Pro Choice - This is why Canada should not re-open the abortion debate

Today, Conversative MP, Stephan Woodworth wants to open the debate around the definition of when human life begins and admits it is to re-open the issue of abortion rights in Canada.

I don't like where he's going with this.

While I think that biological arguments could be made that human life begins at conception, another biological and ethical argument can be made that a zygote/embryo/fetus depends on the life of it's host (the mother) who is an autonomous human being with rights and freedoms. The life of the zygote/embryo/fetus has serious impacts on the life and health of the mother. Our criminal code recognizes this and protects the rights of the autonomous human being. Therefore we do not need to to change our criminal code definitions - precisely because it endangers the rights, health, and well-being of autonomous human beings.

Coincidently, the author of "What Pale Blue Dot?" wrote about why she is pro-choice and I couldn't agree with her more.

Because I know that pregnancy kills, and more pregnancies kill more, and I believe in a woman's right to ensure her own survival (if for nothing else but to care for existing children), I strongly believe that women should have affordable, safe access to any and all measures to prevent and terminate pregnancy and the social support to utilize these measures.  Women should be in absolute control of when and under what conditions they put their lives at risk to bear a child. (emphasis mine) And we should value their lives enough to respect that agency.

For comparison, the death rate in any abortion procedure between 1993 and 1997 was .6 per 100,000 (Kaiser, 2002).  This makes ANY abortion, including late term, overall ten times safer than pregnancy and childbirth.  As it happens, this rate is still accurate, with more risky surgical abortion risk at .625 per 100,000 (NAF, 2006).
The takeaway on this is pregnancy is risky.  It may be less risky in wealthy nations when women have access to excellent medical care.  But it is always risky.  Women should be free to only take on this risk willingly and enthusiastically.  (emphasis mine) As such, all family planning services, contraceptive and abortive, are basic lifesaving healthcare and should never be denied to women.
Any denial of this lifesaving care is to presume that the life of a woman is less important than that of her potential offspring.

What bothers me most about pro-life activists is that they sure do seem to care a hell of a lot about the unborn than the living.

Please write your MPs and ask them to honor promises made by Stephan Harper that he will not allow this debate to be re-opened.

Blurring the Line Between Science-based Medicine and Alternative Medicine.

This post at Skeptic blog reminded me of a time when I visited a physiotherapist regarding some pain I was experiencing in my hip after training for a few months to participate in my first distance run. After a physical examination, I was informed that my left hip had rotated forward. The therapist took our a picture of the anatomy of the muscles and bones of the pelvis and explained in detail how the hip was positioned, how it affected the connecting tissue and muscle, and explained how it was causing me so much pain. He then performed a quick adjustment to my left hip, I actually heard my hip click back into place and felt immediate relief. The next thing my therapist said was that the muscle would be sore for a few days, and if I wanted to relieve the pressure, he could massage it - which would take a few sessions - or he would use acupuncture to relieve the soreness, and that could be done in one session. So I asked him if he was qualified to perform acupuncture, which he was, and then submitted to the treatment.

Now, I had been walking and running around on that hip for almost a year - thinking it was a muscle strain that would just heal itself in time. The relief I felt after my visit to the physiotherapist was exquisite and for awhile I credited both the adjustment and the acupuncture for my relief. Awhile later I came across some unflattering science that showed that acupuncture didn't do much besides provide a placebo effect on most patients - so I started wondering if perhaps the acupuncture didn't do what I thought it had done. Perhaps my relief would have been just as good with just the hip adjustment?

Sure enough about 2 years later, my hip rotated again while running. I decided to not suffer and went right to a physiotherapist for treatment. They did the same adjustment to my hip - without the acupuncture - and the relief was just as welcome and effective. This just goes to show - as outlined so well in the blog post over at skeptic blog - that us regular folk can be easily fooled into believing an alternative treatment works when it was really the science-based treatment that deserves all the credit.

In a country like Canada where we have public health care, we need to ensure that our tax dollars are paying for science-based medical treatments and not squander our shared resources on alternative treatments that have not stood up to the rigorous standards and testing that science-based medical treatments have.

Context is Everything

Disclaimer: I am not a scientist or health professional - these are just the ramblings of a soon-to-be-parent. I plan to follow the recommended vaccination schedule for my children.

So this weekend I was visiting with a family member and the topic of vaccines came up. This family member, a fairly new mom herself, said that she tried to read a link I posted on facebook regarding vaccinations but it wouldn't open for her and asked me what it was about. I explained that the links were about the common concerns that many parents, who choose not to vaccinate, have about vaccines and the science that addresses these concerns directly. The links are as follows for anyone who is interested:

A short video on "Dangerous" Vaccine Ingredients

A blog post: Skepticblog: The Long Awaited CDC Trial on Thimerosal and Autism


We spoke bit about the contents of the above video and she shared an anecdote about a friend of hers whose six-month old baby had had a seizure after his vaccination. Having recently reading a blog about a doctor who witnessed a baby seizure right before giving a vaccine, I knew that it was possible that the vaccine may not have caused the seizure. The doctor in the blog post could understand how convincing it would look to a parent that the vaccine caused the seizure had the needle been given just 5 minutes sooner. So I asked my friend what the doctor said about the seizure - apparently the doctor said that seizures happen about 1 in 30,000 children.

Now I have to admit that this piece of information was new to me - and it seemed high - high enough that surely someone in the medical field would be studying it and explaining it (scientists are, do a google scholar search on the topic, the results are interesting). For the first time in about two years, since I started looking into vaccine safety claims, I actually questioned whether or not I would vaccinate my child. It just didn't make sense to me that the government and public health authorities would continue to recommend something that caused seizures in small children so I did a little digging and thought I would share my journey.

The first thing I did was do a little digging to find out if the information in this anecedotal tale was reliable. It turns out that in Alberta, the vaccines recieved at six months are DTaP-IPV-Hib to protect against diphtheria, pertussis (whooping cough), polio, Hib and tetanus (for more info see: http://www.health.alberta.ca/health-info/imm-dtap-ipv-hib.html). It also turns out that one of the reported uncommon side effects for 1 in 15,000 children is seizures (yikes, that sounds scary). But then I discovered that seizures are actually quite common in babies and have numerous causes but are most likely not connected to vaccines (see: http://pediatrics.jwatch.org/cgi/content/full/2010/825/1 and http://www.ehow.com/about_5147016_causes-seizures-infants.html).

Febrile seizures (seizures caused by fevers) occur in 1 in 30 children over the age of six months. Fever is a common side effect of vaccines and I think it is safe to say that most seizures associated with a recent vaccine is probably caused by fever. When I read how common febrile seizures are in the general population of infants and children (1 in 30), and that there are no long-term, harmful consequences for febrile seizures, all of a sudden a 1 in 15,000 chance of a seizure from vaccines didn't seem as scary.

Resources I've Found Helpful as a lay-person trying to understand vaccine safety.

Alberta's Immunization Program


Public Health Agency of Canada


Vaccine Section of the Science-Based Parenting Blog


Vaccines and Autism: A Deadly Manufactroversy

And if you are not a reader - I thought these two podcasts were excellent!

Parenting Beyond Belief Podcast Episode 8: Vaccines


Parenting Beyond Belief Podcast Episode 9: Vaccines (Part 2)

A Day in the Life of Gestational Diabetes

So I went to my diabetes doctor last Thursday and so far it looks like I can manage my glucose levels with just diet and some exercise. I am so glad I got into my diabetes clinic so fast, the nutritional information was so helpful. Here is what my diet looks like now - and so far it is working at helping me maintain my glucose levels so I don't put too much pressure on my developing baby.

In a day, I am susposed to eat three meals and three snacks. Throughout the day I need to include the carbs, protein and fat in each meal or snack.

Each carbohydrate "serving" is 15 grams of carbs and can come in the form of fruits, vegetables, milk, and grains.

A protein "serving" is 7 grams of protein and 3 grams of fat - should stick to lean meats.

A fat "serving" is 5 grams of fat, and should be low in saturated fats.

Here is what an eating day looks like for me.

Breakfast

1 egg on a slice of whole wheat toast (1 protein and 1 carb serving)
1/2 cup of sliced strawberries and a 1/2 cup of yogurt (2 carb servings)

Morning Snack

1 orange (1 carb)
1 cheese stick (1 protein, 1 fat)

Lunch

1.5 cups of chili made of tomoates, beans, extra lean ground beef, carrots, onions (3 proteins, 2 carb, 2 fats)
Whole Grain Crackers (2 carbs)
1 cup skim milk (1 carb)

Afternoon Snack

1 apple (1 carb)
1 cheese stick (1 protein, 1 fat)

Dinner

1 piece Shephards Pie (2 proteins, 3 carbs, 2 fats)
Spinach Salad (greens are "free" carbs) w/ dressing (1 fat)
1 cup skim milk (1 carb)

Bedtime Snack
Peanut Butter on Whole Wheat Toast (1 carb, 1 protein)

With a lot of diet books advising us to ban carbs from our diet, the biggest thing I've learned from this experience is that we need carbs in our bodies - it's part of our fuel. Carbs come in many forms and we need the ones that come from fruit, veggies, whole grains, and milk products balanced with protein and healthy fat sources - the three macro-nutrients work together for our good and our body is made to process these food sources. The only "bad" carbs are processed ones with refined sugars.