Articles for Month: September 2013

A tip of the hat to Christina Martin. Writing at Live Action News, she alerted me and everybody else to a wonderful interview actress Sandra Bullock recently gave to Vogue magazine. As Christina began, “Who doesn’t have a soft spot for Sandra Bullock? From ‘Miss Congeniality’ to ‘The Blind Side’ her funny, sweet performances have captured the hearts of movie goers worldwide.” (My entire family would add to that list, “While You Were Sleeping.”) Vogue writer Jason Gay, like most men, clearly is in love with Bullock. But the profile is more than a 3,396-word-long hosanna. Mr. Gay makes us […]

The San Francisco Chronicle has a long and amazing story on surrogacy in India. It reveals how terribly the “gestational carriers” are exploited. For example, in one clinic three-quarters of all the children are born surgically by caesarean–and, it would appear, with inadequate post-surgical pain control. Since these women have no power, one could say they are “forced” into surgery along with being exploited in surrogacy. From “Outsourcing a Life:” On a mattress in her room at the clinic, Manisha struggled through the early stages of recovery. Even eating and sitting hurt, thanks to the incision on her abdomen. Her cesarean section, […]

A bill to legalise voluntary euthanasia in New Zealand has been withdrawn amid fears it would become a political football. Labour MP Maryan Street (left) withdrew her End of Life Choice Bill on 26 September before the member's bill ballot saying that she didn’t want it debated in election year. She claimed that the move was ‘simply pragmatism’ and that she ‘absolutely’ planned to put it back in the ballot after the election. Street was believed to have been pressured by Labour party colleagues to withdraw the bill amid concerns that some would have to campaign against it, distracting from the rest […]