UNFPA-run “round table” in Canada
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has recently published the results of its round table meeting held 26–27 August 1993 in Ottawa, Canada. Like well-behaved mice-in-a-maze, the 25 participants carried out the intent of the funders of the government-sponsored conference, the UNFPA and the Canadian International Development Conference (CIDA). Nodding their heads in unquestioned submission, participants agreed to the usual population controllers’ agenda “women, human rights and reproductive rights, family planning service delivery, contraceptive research, development and introduction; and men and family planning — their roles, responsibilities and concerns” (ICPD 1994, no. 12, Feb. 1994).
Contraceptive testing in Third World
Introductory studies of once-a-month injectable contraceptives were conducted on nearly 10,000 women in Chile, Indonesia, Jamaica, Mexico, Thailand and Tunisia. The World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed “high efficacy under routine use” for the drugs, Cyclofem and Mesigyna, but was “vague” in its description of side-effects. The WHO reported side effects as “relatively low” with discontinuations for bleeding less than half that of Depo-Provera, the progestogen-only injectable.
According to the report, an effort to improve injectable progestogen-only preparations which caused menstrual side effects, began in the 1960s. The “solution” is a monthly injectable combining oestrogen and progestogen. Nine drugs were tested but only two remain in use; one used by one million women in China, the other by one and a half million women in Latin America.
Pregnant and breast-feeding women have been warned against using the drugs since “effects on the fetus and breast milk aren’t known” (Humanity, New Zealand, July 1993)
Population in developing countries checked
Developed countries gave approximately $755 million in 1991 for population activities in the developing world. Overall, 10 countries accounted for 96 percent of all such donor contributions. The United States contributed nearly half the total amount. A report from Population Action International ranked Norway, which devoted more than 4 percent of its overall development aid to family planning, as having the “greatest commitment to population assistance,” followed by Sweden and the United States.
In 1990, population assistance from all sources, including private sources, totaled $971 million; according to preliminary estimates, the total for 1991 probably exceeded $1 billion. Developed countries contributed $668 million in 1990 and about $775 million in 1991. The United States made the single largest contribution to population assistance ($352 million) in 1991, with Germany, Japan and Norway each contributing more than $50 million. Ninety-six percent of contributions to population and family planning activities came from these four countries and from six others, Canada, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom. (“Norway, Sweden and the United States are rated highest in commitment to world population assistance in 1991,” International Family Planning Perspectives, Dec. 93, vol. 19, no. 4, 155).
Pill-associated strokes
Studies conducted in the 1960s and 1970s showed that oral contraceptive users had a risk of cerebral thromboembolic attack 4–25 times that of nonusers, However, because the hormone concentrations in oral contraceptives have been reduced over the past 10–20 years, a Danish researcher reexamined the risk of stroke among women likely to have used the oral contraceptive formulations available in the 1990s.
The retrospective case-control study evaluated the association between oral contraceptive use and stroke in 794 Danish women aged 15–44 who had suffered a cerebral thromboembolic attack. Using Denmark’s National Person Register, he randomly selected 1,588 age-matched controls (two for each stroke patient; age matching women who had the same day and month of birth, but whose age corresponded with the age of the patient at the time of the stroke).
Overall, 36% of the stroke patients had been using oral contraceptives at the time of their attack. Among age-matched controls, 16% were current pill users. The 64% of patients and 84% of controls who were not current users of oral contraceptives were divided into two categories: former users (63% of patients and 80% of controls) and never-users (27% of patients and 18% of controls). A small percentage of subjects in each group could not specify whether they were former users or never-users.
A total of 295 patients and 1,147 controls were included in “a multivariate analysis” that controlled for “age, smoking, years of schooling, and trends” in use of different types of oral contraceptives from 1985–1990.
The researcher concludes, “oral contraceptives are still associated with an increased risk of cerebral thromboembolic attack. The risk decreases with lower estrogen and progestogen doses .… and is not demonstrable with…progestogen-only pills.” He also calculates that “if the odds ratios found in this study are reliable, about 15% of cases of cerebral thromboembolic attack among fertile women would not have occurred if none of them had ever taken oral contraceptives” (International Family Planning Perspectives, Dec. 93, vol. 19, no. 4, 158).
Preparatory session for World Women’s Conference
The first preparatory session for the World Women’s Conference to be held in Beijing in 1995 was opened 7 March 1994 at the United Nations in New York.
Irene M. Santiago, a grassroots organizer in the Philippines, was appointed executive director of the Planning for the Non-governmental Organization (NGO) Forum 95. For the past five years she worked for UNIFEM, the U.N. Development Fund for women. Ms. Santiago was appointed by Supatra Masdit, chair of both the planning and facilitating committees.
The work of the NGO planning committee is aimed at “equal sharing of power and decision-making between men and women at all levels” (“Preparatory session set for Beijing,” The Earth Times, 28 Feb. 1994, 5).
Note on estrogen for menopausal women
“Observational studies suggest that unopposed estrogens reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and fractures and increase the risk of endometrial cancer and, possibly, breast cancer. In the absence of information from randomized trials, how much of the apparent beneficial effect on heart disease is due to the tendency of healthier women to use these drugs is unknown. The effect on the cardiovascular system of estrogen taken with a progestin is unknown, and this regimen may increase the risk of breast cancer. An approach to health and illness that focuses on a single cause or preventative and on single organ systems is severely limited. Alternative ways to improve cardiovascular and skeletal health that do not increase the risk of cancer are available. A reconsideration of the appropriate use of hormone supplements is needed” (American Journal of Public Health 1993, vol. 83, 1670–1673).
The need for reconsideration
“There are no easy answers to the question of how and when powerful drugs should be used among healthy people to prevent illnesses that may or may not ever occur. For unopposed estrogen, there is a considerable body of evidence on long-term effects. Even if much of the observed cardiovascular benefit tums out to be due to selective use of estrogen by healthier women, for some women the benefits to the bone may outweigh risks to the breast or endometrium. For example, estrogen supplements would be useful for hysterectomized women at high risk of fractures. For estrogen/progestin regimens, there are large gaps in knowledge about both benefits and risks, and I see little justification for being sanguine about the potential adverse effects of prolonged use.
“In my view, there has been a tendency to count the potential benefits of hormone supplements as real benefits, to discount potential risks, and to prematurely extend use from high-risk to lower-risk women despite inadequate knowledge of the benefits and risks. The tendency by some physicians to routinely treat all recently menopausal women with supplements suggests a lack of consideration for each woman and of the alternatives” (Law M.R. et al, “Strategies for prevention of osteoporosis and hip fracture,” British Medical Journal, 1991 vol. 303, 453–459; quoted in American Journal of Public Health, Dec. 93, vol. 33, no. 12, 1671).
World Summit on Social Development (WSSD)
The first Preparatory Committee for Social Development, to occur in Copenhagen in 1995, is intended to “find common ground to alleviate and reduce poverty, expand productive employment, and enhance the social integration of the growing numbers of society’s outcasts.”
The WSSD chairman, Ambassador Juan Somavia, of Chile, feels that the PREPCOM has “accomplished its mission” of throwing a “spotlight on the growing social tensions” in the world and “the high political cost of inaction …. Changes are necessary,” he said.
The key “behind the scenes issue” has been described as the “rift between the developed North and the developing South” over who should help the “poorer nations build their economies” (“Social Summit need sharper focus on goals,” The Earth Times, 28 Feb. 14).
Culturing Sperm
Researchers have succeeded in “culturing male germ cells in vitro and bringing them through meiosis to become mature sperm.” This was achieved by culturing immature germ cells from mice with Sertoli cells. Sertoli cells are essential to support and nourish the immature germ cells, but previous attempts at culturing germ and Sertoli cells have failed because cultured Sertoli cells degenerate rapidly and disappear.
Lead researcher, Francois Cuzin of the Universite de Nice-Sophia Antipolis, immortalized Sertoli cells by introducing an antigen of polyomavirus into their genomes. The polyomavirus acts as an oncogen capable of immortalizing cells without altering their properties. Once a cell is immortalized it can continue forever in tissue culture from one cell generation to the next. This may lead to the identification of genes and proteins involved in dividing DNA into two.
A practical aspect of such research will be the study of substances that are toxic to germ cells. Such studies may also lead to the identification of some of the reasons for male infertility but could raise ethical questions: if human germ cells can be brought to maturity in vitro, will it be possible to introduce selected genes into them? Professor Cuzin says that he does not know whether human germ cells can be cultured in the same way because their development may not be helped by immortalized Sertoli cells from mice. It may not be possible to create an immortalized line of human Sertoli cells. The work was done in collaboration with the Medical Research Council Human Genetics Unit of Edinburgh and the Sloan-Kettering Institute in New York (“Scientists grow sperm from germ cells,” British Medical Journal, vol. 308, 15 Jan. 1994).
The Vatican summons envoys
Diplomatic sources say that the Vatican’s summons to all ambassadors accredited to the Holy See was an attempt “to influence a U.N. sponsored International Conference on Population and Development.” The ambassadors were scheduled to listen to addresses by Pope John Paul’s two top diplomats “and his experts on issues of justice and the family.”
Addresses were given to the envoys by Secretary of State Angelo Sodano and foreign minister Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran. Reports were also given by Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, head of the Vatican’s Council on Justice and Peace, and Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, head of its Council on the Family.
During the previous week, the Pope addressed Nafis Sadik, the executive director of the United Nations Population Fund, in what was seen as “a scathing attack” against sterilization, abortion and contraception. One diplomat, commenting on the summons said, “They are firing all their big guns. This means they are taking the Cairo Conference very, very seriously” (Reuters, 18 Mar. 1994)
The Danish Model of social development
The Danish believe that their welfare state is the world’s best — of course. In Denmark, social benefits are paid by taxes rather than following the German model where “social security rests on insurance schemes based on the labor market.” Danish social reforms were begun with the introduction of “national and invalidism pensions in 1956.” Compensatory benefits for people in need were supplemented with benefits for families and benefits to cover housing expenses. Unemployment was revised so that in the case of very high unemployment, the central government assumed financing responsibility.
The National Assistance Act of 1976 initiated “consideration-oriented consideration of cases” to keep “social problems from arising.” Since then “public support” has apparently become a “source of long term maintenance” for a large number of people. Further, in recent years the growth in the gross domestic product (GDP) has dropped from 5–6 percent to not much more than 2 percent (for a number of years it was negative); unemployment continues at 8 percent; and the “annual [government] deficit has been 4 to 6 percent of the GDP” (“Behind the welfare state,” The Earth Times, 28 Feb. 1994, 21).
Why the U.S. debate on most favored nation status for China?
The Irish Democrat reports the shocking fact of China’s slave labor camps. Harry Whey, the noted human rights activist who spent 19 years in such a camp, described the imprisonment of 10 million Chinese in forced labor camps.
Recently, four Chinese human rights activists have disappeared from their homes after having organized calls for justice and national dialogue on political change. Since Chinese premier Law Peng “reintroduced controls on religious activity” 14 people were arrested in a rural village in Henan province. Seven were apparently foreigners but seven others were members of a “local house church” (“Unpaid prison laborers boost Chinese exports,” The Irish Democrat, 10 Mar. 1994, 13).
Universalizing condoms — or AIDS?
Mechai Veravaidya has his bets covered in all directions. Not only has he benefited handsomely from feeding USAID funds through his own business, the Community Development Association, for population control in his home country of Thailand, but now there is a chance to expand his business ventures into China.
Smiling Mechai, known in Thailand as “The Condom Man,” is after all, a venturesome entrepreneur. Hand in hand with the other world money-men, Mechai is eyeing China’s millions as a source of millions of dollars. In Mechai’s cost/benefit analysis, it would be reasonable to assume that millions of condoms could be sold in the ready market provided by a state-enforced population program. After all Mechai hasn’t been given a chair at Harvard University for lack of astuteness.
Now comes the condom master as a restauranteur — another form of entrepreneur after all. Beijing is about to benefit from the presence of one of Mechai’s chain of restaurants, “Cabbages and Condoms.” In conjunction with China’s Family Planning Association, Mechai’s restaurant will open in March. As the man who almost “singlehandedly engineered Thailand’s successful family planning campaign,” he has hopes of expanding his entrepreneural ventures to Hanoi next.
Beijing can now ‘enjoy’ the sight of Mechai marching grandly down the street in his condom costume ‘desensitizing’ the Chinese on sexual issues just as he bragged about desensitizing his fellow Thais. Of course, the desensitized Thais also suffer from one of the world’s highest incidents of AIDS — which for Mechai — only expanded his market. “One day,” he bragged, “we’ll have more of our restaurants than McDonalds…Well, outside America anyway” (excerpts from David Schlesinger, “Thailand’s Mr. Condom to open restaurant in China,” Reuter, 21 Feb. 1994).
Women mourn spontaneous pregnancy loss
Researchers at a hospital offering genetic counseling and second-trimester abortion services conclude that: “Women who terminate a wanted pregnancy because of fetal defect are just as likely to grieve afterward as are women who experience a late spontaneous pregnancy loss.”
Twenty-three women who had an abortion after discovering they were carrying a defective child, when compared with women who suffered a late spontaneous abortion, reported the same grief reactions without “significant difference[s] between the groups.” Both groups also showed “some signs of depression.” The researchers advised, “women who decide to terminate pregnancies for fetal anomalies should be offered anticipatory guidance routinely…, and at times referral for psychiatric intervention” (Family Planning Perspectives, Nov./Dec. 1993, 243).
