The heartbeat of an unborn baby begins on the 21st day after conception ...

An abortion is a procedure to end a pregnancy. It uses medicine or surgery to remove the embryo or foetus and placenta from the uterus. The procedure is done by a licensed physician or someone acting under the supervision of a licensed physician.

The Pro-Choice or Pro-Life debate.

Abortion is a highly emotional issue ... should it be legal? And if so, until the foetus is how many weeks? What about special circumstances such as rape, incest or illness?

Should women that have had several abortions through not taking birth control, be sterilised? How do these issues vary in different countries or religions?

The decision to end a pregnancy is very personal. If you are thinking of having an abortion, most healthcare providers advise counselling.

recommended site:

abortionfacts.com

More than 25m people have died of AIDS since 1981. At the end of 2007, women accounted for 50% of the adults living with HIV and young people (under 25yrs old) account for half of all new HIV infections worldwide ...

HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) is a virus, that infects cells of the human immune system and progressively destroys or impairs their function, leading to AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome).

A person infected with HIV may look and feel perfectly well for many years, and may not know they are infected, which has lead to the spread of this deadly virus. The only way of finding out, is with a blood test.

Antiretroviral medication (very powerful and often with very serious side effects) can prolong the time between HIV infection and the onset of AIDS but there is still no cure for AIDS

Infection occurs through:

• unprotected penetrative (vaginal or anal) and oral sex with an infected person

• blood transfusion with contaminated blood

• by using contaminated syringes, needles or other sharp instruments

• from an infected mother to her child during pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding

AIDS and HIV has reached epidemic proportions in many developing countries, and is serious enough for the United States to consider it a threat to its national security.

UNAIDS estimated at the end of 2007 that worldwide, there were:

• 32.8 million living with HIV
• 2.5 million new infections of HIV
• 2 million deaths from AIDS

Some 80% of deaths for 2007 were in Sub-Saharan Africa, a region that also has over two-thirds of adult HIV cases, and some 90% of all children living with HIV.

We believe strongly, that the Drug companies have a moral obligation to make their antiretroviral medication available at cost, to the poorer countries in the World, some of which are being decimated by this deadly virus. Africa has 11.6 million AIDS orphans.

recommended sites:

avert.org

unaids.org

Eating disorders have the highest mortality rates of any mental illness ...

Eating disorders are extremes in eating behavior. The diet that never ends and gradually gets more restrictive, or binge eating, or compulsive overeating, they are fuelled by mental issues rather than physical and eating disorders are often covered up by the individual.

The most common types of eating disorder are anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa.

Other food-related disorders, like binge eating, compulsive overeating, body image disorders, and food phobias, are on the increase.

People with anorexia have an extreme fear of weight gain and a distorted view of their body size and shape. As a result, they can't maintain a normal body weight.

Some people with anorexia restrict their food intake by dieting, fasting, or excessive exercise. They hardly eat at all — and the small amount of food they do eat becomes an obsession.

recommended sites:

eatingdisorder.com

beateatingdisorders.co.uk

nationaleatingdisorders.org

An estimated 200+ million children, aged 5-14, are engaged in child labour - one in six children in the world.

Millions of children are engaged in hazardous situations or conditions, such as working in mines, working with chemicals and pesticides in agriculture, or working with dangerous machinery. They are everywhere but invisible, toiling as domestic servants in homes, labouring behind the walls of workshops, hidden from view in plantations.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, around one in three children are engaged in child labour, representing 69 million children. In South Asia, another 44 million are engaged in child labour.

Children living in the poorest households, and in rural areas, are most likely to be engaged in child labour. Those burdened with household chores are overwhelmingly girls. Millions of girls who work as domestic servants, are especially vulnerable to exploitation and abuse.

Labour often interferes with children’s education. Ensuring that all children go to school, and that their education is of good quality, are key to preventing child labour.

recommended site:

ilo.org

In the USA, since 1973, over 120 people have been released from death row with evidence of their innocence and yet, 35 of the 50 US states, still have the death sentence, the majority favouring lethal injection ...

For further interesting USA death sentence facts, please click here

Few public policy issues, have inflamed passions as consistently, and as strongly, as the debate over capital punishment.

Religious communities have been deeply involved on both sides of the issue, drawing on teachings and traditions of justice, and the dignity of human life.

This debate over the death penalty has been further complicated in recent years, by questions regarding both the fairness of the criminal justice system, and the possibility of reform and rehabilitation among death row inmates.

And yet, the USA is still engaged in a cruel, brutalizing, unreliable, unnecessary and hugely expensive activity, for no measurable gain.

There is no evidence that the US authorities have prevented a single crime with this policy ... They have diverted countless millions of dollars away from more constructive efforts to fight crime. And the macabre absurdity is, that it creates more victims - the family members of the condemned - often in the name of victims' rights.

The death penalty is a symptom of a culture of violence, not a solution to it. The sooner US politicians begin to find the political courage to educate public opinion, rather than hide behind it, the better.

That said however ... we do believe that the death sentence is justified, solely in the case, where a terrorist or mass murderer is caught "physically in the act", or via DNA, with the intention of maiming and killing innocent people (even if they fail). In these instances, we belief that the death sentence should be an available option for the courts.

recommended site:

deathpenaltyinfo.org

Many people view view domestic violence as exclusively part of certain ethnic or racial communities, or as unique to certain classes, within their societies. This is a myth!

Domestic violence claims the life of one woman every four days in France. The situation is worse in many Asian and African countries ...

In 1999, the UN declared 25 November the "International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women" and invited governments, international organizations, and NGOs to organize activities to raise public awareness of the problem on that day.

"The research we have done so far shows that violence against women is pretty widely spread across all countries, in all parts of the world, and it is a very commonplace abuse of human rights in all societies,"

AFP news agency reports that according to a recent French study, a total of 164 women and 47 men were killed in domestic-violence incidents in 2003 and 2004. All but one of the women were killed by a man, and all but one of the men by a woman. The information comes from questionnaires sent to police around France.

The first-ever World Health Organization (WHO) study on domestic violence, released on 23 November reveals that intimate-partner violence is the most common form of violence in women's lives -- much more so than assault or rape by strangers or acquaintances.

The WHO study is based on interviews with more than 24,000 women from rural and urban areas in 10 countries: Bangladesh, Brazil, Ethiopia, Japan, Namibia, Peru, Samoa, Serbia and Montenegro, Thailand, and the United Republic of Tanzania.

Lee Jong-wook, director-general of the Geneva-based WHO, said the study shows that domestic violence is a major public issue.

recommended site:

stopviolence.com

The global drug problem is being contained. The production and consumption of cannabis, cocaine, amphetamines and ecstasy have stabilized at the global level—with one exception.

The exception is the continuing expansion of opium production in Afghanistan. This expansion continues to pose a threat—to the security of the country and to the global containment of opiates abuse.

Even in Afghanistan, however, the large scale production of opium is concentrated and expanding in a few southern provinces where the authority of the central government is currently limited and insurgents continue to exploit the profits of the opium trade.

On the whole, most indications point to a leveling of growth in all of the main illegal drug markets. This is good news and may indicate an important juncture in long term drug control.

A stable and contained problem is easier to address than one which is expanding chaotically, provided it is seen as an opportunity for renewed commitment rather than an excuse to decrease vigilance.

World Drug Report 2007, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (p.25)

recommended site:

talktofrank.com

Although many feel euthanasia is an unethical practice, there are many (even within the medical field) who believe that euthanasia is far more ethical to those who have suffered terribly at the hands of debilitating and terminal illnesses.

Today, In the United States of America, euthanasia is illegal in every state with the exception of Oregon, and even there it is a very long and hard struggle . (The Oregon Death with Dignity Act) Since then, this euthanasia has taken the lives of nearly 100 people.

Like any other issue, there are opposing viewpoints regarding the legalization of euthanasia. If euthanasia were to be legalized, where would it end? Would the terminally ill be the only people using this method? The world looks to the Netherlands as the only working model for assisted death. There was one set of beliefs, ideals, and norms.

However, because of medicine's new technological capacities to extend life, the problem has become much more controversial. It is a nation known for its open approach to abortion, prostitution and drug use. This country's "right to die" policy is what many activists look towards as an example of a working system, but they fail to take into account the other decisions which have been devised by the same system.

recommended site:

deathwithdignity.org

Why in this century is famine still a reality? Is it because there is no oil in Africa? Is it because of global warming? What are governments really doing and what could we do to help?

The food crisis appeared to explode overnight, reinforcing fears that there are just too many people in the world. But according to the FAO, with record grain harvests in 2007, there is more than enough food in the world to feed everyone—at least 1.5 times current demand.

In fact, over the last 20 years, food production has risen steadily at over 2.0% a year, while the rate of population growth has dropped to 1.14% a year.

Population is not outstripping food supply. “We’re seeing more people hungry and at greater numbers than before,” says World Hunger Program’s executive director Josette Sheeran, “There is food on the shelves but people are priced out of the market.”

Eric Holt-Giménez and Loren Peabody, From Food Rebellions to Food Sovereignty: Urgent call to fix a broken food system - Institute for Food and Development Policy, May 16, 2008

recommended site:

bread.org

Eliminating the millions of tonnes of food thrown away annually in the US and UK could lift more than a billion people out of hunger worldwide.

Food Ethics Council argue that excessive consumption of food in rich countries inflates food prices in the developing world.

Food waste also costs UK consumers £10.2bn a year and when production, transportation and storage are factored in, it is responsible for 5% of the UK's greenhouse gas emissions.

Food waste costs every household in the UK between £250 and £400 a year.

Read one students assigment on dealing with food waste

food waste

In the UK, gay people have legal rights almost equivalent to straight couples in the form of civil unions, but marriage still eludes them.

Should full marriage be extended to same-sex couples? And does it have anything to do with religion?Is there any religious reason why this state of affairs should continue? Should non-religious gay people buy in to what many see as a religious institution? Is gay marriage a religious issue?

Should gays and lesbians be allowed to marry? If not why not? Is there still bias in the workplace and in society in general? How do these issues differ in different countries and religions?

recommended site:

lifelube.org

Trafficking in children is a global problem affecting large numbers of children. Some estimates have as many as 1.2 million children being trafficked every year. There is a demand for trafficked children as cheap labour or for sexual exploitation. Children and their families are often unaware of the dangers of trafficking, believing that better employment and lives lie in other countries. 

Child trafficking is lucrative and linked with criminal activity and corruption. It is often hidden and hard to address. Trafficking always violates the child’s right to grow up in a family environment.

In addition, children who have been trafficked face a range of dangers, including violence and sexual abuse. Trafficked children are even arrested and detained as illegal aliens.

UNICEF estimates that 1,000 to 1,500 Guatemalan babies and children are trafficked each year for adoption by couples in North America and Europe.

Girls as young as 13 (mainly from Asia and Eastern Europe) are trafficked as “mail-order brides.”  In most cases these girls and women are powerless and isolated and at great risk of violence.

Large numbers of children are being trafficked in West and Central Africa, mainly for domestic work but also for sexual exploitation and to work in shops or on farms. Nearly 90 per cent of these trafficked domestic workers are girls.

Children from Togo, Mali, Burkina Faso and Ghana are trafficked to Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Cameroon and Gabon. Children are trafficked both in and out of Benin and Nigeria. Some children are sent as far away as the Middle East and Europe.

recommended site:

notforsalecampaign.org

Mental health is defined as a state of well-being in which every individual realizes his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to her or his community.

Mental, neurological and behavioural disorders are common to all countries and cause immense suffering. People with these disorders are often subjected to social isolation, poor quality of life and increased mortality. These disorders are the cause of staggering economic and social costs.

Hundreds of millions of people worldwide are affected by mental, behavioural and neurological disorders.

For example, estimates made by WHO in 2002 showed that 154 million people globally suffer from depression and 25 million people from schizophrenia, 50 million people suffer from epilepsy and 24 million from Alzheimer and other dementias.

In addition to the above figures, many other disorders affect the nervous system or produce neurological sequelae. Projections based on a WHO study show that worldwide in 2005, 326 million people suffer from migraine; 61 million from cerebrovascular diseases; 18 million from neuroinfections or neurological sequelae of infections. Number of people with neurological sequelae of nutritional disorders and neuropathies (352 million) and neurological sequelae secondary to injuries (170 million) also add substantially to the above burden.

Mental illnesses affect and are affected by chronic conditions such as cancer, heart and cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and HIV/AIDS.

About 877,000 people die by suicide every year.

One in four patients visiting a health service has at least one mental, neurological or behavioural disorder but most of these disorders are neither diagnosed nor treated.

Cost-effective treatments exist for most disorders and, if correctly applied, could enable most of those affected to become functioning members of society.

Barriers to effective treatment of mental illness include lack of recognition of the seriousness of mental illness and lack of understanding about the benefits of services. Policy makers, insurance companies, health and labour policies, and the public at large – all discriminate between physical and mental problems.

recommended site:

mentalhealth.com

Who is to blame for obesity, purely the individual or food companies & fast food chains? Is obesity a phsical or mental issue or both? What diets really work? Is refined sugar a hidden poison?

Overweight and obesity are defined as abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that presents a risk to health. A crude population measure of obesity is the body mass index (BMI), a person’s weight (in kilograms) divided by the square of his or her height (in metres).

A person with a BMI of 30 or more is generally considered obese. A person with a BMI equal to or more than 25 is considered overweight.

Overweight and obesity are major risk factors for a number of chronic diseases, including diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and cancer. Once considered a problem only in high income countries, overweight and obesity are now dramatically on the rise in low- and middle-income countries, particularly in urban settings.

WHO’s latest projections indicate that globally in 2005 approximately 1.6 billion adults (age 15+) were overweight and at least 400 million adults were obese.

WHO further projects that by 2015, approximately 2.3 billion adults will be overweight and more than 700 million will be obese.

At least 20 million children under the age of 5 years are overweight globally in 2005.

Once considered a problem only in high-income countries, overweight and obesity are now dramatically on the rise in low- and middle-income countries, particularly in urban settings

recommended site:

obesityfocused.com

By now most well-informed people are aware that global oil production may soon reach its all-time peak, and that the consequences will likely be severe.

Already many important oil-producing nations (such as the United States, Indonesia, and Iran) and some whole regions (such as the North Sea) are past their production maximums.

With nearly every passing year another country reaches a production plateau or begins its terminal decline.
Meanwhile global rates of oil discovery have been falling since the early 1960s, as has been confirmed by ExxonMobil.

All of the 100 or so supergiant fields that are collectively responsible for about half of current world production were discovered in the 1940s, '50s, '60s, and '70s.

No fields of comparable size have been found since then; instead, exploration during recent years has turned up only much smaller fields that deplete relatively quickly. The result is that today only one new barrel of oil is being discovered for every four that are extracted and used.

recommended site:

oilwars.blogspot.com

They emphasize a shift from GDP to personal well-being. In countries that are overpopulated, population aging resulting from lower birth rates is a first step towards reversing the trend.

However population aging also increases some categories of expenditure, including some met from public finances. The largest area of expenditure in many countries is now health care, whose cost is likely to increase dramatically as the population ages. This would present governments with hard choices between higher taxes, including a possible reweighing of tax from earnings to consumption, and a reduced government role in providing health care.

The second largest expenditure of most governments is education and these expenses will tend to fall with an aging population, especially as fewer young people would probably continue into tertiary education as they would be in demand as part of the work force.

recommended site:

ncoa.org

The ability to receive and offer comfort within the support of their like-minded group reinforces pedophiles with the belief that their attraction to children and adult-child sex are an acceptable way of life.

recommended site:

silentlambs.org

Biodiversity boosts ecosystem productivity, where every species- all have an important role to play

Most scientists believe that climate change is here and is human-induced, and that it will lead to more extreme weather patterns such as hurricanes and drought, longer spells of dry heat or intense rain and seriously affect the world’s ecosystems, as well as humanity. Yet, politics appears to be getting in the way of effective action.

Some natural disasters like earthquakes and floods can often come at the least expected time. Others such as hurricanes and cyclones may be getting more severe. Typically, the poor are the worst hit as they have the least resources to cope and rebuild with.

Humans have destroyed more than 30 percent of the natural world since 1970.

recommended site:

on-lineenvironment.com

A little boy goes to his dad and asks, "What is politics?"

Dad says, "Well son, let me try to explain it this way: I'm the breadwinner of the family, so let's call me capitalism. Your Mom, she's the administrator of the money, so we'll call her the Government. We're here to take care of your needs, so we'll call you the people. The nanny, we'll consider her the Working Class. And your baby brother, we'll call him the Future. Now, think about that and see if that makes sense."

So the little boy goes off to bed thinking about what dad had said.

Later that night, he hears his baby brother crying, so he gets up to check on him. He finds that the baby has severely soiled his diaper. So the little boy goes to his parents' room and finds his mother sound asleep. Not wanting to wake her, he goes to the nanny's room. Finding the door locked, he peeks in the keyhole and sees his father in bed with the nanny. He gives up and goes back to bed. The next morning, the little boy says to his father, "Dad, I think I understand the concept of politics now."

The father says, "Good son, tell me in your own words what you think politics is all about."

The little boy replies, "Well, while Capitalism is screwing the Working Class, the Government is sound asleep, the People are being ignored and the Future is in deep poo."

...and more seriously about politics:

politics.com

In the face of such enormous external influence, the governments of poor nations and their people are often powerless. As a result, in the global context, a few get wealthy while the majority struggle.

recommended site:

poverty.com

Racism is a very touchy subject for some, as issues concerning free speech and Article 19 of theUniversal Declaration of Human Rights come into play. Some people argue that it is just words. Others point out that these words can lead to some very dire and serious consequences.

Racism has always been both an instrument of discrimination and a tool of exploitation. But it manifests itself as a cultural phenomenon, susceptible to cultural solutions, such as multicultural education and the promotion of ethnic identities.

Tackling the problem of cultural inequality, however, does not by itself redress the problem of economic inequality.

Racism is conditioned by economic imperatives, but negotiated through culture: religion, literature, art, science and the media.

... Once, they demonised the blacks to justify slavery. Then they demonised the “coloureds” to justify colonialism. Today, they demonise asylum seekers to justify the ways of globalism. And, in the age of the media, of spin, demonisation sets out the parameters of popular culture within which such exclusion finds its own rationale — usually under the guise of xenophobia, the fear of strangers.

A. Sivanandan - Poverty is the new black - The Guardian, August 17, 2001

recommended site:

antiracism-info.org

Tobacco and smoking have a number of negative effects:

Smoking narrows the arteries to your heart, causing them to become blocked. This can cause herat attach and death. Smoking can dubble your risk of dying from heart attack.

Smoking causes ireverrsible damage to back of the eye. This is known as macular degeneration. Centraal vision is lost, blindness may follow.

When you smoke you inhale the drug nicotine. In a short time you can find it difficult to control how much you smoke or to quit smoking. Many people don't realise they are dependent on tobacco untill they try to quit. Even lifelong smokers can and do quit.

Smoking narrows the atteries to your brain, causing them to become blocked. This cause a stroke that can result in permanent paralysis, inability to speak, disability or death.

recommended site:

on-linesmoking.com

Should there be laws to regulate stem cell research? If so, what would they look like? For example, how would you regulate research using different types of stem cells, such as embryonic, fetal or adult stem cells? What about embryonic stem cells created using cloning technologies?
Do embryonic stem cells represent a human life? This is an ongoing debate that brings up the question of when life begins. Should the embryo or fetus have any rights in the matter? Who has the authority to decide?

recommended site:

stemcellresearch.org

General Herman Goering, President of German Reichstag and Nazi Party, Commander of Luftwaffe during World War II, April 18, 1946. (This quote is said to have been made during the Nuremburg Trials, but in fact, while during the time of the trials, was made in private to an Allied intelligence officer, later published in the book, Nuremburg Diary.)

recommended site:

antiwar.com