Dr. Thompson's Blog

Pregant Teenagers

As I have watched the news the last few days I have wondered what the Republican men in Congress would do if one of their teenage daughters became pregnant? Would they insist the girl carry the baby to term, then insist the infant be placed for adoption, or would they make secret plans for an abortion? it is possible that they would have a family member raise the child, but in my experience with pregnant teens that doesn't happen very often.

Having cared for quite a few teenagers who became pregnant I have seen all of the above take place. It is tragic when parents insist a teenager carry a baby to term. if you have seen a pregnant, angry, and depressed thirteen-year-old whose childhood has been taken away, you will never forget it. I never had. If a teenager has an abortion, she can then go on to have a full and happy life. I know this from receiving letters from teenagers whose lives were not ruined by being forced to carry an unwanted child to term. There is nothing so sad as a baby who is not wanted, unloved, and put up for adoption. There is also a high incidence of abuse in children placed for adoption or given away. The Catholic Church talks about the "sacred gift of life". Life is not a gift when your childhood is filled with abuse, being unloved, and unwanted. Even being adopted by a loving couple leaves a big hole, as a long-time good friend often tells me. I don't understand why the women in the U.S. are not screaming? Yes, some are, but to allow a group of narrow-minded Republican men decide the future for countless children  is beyond my belief. There are already about 750,000 unwanted children ready for adoption. Are we going to start adding more?

Autism Research

There was an excellent article by Kristin Sainani in this month's Stanford Medicine.  Researchers at Stanford are trying to find the underlying cause or causes of autism to see if a way can be found to help modify some of the effects of the disorder. The article made several important statements such as: "Autism is incredibly herterogeneous, premature babies are at high risk of autism (about 10 percent will develop it) and couples are having babies when they are older which increases the risk of genetic errors that can lead to autism."

Not only are Stanford researchers working on autism but the article states that there is an international group of more that fifty universities that have collected data from 2000 families with  multiple cases of autism. All of this should hopefully lead to some good results.

Another imporant fact that given was that about five percent of children with autism have a chromosomal abnormality that can be seen under a microscope. Also the Stanford researches are now able to develop an autism-like syndrome in mice. This allows them to do various kinds of research. So with many brilliant minds working on this very complex disorder there should be some remarkable breakthroughs sometime in the future. I certainly hope it will be sooner than later.