a vaginal product. Data from the following five experimental protocols were utilized for this study:
spread of 3 ml of KY jelly and Replens with and without ambulation (unpublished data);
comparison of two volumes of cellulose sulphate (2.5 ml versus 3.5 ml) with and without ambulation (Barnhart et al., 2005a);
effect of volume (3.0 ml versus 5.0 ml) and ambulation on gel spread, and a substudy on the effect of simulated intercourse on the spread of gel in the vagina (Barnhart et al., 2004b);
study of spread of Savvy gel in the vagina (Barnhart et al., 2005b) and
vaginal distribution of miconazole nitrate suspension from administration of a single vaginal insert (Barnhart et al., 2004c).
As part of these trials, an MRI was performed prior to use of any study product to serve as a baseline for comparison after gel insertion. The trials then quantified the spread of the gel depending on time from application, ambulation of the volunteer, sexual activity of the subject, gel volume and formulation. Other data that quantified the spread of the gel were not included. The analysis for this study is confined to the MRI examinations of these volunteers before using the experimental product to assess the baseline vaginal dimensions of women of reproductive age.
All subjects were aged 1845 years, not at risk for pregnancy (using reliable contraception or abstinence), menstruated regularly and had a normal Papanicolaou smear.
MRI examinations were performed on a dedicated research GE 1.5 Tesla Signa scanner with the assistance of a phased array surface coil centred on the pelvis, to allow small fields of view and to increase signal to noise ratio. We used Sun Ultra workstation, GE Advantage Windows 3.1 software, electronic callipers and digitally stored images to make measurements. The specific details of MR techniques have been published previously (Barnhart et al., 2001, 2004b, 2005a; Pretorius et al., 2002).
The linear length of the vagina was the measurement in the sagittal plane from the external cervical os to the introitus (approximately at the level of the hymeneal ring) (Figure 1). Measurements were also taken at the following anatomic structures in millimetres: (i) two measurements of the posterior vaginal fornixwidth and length in the anterior posterior (AP) and sagittal planes; (ii) transverse measurement of upper vagina (1 cm below the cervix); (iii) pelvic flexure widthtransverse measurement of the flexure of the vagina as it passes through the pelvic diaphragm; (iv) transverse measurement of the lower vagina (3 cm above the introitus); (v) at the level of the introitus (transverse measurement of the vagina 1 cm above the introitus). An example of a measurement in the transverse plane is demonstrated in Figure 2. Measurements at all five demarcated areas were assessed as demonstrated in Figure 2. Surface contact is a summary measurement of the dimensions of the vagina and is calculated by the summation of length of the fornix (AP plane) and the transverse measurement at the four other demarcated sites (Pretorius et al., 2002).
Figure 1.
This figure represents a sagittal image of the human vagina. For illustration purposes this is an image that contains gel mixed with gadolinium contrast (white) to demarcate the vaginal canal. The outline of the vagina can be seen from the cervix and linearly to the introitus. The length of the curved line in the vertical plane is the linear length of the vagina. In this case, the measurement was 63 mm.
Figure 2.
Panel A represents a sagittal image of the human vagina. For illustration purposes these images contain gel mixed with gadolinium contrast (white) to demarcate the vaginal canal. The outline of the vagina can be seen from the cervix (above the dotted line) and linearly in the vertical plane to the introitus. The lateral dimensions of the vagina are measured in the transverse plane as depicted by the dotted line in Panel A. The image is 90 from the vertical plane. Panel B represents complete cross section of the vagina in the transverse plane (1 cm below the cervical os), as the vagina can be seen contiguously from left to right. In this instance, the measurement was 22.5 mm. Surface contact is the sum of the transverse measurements at five demarcated sites in the vagina.
The data were manually checked for any discrepancies resulting from illegal values, extreme outliers and suspicious combinations. We explored various analytical techniques, statistical methods and experimental designs to determine the optimal use of MRI to study the baseline vaginal dimensions. Comparisons using Wilcoxon signed rank tests were made at each distinct measurement within the vagina. SAS (Cary, NC, USA) software was used for statistical analysis.
Multivariate statistical methods were used to summarize the measurements derived from images in the most efficient manner. Repeated analysis of variance and related methods such as mixed effects models were used. Standard data reduction techniques such as principal components and factor analyses were used to form a reduced set of variables. For dichotomous and discrete variables we used appropriate methods such as logistic regression or generalized estimating equation (GEE). All P-values were produced using Fischers exact tests methods. The association of baseline vaginal dimensions with age, race, gravity, parity, height and weight were determined.
Data from 28 volunteers were included in the analysis. The average age of the participants was 29.2 5.8 years with a range of 1839 years. The average height was 1.66 0.05 m with a range of 1.51.7 m. The average weight was 70.13 12.6 kg with a range of 49.995.3 kg. The ethnic distribution of the participants was as follows: 17 were Caucasians, eight African-Americans, two Hispanic and one Asian/Pacific Islander. Of the participants, 14 women were nulliparous and 14 were parous.
Most women (23) participated in one trial; one woman participated in all five. Seventy-seven MRI measurements were performed at baseline (minimum one and maximum twelve per subject). Thirteen of the 28 women had more than one baseline MRI either in the same study or in a second study.
The mean dimensions of the resting human vagina are presented in Table I. These represent the average of the mean values of each of the 28 women. In other words, the average dimensions (and SD) for each woman was calculated if she had more than one MRI. Average dimensions and SD were then calculated for all 28 women. Also presented in Table I are data about the SD of the mean for each woman (within subjects) and the SD of the mean for the population of 28 women (between subjects). The SD within subjects was noted to be significantly less than the SD of the mean for the population of 28 for all individual and summary measurements.
Dimensions of the human vagina with comparison of inter- and intra-person standard deviation
Dimensions of the human vagina with comparison of inter- and intra-person standard deviation
The average linear length of the vagina was 62.7 mm with a relatively large range (40.895 mm). It was noted that the width of the vagina varies throughout its length. The transverse diameter of the vagina is the highest at the level of the vaginal fornices (41.87 mm). The transverse diameter then progressively decreases from the cervical os (32.52 mm) to the pelvic flexure (27.97 mm), mid-lower vagina (27.21 mm), to the narrowest part of the vagina at the level of the vaginal introitus (26.15 mm).
Table II gives results of evaluation of the relationship between baseline vaginal dimensions and covariates of age, weight, height and parity. Surprisingly, there were very few statistically significant associations noted with multivariable analysis. Race was not associated with any differences in measurements of vaginal dimensions. Parity was more predictive than gravidity; hence it was used (and gravidity was eliminated) in the final models. Associations noted were between (i) parity and length of vaginal fornix, (ii) age and vaginal width at the pelvic flexure and (iii) height and vaginal width at the pelvic flexure. A nonstatistically significant trend was noted between the overall length of the vagina and weight (P-value = 0.07).
Factors that affect the baseline dimensions of the human vagina
Factors that affect the baseline dimensions of the human vagina
Neither a single shape nor one summary measurement can characterize the dimensions of the resting vagina in women of reproductive age. Using a noninvasive imaging modality we were able to gain some insight into the anatomy. We confirmed that the axis and dimensions of the upper and lower vagina are different (data not shown). The axis of the lower vagina (from the introitus to the pelvic diaphragm), in relation to a standing woman, is vertical and posterior. The upper vagina changes its axis at the level of the pelvic diaphragm (from the pelvic diaphragm to the cervix), and it becomes more horizontal. We have previously noted that the transverse shape of the upper vagina at the level of the cervix is not always an H and instead is often a W (Barnhart et al., 2004). We also note that measurements of the transverse diameter of the vagina vary along its length. The width of the vagina is narrowest at the level of the introitus with minimal change in width noted at the level of the pelvic diaphragm. Above the pelvic diaphragm, the transverse width of the vagina is greater, around and behind the cervix (the transverse width of the fornix).
The differences in dimensions of the vagina along its length most likely result from the constriction by the surrounding pelvic tissues and the intrinsic compliance of the vaginal walls, resulting in the greater width and compliance of the upper vagina. The differences in the axis and the width of the vagina may not be readily appreciated by the clinician as an inserted speculum straightens the axis of the vagina. Once the speculum is opened, it is sometimes difficult to appreciate the differences in width along the length of the vaginal canal.
There are differences in vaginal dimensions among women. The length of the vagina (from external cervical os to introitus) ranged from approximately 4.19.5 cm, a greater than 100% difference from the shortest to the longest length. There was also a large range in the width of the vagina at all demarcated sites measured. The width and the range of the width tended to increase from the introitus to the fornix. The largest range in the width of the vagina was noted in the width of the posterior fornix, which in the undistended vagina is the portion of the vagina behind (posterior) to the barrel of the cervix. The cervix extends from the upper wall of the vagina into the canal with the external os pointing in the general direction of the introitus. The area of the vagina cephalad to the external os, thus posterior to the barrel of the cervix, is the fornix. Using MRI we were able to measure the posterior fornix in both the transverse plane (right to left) and in the longitudinal plane (in the sagittal plane). Thus, the true length of the vagina is the length from the external os to the introitus plus the longitudinal length of the posterior fornix. These two aspects in length, however, are not in the same linear plane, and the connection between these two lengths will also often include some change in linear direction.
Interestingly, while there were differences in vaginal dimensions among women, there were only small differences in the dimensions when the same woman was imaged multiple times. Over the course of these trials, some women had repeated measurements as much as six months apart, and there was very little variation in these measurements, suggesting that the anatomy does not change substantially over short periods, and measurements using MRI have low intra-person variability.
Notably, few statistically significant associations could be drawn between the potentially influencing factors and baseline dimensions of the vagina. Although it has been suggested that there are racial differences in vaginal dimensions, our data did not demonstrate any such clear-cut differences. We noted that age of a woman is associated with an increase in the transverse diameter at the pelvic flexure. This is consistent with the clinical finding of increasing laxity of the vaginal walls in women of advanced age. Interestingly, by contrast, height of the subject was negatively associated with width of the vagina at the level of the flexion. Weight of a woman tended to be positively associated with overall length of the vagina and presented as a nonstatistically significant trend (P-value 0.050.10). Given the number of statistical comparisons performed in this study, it is possible that some of these findings may be due to chance.
Surprisingly, parity had little association with the overall surface contact and length of the vagina. Parity is associated with a significant increase in the length of the vaginal fornix. The potential effect of parity may be via stretching and elongation of the birth canal at the time of vaginal childbirth. This effect is especially significant in the upper part of the vagina where the dilation, thinning (effacement) and taking up of the cervix is an active process, as opposed to the lower vagina where passive stretching takes place during parturition.
Our summary measurement of surface contact is not a true measure of surface area. It was devised to objectively compare the spread of a vagina gel under experimental protocol to assess the effect of a variable such as time since insertion or gel volume. It is notable that our summary measurements of 137.58 18.37 mm with a range of 103.9165 mm appear to be larger than estimates of surface area reported in other studies. Prior studies that used casts to measure vaginal dimensions reported a surface area of 87.46 mm2, SD 7.8 mm2 and range 65.73107.07 mm2. A direct comparison of these measurements cannot be performed due to differences in methodology and because the casts showed either extrusion of cast material by a small vagina or improper filling in a roomy vagina, leading to understated measurements (Pendergrass et al., 2003). Our measurements of the width of the vagina are similar to those reported, which range from 23.9 to 64.5 mm (Pendergrass et al., 1996, 2003). However, we are unable to characterize the shape of the vagina as a heart, slug, pumpkin seed or parallel sides as suggested by other studies (Pendergrass et al., 1996, 2000, 2003).
The dimensions and shape of the vagina are of great importance in medicine and surgery; however, there appears to be no single way to characterize the size and shape of the human vagina. Although differences exist between women, there are few covariates associated with these differences. There does not appear to be large variation in the dimensions of the vagina within the same woman. Given the large range in the dimensions noted, it is most likely that one size for a vaginal device will not fit all women (Mauck et al., 2004). Prior research has shown that using a single size for fitting two cervical caps leads to the correct fit in only 33% of women. Moreover, it is possible that one volume of a gel intended to cover the vaginal epithelium may not be appropriate for all women. This information can be used to better design various devices used in the vagina. We have previously proved that deployment of a potential microbicide gel in the upper and lower vagina is affected by factors such as ambulation, time since insertion, volume and product (Barnhart et al., 2005). Baseline vaginal dimension may also be an important factor.
Support for this subproject [CSA-03-333] was provided by the Global Microbicide Project [GMP], a program of CONRAD, Eastern Virginia Medical School. The views expressed by the authors do not necessarily reflect the views of CONRAD or GMP.
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Baseline dimensions of the human vagina | Human Reproduction | Oxford ...
Author Dr. Carole Hooven.
Evolutionary biologist Carole Hooven says that sex is real its biological. Its in your body. Its not in your head. Hooven has served as the co-director of undergraduate studies in Harvard Universitys Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, and she is aware that such statements might be seen as shocking in certain environments. Your bodys plan for gamete production has a lot of implications, but it doesnt dictate anyones value or rights, and it shouldnt in some places, sex is important. Like maybe in sports. Maybe in prison cells. Maybe in the data that we collect about sexual violence, she says.
Hooven believes that it is important to be able to talk about sexual differences in order to make the best decisions, and that it is necessary to include data from scientific research in such discussions. With that in mind, Hooven wrote the book T: The Story of Testosterone, the Hormone that Dominates and Divides Us. In it, she draws on her experience as a professor of human evolutionary biology to analyze studies about the role the hormone plays in sexual differences in both humans and animals; she combines that data with personal stories to support her thesis.
In a video call, the professor says she understands, in part, misgivings about certain claims made in the name of science. There is obviously a history of science being misused as a justification. You know, if I say that I think women have a nurturing instinct that is stronger than in men, maybe some politicians will come out and say, well, then women need to be the ones to stay home with the kids. No, thats not how it works. So, thats the connection I want to break: the link between what is natural and what society should be, she argues. I understand the resistance to just getting the facts out, but the answer to that problem is not to lie to people about reality.
Question. Do you believe that gender roles arise from biological preconditions, that they are not entirely created by culture?
Answer. So, nothing that is as cultural and complex as gender roles is totally social or totally biological. Every culture has something like sex roles. Gender is a complicated term, so for now Im just going to say sex roles. So, standards and norms of behavior for males and females, every culture has them. And there are some very strong and consistent norms across cultures that also are consistent with what we know about biological differences in humans and non-human animals. All cultures have norms about sexual behavior and regulating sexual behavior to some extent, and most incorporate greater latitude for male sexuality than for female sexuality. So, thats something that is fairly consistent across cultures that I think has a strong biological influence.
But culture is extremely important in terms of shaping how sex differences that may have biological roots manifest themselves within a society. There are patterns that are very basic, like those differences in sexual behavior that are never reversed in any culture. Like, theres no culture that I know of where female promiscuity is celebrated and encouraged, and male promiscuity is sometimes punished severely. That just doesnt really exist. And although theres variation in standards for female promiscuity and variation in standards for male promiscuity, you never see that basic pattern reversed.
That was just an example for sexual behavior. But when it comes to aggression and norms for the expression of male and female aggression, there are patterns there that arent reversed either. For example, patterns where female physical aggression is celebrated and rewarded and male physical aggression would be punished. So, I think those very basic patterns are strongly rooted in biology, but the way that theyre expressed and the specific norms in any society are a product of culture. Culture is influenced strongly by biology, and biology is also influenced by culture.
Q. When addressing these issues, some people are afraid that looking for or recognizing differences between the sexes is a way of justifying inequalities.
A. Well, if we find that there is a strong genetic influence on male promiscuity, if thats true, and I think it is true, then does that mean that its okay for men to cheat on their wives? Does that mean that they can never change that behavior? Well, no. But it does mean that theres a reality there that we have to understand and work with so that we can accommodate the reality of male sexuality instead of denying it, as many, many people do. Many feminists in particular seem to be under that misapprehension, or theyre intentionally misconstruing the evidence in order to try to achieve sex equality.
There are a lot of social problems caused by the differences in sexual appetite between the sexes and what that means for relationships, what that means for society, what that means for happiness and thriving. So, the solution, first of all, is to stop denying the facts, because I think this just causes suffering and makes it harder for us to maximize human thriving. So, first of all, one of the facts that we should be teaching and spreading through journalism and education in the classroom is that just because something exists in nature does not mean that its right or good. You know, illness is not good and thats natural. I dont think we should have to show that something is natural in order for it to be good. Just because something is innate does not mean that it is destiny or that individuals dont have any control over their behavior.
Suppose that male aggression, higher rates of physical aggression in males, is due to having a Y chromosome, which ultimately leads to high testosterone, which leads to a higher predisposition for physical aggression. Well, we already know that the environment makes a huge difference. Cultural norms make a huge difference in the extent to which individuals express physical aggression and might get into bar fights or commit murder or rape. We can see that just by looking at different cultural norms in different societies. In some places in the world theres no strong norms against rape and its even encouraged in some places and situations. In others, it is severely punished. So, biology is not destiny.
And if we can recognize those facts about the naturalistic fallacy and the myth of biological destiny, then it makes it easier for us to talk about reality and the changes that we can make socially in terms of policies and laws.
Q. In the book you talk about a fundamental difference between men and women, and between males and females in other mammals. The former continuously produces many small and, to some extent, cheap reproductive cells (sperm), and the latter produces large cells (eggs), which are much scarcer. This means that throughout history the two sexes have had different incentives with respect to their behavior and that has caused tension between the coexistence of the two.
A. If youre not an evolutionary biologist, its difficult to historically appreciate the depth of over a billion years of sexual reproduction, and this has become elaborated and elaborated and elaborated on as behavior. So, when were looking at mammals who bear the time and energetic costs of internal fertilization, you know, its not like fish or frogs or something. Its that we not only have internal fertilization, internal gestation, and once we actually expel the offspring to the outside world its almost like its still in us because were still growing it with our bodies, you know, breastfeeding. This is a tremendously impactful imbalance in reproductive investment.
So, the way we live now is weird, just bizarre from an evolutionary point of view. Were kind of freed from that energetic burden but our psychology hasnt been completely released from that lifestyle, those needs. Women typically want to have fewer sexual partners for a reason, because each potential conception is a large energetic burden, whereas it isnt for men. So we still retain these differences in reproductive psychology, and sex hormones and the differences in sex hormones really do condition and promote a lot of these differences.
I dont know of any culture in which female promiscuity is celebrated and encouraged and male promiscuity is severely punished
These differences are not just limited to sex and aggression. As it turns out, there are differences in professional interests. Women are more likely to go into helping, nurturing professions, and men are more likely to go into professions that involve more risk and risk-taking. Physical risk-taking is one of these sex differences because it could shorten a mans life relative to not taking those risks. If taking risks has strong reproductive payoffs, that can outweigh the costs or the risks of dying, basically. So, for men, physical risks have reproductive payoffs, but thats not necessarily true for females who need to live a long, healthy life to maximize their reproduction.
So yeah, there are these differences. The evidence for hormonal contributions to these differences is not as strong as the evidence of hormonal contributions to sexual behavior and physically aggressive behavior. I think culture does play a strong role there, but its hard to know because we have these sex roles where those kinds of differences are reinforced culturally. So we cant really know how much is biological, how much is cultural. We know that there is a strong interaction there. But my personal view is that striving for equality of outcome meaning we have equal levels of men and women across different professions seems totally misguided to me, because I do think there are differences in preferences. And I think what we should strive for is equality of opportunity and equality of pay. It would be great if teaching and caregiving, say, nursing, paid more than they do because these are more female-typical professions. But males are involved in professions that are pretty brutal in terms of their physical demands, and they deserve to be compensated for that too.
Q. But changes in an ecosystem change the biology of the animals that live in it. In an environment where theres less need for aggression to get ahead or to mate, would testosterone levels also drop?
A. Its hard to gather really good data [on testosterone, aggression and cultural differences]. Say we compare people in Europe with people in Japan. We know that there are testosterone differences that vary with ethnicity. And that has to do with something called a polymorphism that exists in the gene codes for the testosterone receptor. So there are differences genetically in the testosterone receptor that make it more or less responsive to testosterone. So you can take two guys who have the same level of testosterone. They can be of different ethnicities or not. But if you just look at the length of this CAG repeat in the gene, people who have longer CAG repeats have less active androgen receptors, and people who have shorter repeats have more active androgen receptors. So, for the same amount of testosterone, you could have very different effects individually.
There are studies showing that men in East Africa who live as hunter gatherers, the cultural norm is for [those] men to be very involved with their kids, to have lots of physical interaction in terms of carrying and feeding them, playing with them; fatherhood is really valued. And in those men, testosterone levels are lower, and they go down when the babies come. So, this is something that characterizes fathers everywhere in humans and in only less than 5% of mammals do we see male paternal investment where the fathers actually stick around and help to take care of their offspring. So, this is the case in humans, but it depends, of course, on the environment. And in environments where males do provide for their offspring, the offspring are more likely to survive, and the mens testosterone tends to decline. That is a product of the culture. Thats because the cultural norm is for men to invest in their offspring. Theres another African group where men do not invest in their offspring, its kind of a warrior culture. Those men have babies and are in the same ecological environment, but their behavior is different. Theyre not investing in their offspring in terms of actual interaction with them. So, in those men, we do not see a decline in testosterone.
Cultural norms can shift. Testosterone can reduce testosterone. And we do see this consistently in men all over the world who are highly involved with their kids, especially when theyre little. But I cannot really say that we have evidence that any cultural norm has changed a level of aggression. You know, we can attribute a change in testosterone to a reduction in aggression. Im not sure I could say that it is lower testosterone in any culture that is then also causally related to low aggression and relatively low aggression in that culture. But it could be. I think that could definitely be.
In environments where men take care of their children, the offspring are more likely to survive and mens testosterone levels tend to drop
Q. In the book you talk about differences between gay and lesbian behavior. Could this have to do with the way men and women are brought up, regardless of whether they are gay or straight, or can it be explained by biological differences to some extent?
A. Homosexual men have way more sex and way more sex partners than lesbians. Its a fact. Its a pattern. Everybody knows this is true, its totally fine. Theres no, like, moral judgment here. This is an observation. But the reason that gay men are having more sex is because they can. And because of testosterone. We know from studies on people who transition from one sex to another, or from one sex role to another, females who take male levels of testosterone as part of a gender transition report, pretty much across the board, with some variation obviously, but on average, the sense that a female gets when she takes male levels of testosterone is, whoa, this is the way that males go through the world. They start really obsessing about body parts, for one thing. This is somewhat consistent with the literature. So if you look at the scientific literature, its clear that sex drive is one of the strongest psychological responses from taking testosterone, that it really cranks up when you go from living as a woman to living as a man and take male-typical levels of testosterone. And Ive had many conversations now with trans men and trans women, as I did in the book. Its sort of mind-blowing for a female to start living as a male with high testosterone and to feel how strong the sexual urges are.
Not only does the libido really shoot up, but the nature of sexual attraction changes. And again, this isnt true for everyone, but many females who transition into living as males also feel this reduction in the requirement for emotional intimacy before sex. And there is that increased attention to the body and an increased attraction to the body as a sexual object, as opposed to the sense that sex and sexual attraction are about a whole human being. So this is something that actually happens: sexual objectification sort of rises with testosterone.
And we see the same thing happen in the other direction when males transition and start living as females: we see a reduction in their sex drive, which many trans women say is a relief. And its not that theyre not horny. Its not that they dont get pleasure from sex. Its just that its not the same intense drive that it was when their testosterone was high.
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Carole Hooven: Its obvious that men are much more driven by sex than women - EL PAS USA
The Human Rights Council this afternoon held its annual discussion on the integration of a gender perspective, focusing on overcoming gender-based barriers to freedom of opinion and expression. It also continued its general debate under agenda item four on human rights situations that require the Councils attention.
Introducing the annual discussion, Peggy Hicks, Director of the Thematic Engagement, Special Procedures and Right to Development Division of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said freedom of opinion and expression was essential for the protection of every human right; the realisation of achieving this right was essential for achieving gender equality. There were new and growing threats to women and girls who spoke out in defence of their rights. Gender equality needed to be achieved. Measures to achieve this should include eliminating repressive legislation, adopting special measures for social protection, and including womens rights in school education.
Irene Khan, Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, said the Internet had become the new battleground in the struggle for women's rights, amplifying the opportunities for women to access information and express themselves, but also creating new risks of repression and inequality. There was a clear link between the root causes of gender inequality, and the persistence of gendered censorship. Governments must abolish laws, policies, and practices of gendered censorship, and be more proactive in dismantling the structural and systemic roots of gender discrimination.
Mariana Duarte, Programme Officer, Gender Partnership Programme, Inter-Parliamentary Union, said that the main gender-based barrier observed by the Inter-Parliamentary Union on freedom of opinion and expression for women in politics was gendered violence. This violence was directed at women as a group, and aimed to eject them from the political arena. Eliminating gender-based violence in politics was essential for women to exercise their right to freedom of opinion and expression. It was also a guarantee for the effectiveness of parliament, for genuine democracy and for gender equality in society.
Julie Posetti, International Centre for Journalists, said gender-based online violence against journalists was one of the most serious contemporary threats to press freedom and the safety of women journalists internationally. It aided and abetted impunity for crimes against journalists, including physical assault and murder. It was designed to silence, humiliate, and discredit. The Human Rights Council could contribute to raising awareness of violence against women journalists by, among other points, ensuring that mechanisms and protocols to defend the safety of journalists and end impunity explicitly addressed violence against women journalists.
Mitzi Jonelle Tan, Convenor and International Spokesperson, Youth Advocates for Climate Action Philippines, said across the world the dangers against environmental defenders and activists were rising. Young girls, especially those most economically marginalised, who were ghting for human rights and climate justice were often belittled, pushed aside, and tokenised. Sexual violence was also used to silence women defenders, much of which was underreported. There should be more stringent rules on protecting human rights abuses against women.
In the ensuing discussion, speakers said overcoming gender-based barriers to freedom of opinion and expression could be extremely challenging, as these barriers were often rooted in social attitudes, cultural norms and patriarchal values, besides being imposed or integrated in discriminatory laws, policies and practices. Moreover, some harmful, implicit social norms often constituted root causes for gender-based discrimination and for undermining womens and girls rights, including freedom of opinion and expression, both online and offline. The international community needed to invest more to ensure that girls and young women could openly form their opinions in all spheres of public domain, including within this Council and other United Nations fora.
Speaking in the annual discussion were the European Union on behalf of a group of countries, Lithuania on behalf of a group of countries, Chile on behalf of a group of countries, Slovenia on behalf of a group of countries, Bahamas on behalf of a group of countries, Netherlands on behalf of a group of countries, Belgium on behalf of a group of countries, Australia on behalf of a group of countries, Israel, Egypt, International Development Law Organization, Timor-Leste on behalf of the Portuguese language countries, Ecuador, Luxembourg, Republic of Korea, Ireland, France, United Nations Childrens Fund, Colombia, United Nations Women, Afghanistan, Cyprus, and United States.
Also speaking were the Federation for Women and Family Planning, CHOICE for Youth and Sexuality, Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales Asociacin Civil, Indonesia, Plan International Inc, Stitching Global Human Rights Defense, and Asia-Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women.
In the general debate on agenda item four, some speakers said accountability must be ensured for all violations of the rights of indigenous and minority peoples. Violence against human rights defenders must also come to an end. The High Commissioner had a mandate to report on violations of human rights and to oversee progress made. Upholding the rights to freedom of assembly and of peaceful expression was crucial for the protection of human rights. Human rights were indivisible and all inherent to the dignity of the human person, whether economic, social and cultural rights or civil and political rights, and required the equal treatment and observation of the Council. There was a wide repression of womens rights, with an erosion of their rights to be seen in many areas of the world, with a rise in gender apartheid, which required collective action against institutionalised discrimination. The Council should ensure utmost transparency when dealing with human rights matters and that the principles of the United Nations Charter were fully respected.
Speaking in the general debate were Iceland, Israel, Bahrain, Ireland, Russia Federation, Australia, Afghanistan, Austria, Cyprus, Norway, Lichtenstein, Estonia, South Sudan, Denmark, Azerbaijan, Canada, Uruguay, Belgium, Kenya, Sweden, Georgia, Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, Burundi, Kyrgyzstan, Barbados, Spain, Syria, Switzerland, Trinidad and Tobago, Iran, Nicaragua, Cambodia, Belarus, Algeria, Sri Lanka, Viet Nam and Egypt.
The webcast of the Human Rights Council meetings can be found here. All meeting summaries can be found here. Documents and reports related to the Human Rights Councils fifty-first regular session can be found here.
The next meeting of the Council will be at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, 27 September when it will hold a panel discussion on the right to work in connection with climate change actions, followed by the continuation of the general debate under agenda item four.
General Debate on Human Rights Situations that Require the Councils Attention
The general debate on agenda item four on human rights situations that require the Councils attention started in the previous meeting and a summary can be found here.
Discussion
Some speakers said accountability must be ensured for all violations of the rights of indigenous and minority peoples. Violence against human rights defenders must also come to an end. The shrinking of civic space in many parts of the world was of grave concern. The High Commissioner had a mandate to report on violations of human rights and to oversee progress made. Upholding the rights to freedom of assembly and of peaceful expression was crucial for the protection of human rights. Human rights were indivisible and all inherent to the dignity of the human person, whether economic, social and cultural rights or civil and political rights, and required the equal treatment and observation of the Council.
There was a wide repression of womens rights, with an erosion of their rights seen in many areas of the world, with a rise in gender apartheid, which required collective action against institutionalised discrimination. The response of the Human Rights Council and the Special Procedures could be further strengthened, commensurate to the situation on the ground, some speakers said. It was important to hold the perpetrators of gender-based violence to account. Countries that respected womens rights were generally more peaceful, with a more stable economy, and should therefore work to respect womens independence and protect their rights to a greater extent. Denying girls access to education impeded their social and economic development.
Human rights were a prerequisite for sustainable development, and human rights issues ought to be dealt with on the global stage through technical cooperation and assistance on the request of the country concerned, so that human rights projects could be supported, in full respect of the sovereignty of all countries, bearing in mind the cultural and historical specificities of each State, a speaker said. There should be greater international cooperation. The world was witnessing human rights violations and violations of fundamental freedoms, and a greater dialogue, including civil society, should be built throughout the world, ensuring States priorities were respected. One speaker said the inconsistent application of human rights standards was harmful to the agenda of the Council, which should engage in dialogue on contentious issues, in a balanced manner, as it sought to promote and protect human rights around the world.
One speaker said item four on human rights situations that required the Councils attention was one of the most divisive items on the agenda, as it was not always carried out in line with the principles and values that should lead the Council. The principles of impartiality and non-selectivity should be maintained. The Council was founded on the conviction that the promotion and protection of human rights throughout the world should be carried out through dialogue and with the participation of the country concerned, and this would serve the interests of the international community. The Council should ensure utmost transparency when dealing with human rights matters and that the principles of the United Nations Charter were fully respected. The independence and sovereign integrity of States were the fundamental norms governing international cooperation. One speaker expressed concern that the Council could be used to investigate matters that had not been confirmed or even authenticated.
A speaker said that while it was the weighty responsibility and sacred duty of the international community to intervene in situations of egregious violations of human rights, which had been corroborated by appropriate bodies following the requisite investigations, the untrammelled ability of individual States to conduct their internal affairs independently must not be proscribed, as it was counterproductive to the promotion and protection of human rights, and only increased polarisation among the Member States of the Council. Environments conducive to the fullest enjoyment of the rights of citizens of a country would be engendered with the cooperation of the international community through non-interference in the internal administration of the affairs of that country, and no State should impose its norms and standards upon others.
The global food security crisis and its concomitant impact on human rights was of concern to many speakers. Governments should ensure accountability and maintain stable peace. Violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms occurred in too many countries, and too many Governments used disinformation to hide their actions from the world at large: media freedom and reporting were essential to combat disinformation.
Annual Discussion on the Integration of a Gender Perspective Throughout the Work of the Human Rights Council, Focusing on Overcoming Gender-Based Barriers to Freedom of Opinion and Expression
Opening Statement
PEGGY HICKS, Director of the Thematic Engagement, Special Procedures and Right to Development Division of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights , said freedom of opinion and expression was essential for the protection of every human right; the realisation of achieving this right was essential for achieving gender equality. Movements such as Me Too had swept the globe, with women taking a public stance against the sexual violence against women and girls both online and offline. Women played a crucial role in fighting systemic racial discrimination. Today, as the struggle for gender equality continued, there were new and growing threats to women and girls who spoke out in defence of their rights. Gender stereotypes and the patriarchal structure continued to keep women into lesser and submissive roles. There were many ways in which women were silenced and excluded from the public and private spaces, including repressive and discriminatory legislation, policies and practices, and religious and cultural norms which fuelled the violations of rights. Too often attacks against women were amplified and encouraged by public figures, with those engaging the attacks rarely being held accountable.
Ms. Hicks said that the digital world still offered immense possibilities of engagement and ability to drive social change, however, it was increasingly better known for the offline world where women were subject to misogynistic attacks. There had been a five per cent increase in the number of women human rights defenders and journalists who had been killed in 2021. These attacks were exacerbated for women subjected to intersecting discrimination. Barriers contributed to the progressive exclusion of women and girls from the public sphere; this urgently needed to change. Gender equality needed to be achieved. Measures to achieve this should include eliminating repressive legislation, adopting special measures for social protection, and including womens rights in school education. It was crucial to create an enabling environment for civil society to ensure advances in achieving womens human rights were upheld. The Human Rights Council had drawn attention to the violations and risks and had made recommendations to address these. The Council had an essential role to play in addressing gender-based barriers and ensuring all could contribute to society regardless of their gender.
Statements by the Panellists
IRENE KHAN, Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression , said her first thematic report had found that while there had been achievements on gender equality, expression was not free for many women and girls. The Internet had become the new battleground in the struggle for women's rights, amplifying the opportunities for women to access information and express themselves, but also creating new risks of repression and inequality. Gendered censorship was pervasive, and the monitoring, censoring, and criminalisation of women's social behaviour by States was concerning. Under the guise of protecting public morals, as seen recently in the case of Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish woman in Iran, it could lead to serious violations of human rights, with tragic consequences. Women also played a disproportionate price for speaking out, with sexual and gender-based violence used as a weapon to silence women. While all women faced such threats, female politicians, journalists, human rights defenders, and feminist activists were particularly targeted. Unequal access to information and the Internet were major impediments to women's empowerment. Only about half of all women worldwide had access to the Internet, and that figure fell dramatically in the poorer and more remote locations of the world. Information of particular interest to women, such as data on workplace inequalities or on sexual and reproductive health, were often unavailable, outdated, or blocked.
Ms. Khan said there was a clear link between the root causes of gender inequality, and the persistence of gendered censorship. Governments must abolish laws, policies, and practices of gendered censorship, and be more proactive in dismantling the structural and systemic roots of gender discrimination. Social media platforms played a vital role in women's empowerment by enabling them to communicate, advocate, organise and access information. States must not use efforts to eradicate online violence, gendered hate speech and disinformation as a pretext to restrict freedom of expression. There could be no trade-off between women's right to be free from violence and the right to freedom of opinion and expression. The report recommended a threefold approach to avoid a trade-off, including a gender-sensitive interpretation of the right to freedom; an internationally accepted standard on what constituted online gender-based violence, hate speech and disinformation; and a calibrated approach to ensure that responses by States and companies were aligned with the level of harm. Ms. Khan encouraged the Office of the High Commissioner to explore these issues through multi-stakeholder consultations.
MARIANA DUARTE, Programme Officer, Gender Partnership Programme, Inter-Parliamentary Union , said that the main gender-based barrier observed by the Inter-Parliamentary Union on freedom of opinion and expression for women in politics was gendered violence. This violence was directed at women as a group, and aimed to eject them from the political arena. Three studies had been conducted, which highlighted percentages of psychological violence against women parliamentarians (over 80 per cent). The most common manifestation of psychological violence was sexist attitudes and remarks aiming to ignore or degrade women in politics, or to judge their physical appearance. Other emblematic examples of psychological violence included threats of death, rape, beating or abduction. The levels of such threats ranged from 42 per cent in Africa to 47 per cent in Europe. Online sexist attacks were also highly prevalent according to the three studies, especially in Europe, where 58 per cent of respondents had experienced such attacks. The studies also brought to light how multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination such as age, disability, minority group status, and marital status could lead to an exponential increase in gender-based violence against certain women parliamentarians.
Violence against women in politics required greater accountability and an urgent coordinated response from key actors at international and national levels.
Ms. Durante highlighted the importance of using existing international human rights mechanisms for addressing violence against women in politics. United Nations
mechanisms such as Special Procedures and treaty bodies could serve as important avenues for addressing individual cases. Women needed to be encouraged to use such mechanisms, and more must be done to open human rights mechanisms to cases of violence against women in politics. National reports under the fourth Universal Periodic Review cycle starting in November 2022 were due to focus more strongly on the role of parliaments in the promotion and protection of human rights.
This offered a unique opportunity for reporting States to provide information on the obstacles women faced to take part in politics without fear of reprisals, and what was being done, to address those challenges. Ms. Durante said that eliminating gender-based violence in politics was essential for women to exercise their right to freedom of opinion and expression. It was also a guarantee for the effectiveness of parliament, for genuine democracy and for gender equality in society.
JULIE POSETTI, International Centre for Journalists , said gender-based online violence against journalists was one of the most serious contemporary threats to press freedom and the safety of women journalists internationally. It aided and abetted impunity for crimes against journalists, including physical assault and murder. It was designed to silence, humiliate, and discredit. Additionally, there was a dangerous trend that correlated online violence with offline attacks, harassment and abuse. Targeted online attacks on women journalists were also increasingly networked, sophisticated, and at times State-linked.
While States were the main duty-bearers regarding the protection of journalists, with a responsibility to legislate accordingly and ensure law enforcement agencies responded appropriately, a number of governments stood accused of not only failing to fulfil their responsibility to protect women journalists, but of being actively part of the crisis endangering them. In many countries, individual political actors and parties had been identified as perpetrators, instigators and amplifiers of online violence targeting women journalists.
The Human Rights Council and its mechanisms could contribute to raising awareness of violence against women journalists by, among other points, ensuring that mechanisms and protocols to defend the safety of journalists and end impunity explicitly addressed violence against women journalists (online and offline), including the United Nations Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists currently under review. The Council and its mechanisms could also consider a United Nations-level conduit to channel complaints against State actors engaged in targeted online violence campaigns, and social media companies which facilitated attacks on women journalists with impunity.
MITZI JONELLE TAN, Convenor and International Spokesperson, Youth Advocates for Climate Action Philippines , said across the world the dangers affecting environmental defenders and activists were rising. Existing socio-economic crises at hand led to young girls being more afraid to speak up. The lack of access to quality education added to the fear caused by societal prejudice and discrimination. Everyone should have proper access to education if there were to be solutions to the climate crisis that were led by the most marginalised and those most impacted. Young girls, especially those most economically marginalised, who were ghting for human rights and climate justice were often belittled, pushed aside, and tokenised at best, becoming a photo opportunity for world leaders and policymakers instead of actually listening to their demands for equity, and at worst being physically harassed and silenced. Sexual violence was also used to silence women defenders, much of which was underreported.
Across the world, States and human rights councils needed to actively consult women, and not just women from a certain class but those from the most marginalised classes. Marginalised women needed to be empowered with education and information, and given space in order to be active members of society, so girls education must be a priority. There should be more stringent rules on protecting human rights abuses against women, especially because in times of distress which the climate crisis would exacerbate, women and children were more prone to harassment and violence. The ght for climate justice included gender justice; it included the ght for womens liberation.
Discussion
In the ensuing discussion, a number of speakers said overcoming gender-based barriers to freedom of opinion and expression could be extremely challenging, as these barriers were often rooted in social attitudes, cultural norms and patriarchal values, besides being imposed or integrated in discriminatory laws, policies and practices. Moreover, some harmful, implicit social norms often constituted root causes for gender-based discrimination and for undermining womens and girls rights, including freedom of opinion and expression, both online and offline. It was therefore crucial to break the cycle of reproduction of gender stereotypes which ultimately impacted entire societies. Restrictions to freedom of opinion and expression could have wider impacts on human rights, and where women and girls were hindered in their expression, all were deprived of their valuable opinions. Sexual and gender-based violence, including abuse and harassment through digital technologies, was often used as a deliberate tactic to silence women and girls.
Despite the impressive and inspirational gains made by women and girls, as well as people with diverse gender identities, expression and opinion were still not equally free and protected for all persons. Currently many women and girls from diverse backgrounds faced endemic discrimination, and it was essential to establish good practice norms in the Council that aimed at the full eradication of gender-based discrimination. The Council had a mandate to ensure that this was a principle for all, ensuring the respect and guarantee of human rights for all. It was also vital to take an inclusive approach and engage men and boys when taking measures to address the safety of all journalists and other media workers. This was particularly important to effectively tackle gender-based violence, discrimination, abuse and harassment, including sexual harassment, threats and intimidation, as well as inequality, negative social norms and gender-stereotypes.
Cultural norms, gender stereotypes and ensuing discrimination online and offline continued to suppress, censor and mute the voices of women and girls. Unfortunately, women activists, politicians, human rights defenders, journalists and media workers were disproportionately targeted by State and non-State actors, including hate speech, bullying and acts of violence. Womens and girls leadership was essential to advancing gender equality. Respect, protection and promotion of the right to freedom of opinion and expression was a powerful tool to confront any form of gender-based discrimination, and lay at the heart of the international legal framework on political and civil rights. The effective exercise of the right of freedom of opinion and expression was essential for the enjoyment of other human rights and constituted a fundamental pillar for democracy. The international community needed to invest more to ensure that girls and young women could openly form their opinions in all spheres of public domain, including within this Council and other United Nations fora.
Concluding Remarks
MARIANA DUARTE, Programme Officer, Gender Partnership Programme, Inter-Parliamentary Union , said that violence against women politicians did not happen in a vacuum. By assuming a position of power, women were defying patriarchal norms and were particularly at risk. Many of the root causes were related to gender-based violence against women. A sound legal framework free from discrimination against women was required, as well as specific provisions in the law against violence against women in politics. It was important to educate men and boys from an early age. It was vital to understand and acknowledge the problem to address the issue. Perpetrators committing violence against female parliamentarians came from everywhere; their families, their party, or members of their staff. The more women there were in parliament, the more it would be accepted that they belonged where they were. If women in parliament were no longer a minority, they would be stronger. It was also important to have an institutional commitment to protect women in parliament.
JULIE POSETTI, Global Director of Research at the International Centre for Journalists , said impunity for crimes against journalists was a concerning issue; women journalists were targeted online, and were being threatened with cases of journalists who had been murdered with impunity within their own countries. Gender disinformation and gendered hate speech were key issues. These could be combatted by addressing the root causes, including structural inequality; however, these circumstances were often used to justify inaction. A book would be published in November with a 25-step plan to aid States in their responses to gender-based violence. The United Nations could not stay silent, when despots were targeting women in such ways, there needed to be a reckoning to allow women to be defended.
MITZI JONELLE TAN, Convenor and International Spokesperson, Youth Advocates for Climate Action Philippines , said gender injustices were still rising. It was not enough to have women lead - States had to go to the most marginalised lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer persons and women. States must play a role in the empowerment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer persons and women. Gender injustice could not be discussed in a vacuum - it had to be looked at in the context of all those who were discriminated against. Young people needed to be educated at a young age in gender injustice. Everything heard today was appreciated, but work needed to be done.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer persons and young women were becoming ever more vulnerable to climate injustice. In every aspect of work, gender injustice needed to be discussed - it had to penetrate every aspect. It could not be seen just as being perpetrated by outside forces. In some countries the threats to women were not just threats to expression or opinion, but also to their rights to exist. Human rights defenders were often at the forefront of this, threatened sexually, and their families being turned away from them. These panels could not be the end - the system that was being created should not just empower women, but all people across all forms of life. Women needed to not just feel protected, but actually be safe, and to do this, there had to be a holistic approach, from communities, and in all aspects of work.
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Human Rights Council Holds Annual Discussion on the Integration of the Gender Perspective, Focusing on Overcoming Gender-Based Barriers to Freedom of...
Two recently published papers have described experiments in which mouse embryo models were developed from pluripotent stem cells. Mina Popovic and Susana Chuva de Sousa Lopes from ESHREs SIG Stem Cells report.
Two research groups have recently achieved the unthinkable, demonstrating that mouse embryo models derived from stem cells have the potential to develop from pre-gastrulation until early organogenesis in vitro. (1,). The mouse embryo-like structures in these experiments were grown until the equivalent of embryonic day (E)8.5 (a third of a mouse pregnancy). Although many showed clear morphological abnormalities, some structures contained a beating heart, a brain rudiment with fore- and midbrain, patterned neural and gut tubes, migrating primordial germ cell-like cells and progenitors of other organs. Remarkably, they also developed extra-embryonic structures, such as an umbilical cord, amnion and yolk sac that formed blood islands all without the need for maternal tissues.
Over the past years, a flurry of studies have demonstrated the remarkable ability of (mouse and human) pluripotent stem cells to self-assemble into organised embryo-like structures in vitro.(3,4) While traditional developmental biology has been limited by the availability of natural (fertilised) embryos for research, this enhanced stem cell toolkit has enabled several aspects of mammalian peri-implantation development to be captured in vitro. Accordingly, blastoids have recapitulated the blastocyst, gastruloids model features of axis development and gastrulation, while various other embryoids mimic aspects of epiblast, trophoblast and (pro)amniotic cavity formation. Yet, up until now, none of these models have been able to demonstrate the full developmental potential of natural embryos.
Now, these two independent studies, published in Cell and Nature, have applied similar technologies to generate and culture stem cell-based embryo-like structures, demonstrating their self-organising capacity and unprecedented developmental potential. To generate these structures, the group of Magdalena Zernicka Goetz combined mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs) with trophoblast stem cells, and extraembryonic endoderm-like cells, using methods previously pioneered by their own group.(5,6) The second group, led by Jacob Hanna, started solely from mESCs, yet some were made to transiently overexpress master regulatory transcription factors to induce both the trophoblast and extra-embryonic endoderm lineage. The aggregated stem cells first assembled into egg-cylinders and then further progressed into complete mouse embryo-like structures.
To maintain the embryo-like structures in culture, both groups used a platform for extended ex-utero culture of natural embryos from E5 to E11, previously optimised by Hannas team.(7) In this system, mouse embryos are cultured in glass vials rotating on a drum in the presence of rat (or human) blood serum, with an electronic ventilation system regulating gas and pressure.(8) Following extended culture on the rolling platform, the mouse embryo-like structures showed notable similarities to their natural E8.5 counterparts grown either in utero or ex-utero. Remarkably, they increased in complexity over time towards the formation of differentiated organ primordia. However, unlike natural embryos that can be cultured up to E11 using this system, the embryo-like structures could only reach the morphology of an E8.5 embryo. It remains unknown whether these differences are a result of the stem cell aggregation protocols or varying culture requirements.
Certainly, further optimisation of the technology will be necessary. A large proportion of the embryo-like structures developed abnormally, exhibiting a variety of abnormalities during ex-utero culture, including the complete lack of body segments. Of the normal egg-cylinder-shaped embryo-like structures at E5, only around 2% developed to E8.5, yielding an effective 0.1%0.5% efficiency from the total initial aggregates generated. These results were similar across both studies.
Heterogeneity during the formation of embryo-like structures also remains a challenge. Efficiency varied substantially between mESC lines, with some lines not able to generate embryo-like structures beyond E6.
Although further work is necessary to improve efficiency and reproducibility, mouse embryo-like models do hold some advantages over natural embryos. Primarily, they are more amenable to genetic modifications and may provide a powerful in vitro system for elucidating the diverse roles of genes during early organogenesis. This may ultimately reduce the need for experimental animals and natural embryos for research. Evaluating developmental pathways in greater detail than ever before could also enhance the efficiency and control of stem cell differentiation protocols for regenerative medicine.
To demonstrate the functionality of their model, the team of Zernicka-Goetz knocked-out Pax6 (a key gene involved in neural tube patterning, brain and eye development) in the embryo-like structures. Markedly, neural tube development was compromised in the structures lacking Pax6, which is consistent with natural embryos missing this gene.
Accordingly, the future development of similar embryo-like models in human may provide insights into longevity, (in)fertility and developmental diseases. Beyond basic research, Jacob Hanna is hopeful that this method may provide a source of new organs and tissues for human transplantation biotechnology. Yet, their use for reproductive purposes is not and should not be considered, especially since the embryo-like structures are in fact genetic clones of the donor stem cells used for their formation.
Nevertheless, translating this system from mouse to human will not be straightforward. Reaching these same stages of organogenesis in the human would correspond to a first-trimester fetus, a path undoubtedly fraught with technical as well as ethical concerns. In practice, capturing the length of human gestation, sheer size of human organ primordia and complexity of these developmental milestones, will certainly be an immense challenge. At present, the possibility of culturing human embryo-like structures beyond gastrulation, particularly in the absence of key maternal cellular constituents and proper implantation assays, remains unknown.
Concurrent to scientific innovation, continued ethical reflection and societal debate remain imperative. Given their benefits for research, it is reasonable to assume that the quality and developmental potential of human embryo-like structures will gradually improve. Moving forward, considering the extent to which the use of these models raises moral concerns characteristic of human embryo research will be essential. At present, it is unclear whether human embryo-like structures which mimic the intact human embryo show developmental potency beyond gastrulation because of a lack of adequate culture platforms and the 14 day rule, which prohibits in vitro culture of human embryos beyond 14 days. Last year, the International Society for Stem Cell Research recommended relaxing this standard.(9) However, any proposal for the culture of natural embryos or stem cell-based embryo models that mimic the intact human embryo beyond the current 14 day limit must gain broad public support and would require changes in national legislation.
Nonetheless, with the field of developmental biology brimming with continued efforts to refine embryo models, the stem cell toolbox is becoming increasingly valuable. We do anticipate that stem cell-based embryo-like structures will enhance the roadmap for studying early development, offering novel opportunities for exploring the early days of development in real-time and in unprecedented detail.
1. Tarazi S, Aguilera-Castrejon A, Joubran C, et al. Post-gastrulation synthetic embryos generated ex utero from mouse naive ESCs. Cell 2022; 185: 3290-3306.e25. doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2022.07.0282. Amadei G, Handford CE, Qiu C, et al. Synthetic embryos complete gastrulation to neurulation and organogenesis. Nature 2022: doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05246-33. Rossant J, Tam PPL. Opportunities and challenges with stem cell-based embryo models. Stem cell reports 2021. doi.org/10.1016/j.stemcr.2021.02.0024. Veenvliet JV, Lenne PF, Turner DA, et al. Sculpting with stem cells: how models of embryo development take shape. Development 2021; 148: dev192914. doi.org/10.1242/dev.1929145. Sozen B, Amadei G, Cox A, et al. Self-assembly of embryonic and two extra-embryonic stem cell types into gastrulating embryo-like structures. Nature Cell Biology 2018; 20: 979-989. doi.org/10.1038/s41556-018-0147-76. Amadei G, Lau KYC, De Jonghe J, et al. Inducible stem-cell-derived embryos capture mouse morphogenetic events in vitro. Dev Cell 2021; 56: 366-382.e9. doi.org/10.1016/j.devcel.2020.12.0047. Aguilera-Castrejon A, Oldak B, Shani T, et al. Ex utero mouse embryogenesis from pre-gastrulation to late organogenesis. Nature. 2021;593(7857):119-124. doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03416-38. Tam PP, Snow MH. The in vitro culture of primitive-streak-stage mouse embryos. J Embryol Exp Morphol. 1980;59:131-143.9. See https://www.focusonreproduction.eu/article/News-in-Reproduction-Embryo-research
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No eggs, no sperm, no uterus: extending the boundaries of mammalian development in vitro - ESHRE
As we near the midterm elections many are asking how will the Supreme Courts decision on abortion influence how people vote? With a host of other issues like inflation, student loans, the war in Ukraine, immigration, the presidents age, and the pandemic competing for the attention of voters, just how important is the issue of abortion?
Very.
The reason is that in politics, intensity matters. Unlike every other issue pollsters ask about, abortion and the broader questions it raises about reproductive health are central to the existence of 51.1% of the population in a way that no other issue in politics is or has ever been.
From the time a young woman menstruates to the time she is done with the last symptom of menopause and beyond, women are in constant conversation with other women about the everyday reality of their reproductive organs.
For many women these discussions eventually revolve around pregnancy, and for a subset of the female population, there is an additional struggle and trauma associated with getting pregnant in the first place. The intensity of pregnancy is usually the first time in this saga that men become aware of the realities of reproduction as they learn about the dangers and problems their partners could face. For most of human history, pregnancy has been dangerous and often fatal. Women with uteri can experience ectopic pregnancies, preeclampsia, and placental complications. After these health risks comes the trauma of delivery and the possibility of fetal distress, perinatal asphyxia, placenta previa, and host of other complications that can still be fatal even with modern medicine. Most men have never heard of these complications until their wife or partner is pregnant. And after the pregnancy, men rarely talk about these issues again and they recede into the background.
This is no criticism of men, they dont live the reproductive cycle so of course they dont pay much attention to it. But it does make them less acutely aware of the enormous dangers women face when the government starts telling doctors what they can and cannot do to pregnant women. There are some things the government is simply NOT good at and dictating individual medical outcomes is near the top of the list.
So, we now face an election where that is exactly what is on the ballot. Everyone born with a uterus has an interest and a stake in the abortion issue that those without a uterus do not havemeaning, the abortion issue will be intense for a lot of people. In addition to the intensity of this issue is the sheer number of females in the population and the electorate. First, there are more women than men in America167,500,000 women compared to 164,380,000 men.
But more importantly, women vote more often than menin the 2020 presidential election, women constituted 52% of the electorate compared to 48% for men.
Small shifts in this vote yield big numbers. Take, for instance, the swing state of Pennsylvania. It, like many states in 2020, had record high turnout of 6,924,558. According to exit polls, 52% of those voters were women or 3,600,827. A shift of only 3% of the womens votes would be equal to 108,025 votes or 27,470 more than Bidens close victory over Trump.
No wonder Republican candidates are trying to soften their abortion stances. As men get a crash course in reproductive biology, more and more will have the experience that South Carolina State Rep. Neal Collins had when he regretted voting for an anti-abortion law that put a young womens life at risk and the near loss of uterus when her water broke just after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
Collins went on to vote for a less radical billone that listed 12 to 14 situations where the life of the mother would be protected. But what if there are more situations that threaten the life of the mother than the South Carolina legislature knows about? Women know that ultimately these decisions must be made between themselves and their doctors (and the men in their lives know that too). Nothing else will work, which is why the abortion issue is unlike anything else we have seen in politics.
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The abortion issue in the 2022 midtermsunlike any other issue - Brookings Institution
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dr. Al Yuzpe, Chief Medical Officer for The Fertility Partners and a pioneer in reproductive medicine, was awarded The Lifetime Achievement Award at the 68th Canadian Fertility and Andrology Society (CFAS) Annual Meeting.
The Lifetime Achievement Award is a special recognition of an individual for extraordinary commitment and proven long-term contributions to the nonprofit CFAS and the field of reproductive science.
Referred to as the grandfather of in-vitro fertilization (IVF) in Canada, Dr. Yuzpe introduced new treatments, technologies, and procedures that revolutionized the field of fertility medicine in North America and worldwide.
We have always held tremendous respect for Dr. Yuzpes decades of experience and tireless commitment to improving fertility medicine, said Dr. Andrew Meikle, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of The Fertility Partners (TFP). The Lifetime Achievement Award from the CFAS is a great honor and well deserved. I know the entire TFP network is beyond proud to consider him part of the team.
Dr. Yuzpes research on hormones in the 1960s led to the development of clomiphene citrate and human menopausal gonadotropins and greater clinical understanding of follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), some of the most commonly used drugs in fertility medicine today. In 1971 his work led to the development of an emergency contraceptive method using regularly available birth control pills, also referred to as the Yuzpe method.
Dr. Yuzpe was among the first physicians to bring laparoscopic surgery for infertility to North America after learning the technique from his Canadian colleague Dr. Jacques Rioux. In 1982 he founded one of the first IVF centers in Canada at the University of Western Ontario and brought to Canada the procedure of IVF developed by peers Dr. Robert Steptoe and Dr. Patrick Edwards, the U.K. physicians responsible for the worlds first IVF birth in 1978.
Dr. Yuzpe has consulted and advised IVF and infertility treatment physicians all over the world, and continues to advance the field of fertility medicine through his role with The Fertility Partners and as the co-founder and co-director of Olive Fertility Center in Vancouver.
Over the past few years, I have had the opportunity to develop a strong relationship with Dr. Al Yuzpe, said CFAS Executive Director Dr. Goldi Gill. Reflective of his knowledgeable and humble character, he is always willing to lend a helping hand to both me and the CFAS, an organization he has been an integral part of for so many years. I am thrilled that he is receiving this prestigious award, as it demonstrates his dedication to the CFAS, as well as the greater field of assisted reproductive technology (ART).
The CFAS is a multidisciplinary national non-profit Society that serves as the voice of reproductive specialists, scientists, and allied health professionals working in the field of Assisted Reproduction in Canada. Dr. Yuzpe, a former CFAS President, remains an active member of the society.
When I first began my career in obstetrics and gynecology in the 1970s, we didnt have very much to offer those who suffered from infertility, said Dr. Yuzpe. Now there is so much we can do. I feel fortunate to have worked with so many great minds over the years and to have been a part of the growth of fertility medicine. Thank you CFAS for the honor. Together, we have achieved great things.
Dr. Yuzpes contributions to education, research, and innovation greatly advanced fertility treatments that have helped patients worldwide build families. Today, more than eight million babies have been born from IVF.
Read more about Dr. Yuzpes contributions here.
About The Fertility Partners
The Fertility Partners is the business partner of choice for distinguished fertility practices across North America. With a network that includes 13 IVF centers across 36 locations in the U.S. and Canada, the Fertility Partners empowers leading fertility practices to achieve unparalleled patient experiences and outcomes through collaboration, strategic expertise and investment in people, process and technology.
For more information, please visit: http://www.thefertilitypartners.com.
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Pioneer in the Field of Reproductive Medicine Recognized - Business Wire
To the editor,
I am writing in response to the science presented in the letter Simple scientist questions hot potato abortion issue (Aug. 4).
The suggestion that there is a simple definition of life is misleading. Rather, there is a whole set of attributes that set the living apart from the inanimate.
READ MORE: Simple scientist questions hot potato abortion issue
READ MORE: Abortion ban: It cant happen here, right?
The individual is simply defined as a separate organism. By the authors own logic on using this, however, I would argue that a human embryo is not yet an individual as defined by biology, as it is reliant on the living maternal tissues to which it is intimately connected for survival and is therefore far from separate.
Genetic similarities and differences are not used in defining the individual in biology, simply because it gets complicated. For example, many species do sexual reproduction but also produce clonal offspring that are genetically identical to a single parent. Honeybees produce some individuals with a single set of chromosomes (male drones) and others with two sets (female workers).
A number of populations of whiptail lizards are exclusively female and do not reproduce sexually at all, yet their offspring are not strictly clonal due to chromosome rearrangements in the production of eggs. What if we simply apply genetic identity to defining the individual for just humans then? It still doesnt work. If I get a liver transplant, for example, does that mean that my new liver has an identity and rights separate from my own?
Clearly we have moved far beyond simple definitions in modern society, and prefer not to live as worker bees that are solely part of the collective whole with no voice or choice.
Catharine White
Terrace, B.C.
Editors note: Catherine White, PhD teaches biology at Coast Mountain College and is responding to John Krisinger, PhD who taught biology and nursing at Northwest Community College.
Do you have a comment about this story? email: michael.willcock@terracestandard.com
abortionLetter to the EditorScience
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Abortion rights: the science is not so simple after all Terrace Standard - Terrace Standard
US soldiers lined up at Albrecht Drer Airport. (Karl-Josef Hildenbrand / Getty Images)
EDITORS NOTE: This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To stay on top of important articles like these, sign up to receive the latest updates from TomDispatch.com.
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In significant parts of this country, the Supreme Courts June 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade returned Americans to a half-century-old situation in which hundreds of thousands of women, faced with unwanted pregnancies, were once forced to resort to costly, potentially deadly underground abortions. My spouses employer, the Pentagon, recently announced that its own abortion policy, which allows military insurance to cover the procedure when a pregnancy results from rape or incest, or poses a threat to the mothers life, still holds.
Sadly enough, this seems an all-too-hollow reassurance, given the reality that pregnant women in the military are, in many places, likely to face an uphill battle finding providers trained andheres the key, of coursewilling to perform the procedure. The Supreme Court abortion ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health leaves it up to the states to determine whether to allow abortions. In doing so, it ensures that the access of military populations to that procedure will be so much more complicated, especially for spouses who need to seek off-base care, including ones like me who have chosen the military insurance option TRICARE Select that allows us to access almost exclusively civilian providers. Americas 2.6 million military dependents now live in a country where an ever-changing patchwork of state laws can make seeking an abortion costly, risky, and stressful in the extreme.
Any military spouse with young children in tow whos had to relocate somewhere in this nations vast network of military bases can tell you that just caring for another person is challenging in itself. Upon learning youre pregnant, you practically need a PhD to locate a competent obstetrician who also accepts military insurance.
And even when you do, dont discount the problems to come. After an ultrasound, my first provider in the militarys TRICARE Select healthcare program told me that my child was missing a foot. (In fact, he was just positioned with his back to the camera.) My second provider almost injured that same child by attempting to apply force during labor when his head was stuck against my hip bone.
And once youve actually had the child, youre likely to find yourself bickering for hours with uninformed military insurance providers simply to get coverage for a breast pump so you can feed your baby and go to work. Your military-approved pediatrician mayor may not!know anything about local TRICARE Select specialists who can help you address common family problems like deployment-related anxiety in kids. And child care? This countrys child care facilities are already stuffed to the gills and thats even more true of military child care centers. Typically enough, I fear, I was on wait lists for them for years without the faintest success.
Now, add the devastating Dobbs decision to that military reproductive healthcare landscape. Imagine that you want and need an abortion and rely on TRICARE Select, especially if you and your family are stationed in one of the 13 states that have near or total bans on the procedure. If youre lucky enough to have the funds and social connections, you may be able to call in your babysitter to watch your older children and let your employer know that youve got to travel out of state for a medical procedureas if they wouldnt know what kind! Then youll spend what disposable income you have, if anypoverty and food insecurity being rampant in todays militaryto head out of state alone in hopes of getting access to an abortion. Current Issue
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You may want your partner to come with you. If hes not deployed and assuming he supports your choice to seek an abortion, the two of you will face a barrier peculiar to military life: Any service member who needs medical leave must request it through a commanding officer. To be sure, the Army and Air Force have issued directives to commanders not requiring soldiers to state why theyre requesting it. Still, its hard to imagine how a pro-life commanding officer wouldnt see right through such a sudden request and deny it. This is one of the many reasons you may find yourself alone on your journey.
And oh, the places youll go! The nearest abortion clinic likely wont be off base over on Main Street. The states with the most restrictive laws governing abortion also have among the highest concentrations of military bases. So military dependents and soldiers whose insurance or health conditions require them to go off base will likely have to travel across state lines (possibly many state lines) to get the services they need and, of course, do so on their own dime. And by the way, the anti-abortion states are also among those with the largest number of per capita troop hometowns, meaning that military personnel from them are unlikely to get access to care if they go home to be with family during a time when they undoubtedly need extra support.
In other words, in the military world, Dobbs is a recipe for disaster.
For those unfamiliar with the militarys insurance system, let me make a key distinction. Military family members like myself get to choose between two main types of health insurance. The first, called TRICARE Prime, lets you access care in Department of Defense healthcare facilities military bases or posts. This is how active-duty troops typically get care as well. A case manager refers you to various primary and specialty-care providers as needed. With TRICARE Prime, youd be using federal facilities, so you might, at least theoretically, have an easier time getting access to an abortion when, under a narrow set of conditions, the federal government is willing to cover such a procedure.
In my experience as a therapist listening to military spouses over the years, to seek healthcare at military facilities almost invariably involves conflicts of interest. Doctors there tend to treat you as though your concerns about your health or that of your children are remarkably insignificant compared to the needs of the troops. They tend to speak to spouses like me as if we were the only ones responsible for the health of our families, in the process essentially dumping such issues (and the services that go with them) onto the unpaid shoulders of us and us alone.
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To offer an example, a mother I knew in Washington State was increasingly worried about her toddlers rapidly declining weight, only to have that phenomenon dismissed by physicians at a military hospital as the result of poor parenting. In the end, her suspicion that her child was gravely ill turned out to be all-too-sadly correct. Another military wife I interviewed went to couples therapy on a military base to discuss how an upcoming move might impact their marriage. The counselor they saw, she told me, emphasized her spouses service to the country, suggesting that she prioritize his career over hers and complete the move.
Perhaps because of such conflicts of interest and the greater choice offered by civilian-based health plans, most military dependents (72 percent in 2020) choose the second military-authorized insurance program, TRICARE Select. There, you manage your own care by finding civilian doctors willing to accept the Select plan or you simply pay out of pocket for civilian providers, hoping for some reimbursement sooner or later. With this option, if you were faced with an unwanted pregnancy, you would be subject to any abortion restrictions in your surrounding area.
Keep in mind that specialty care like obstetric services is not likely to be easy to find when youre looking for military providers in your community. A recent Pentagon evaluation of access to healthcare found that 49 percent of the people with TRICARE Select could not find a specialist in their community who accepted TRICARE patients, nor could 34 percent travel the necessary distance to reach an appropriate specialist. Meanwhile, 46 percent couldnt access a specialist in a timely manner due to long wait lists. Worse yet, overall access to specialist care within 24 to 48 hours for TRICARE Select beneficiaries decreased significantly between 2016 and 2019 and continued to do so through the first half of 2021.
Lack of access is not an accident. Despite the monstrous size of the Pentagon budget in these years, the Department of Defense actually decreased its health expenditures for all medical programs relative to its overall spending between 2017 and 2020.
In such an environment, its hardly surprising that state abortion bans containing exceptions in cases when pregnancy threatens the parents life will not easily result in access to the procedure. For example, Tennessee, home to five military bases and with a per capita troop concentration about 10 percent greater than the national average, provides exceptions to its ban when a parents life is at risk. Heres the catch: doctors need to be prepared to show evidence that the procedure is necessary to prevent the impairment of a parents major bodily functions were the pregnancy to continueenough evidence that a team of prosecutors with its own expert medical witnesses could not convincingly argue otherwise in court. If not, a doctor could face felony charges and up to 15 years in prison.
Under such circumstances, if you were a doctor considering whether to terminate a life-threatening pregnancy for a patient, would you choose the patient or protect your ability to stay with your own family, avoiding the risk of prison? Im not sure what I would do in such a situation.
Theres reason to believe that even military dependents not seeking abortions could end up struggling to get the pregnancy care they need because of the restrictions doctors will face when it comes to treating complicated pregnancies. For example, the drugs used to induce abortion by medication, misoprostol and mifepristone, are also the most effective ones for treating patients experiencing miscarriages. At the Cleveland Clinic Emergency Department, under Ohios new heartbeat ban, which makes it a felony to end a pregnancy after a fetal heartbeat has been detected, women could soon enough have to wait 24 hours before receiving treatment for miscarriages, since anything earlier might qualify as an illegal abortion. Thankfully, for the time being two judges have placed a pause on the ban.
Another troubling fallout from new state abortion bans is the way providers and their patients are now being left to handle exceptions when a pregnancy results from rape. Many abortion bans contain sexual assault reporting requirements that make it all but impossible for doctors to avoid serious liability. For example, Utahs new abortion law permits the procedure in cases of rape, but for a doctor to perform it without risking criminal charges, he or she would need to report the rape to law enforcement. Similarly, in Wyoming (a state with just one abortion clinic that has two providers), the new exception in cases of rape does not specify how a client should prove that rape occurred, again leaving it up to doctors to decide how to treat patients and protect their own lives from devastating consequences.
The assaulting of civilian women by soldiers is not a widely studied subject, but accounts by activists and journalists suggest that it is a significant problem. Whats more, about 80 percent of rapes committed by soldiers are never officially reported because victims fear retaliation either from their rapist or others in their communities, including their own or their spouses commands. If the rapist happens to be their spouse, reporting the rape in order to obtain an abortion could mean that the family loses its sole source of income, since a convicted rapist would assumedly be discharged from duty. In addition, its widely known that people who report sexual assaults often face uninformed responses from law enforcement officers who doubt their stories or blame them for being attacked, only increasing the trauma of the situation.
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The pro-life activists and policies behind those cowardly laws belie the fact that much of what far-right Americans and their elected representatives support undermines human life. Look at the violence and poverty some of the same leaders who advocate abortion bans allow in a country whose politicians generally choose to sanction war and investments in weapons development over better social services. Look at the way a significant minority of the citizenry support elected officials who encourage violence against other Americans of differing political beliefs. Look at the way some of us would support the separating of parents and children at the end of life-saving journeys away from drug wars and poverty in their home countries.
Given such political headwinds, its worth remembering that a pregnant person is not a passive receptacle but a worker, whether for nine months or the rest of her life. If anyone should have the power to choose death, she should, because there is always a damn good, heart-wrenching reason for doing so.
I dont know how many people realize this, but if Roe had not become the law of the land in 1973 to protect abortion rights, a different case might have taken its place. In the early 1970s, the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, then a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, took up the case of an Air Force nurse in Vietnam named Susan Struck who was told (as was the militarys policy at that time) that she would be discharged if she were to carry her pregnancy to term.
Captain Struck was a devout Catholic who wanted to keep her job and have that baby. Ginsburg argued that all government attempts to regulate reproduction constituted sex discrimination, whether it involved restricting pregnancies or abortions. The Supreme Court agreed to hear the case in 1972, but before that could happen, the military changed its policy, rendering the case moot. Had Ginsburg won that case before the Supreme Court, our legal system might have prioritized parents, not the state, as the ultimate decision-makersheroes no longer navigating a landscape of red tape and indignities.
Last June, right after Roe was overturned, I contacted a fellow military spouse visibly pregnant with her first child. She told me how complicated her feelings were about showing up in Washington, D.C., to advocate for abortion rights just after the draft decision to overturn Roe was leaked this past May. Would people misunderstand her presence at that demonstration? About a year ago, shed sought emergency care for a miscarriage, which she might not have been able to get had abortion rights already been taken away. Perhaps, in the absence of adequate care, she might have suffered complications that prevented her from becoming pregnant this time around. She did, however, attend that demonstration, convinced that advocacy was as important to self-care as any other act in this country.
Hers is a true pro-life position. Its the position of someone who has for years moved from one military base to another. Loving both yourself and your baby is a struggle, not a campaign slogan. As a parent myself, I think that parenting is a journey many more pregnant people would happily embrace if the conditions in this country were significantly more humane. Right now, if you truly care about the lives of us all, its up to you (and me) to join women like my friend in her post-Roe advocacy.
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The Pentagon's Abortion Policy Is an Empty Gesture - The Nation
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This story was originally published by Hakai Magazineandis reproduced here as part of theClimate Deskcollaboration.
Wearing a navy-blue polo neck emblazoned with the Florida Aquarium logo, Keri ONeil hugs a white cooler at Miami International Airport. Coral babieeeeees, she says, before letting out a short laugh. Relief. The container holds 10 plastic bottles teeming with thousands of tiny peach-colored specks. Shaped like cornflakes and no more than a millimeter in length, they are the larvae of elkhorn coral, an endangered species that is as characteristic to the reefs of the Florida Keys and the Caribbean as polar bears are to the Arctic or giant sequoias to Sierra Nevada.
With the larvae kept at 27 C inside their insulated cooler nestled in the trunk of her car, ONeil drives back to the Florida Aquarium in Tampa, where she works as senior coral scientist at the aquariums Center for Conservation. Once there, the larvae begin their metamorphosis from free-swimming specks into settled polyps, the beginnings of those branching, antler-like shapes that define this species. ONeil and her colleagues provide everything the coral needs for a strong start in life: warm water with a gentle flow, symbiotic algae that find a home inside the corals cells, a soft glow of sunlight, and some ceramic squares seasoned with algae that act as landing pads for the larvae.
The transformation of larvae into polyps was the final step in a coral breeding project that began on the shores of Curaao, an island off the coast of Venezuela, in the summer of 2018 and involved a cadre of conservationists and scientists who each specialize in one specific stage of coral development. From collection of eggs during mass spawning events to the cryopreservation of sperm, and from fertilization to larval growth, every step had to go swimmingly for the project to have any chance of success.
Its like the most stressful relay on Earth, says Kristen Marhaver, a coral scientist at the Caribbean Research and Management of Biodiversity Foundation in Curaao, who helped start this relay race by collecting eggs during a nighttime dive at a reef thats a 45-minute drive from her laboratory. As ONeil was picking up her coral babies in Miami, a second team of scientists at Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium in Sarasota, Florida, received its own. The pressure on both labs was immense. To fail now would be to drop the baton just before the final straight.
But, if anything, their efforts were too successful; hundreds of larvae settled as translucent and fragile blobs of tissue (each a single polyp) and then started to divide, branching into the clear waters of their shallow, open-top tanks. Elkhorn coral grows an average of five to 10 centimeters per year, a bamboo-like pace for corals in general. To stop them becoming entangled, ONeil had to cut, separate, and move her colonies to different paddle poolsized tanks over the course of the next year. We almost ended up with a six-foot-by-four-foot solid piece of elkhorn coral made up of 400 different individuals, she says. They were just outgrowing the tanks.
A juvenile elkhorn coral colony, about six months old, gets its start in a lab at the Florida Aquarium in Tampa. The eggs came from coral in Curaao and the sperm from coral elsewhere in the Caribbeanpopulations that, under normal circumstances, would not have mixed in the wild.
Kristen Marhaver
The rows of coral in ONeils tanks are a window into a former world. The reefs of the Florida Keys were once dominated by elkhorn coral. Visiting these islands that curl southward from Florida like the tip of a bird of preys beak, biologist, conservationist, and writermost notably ofSilent Spring, but also of several books on the oceanRachel Carson peered into the shallows using a water glass, an instrument akin to a glass-bottom bucket. Through this simple portal, she saw great stands of trees of stone, a forest of coral. Today, after decades of disease, coastal development, and bleaching, over 95 percent of the states elkhorn coral have been lost.
This population isnt just depleted in number, like a forest thats been felled, but is also impoverished from within. Some reefs in the Keys descend from a single individual that has reproduced via fragmentationbits break off the parent coral and start a new colony. This mode of reproduction allows corals to spread, but without the genetic mixing that comes with sex, these clones are more susceptible to disturbances such as disease.
The coral larvae raised by ONeil at the Florida Aquarium are different; they are the product of sperm and egg, a shuffling of genes, and the growth of genetically unique clumps of coral. Reintroducing them could provide a boost to the corals genetic diversitya quick stir to the gene pooland could save a denuded ecosystem. Their reintroduction could also spell its doom.
Hidden inside the genetic code of the Florida Aquariums coral is a map of an atypical origin: the eggs collected from Curaao were fertilized using sperm from the Caribbean, including Florida. Although the same species (Acropora palmata), these coral populations would never breed in the wild. The distance between the two is hundreds of kilometers and contains the island blockade of the Greater Antillesan impossible journey for any sperm. The coral housed in the Florida Aquarium are the products of human hands, the latest addition to a recentand often controversialtrend in conservation known as assisted gene flow, shuttling existing genetic diversity to new places.
Elkhorn coral spawn only once a year, triggered by the full moon, but estimating the exact time and date of the spawn is tricky. Scientists in Curaao dove for more than 40 nights before the elkhorn coral they were monitoring finally released their eggs.
Smithsonian National Zoo
No hands have offered more assistance to these coral than those of Mary Hagedorn, senior research scientist at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, who is based at the University of Hawaii at Mnoa. Hagedorn flew to the Caribbean to guide this project from start to finish. It is her research that made this work possible. Since 2004, she has developed cryopreservation techniques that can freeze coral sperm andjust as importantlykeep them fertile upon thawing.
Although cryopreservation has been used for IVF in humans and other mammals for decades, its only in the last few years that other coral conservationists have adopted Hagedorns techniques for coral sperm. At a time when these methodologies are most needed, Hagedorns work has matured into a solid science, says Tom Moore, a coral restoration manager at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration at the time of this project and now in the private sector. I think were going to start seeing a lot more of this done in the course of the next few years.
Without the option to freeze sperm, coral conservationists have been forced to work within the few hours these sex cells remain viable. In Florida, Moore says, scientists from the Lower Keys would drive north to meet colleagues from the Upper Keys and swap sperm samples on the side of the road, fertilizing eggs there and then before the sperm stopped swimming. With the option to freeze sperm using liquid nitrogen, however, samples can be transported long distancesfrom Florida to Curaao, for example. Then, when eggs are collected from the reef, the sperm can be thawed and used in concentrations that make fertilization most likely. Hagedorns work opens up new possibilities that, just a few years ago, were largely ignored.
Kendall Fitzgerald, left, and Claire Lager, of the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, use cryopreservation techniques to conserve coral as part of a global biorepository.
Smithsonian National Zoo
Self-funded for many years, Hagedorns research was nearly stopped altogether in December 2011. Her savings had run out and funders didnt seem to see the potential of her work. I was a month away from closing my lab, she says. Then she received an unexpected call from the Roddenberry Foundation, a philanthropic organization set up in memory of Gene Roddenberry, the writer ofStar Trek. Since Hagedorns work fit the criteria for bold and unique science, the foundation wanted to fund her research for five years. Since then, her work has grown to include frozen larvae, frozen coral symbiotic algae, and frozen coral fragments, and it has been adopted by labs around the world. To help her cryopreservation methods spread, Hagedorn runs workshops and shares her techniques freely; the instructions to build her equipment can be downloaded and then manufactured with a 3D printer.
As with IVF in humans, coral fertilization is not a perfect science. In a study published in 2017, Hagedorn and her colleagues showed that fertilization rates from frozen coral sperm are significantly lower than from fresh sperm, roughly 50 percent versus over 90 percent. And these figures were based on coral that lived as neighbors on the same reef. The researchers wanted to increase genetic diversity in the future (through assisted gene flow), but it was still unknown whether populations that had been isolated for thousands of years could produce viable offspring, especially after their sperm had been frozen. The idea to breed elkhorn coral from the Florida Keys with those from Curaao was the most extreme test yet of Hagedorns methods. It was a moonshot for coral conservation, says ONeil. We wanted to do something that had never been done before.
Marhaver thought that they had a five to 10 percent chance of success. To have hundreds of healthy coral now sitting in tanks barely crossed her mind. Conservationists are more attuned to the vibrations of endangerment, extinction, and loss. To have a moonshot succeed is unfamiliar territory. With the impossible now possible, the next hurdle is moving from the lab to the ocean, a leap that not everyone is comfortable with.
As in medical practice, the first rule of restoring ailing ecosystems isprimum non nocere, first, do no harm. And what concerns Lisa Gregg, program and policy coordinator at the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), the organization that decides the fate of the Florida-Curaao coral, is that they arent suited to the local conditions of the Florida Keys, a place that Carson referred to as having an atmosphere that is strongly and peculiarly [its] own.
These islands are formed from sedimentation, while those of Curaao and the eastern Caribbean are founded on volcanic activity. Plus, the Florida Keys also have their own unique combination of problems, from infectious disease to coastal development, and from hurricanes to coral bleaching. We have a lot of problems here, says ONeil. And it is quite likely that the corals that are still alive in Florida after everything thats happened to them are probably the ones that are best suited to living in Florida and providing offspring that may be capable of surviving in Florida.
If Curaao genes were introduced, they might lead to lower rates of reproduction, shorter life spans, or lowered resistance to local diseases. Imperceptible at first, such outbreeding depression can slowly weaken a population, generation by generation. To introduce genes that havent experienced the same history could be a ratchet toward extinction.
The risk of such outbreeding depression is very low, howevera doomsday forecast for Floridas reefs, many conservationists think. Im not so concerned that theres a huge risk of the Curaao [genes] causing a major detriment to the native Florida population, says Iliana Baums, head of marine conservation and restoration at the University of Oldenburg, Germany, who has studied elkhorn coral since 1998. But thats based on my knowledge of the literature for other species and modeling and so on. I dont have any direct evidence for that. Direct evidence would require reintroduction, a catch-22 of conservation; the very thing that is controversial and potentially dangerous is also the route to understanding.
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These Scientists Tried a Coral-Breeding Moonshotand It Worked Mother Jones - Mother Jones
This photograph, taken on February 24, 2014 during an aerial survey mission by Greenpeace in Indonesia, shows cleared trees in a forest located in the concession of Karya Makmur Abadi, which was being developed for a palm oil plantation. Environmental group Greenpeace on February 26 accused US consumer goods giant Procter & Gamble of aiding the destruction of Indonesian rainforests. BAY ISMOYO/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
This photograph, taken on February 24, 2014 during an aerial survey mission by Greenpeace in Indonesia, shows cleared trees in a forest located in the concession of Karya Makmur Abadi, which was being developed for a palm oil plantation. Environmental group Greenpeace on February 26 accused US consumer goods giant Procter & Gamble of aiding the destruction of Indonesian rainforests.
Cases of monkeypox are on the rise in the U.S., with about 67,600 global cases, including about 25,500 in the U.S. Simultaneously, the world is still facing a COVID-19 pandemic, despite the number of cases tapering off.
Researchers say these types of viruses, known as zoonotic diseases, or ones that spread between humans and animals, will become increasingly commonplace as factors such as the destruction of animal habitats and human expansion into previously uninhabited areas intensify.
Monkeypox was first found in monkeys in 1958 and in humans in 1970, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Elements such as deforestation, population growth and animal breeding have removed the boundaries between where humans and wild animals live, bringing them into closer contact.
Since 1990, about 1 billion acres of forest have been cut own to make room for other uses. Deforestation rates have been decreasing, with an average of 25 million acres being cleared each year from 2015 to 2020, down from about 40 million per year in the 1990s, according to a United Nations report.
Besides the impact on the climate, deforestation means a loss of habitat that often ends up driving wildlife nearer to people.
"You're just seeing the effects of the change in the environment, the change in animal behavior, the change in human behavior, bringing wild animals and humans more into contact where they can have more contamination," said Lanre Williams-Ayedun, the senior vice president of international programs at World Relief, a sustainability nonprofit organization.
Those changing patterns in animal migration and reproduction can influence how pathogens behave in their natural host, possibly becoming more contagious in the process, said Dr. Carl Fichtenbaum, the vice chairperson for clinical research for internal medicine at the University of Cincinnati.
"Depending on the particular germ, when it has an opportunity to do this multiple times, the germ adapts to the new species," he said.
A United Nations study found an estimated 60% of known infectious diseases found in humans and 75% of all emerging infectious diseases are zoonotic, or transmitted between species, from animals to humans.
Some of those include Ebola, Zika and COVID-19, which scientists hypothesize started in bats.
Monkeypox is endemic, or regularly found, in some African countries. But because monkeypox can be "self-limiting" and not as transmissible as other viruses. "It wasn't something that you would have thought would become such a big outbreak," Williams-Ayedun said.
The virus was nearly eradicated at one point when people in those regions received vaccines for smallpox, a relative of monkeypox, in larger numbers. But now, vaccine rates are much lower in people 40 and younger, Williams-Ayedun said.
People are also traveling farther and more frequently these days.
"It's easy to spread diseases globally, and we've seen that something that happens in what we think is a remote part of the world somewhere can very easily become something that is a concern where we live," she said.
Luis Escobar, an assistant professor in Virginia Tech's fish and wildlife department, said that while researchers have been able to predict where small outbreaks of monkeypox are more likely to occur poorer regions, areas with war or social conflict or remote places it is in those places where data is less accessible.
"My perception is that the data may not be enough," he said. "The data may have not been enough to anticipate a global epidemic of this magnitude."
He added that scientists must survey zoonotic diseases "in all corners of the world because we don't know which [region] is going to trigger the next pandemic."
Fichtenbaum agrees, and said that with the thousands of germs in the ecosphere, it's hard to know which ones will spread to pandemic-level proportions.
"I think it would be really disingenuous if someone says, 'Well, I can predict that this germ is going to be the next big germ,'" he said. "I think we're not very good at that, in the same way that we're not very good at predicting earthquakes."
Escobar said that in looking to the future, researchers have neglected past data in their work to combat disease spread.
"The research I do is a bit to anticipate the future," he said. "But we're putting a lot of effort to try to reconstruct the past. We're analyzing data from the last century in terms of wildlife diseases, climate, forest laws in the last 100 years and with that, we are understanding what is happening now."
He and his colleagues have used that data in simulations to predict patterns in the next 50 to 100 years. But zoonotic diseases may not need that long.
Escobar's research suggests in the next 12 to 20 years, there could be a significant increase in diseases spread to humans from bats. Diseases endemic to Latin America's bat population could begin making their way to the American South as Latin America gets warmer, he said, which affects the distribution of and quantity of bats.
Additionally, diseases that are only exclusive to animals could tell us a lot about what society might look like down the line.
For example, as global warming continues to intensify, a virus common among fish could decimate aquaculture, causing blows to food production and the economy, Escobar said.
Fichtenbaum says public policy will need to address the spread of zoonotic diseases.
"I think right now, much of the climate change focus has been focused on, 'Well, this is bad for the environment, and we're going to see floods, and we're going to see heat waves, and this may affect economic survival.' But people aren't always looking at it in terms of health and human disease, which is very costly."
In recent years, some researchers in the zoonoses field of study have been pushing toward a "one health" approach, the merging of public health, veterinary health and environmental health, Ayedun-Wliliams said.
Helping people secure jobs, safe shelter and food is also important, as scarcity can result in hunting wild animals or cutting down trees for homes, and in turn, drive zoonotic diseases, she said.
Link:
Climate change is linked to the spread of viruses like monkeypox, experts say - NPR