Human Life

With a ruling on Friday, February 16, the Alabama Supreme Court has in effect shut down all IVF (In-vitro Fertilization) across the country. The Court concluded that frozen human embryos kept in fertility clinics are “children”. The ruling has a devastating impact on couples having to pursue IVF as a way to have a child.


In-vitro fertilization is really in concept easy to understand. A couple has not been able to have a woman become pregnant by way of the usual sexual coming together for whatever the reason may be. The only option is to seek medical help in creating a fertilized human egg which subsequently is implanted into a woman’s uterus for the growth of a child until the moment of birth.

This all happens under medical supervision and treatment. Under normal circumstances, only one egg is released each month from an ovary and pregnancy results when a man’s sperm joins this egg inside the woman’s body. Under medical treatment, a woman undergoes a series of hormone injections that results in multiple eggs being released from an ovary. These eggs are collected and fertilized in a laboratory with sperm provided by a man. The process is called “in-vitro fertilization” as opposed to “in-vivo fertilization” which is inside a woman’s body. Many eggs are typically fertilized.

The fertilized eggs, now called oocytes or embryos, can be kept viable (alive) when frozen at negative 320 degrees Fahrenheit, which is the temperature of liquid nitrogen. This extremely cold temperature halts all metabolism (biological development) of the embryo allowing embryos to be safely stored for an indefinite period of time.

When a woman has been cared for medically and the time is right, one of these eggs is carefully thawed and implanted in her uterus resulting in a pregnancy. If the woman whose eggs were collected has physiological issues (problems with her uterus), sometimes a surrogate woman is chosen to carry the pregnancy to term.

The giant issue comes with what to do with the unused fertilized eggs that are frozen. There may be several not used eggs. And across the country, there are likely tens of thousands of such eggs being held frozen in nitrogen. To now, these eggs have later been destroyed or given for biological research. With the Alabama court ruling the fertilized eggs (embryos) are children, this could create potential criminal charges for murder for the IVF clinics and even for the couples who have agreed to either dispose of unused eggs or donate them to science.

What are we talking about here. When egg meets sperm and joins, there is one egg, one cell. Within about 5-7 days later, there are something around 200-300 cells in a scientific arrangement called a blastocyst. I have included graphics to illustrate these. The underlying question is when does a fertilized egg become a person. The Alabama Supreme Court decided it is at the moment of an egg joining a sperm cell.

If this ruling stands as an absolute across the country, it could well mean the end of all abortion including that resulting from the “morning after” pill. It could mean the end of abortion even in cases where it has been medically determined such a genetic error has occurred that the fetus inside the woman has no chance of being born alive but is alive at the moment. Certainly, it ends any choice of abortion in the case of rape or incest. Maybe one abortion choice that does remain is when the woman’s life is at risk.

So, all sorts of religious and ethical issues now really have to be dealt with. The answers are not clear or easy ones.

One side on the abortion issue would applaud the Alabama court ruling. The other would condemn it and has taken the position abortion should be available to a woman to the moment of birth of a child. It seems to me neither absolute is tolerable. Where lines are drawn is not clear. It is up to our society to figure that out.

The Value of Silence

“We Indians know about silence. We are not afraid of it. In fact, for us, silence is more powerful than words. Our elders were trained in the ways of silence, and they handed over this knowledge to us. Observe, listen, and then act, they would tell us. That was the manner of living.

With you, it is just the opposite. You learn by talking. You reward the children that talk the most at school. In your parties, you all try to talk at the same time. In your work, you are always having meetings in which everybody interrupts everybody and all talk five, ten or a hundred times. And you call that ‘solving a problem’.

When you are in a room and there is silence, you get nervous. You must fill the space with sounds. So you talk compulsorily, even before you know what you are going to say.

White people love to discuss. They don’t even allow the other person to finish a sentence. They always interrupt. For us Indians, this looks like bad manners or even stupidity. If you start talking, I’m not going to interrupt you. I will listen. Maybe I’ll stop listening if I don’t like what you are saying, but I won’t interrupt you.

When you finish speaking, I’ll make up my mind about what you said, but I will not tell you I don’t agree unless it is important. Otherwise, I’ll just keep quiet and I’ll go away. You have told me all I need to know. There is no more to be said. But this is not enough for the majority of white people.

People should regard their words as seeds. They should sow them, and then allow them to grow in silence. Our elders taught us that the earth is always talking to us, but we should keep silent in order to hear her.

There are many voices besides ours. Many voices…”

-Ella Deloria

Transgender Athletes

In the midst of the Biden created chaos and failures, there is an issue that seems to have mostly dropped off of the radar. The issue is that of biological males wanting to compete in womens sports. This becomes particularly critical in competitive sports that demand physical strength and speed and are at the higher performance levels.

The most recent example is of a transgender male breaking records in swimming competition at the University of Pennsylvania. The transgender UPenn swimmer has shattered swimming records held by women swimmers in multiple events. He, now she, was not a top swimmer when competing in men’s sports.

There are other sports, too, where transgender males have come to dominate competition. The truth: the whole idea of “transgender” is a genetic misnomer. Males cannot become women any more than females can become men.

There are only two genders in humans: male and female. Whether one is male or female is determined at the moment of conception and is carried throughout one’s life regardless of belief, attitudes, or behaviors.

It appears we need a basic lesson in biology. From conception, our DNA — you know, the genetic material that from one cell creates our entire body — is packaged in 46 structures called chromosomes. These come in 23 pairs; one from our mother and one from our father in each pair. The chromosomes that determine gender are named the X-chromosome and the Y-chromosome.

A female has an XX pair of chromosomes. A male has one X chromosome and one Y chromosome. So, female or woman is XX and male or man is XY. That is it. This pairing occurs in every cell of our body. It is fixed in time and space and cannot be changed.
So, what is going on with the transgender movement. The most common seems to be biological males who want to be considered female. Letting hair grow long, using make-up, getting hormone treatments, wearing typically female style clothing, and even undergoing body altering surgery does not change the fact a XY male underlays it all.

Being genetically XY or male brings with it fundamental body differences in strength, bone structure, quickness of reflex and more from than of an XX female. These differences give huge undue advantage to such a person competing in womens athletics. XY equals male qualification for male sports only. Pretty easy to understand.

Anything that allows biological males to compete in female sports is victimizing biological females. There have been stories of female high school athletes losing scholarships because of having to compete with genetic males. And now we see instances of biological males being allowed in women/girls restrooms and locker rooms because of claimed gender identity. Abuse of this has been seen.

If transgender males continue to be allowed in women’s sports, we are just beginning to see the demise of women’s sports. I hope both women and men demand an end to this unfair situation. Maybe the answer is to create a whole new category of competition for transgender only individuals whether male or female.

Vaccine Insanity

Biden says all must get the jab or there will be consequences. There could not be a more moronic, maniacal dictate. Biden and his totally incompetent administration are doing their very best to completely destroy our country. The mandatory vaccine jab or be fired is at the top of the list.

Biden’s mandatory vaccine order extends to the military, all federal employees, and all companies that are contracted with the federal government that have more than 100 employees. The mandatory vaccine mandate has been adopted by hospitals, nursing homes, schools, and more. The result: the loss of thousands of experienced, dedicated people and a catastrophic decline in civil safety, health, and education.

We are learning that up to 25% of Navy Seals will be leaving. Thousands of other soldiers, sailors, and marines will the drummed out of the military with purported dishonorable discharges. They all will lose pension and VA health care benefits. All of this because of a completely ignorant — or maybe intentional — dictate by what now appears more to be a dictator than a president. I cannot think of anything more unjust to those who will be dumped out of their dedicated services.

The truth: millions of folks have made the decision to be vaccinated for Covid-19 even though the vaccines are experimental. Millions have chosen not to be vaccinated, but have contracted Covid-19, been sick, and have recovered; many not even knowing they had the virus. Biden insists even those now with a higher degree of immunity than those vaccinated still get the jab. Idiotic. And what is coming next is a dictate for boosters since we now know the current vaccines are not durable and are leaky with break throughs.

Biden’s dictate supported by Dr. Anthony Fauci, the Godfather of the Wuhan Covid-19 virus, is in fact doing exactly what is biologically required for selecting even a more virulent, more dangerous, virus. Do you remember Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and now Delta strains with more to come.

The way to manage the Covid virus now is to stop the Biden/Fauci heavy handed tactics and fear mongering; let Covid run its course combined with a dedicated strong focus on therapeutics to help people when they are sick. From the very beginning, drugs such as Hydroxychloroquine, Invermectin, Remdesivir and others have been used effectively along with the administration of Monoclonal Antibody treatment. The Journal of Drug Delivery and Therapeutics lists close to 20 drugs or treatments that are under study for treatment. None have had time for long term studies as Covid therapeutics, but neither have any of the vaccines. Several are drugs used for years for other illnesses safely with the best example being Hydroxychloroquine which for Covid treatment is classified as an off-label use. Now, some pharmacists are refusing to fill prescriptions by medical doctors for this and other drugs. More insanity.

It is time for people to say enough. It is time for all of us to say, “NO”.