Dr. Thomas Kwasigroch will be the speaker during the 10 a.m. ceremony, and Janet Ayers will deliver the 2 p.m. address.

Kwasigroch is associate dean of ETSUs Quillen College of Medicine and a professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences, directing studies in medical and human anatomy and embryology. He is also an adjunct professor in the Department of Physical Therapy in ETSUs College of Clinical and Rehabilitative Health Sciences.

Kwasigroch joined the faculty of the Quillen College of Medicine at its inception in 1979 and has taught every graduate of the college since that time. He is the most awarded faculty member at the medical school, having received more than 50 awards. Among these are numerous Professor of the Year honors at Quillen and Gender Equity Awards from the American Medical Womens Association. He was recognized nationally as a McCann Scholar for Excellence in Mentoring and Teaching in 2005 and as the 2015 recipient of the Alpha Omega Alpha Robert J. Glaser Distinguished Teacher Award from the American Association of Medical Colleges.

Kwasigroch served with the 6th Special Forces Group at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and as a first lieutenant, infantry platoon leader, company executive officer and battalion liaison officer in Vietnam, where he was awarded the Purple Heart, Bronze Star and Army Commendation Medal.

He holds a B.S. degree from Niagara University and a Ph.D. in anatomy and embryology from the University of Virginia, Charlottesville. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Freie Universitt-Berlin in Germany.

After receiving her bachelors degree in health care administration from ETSU in 1986, Ayers began her career as the administrator of Four Oaks Health Care Center in Jonesborough, where she remained for five years. She then assumed the administrator position at Erwin Health Care, where she remained for 15 years.

During her career as an administrator, Ayers was an active member of the Tennessee Health Care Association and received awards for distinguished professional and association service. She also served as commissioner of the Tennessee Health Facilities Commission for five years.

In 2007, Ayers became president of The Ayers Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for the people of Tennessee with a special emphasis on Decatur, Henderson, Perry and Unicoi counties. The foundation believes this is best accomplished by providing grants for scholarships, counselors, programs and related projects for educational enhancement and innovative health care, and by supporting organizations dedicated to the preservation of natural resources and wildlife habitats for hunting and fishing.

Ayers, who resides in Nashville, is a member of the new ETSU Board of Trustees.

Complete information on commencement for graduating students and the public is available online at http://www.etsu.edu/reg/graduation/ceremony.php.

Individuals participating in or attending the 10 a.m. ceremony are advised to avoid State of Franklin Road in downtown Johnson City between East Main Street and Watauga Avenue, because this major artery and parts of the historic Tree Streets district will be closed for a road race.

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2000+ set to graduate from ETSU this spring - Johnson City Press (subscription)

Lauren Rhoda, president of the Saints for Life club at Carroll College, outlines her thoughts on the pro-life movement. "I think a cultural focus shift towards loving life and celebrating it will help a lot of other things fall into place," she said. TRIBUNE VIDEO/JULIA MOSS

Lauren Rhoda doesnt back down from her beliefs.

She is a modern crusader for the pro-life movement and lives a life devoted to maintaining the ideals of the cause.

But Rhoda is not an abortion-focused protester picketing outside clinics. She is not angry. Rhoda does not admonish or judge women who get abortions. In fact, she loves them unequivocally.

Lauren Rhoda is not your fathers pro-life advocate.

Lauren Rhoda believes that pro-life is about the whole life. Its about the whole person and making sure that everyone knows they are cared for and loved. (Photo: TRIBUNE PHOTO/JULIA MOSS)

The entirety of the 22-year-old Carroll College students belief system is rooted in science, from her activism for life to her Catholic faith. The Colorado-native brings an unwavering smile and brightness to her efforts.

She is a human sunflower sowing Helena in positive energy and love.

Rhoda is a chemistry major and the president of the Saints for Life club. She leads the group in activities that promote its mission statement: to protect and advocate for life from conception to natural death.

This entails spending hours offering support and prayer outside the local Planned Parenthood, but also includes volunteering with the elderly at the nursing center, hosting human-trafficking awareness and prayer vigils and advocating for the environment.

Its not just about abortion, Rhoda said. How can we advocate for a pro-life ethic if we are not loving those and caring for those that are already alive and already with us and suffering among us?

Through their association with the national Students for Life of America group, Rhoda and her fellow club members hosted an informational immigration display earlier in the semester to give Carroll students the opportunity to read through and understand President Donald Trumps immigration policies and what they mean.

The Saints for Life provided students tools to write letters to their state representatives to speak out against the immigration plan if they chose to do so. More than 150 letters were written in three hours.

Saints for Life member Marko Prizmic said some students were apprehensive about the motives of the display after realizing who was hosting it.

When the group attended the Womens March on Jan. 21, Prizmic said the group was largely met with support. However, a limited few still brandished their middle fingers as they passed by.

The group attributes it to a misunderstanding of its cause.

Pro-life is often associated with staunch religion and the more conservative side of the political spectrum, but Rhoda said the true essence of the movement doesnt assign itself to a specific party or faith, and the rest of the Saints for Life agree.

Saints for Life members, left to right, Cordell Andersen, Mary Leslie, Lauren Rhoda and Marko Prizmic meet to discuss club positions at Carroll College on March 23. Saints for Life focuses on abortion, but tackles a host of other pro-life topics, including environmental issues and immigration. Were consistent all the way through across issues Prizmic said. We carry over the idea of dignity for everyone. Theres a focus on abortion because it affects so many. (Photo: TRIBUNE PHOTO/JULIA MOSS)

Were consistent all the way through across issues, Prizmic said. We carry over the idea of dignity for everyone. Theres a focus on abortion because it affects so many.

That can make the voting booth a difficult place.

Transgender teen an ambassador for the LGBTQ community

We dont take a purely conservative stance, and we dont take a liberal stance either, Rhoda said. We live in a country where the political climate is very hot right now, unfortunately. I believe that our country was founded on the principles laid out in the Declaration of Independence life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Principle among these is life, so I do very much vote with that in mind.

Rhodas love for life in all of its stages is genuine, and she beams as she talks about her Saturdays spent in the local nursing home, the Rocky Mountain Care Center. Every weekend, she visits the older women to hang out, talk to them, be there for them and paint their nails.

Its just one of the most wonderful things in the world, Rhoda said. One time I was painting this elderly womans nails, her name is Agnes, and she leaned in and gave me a kiss on the forehead. It was so sweet, and I mean thats why we do what we do. Pro-life is about the whole life, and its about the whole person and making sure everyone is cared for and loved and knows that.

Though Rhodas focus isnt solely concentrated on abortion, that facet of the movement is still what brought her into the fold. She remembers having an epiphany in high school that changed her life.

I was taking this biology class of all things, AP biology, and it was in public school, Rhoda said. We were studying embryology and I realized that, biologically speaking, life begins at conception when that sperm meets that egg so I realized there is this inconsistency in the way I was thinking. I couldnt deny these embryos life because they technically were certainly alive in the biological sense.

Lauren Rhoda completes a lab assignment as part of her major in chemistry at Carroll College on March 23. (Photo: TRIBUNE PHOTO/JULIA MOSS)

Her new-found belief system didnt jump the gap from pro-choice to pro-life, instead Rhoda said she lived her life with a barrier between her and the issue of abortion. She was never for it, but figured it wasnt her business, and so she didnt think about it.

Rhoda said she has always been passionate about advocating for the marginalized, and her personal scientific breakthrough brought the most basic form of human life into her main area of focus. She said this is when she committed herself to being pro-life and began to learn more and more about what that would mean for her.

Like most things in her life, Rhoda said it meant continuing her pro-science ethic.

Biologically speaking, life begins at conception, she continued; there is not a more solid point to define the start of life.

Rhoda poses several questions about the issue.

What constitutes a living, human? Is it the environment in the womb versus out? Is it at 40 weeks? What about babies who gestate past their due date? Is it when they have brain waves? That doesnt happen at the exact same time for all babies. Is a baby defined as less of a person because it is developing slower?

It makes it too arbitrary, Rhoda said. The most definite line we can use is just the moment of conception.

Rhoda speaks in absolutes. Life begins at conception. Abortion is the killing of an unborn child. There are no gray areas.

But love and compassion should prevail. There are no gray areas there either.

She assesses women who opt to abort not as bad people, but as people in difficult situations who deserve comfort and support. Rhoda wants to meet scared, unsure pregnant women where theyre at and offer them comfort and alternatives. Should a woman decide to go ahead with an abortion, Rhoda said it is then even more critical to be there for her, help her heal and not look down on her for the decision she has made.

I wish, in an ideal world, that it wasnt thinkable, Rhoda said. I wish for people to never feel that pressure. Maybe their immediate gut reaction is, Oh no, Im 16, and Im pregnant. How am I going to do this? I think it would be really empowering to let women know that they can do it and there are more options. There needs to be a societal reform wherein mothers are embraced and supported by the community.

Lauren Rhoda advocates for pro-life issues through her position as president of the Saints for Life club at Carroll College. (Photo: TRIBUNE PHOTO/JULIA MOSS)

As she sits in a monthly Saints for Life meeting, she and her friends demolish a few pizzas and talk about whats going on in their lives. They discuss inspiring pro-life lectures theyve attended and opportunities to learn more about the cause and what they can do.

Rhoda is not alone in her all-encompassing love for life. She is merely one face in the new pro-life generation.

We want to create an environment where abortion is not needed, Prizmic said. We need to give support so that she doesnt need to make that choice. We need to take care of her and respect her. I will never know what shes going through, but I know I love her.

Through their charity and demeanor, the group is actively changing the pro-life movement.

I know in the 80s, they would bar doors, bomb clinics, kill doctors thats not pro-life, Prizmic said. That part is small now, but it still exists.

Mary Leslie, another Saints for Life member, nods in agreement. Though she isnt a Carroll student, she still jokes that she goes to Carroll because she technically is going there ... for the pro-life club meetings.

The answer to violence isnt more violence, Leslie said.

There is a lingering distrust of pro-life advocates who stand outside Planned Parenthood, despite the good intent of the Saints for Life.

Sometimes theyre kind, but its obvious theyre told not to talk to us, Leslie said. They know well be there, and theyre told not to respond. But some do ask questions. We let them know that no matter what, its OK and theyre still loved.

She, too, is a joyful human with a big smile and love to spare. Leslie finds encouragement through her faith, but said her involvement in the pro-life movement has nothing to do with religion.

Even if I walked away from the church, Id still be pro-life, Leslie said.

Though Rhoda does hang out in pro-life circles, she has several pro-choice friends and believes each side has a lot to learn from the other.

Though she is in disagreement with their stance, Rhoda said she can empathize with the passion her pro-choice friends have in supported a womans right to choose and ardent belief that she cannot be told what to do with her own body.

That is something, Rhoda said. Thats true. You cant force someone to do something. You can just hope that theyll want to and you have to make it possible for that to happen and make room for that to happen.

A flower crown hangs before a print of Michelangelos Creation of Adam in Lauren Rhodas room. (Photo: TRIBUNE PHOTO/JULIA MOSS)

Rhoda always goes back to love and support.

She has a friend back in Colorado who was sexually assaulted and became pregnant as a result. Her friend chose to keep the child, though it was a difficult decision. Rhoda said she was there for her throughout the decision, to comfort her.

Similarly, if I had a friend who chose to have an abortion, itd be my job to support her and love her, not necessarily support the abortion, but say Im here for you no matter what, Rhoda said. Thats all you can do. An especially if she has an abortion, shell probably be hurting after that.

Rhoda is ready to make allowances for unsure pregnant women who are grappling with this heavy decision.

But dont forget, Rhoda is anti-abortion. She supports all women, but she is vehemently against the organization seemingly synonymous with abortion: Planned Parenthood.

Her seemingly permanent smile quickly drops. She sits forward in her seat. Her words lose their softness and become sharp.

I think Planned Parenthood is a fundamentally corrupt organization, Rhoda said.

She cites Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, and her involvement in the eugenics movement of the 1900s and the convoluted argument that the birth control clinics were part of a larger racist agenda.

There is no question that Sanger was a eugenicist but several studies into her writings have refuted the idea that she was trying to weed out the black population. However, this idea has remained a prevalent talking point for many pro-life organizations.

In 2001, Herman Cain, a Republican from Georgia who made a run for the presidency, said Sanger started Planned Parenthood, the objective was to put these centers in primarily black communities so they could help kill black babies before they came into the world.

Then, in 2015, Ben Carson, now the U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, said Sanger believed people like me should be eliminated, or kept under control. He later clarified that people like me referred to the black population.

Much of this claim comes from a Dec. 10, 1939, letter penned to Clarence Gamble by Sanger in which she said, We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members."

However, the sentence is often taken out of context. The rest of the correspondence indicates Sanger was saying she didnt want misinformation to go out. Instead, Sanger was developing a public health venture, called the Negro Project, for underprivileged black communities.

But this point is still heavily contested by anti-abortion advocates.

Anti-abortion lawmaker wants voters to define person

I dont think anything good can come from an organization like that, Rhoda said. I also believe theyve been caught in a few lies, and thats important to focus on. Such as when they were selling parts of aborted fetuses or such as when they claim to offer mammograms, and they actually dont.

Rhoda said, in her eyes, the good they do doesnt outweigh the bad, and there are other low-income options for men and women.

I believe that the funds being allocated toward Planned Parenthood ought to be allocated more toward the federally qualified health care centers, Rhoda said. And yes, while I agree that they do offer health care services if you knew that your dry cleaner, for instance, they were actually running a meth lab in the back, should you still support them?

Rhoda is soft, but she is strong. She knows what she believes and she sticks to it.

In late January, she traveled to San Francisco to participate in the Walk for Life. Reminiscing on the experience coaxes her signature smile back out. As she talks about the walk, her mind is back in California.

She was surprised by the diversity of those in attendance. She held her I am the pro-life generation sign and marched with the young and the old of different creeds and races. The flip-side of her poster had the same message, but in Spanish.

Yo soy la generacion provida.

I thought it was just amazing to see everyone coming together to support this and to advocate for the most vulnerable among those who dont have a voice, Rhoda said. It was just a really joyful gathering in the midst of San Francisco overall it was just, it was a very joyful experience.

She beams.

The camaraderie, the love, the support thats what its all about for Rhoda. That is what it means to be pro-life to her.

I hope that for all the pro-life people in the movement that it comes from a place of love and just caring, she said.

Follow Sarah Dettmer on Twitter @GFTrib_SDettmer

More from the Arbiters of Change series

This story is the second installment of the Arbiters of Change series describing efforts made by progressive and conservative young people to enact change in their community. The next installment will feature local young professionals involved in the Great Falls Rising political activism group for local progressives.

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Arbiters of Change: The new pro-life generation - Great Falls Tribune - Great Falls Tribune

Big chill companies are now offering subsidised egg-freezing for career-driven millennials. Photograph: Getty Images/Cultura Exclusive

Although you may want one, you do not need a relationship with a man to have a baby. You need money and time. You can buy sperm; sometimes it even comes for free. These are the new facts of life. Or, rather, the alternative facts that we are sold in the name of that moronic catch-all empowerment. You can empower yourself as a woman by pretending that you can make any choice you like regarding fertility, when you like. Just like men do. But to think such female autonomy is now the reality is fundamentally disempowering, because it is not true.

Currently, British companies are talking to IVF clinics about offering egg-freezing as a perk for female employees. Care Fertility, the UKs largest private chain of clinics, says this can benefit women in their 20s and 30s, allowing them to focus on their careers. Both Facebook and Apple have offered subsidised freezing for some staff, up to a cost of 16,000. They say it takes women 10 years of graft before they get to management positions and can take time out. They also use the language of empowerment and choice, and talk about career-driven millennials. To be frank, I do not know what this even means; most young women I know want jobs so that they can pay their rent. I tend to think that a perk of a job is more nicking a Biro than having your fertility considered for you, but then I am old-fashioned. For egg-freezing is an insurance policy that promises more that it can deliver. The success rate for the take-home baby, as the IVF clinics call it, is extremely low.

It is easy to see why putting your fertility on ice appeals. Not sure if you want kids? Your prince not yet materialised? If you are in your 30s, you can read about your biological decline every day. At the same time, you can gawp at Hollywood types who magically have twins at 51.

Why not spend thousands of pounds on an invasive treatment that means your eggs can live for ever, ready to be unthawed when the time is right? Why not take control? Take the drugs that can take you into menopause, the hormone injections, a needle in the ovary. A round of this will set you back about 3,000, and you will need a few. Then pay for the maintenance of egg storage. Hopefully more than 20 eggs will be harvested, but endocrinologists describe this as a leaky process, with some eggs being lost at each stage. The younger you do it, the better ideally in your early 20s. But there is a surge of women undergoing the process in their late 30s. What are their chances? Well, better than they were in 2012 when, in this country, about 18,000 eggs had been stored and 580 embryos transferred, resulting in just 20 live births. Vitrification in which the eggs are frozen much faster may improve success rates. Even so, figures vary because this is a new process. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (Hefa) say it is too early to judge its success. They do know that a take-home baby is more likely from the implantation of an embryo than an egg, but this is not the situation of most women who go for social freezing. Some European clinics are citing higher figures. Australian medics say that the chance of a baby from one egg is 5%. So, this is no guarantee of anything other than hope.

But the main issue with social freezing is the social part. Science can step in, but the reason women want to do this is because of the way the workplace is organised. And because many men in their 30s do not want babies with women in their 30s. As Jessa Crispin noted wryly in her book Why I Am Not a Feminist, money can buy you out of patriarchy, up to a point. It cannot buy you totally out of biology. We do not own the means of production.

That we were to own the means of reproduction was once part of radical feminist thought. Shulamith Firestone said pregnancy was barbaric, and we would one day be able to grow babies elsewhere. One day we might: artificial wombs are being developed. For now, we are at the behest of private medicine, and many have succumbed to choice feminism, which is so dependent on a middle-class idea of an interesting career, a salary that can cover childcare and a man who is good at sex, friendship and fatherhood. Well, how has that worked out? Many women just do not have these choices.

Being child-free happens for social reasons, not simply because of fertility issues. The structure of the workplace is still not meeting the needs of women, and the culture is not producing men who meet the desires of generations of women who thought they could have it all. So we end up with huge corporations offering female employees the possibility of reproduction at a later date in return for the best years of their lives. This hardly strikes me as a perk. It is a bribe. Worse, one that is unlikely to be paid.

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It's not a perk when big employers offer egg-freezing it's a bogus bribe - The Guardian

ATLANTA Mercer Universitys Tift College of Education and Penfield College are organizing the second annual Mercer STEAM Day on May 2, in addition to supporting the Technology Association of Georgia (TAG) in its efforts to promote Georgia STEM Day on May 5.

STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and mathematics, and STEAM adds art into the equation. The goal of both STEM and STEAM initiatives is to equip students with skills required of 21st-century workers.

Mercers STEAM Team composed of Tift College professors Dr. Cynthia Anderson, Dr. Sharon Augustine, Dr. Justin Ballenger, Dr. Jabari Cain, Dr. Jeff Hall, Dr. Melissa Jurkiewicz, Dr. William Lacefield, dr. deb rosenstein and Dr. Clemmie Whatley, and Penfield College professors Dr. Greg Bauger, Dr. Colleen Stapleton, Dr. Zipangani Vokhiwa and Dr. Sabrina Walthall will provide professional development activities for pre-service teachers on May 2, which will consist of integrated STEAM learning for K-12 teachers.

Mercer must be engaged in preparing students to become well qualified and competent with the skills and systems thinking required in STEAM fields of study. Tift College of Education and Penfield College play a major role in producing educators who will influence childrens educational and career pathways, said Dr. Whatley. In many instances, the pre-service and in-service teachers we serve are not fully prepared to facilitate childrens learning through interactive, integrated, exciting STEM or STEAM experiences. The STEAM Team believes that a long-term strategic focus on STEM education is needed that will support STEAM-ready educators.

Mercer faculty members have been involved in a variety of STEAM initiatives through coursework, community service and grants. STEM professional development activities have been inspired, initiated and instigated by the Universitys InTeGrate grant initiative, on which Tift College of Education and Penfield College faculty are collaborating to improve earth literacy among students and among Georgias in-service teachers.

Tift College of Education has submitted a proposal to offer the STEM endorsement to in-service teachers at the pre K-12 level and is awaiting approval from the Georgia Professional Standards Commission.

As the need for STEAM practitioners increases throughout society, from K-12 classrooms to cutting-edge industries, Mercer is committed to providing STEAM education initiatives to meet this demand, said Dr. Hall. In particular, Penfield College and Tift College of Education are focused on providing engaging and inspiring STEAM education initiatives for educators and students alike. These activities are designed to spark the imagination and discover the many ways that STEAM impacts our lives.

Students in Dr. Ballengers Science Methods courses participated in several community events during the spring. They volunteered at the third annual BioLogue Hands-On STEM Adventures event March 25 in Decatur, where kids, ages 5-18, participated in a number of free, hands-on workshops in microscopy, forensic botany, anatomy and physiology, drones, embryology and more. They held a STEAM fair, which included constructing DNA models, modeling projectile motion with catapults and 3-D printed gliders, and demonstrating force and motion with model cars, on April 18 at the Kindezi School in DeKalb County. Dr. Ballengers students also held a subsequent STEAM fair, which included hands-on demonstrations known as Discrepant Events, on April 26 at Mercers Henry County Regional Academic Center for She STEAM, an organization that promotes STEAM engagement among area girls.

Dr. Ballenger, Dr. Walthall and Dr. Donald Ekong in the School of Engineering are partnering with DoD STARBASE, a Department of Defense youth program, to hold a free summer STEM camp at Robins Air Logistics Complex for Middle Georgia girls in grades three through six. The camp will be supported by graduate students in Mercers Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellows Program led by Dr. Augustine and Dr. Jurkiewicz and undergraduate students participating in a research project supported by the Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) Office and led by Dr. Ballenger, Dr. Walthall and Dr. Ekong.

Dr. Ballenger and Dr. Whatley received a Provosts SEED Grant to design and implement a one-week summer STEAM experience, which will be held June 19-23 at the Fernbank Science Center in Atlanta. Morning sessions will include boys in grades three through eight from the Kindezi School, and afternoon sessions will include girls in grades three through eight from the I Am B.E.A.U.T.I.F.U.L. educational enrichment program.

Penfield College and Tift College of Education are also partnering with Real I.M.P.A.C.T. Center in Macon July 5-21 on its annual Girl Power STEM Summer Camp. The three-week camp on Mercers Macon campus will also be supported by Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellows and undergraduate students.

Dr. Ballenger, Dr. Vokhiwa, Dr. Carl Davis in Tift College of Education and Dr. Phil McCreanor in the School of Engineering are partnering with Mercers Thomas C. and Ramona E. McDonald Fund for Advancement of Education in the Dominican Republic and the Universitys Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellows Program to organize a Mercer On Mission trip to the Dominican Republic. Volunteers will assist with setup of an aquaponics greenhouse and STEM center at Juan Pablo Duarte High School in San Pedros Consuelo community. They will also deliver professional development workshops for local teachers and partner with those teachers to host a STEM camp for high school students.

Additional support for the Mercer On Mission trip, including equipment and expertise to construct the STEM center and ensure that it is sustainably integrated into the community, will be provided by the Andrew J. Young Foundation, Sciberus Technologies Inc. and Hatponics. Once the STEM center is fully operational, it will serve the dual purpose of engaging local students in hands-on STEM learning and providing food for underprivileged families in the community.

About the Tift College of Education

Mercer Universitys Tift College of Education with campuses in Macon, Atlanta and the Universitys three Regional Academic Centers prepares more professional educators than any other private institution in Georgia. The College offers baccalaureate and graduate degrees, and is guided by the conceptual framework of the Transforming Practitioner, which supports those who aspire to grow professionally throughout their careers, while also seeking to transform the lives of students. education.mercer.edu

About Penfield College of Mercer University

Penfield College of Mercer University, established as the College of Continuing and Professional Studies in 2003, is committed to serving non-traditional learners and currently enrolls more than 1,300 students. Undergraduate, graduate and certificate programs are offered to working adult learners seeking professional advancement into leadership roles in and beyond their communities. Educational programs provide students with distinctive, multidisciplinary programs that integrate theory and practice. The College offers general education and elective courses for various colleges and schools at Mercer. Another initiative called the Bridge program transitions students enrolled in Mercers English Language Institute and other international students to undergraduate programs throughout the University. Areas of study include organizational leadership, counseling, human services, human resources, informatics, criminal justice leadership, nursing preparation, liberal studies, psychology, communication, homeland security and emergency management, and healthcare leadership. Programs are offered on Mercers campuses in Atlanta and Macon, as well as multiple regional academic centers in Douglas County, Henry County and Newnan, and online. To learn more, visit penfield.mercer.edu.

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Tift College of Education, Penfield College Organize Second Annual Mercer STEAM Day - Mercer News

JEFFERSON CITY A bill seeking to regulate the donation of fetal tissue will move onto the Senate after more than an hour of debate in the House on Monday night that ranged from discussion of the animal kingdom to accusations of grandstanding.

The bill,sponsored by Rep. Diane Franklin, R-Camdenton, would prohibit the donation of fetal tissue from an abortion for medical research, unless it is used to determine the reason for an anomaly, illness, death or paternity of a fetus or for law enforcement purposes.

The bill would also establish annual unannounced inspections of abortion facilities and would require all tissue removed during an abortion to be submitted to a pathologist who would draft a detailed report. Currently, only a sample of the tissue is required to be sent by law.

Rep. Stacey Newman, D-St. Louis, was the first to speak out against the bill, saying she felt it was based on "alternative facts." Newman reminded the House that videos allegedly showing Missouri Planned Parenthood representatives selling aborted tissue in 2015 were proven to be highly edited.

Since the allegations in 2015, the Missouri General Assembly has pushed for stricter abortion regulations, despite an investigation by then-Attorney General Chris Koster's finding that no laws were violated in disposing of the aborted tissue, according to previous Missourian reporting.

Newman said lawmakers were wasting taxpayers' time by discussing a bill that "goes even further and imposes even more regulations," in light of the injunction's striking restrictions. "Why do we keep wanting to pass legislation that we already know is unconstitutional?"

Much of the debate between representatives not only centered around the law but when life begins.

"Do you want to live?," Rep. Keith Frederick, R-Rolla, asked Rep. Sarah Unsicker, D-Shrewsbury, across the House floor.

"I do," Frederick continued. "If you get to the point in your life that you don't want to live anymore, you need professional, psychiatric help to get you out of that dark place. So I think it's pretty obvious that the child before birth wants to live just like you and I want to live. If you'd ask them, they'd say, 'Yes, I do.'"

"The fetus can't answer," Unsicker replied.

Frederick then interjected, "I know, that's why we have to answer for them."

Rep. Paul Curtman, R-Washington, and Rep. Rick Brattin, R-Harrisonville, both rejected the accusation that the right to life is a position based in religious dogma. Curtman spoke of the Non-Aggression Principle, which states that, "By virtue of being alive, at any stage of development a life has at least a natural right to at least continue living."

"I hold in my hand all these studies from embryology and scientific research in regards to the beginning of life," Brattin said before he began to read from a study arguing that life begins at conception.

The conversation veered toward the lack of abortion in animals.

"You know, I like Discovery Channel and things like that, and I was watching a video the other day about animals and about how they cherish their young," Rep. Charlie Davis, R-Webb City, said. "Not a single species of animal aborted their babies."

"Do you know what the penalty is for destroying a bald eagle egg, Mr. Speaker?" asked Rep. Mike Moon, R-Ash Grove."One bald eagle egg: $100,000 fine and there could also be some prison time as well. What are we thinking as a human society? We protect the eagles, we protect the spotted owls... but a baby?"

Rep. Joe Adams, D-University City, questioned lawmakers who said they're pro-life, yet voted against things like funding for K-12 education.

"I mean if you're really truly pro-life shouldn't you be voting for things that take care of people after they're born also?" Adams said.

Rep. John McCaherty, R-High Ridge, shot back and later questioned Adams if he had ever voted against an agriculture bill. When Adams acknowledged he had, McCaherty questioned him, "So you're anti-food?" and accused Adams of grandstanding as the representatives began to speak over each other.

The debate was cut short when Assistant Majority Floor Leader Rep. Kevin Austin, R-Springfield, called for a vote.Over an hour of debate after the bill was introduced, it was passed 117-40.

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Abortion regulation bill heads to Senate for hearing - Columbia Missourian

Introduction Author Comments Start here by looking at the external appearance of embryos in sequence from 1 to 23. It is not so important to memorise the dates, as they are only approximate, but more important to understand growth (size changes) and the development (overall sequence of events) during this period.

Clicking the Carnegie stage numbers opens a page dedicated to describing that single stage and the associated developmental events.

There are links to more detailed descriptions which can be viewed in a week by week format, by the Carnegie stages or integrated into a Timeline of human development.

Online resources include: individual images of all Carnegie stages, scanning electron micrographs of the earlier stages, cross-sections showing internal structures at mid- and late-embryonic, 3D reconstructions of internal structures, animations of processes, ultrasound scans and information about abnormalites of development.

Note that there is variability in the actual timing of specific events and at the end of this period fetal development begins.

This definition was also published by the same group in 2007.

J K Findlay, M L Gear, P J Illingworth, S M Junk, G Kay, A H Mackerras, A Pope, H S Rothenfluh, L Wilton Human embryo: a biological definition. Hum. Reprod.: 2007, 22(4);905-11 PubMed 17178746

Historically: "The distinction between the embryonic and the fetal periods at 8 postovulatory weeks has proved valuable. It is based primarily on the probability that more than 90 percent of the more than 4,500 named structures of the adult body have appeared by that time."

O'Rahilly R. 1979. Early human development and the chief sources of information on staged human embryos. Europ. J. Obstet. Gynec. Reprod. Biol., 9, 273-280. PMID 400868

O'Rahilly R. and Mller F. Developmental Stages in Human Embryos. Contrib. Embryol., Carnegie Inst. Wash. 637 (1987).

Weeks shown in the table below are embryonic post ovulation age, for clinical Gestational Age (GA) measured from last menstrual period, add 2 weeks.

The embryos shown in the table are from the Kyoto and Carnegie collection and other sources.

Cite this page: Hill, M.A. 2017 Embryology Embryonic Development. Retrieved April 21, 2017, from https://embryology.med.unsw.edu.au/embryology/index.php/Embryonic_Development

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Case numbers omitted Neutral Citation Number: [2017] EWHC 783 (Fam) IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE FAMILY DIVISION

Royal Courts of Justice Strand, London, WC2A 2LL

Date: 12 April 2017

Before :

SIR JAMES MUNBY PRESIDENT OF THE FAMILY DIVISION

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In the Matter of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 (Case K) (No 2)

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Case dealt with on paper

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Judgment This judgment was handed down in open court

Sir James Munby President of the Family Division : 1.In these two linked cases I gave judgment on 19 January 2017: Re the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 (Case K) [2017] EWHC 50 (Fam). In the one case, proceeding in the Family Division, I made a declaration in the terms sought by the claimant, X. In the other case, an application by X for judicial review in the Administrative Court, I made a quashing order in agreed terms.

2.There is no issue as to the costs of the proceedings in the Family Division, but I now have to determine the costs of the judicial review proceedings in accordance with the following directions as set out in the order I had made on 13 October 2016:

"The issue of costs shall be dealt with by way of written submissions in accordance with the following timetable:-

i)The Claimant shall file and serve written submissions within 14 days of the approval by the Court of this Consent Order;

ii)The Defendant and Interested Party shall file written submissions in response within 14 days of service of the Claimant's submissions;

iii)The Claimant shall have 7 days thereafter to file any submissions in reply to the Defendant's and Interested Party's submissions."

The Defendant is the relevant local authority: see Case K, paras 5, 25. The Interested Party is the Registrar General.

3.In written submissions dated 30 November 2016, X seeks an order for costs against the local authority, though not against the Registrar General, essentially on the ground that he was successful in the judicial review proceedings. He invites me to assess his cost summarily in the sum of 16,510.12 (inclusive of VAT). The local authority, in written submissions dated 14 December 2016 supplemented by an email dated 23 December 2016, seeks orders (a) that the Registrar General pay its costs or in the alternative (b) that there be no order for costs and in any event (c) refusing X's application for costs against it. The Registrar General, in written submissions dated 9 January 2017, submits (a) that there should be no order as to costs and in any event (b) that he should not have to pay the costs of the local authority.

4.I deal first with X's application for costs against the local authority.

5.The kernel of X's case is the principle expounded by Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury MR in R (M) v Croydon London Borough Council [2012] EWCA Civ 595, [2012] 1 WLR 2607, paras 59-61:

"59 Where a claimant obtains all the relief which he seeks, whether by consent or after a contested hearing, he is undoubtedly the successful party who is entitled to all his costs, unless there is a good reason to the contrary. However, where the claimant obtains only some of the relief which he is seeking (either by consent or after a contested trial) the position on costs is obviously more nuanced

60 Thus in Administrative Court cases just as in other civil litigation, particularly where a claim has been settled, there is, in my view, a sharp difference between (i) a case where a claimant has been wholly successful whether following a contested hearing or pursuant to a settlement, and (ii) a case where he has only succeeded in part following a contested hearing, or pursuant to a settlement, and (iii) a case where there has been some compromise which does not actually reflect the claimant's claims. While in every case the allocation of costs will depend on the specific facts, there are some points which can be made about these different types of case.

61 In case (i), it is hard to see why the claimant should not recover all his costs, unless there is some good reason to the contrary. Whether pursuant to judgment following a contested hearing, or by virtue of a settlement, the claimant can, at least absent special circumstances, say that he has been vindicated, and as the successful party that he should recover his costs "

X submits that this is a case of type (i).

6.The local authority resists this, in summary because, it asserts: (a) that it was relying on the Registrar General's published guidance in the Handbook so it is the Registrar General who should be paying X's costs; (b) that it adopted an approach to the proceedings that was helpful, sensitive and pragmatic in seeking to arrive collaboratively at the right outcome, for instance by not challenging the grant of permission out of time; and (c) that it does not necessarily agree X's account of events on the two occasions when he and his partner sought to register the births (raising in this connection the question of why neither X and his partner nor the clinic drew the Registrars' attention to the Form IC). The Registrar General makes similar submissions and adds as further reasons why there should be no order for costs: (a) that the dispute of fact as to precisely what happened on the two occasions when X and his partner sought to register the births remains unresolved (see Case K, para 15); and (b) that the clinic was to blame (i) in setting off the whole chain of events and (ii) in failing to assert to the local authority (see, again, Case K para 15) that there was in fact an adequate written notice, a Form IC, even though there was no Form WP and no Form PP.

7.The short point, at the end of the day, in my judgment, is that, as against the local authority, X was completely successful. The claim was conceded, and my judgment proceeded, on the short ground that the Registrar (for whose acts the local authority is liable) erred in law refusing to register the births: Case K, paras 23-25, 30-31. X succeeded in his legal argument and obtained the order he wanted.

8.In my judgment, none of the various points canvassed by the local authority and the Registrar General provides any justification for departing from the general approach outlined in R (M). The fact that what actually took place before the Registrar remains to an extent unresolved is neither here nor there, for the Registrar's error of law was conceded and, having been conceded, was determinative. The fact that the Registrar was relying on the Registrar General's Handbook is neither here nor there as between X and the local authority. The fact that but for the clinic's initial error there never would have been the need for proceedings is factually correct but, again, neither here nor there. To repeat: X succeeded because of what is conceded to have been the Registrar's error of law. That, at the end of the day is, in my judgment, the factor of magnetic, indeed determinative, significance. I should add that the point faintly argued by the Registrar General, based on something said by the clinic before there was any suggestion of judicial review proceedings, that I am entitled to infer that the clinic will meet X's costs of the judicial review proceedings, is in my judgment wholly lacking in merit and cannot in any event have survived the very clear order set out in paragraph 2 above.

9.I shall accordingly order the local authority to pay X's costs of the judicial review proceedings. There has been no challenge to the schedule of costs, nor, in my judgment, could there be. So I shall summarily the costs in the sum of 16,510.12.

10.I turn to consider the question of whether the Registrar General should be ordered to pay the local authority's costs. The local authority's key point is that, as it would have it, the real cause of what happened was what is now accepted to have been the error in the Registrar General's Handbook. The Registrar General, on the other hand, points to: (a) the principle that an interested party is normally neither entitled to costs nor exposed to liability for costs (see R Smeaton) v Secretary of State for Health [2002] EWHC 886 (Admin), [2002] 2 LR 146, paras 431-435); (b) various of the factors I have referred to in paragraph 6 above; (c) the fact that the Registrar never sought guidance from the Registrar General before deciding not to register the births; and (d) the fact that "in law" the error was that of the Registrar, for whom the local authority is liable, and that the attempt to make the Registrar General liable is "misguided in light of the statutory scheme."

11.In my judgment, the fair, just and reasonable outcome in this most unusual case is that, so far as their own costs are concerned, the local authority and the Registrar General should each bear their own costs. In their different ways, each has to bear a significant measure of responsibility for having put X in a position where, if he was to be rescued from the position in which the state's failings had put him (see Case K, para 21), he had no choice but to issue a claim for judicial review. I can see no real justification for ordering either to pay the costs of the other. The real question, in my judgment, is whether the Registrar General should be required to reimburse the local authority in relation to the costs I have ordered it to pay X.

12.As the competing submissions summarised in paragraph 10 above highlight, both the Registrar General and the Registrar share some measure of responsibility for what happened, the one because of the error in the Handbook, the other because of the omission to seek further guidance. To leave the local authority alone responsible for meeting X's costs would, in my judgment, significantly and unfairly exonerate the Registrar General from the consequences of the uncorrected error in the Handbook but for which the problem would never have arisen. As I have already said, in their different ways, each has to bear a significant measure of responsibility for having put X in the position in which he found himself. In my judgment, broad justice will be done as between the local authority and the Registrar General if I order the Registrar General to reimburse the local authority one-half of the costs that I have ordered the local authority to pay to X, in other words, the sum of 8,255.06.

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Re Case K (no 2) (Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008) [2017] EWHC 783 (Fam) - Family Law Week

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Case summary coming soon

Case numbers omitted Neutral Citation Number: [2017] EWHC 784 (Fam) IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICEFAMILY DIVISION

Royal Courts of Justice Strand, London, WC2A 2LL

Date: 12 April 2017

Before :

SIR JAMES MUNBY PRESIDENT OF THE FAMILY DIVISION

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In the Matter of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 (Cases Y, Z, AA, AB and AC)

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Ms Deirdre Fottrell QC (instructed by Goodman Ray Solicitors LLP) for the applicants

Hearing date: 21 March 2017

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Judgment This judgment was handed down in open court

Sir James Munby, President of the Family Division : 1.Since I handed down judgment in In re A and others (Legal Parenthood: Written Consents) [2015] EWHC 2602 (Fam), [2016] 1 WLR 1325, I have had to consider a number of cases raising issues very similar to those which confront me here. The most recent judgments were Re the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 (Cases P, Q, R, S, T, U, W and X) [2016] EWHC 2273 (Fam) and Re the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 (Case K) [2016] EWHC 2356 (Fam). They were the sixteenth to twenty-fourth of these cases in which I have given a final judgment. This judgment relates to another five cases, Cases Y, Z, AA, AB and AC. That amounts to 29 cases in all. There are at least another five cases in the pipeline, Cases AD, AE, AF, AG and AH.

2.For the purposes of this judgment I shall take as read the analysis in In re A and the summary of the background to all this litigation which appears in Re the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 (Case O) [2016] EWHC 2273 (Fam).

The facts3.For reasons which will by now be familiar, I propose to be extremely sparing in what I say of the facts and the evidence in these cases.

4.All relate to treatment provided by Care Fertility Group Manchester, except Case X which relates to treatment provided by Care Fertility Group Manchester. Each of the clinics is and was regulated by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority. I shall refer to the applicant in each case as X, the respondent as Y and the child as C. In each case X seeks a declaration pursuant to section 55A of the Family Law Act 1986 that he or she is, in accordance with sections 36 and 37 or, as the case may be, sections 43 and 44 of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008, the legal parent of C. In each case Y is wholeheartedly supportive of X's application. In each case the clinic, the HFEA, the Secretary of State for Health and the Attorney General have all been notified of the proceedings. None has sought to be joined, although representatives of Care Fertility Group attended the hearing. In each case, given the nature of the issues (see below) I decided that there was no need for C to have a guardian appointed.

5.I heard the cases sequentially, in the order Case Y, Case AA, Case AC, Case AB and Case Z, on 21 March 2017. In each case X was represented by Ms Deirdre Fottrell QC. At the end of each of the hearings I indicated that I was making the orders sought. I now (xx April 2017) hand down judgment explaining my reasons.

6.Although I am acutely conscious of the stress, worry and anxiety burdening all the parents in these cases, and of the powerful human emotions that are inevitably engaged, each of these cases is, in terms of the applicable legal analysis, straight-forward and simple. They raise no new points. In each case the evidence, which there is no need for me to rehearse in detail, is compelling. In each case the answer is clear.

7.Just as in each of the other cases I have had to consider, so in each of these cases, having regard to the evidence before me, I find as a fact that:

i)The treatment which led to the birth of C was embarked upon and carried through jointly and with full knowledge by both the woman (that is, Y) and her partner (X).

ii)From the outset of that treatment, it was the intention of both X and Y that X would be a legal parent of C. Each was aware that this was a matter which, legally, required the signing by each of them of consent forms. Each of them believed that they had signed the relevant forms as legally required and, more generally, had done whatever was needed to ensure that they would both be parents.

iii)From the moment when the pregnancy was confirmed, both X and Y believed that X was the other parent of the child. That remained their belief when C was born.

iv)X and Y, believing that they were entitled to, and acting in complete good faith, registered the birth of their child, as they believed C to be, showing both of them on the birth certificate as C's parents, as they believed themselves to be.

v)The first they knew that anything was or might be 'wrong' was when, some while later, they were contacted by the clinic.

8.I add that there can be no suggestion that any consent given was not fully informed consent. Nor is there any suggestion of any failure or omission by the clinic in relation to the provision of information or counselling.

The facts: the individual cases9.In each of Cases Y, AA, AC and AB the applicant is a woman. In Case Z the applicant is a man. None of them was either in a civil partnership with or married to the respondent mother.

10.Case Y: Adopting the terminology I have used in previous cases, the problem in this case is very shortly stated. The Form PP was correctly completed. There is no Form WP in the clinic's records. X and Y do not assert any positive memory of a Form WP. Ms Fottrell invites me to proceed on the basis that there is a Form IC, signed by both X and Y, in a form which, on the basis of my judgments in previous cases, suffices to entitle X to the declaration she seeks. The relevant declaration, signed by X, reads as follows:

"I am the partner of [Y]. I acknowledge that she and I are being treated together In consenting to the course of treatment outlined above, I understand that I will become the legal parent of any resulting child(ren) subject to the completion of the appropriate HFEA consent forms [see page 1, section 4 of this consent]."

That cross-reference is to Forms WP and PP. But for the inclusion of the words "subject to the completion of the appropriate HFEA consent forms", there could be no question of this not being a Form IC sufficient to entitle X to the declaration she seeks. The only question is whether those words are fatal to the efficacy of the document for this purpose. In my judgment they are not. The document has to be read as a whole and, read as a whole, it is clear that both parties were signing a document which contemplated that X would be a parent. If X was not to be a parent, why sign the declaration at all? X is entitled to the declaration she seeks: see In re A, para 63(iii).

11.Case AA: Again, the problem is very shortly stated. The Form WP was properly completed. The Form PP contains two errors: first, Y's name, rather than X's, appears in section 1, and X's name, rather than Y's, appears in section 2; secondly, the declaration in section 5 has been signed by Y and not by X. However, and importantly, the consent box in section 3 has been ticked and the second page, which contains section 3, has been signed at the foot by X. Both errors are obvious. The first error, the transposition of the names, can be corrected by way of rectification: see In re A, para 47, Re the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 (Case G) [2016] EWHC 729 (Fam) and Re the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 (Cases P, Q, R, S, T, U, W and X) [2016] EWHC 2273 (Fam), paras 17 (Case S) and 18 (Case T). The second error is irrelevant: see Re the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 (Cases P, Q, R, S, T, U, W and X) [2016] EWHC 2273 (Fam), paras 13 (Case Q) and 15 (Case R). X's signature at the foot of the second page is sufficient to satisfy the statutory requirement: see Re the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 (Cases P, Q, R, S, T, U, W and X) [2016] EWHC 2273 (Fam), paras 13 (Case Q) and 15 (Case R). In these circumstances X is entitled to a decree of rectification and the declaration she seeks.

12.Case AC: Again, the problem is very shortly stated. The Form WP was properly completed. In the Form PP, Y's name, rather than X's, appears in section 1, and X's name, rather than Y's, appears in section 2. However, the consent box in section 3 has been ticked, the second page, which contains section 3, has been signed at the foot by X, as has the declaration in section 5. The error is obvious. The transposition of the names can be corrected by way of rectification: see the authorities referred to in paragraph 11 above. X is entitled to a decree of rectification and the declaration she seeks.

13.Moreover, there is again a quite separate ground on which X is entitled to the relief she seeks. Both Y and X signed a Form IC which, in all material respects, was in the same form as the Form IC considered in paragraph 10 above. In the circumstances, X is, in principle, entitled to the declaration she seeks on this ground also.

14.Case AB: Again, the problem is shortly stated. The Form PP was properly completed. In the Form WP, which was otherwise properly completed, the consent box in section 3 on the second page was not ticked. The omission of the ? in the consent box is not fatal to the validity either of a Form PP or, as here, of a Form WP: see Re the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 (Case J) [2016] EWHC 1330 (Fam), para 15, followed by Peter Jackson J in D v D (Fertility Treatment: Paperwork Error) [2016] EWHC 2112 (Fam), and Re the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 (Cases P, Q, R, S, T, U, W and X) [2016] EWHC 2273 (Fam), paras 11 (Case P) and 17 (Case S). X is entitled to the declaration she seeks.

15.Again, there is a quite separate ground on which X is entitled to the relief she seeks. Both Y and X signed a Form IC which, in all material respects, was in the same form as the Forms IC considered in paragraphs 10 and 13 above. In the circumstances, X is, in principle, entitled to the declaration she seeks on this ground also.

16.Case Z: Again, the problem is shortly stated. The Form WP was properly completed. In the Form PP, which was otherwise properly completed, the consent box in section 3 on the second page was not ticked. The omission of the ? in the consent box is not fatal to the validity either of a Form WP or, as here, of a Form PP: see the authorities referred to in paragraph 14 above. X is entitled to the declaration he seeks.

17.Again, there is again a quite separate ground on which X is entitled to the relief he seeks. Both Y and X signed a Form IC, indeed a number of Forms IC, which, in all material respects, were in the same form as the Forms IC considered in paragraphs 10, 13 and 15 above. X is, in principle, entitled to the declaration he seeks on this ground also.

Outcome18.It was for these reasons that at the conclusion of the hearing of each case I made a declaration in the terms sought by X.

Costs19.In each case the clinic has very properly agreed to pay the applicant's reasonable costs.

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Re Cases Y, Z, AA, AB & AC (Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008) [2017] EWHC 784 (Fam) - Family Law Week

An international congress on reproductive health organized by the Iranian Society of Embryology & Reproductive Biology (ISERB) will be held April 19-21 at the Iran University of Medical Sciences in Tehran. The 2nd International Congress on Reproductive Health and Childbearing (ICRHC) will provide a platform for exchange of data, information and scientific ideas in the field, icrhc-iserb.ir website reported. Sixteen panels will be held during the 3-day event, including medication therapy to enhance sperm quality, sexual health and strategies to improve marital relationships, endometriosis and POS (polycystic ovarian syndrome) treatment, screening embryo health before implantation in infertility treatment, social aspects of assisted reproduction, availability of infertility medications in Iran and their levels of effectiveness, and stem cells. Health experts who will address the confab are head of Food and Drug Administration Rasoul Dinarvand, deputy health minister Reza Malekzadeh, head of Avicenna Infertility Treatment Center Behzad Qorbani, head of ISERB Mohammad Mehdi Akhundi, head of FDAs Food and Drug Control Labs Hossein Rastegar, and head of Royan Research Institute Hamid Gourabi. Participants include doctors in reproduction biology and medical sciences and clinical experts in gynecology, obstetrics and infertility, urology, endocrinology and metabolism as well as in nutrition, midwifery, nursing, laboratory science. Besides, experts in paramedical sciences, veterinary medicine, sociology, psychology, law and ethics and general practitioners, will attend the congress. Introducing the latest scientific achievements in the field of reproductive health, motivating researchers in different branches of biology to apply biotechnology in reproduction issues, training physicians in diagnosis and treatment of different diseases, and creating research teams for interdisciplinary research, are the main goals of the congress.

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IUMS Hosting Reproductive Health Congress - Financial Tribune

I am going to ask a favor from those of you with pro-choice inclinations. I ask that you answer these questions to yourself quickly and instinctively before you see where this is going. We all have a tendency to deny a premise simply because we do not like the conclusion it leads to.

More often than not, if we are to be intellectually honest, we should consider each premise on its own merits of plausibility and if it leads to a conclusion we find unpalatable, so be it. After all, the truth is not dependent on whether we like it. Successful discourse can never occur if we are only defending conclusions. I admit I also have a relentless desire to deny the opposing conclusion. I am no better. I only ask that you try.

Now, on to the questions: Were you ever a fetus? Were you ever in your mothers womb?

If you answer yes to either of these questions, then you affirm the personhood of the unborn.

To go further we need a brief explanation of what philosophers call accidental and essential properties in relation to personal identity over time. Accidental properties are things about us that can change, or we may even lose completely, without us ceasing to exist. For example, if you cut your hair, or even lose an arm, you will still be you. In other words, you have not lost anything essential to your identity.

On the other hand, essential properties are things about us that are necessary for our existence. If we lose them, we cease to be. An example of an essential property of our identity is our humanity. Atheist philosopher Thomas Nagel gives a great illustration of this in his famed essay, What Is It Like to Be a Bat?

We must consider whether any method will permit us to extrapolate to the inner life of the bat from our own case, and if not, what alternative methods there may be for understanding the notion. Our own experience provides the basic material for our imagination, whose range is therefore limited. It will not help to try to imagine that one has webbing on ones arms, which enables one to fly around at dusk and dawn catching insects in ones mouth; that one has very poor vision, and perceives the surrounding world by a system of reflected high-frequency sound signals; and that one spends the day hanging upside down by ones feet in an attic. In so far as I can imagine this (which is not very far), it tells me only what it would be like for me to behave as a bat behaves. But that is not the question. I want to know what it is like for a bat to be a bat.

In other words, we can never experience what it is like to be a bat, because if we became a bat, we would have changed something essential about our identity. It would require a substantial change. We would cease to be ourselves.

A more obvious example of an essential property of your identity is the fact that you are a person. This is where the argument begins.

You cannot be you without being a person.

You were once a fetus.

Therefore you, as a fetus, were also a person.

To state again, an essential property of what makes you you is the fact that you are a person. It doesnt make any sense to say that you once were an inanimate object. If you are essentially a person, and you were once a fetus, it follows that you as a fetus were also a person.

Just as we recognize we could not become a bat without ceasing to be ourselves, we cannot become an impersonal thing without our existence ending. I cannot become, nor could I ever have been, a rock or a toaster oven. Yet when we reflect upon it, we recognize that we were in our mothers wombs. We cannot deny this without going against all of our intuitions about ourselves.

Someone reading this article right now has the unfortunate knowledge of the specific circumstances in which he or she was conceived. Now, when your parents were telling you this story, your initial reaction was not to say, Mother, dont you know that I was not conceived at all? Rather, your reaction was, Dear mother, why did you burden me with the circumstances of how I came to be conceived? We acknowledge that, like it or not, we all have a conception story. This is only intelligible if we were the person that was conceived.

Biologically speaking, it is clear that our life begins at conception. Pattens Foundations of Embryology, which is described as one of the standard texts in the field of embryology, states that The time of fertilization represents the starting point in the life history, or ontogeny, of the individual.

In other words, the scientific data tells us that each of our lives, as an individual, began at conception. This is beyond an affirmation of the second premise. If personhood is necessary for each of us to exist as an individual, and our individual lives began at conception, the scientific evidence only works to confirm that we have been persons from conception.

As Patrick Lee, Christopher Tollefsen, and Robert P. George point out in their article in the Journal of Medicine and Philosophy titled The Ontological Status of Embryos: A Reply to Jason Morris, the unborn maintains his or her identity over time:

A human organism, irrespective of its stage of development, is a dynamic substance, an entity that exists in itself instead of inhering in another entity; its size and location are accidents (characteristics that inhere in a substance). Its (i.e., his/her) coming to be or ceasing to be is a substantial change which is distinct from changes in its size, location, and other accidental characteristics, where the organism persists but acquires new accidental characteristics such as size, location, and others. As a consequence, a human organism must begin to exist at a definite time.

The point of conception is this definite time.

Inherent in the concept of development is the notion that a being goes through a series of accidental changes, rather than essential ones. When a human being develops from the embryonic stage to a fetus, then on to an infant, at no point do the changes transform the entity from one being to another kind of being.

If the unborn was not the same being at all these stages of change, the term development would not be appropriate. The biological terms themselves suggest a human being maintains the same identity over time. A fetus is to an infant as an infant is to a toddler. If a fetus develops into an infant and then to a toddler, this is one and the same being that goes through this development. Given the first premise, this would only be possible if the fetus is a person.

Denying the status of personhood to the unborn is a metaphysical claim, not a scientific one. To be clear, metaphysical claims are valid. In fact, they are unavoidable. One side just seems more aware of this than the other.

The fact that humans have tendencies to reduce things, including personhood, into scientifically accessible categories, does nothing to show personhood is merely chemical reactions and synapses firing. The assertion that the unborn are not persons is no more scientific and no less metaphysical of a claim than the belief in human souls.

As philosopher Alexander Pruss argues in his essay, I Was Once a Fetus, I now need a simple metaphysical principle. If an organism that once existed has never died, then this organism still exists. I will not argue for this principle. Someone who thinks that something can exist at time A and not exist at a later time B, without having ceased to exist in between, is beyond the reach of argument. The crucial question now is: Has the embryo ever died?

The biological answer to this question is no. If you are looking for a view that is least dependent on metaphysical claims, then we are brought back to the biological fact that we are the same individual organism that was conceived.

The implications of this are considerable. The Fourteenth Amendment says no state shall deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. Given that the unborn are persons, it is clear that this most vulnerable class of human beings should be provided this equal protection under the law. Our jurisprudence should reflect this reality.

Some may now decide to deny they were ever in their mothers womb in order to avoid the conclusion that the unborn are persons. This is a mistake with one exception; namely, a reductio ad absurdum argument. These are conclusions that seem so absurd that there is warrant to go back and reexamine the truth of the premises.

As you have guessed, I dont think concluding the unborn are persons meets this criteria. I have found that premises that lead to absurd conclusions do not seem to have strong plausibility on their own anyway. In fact, it is the denial of these premises that leads to an absurd conclusion.

If you dont believe you were ever in your mothers womb, you must believe that you did not exist until you were born. The circumstances around your own birth seems to clearly involve an accidental change (a difference of location) rather than an essential one. In other words, it is absurd to believe cutting the umbilical cord is the act that furnishes every human being with the status of person.

Timothy Jackson loves to discuss God, politics, and what it means to pursue the Good. He lives in Kansas City with his wife and two children.

Read more here:
Everyone Thinks The Unborn Are Persons. Saying Otherwise Is Denial - The Federalist