On October 19, 2012 National Public Radio published an article titled “Freezing eggs to make babies later moves toward Mainstream” This article discusses the controversial practice of freezing eggs and the movement to remove its’ “experimental” title. Some women choose to freeze their eggs while they wait to finish school, meet the right man, or focus on their careers knowing that while their young their eggs are most viable. It cites many sources back and forth with conflicting data. Those tying to remove the experimental title cite data that it’s’ been proven safe. Those in disagreement say that there’s not enough data to draw any conclusions that it is safe. The article doesn’t discuss why this change would be beneficial or significant. As the reader I just assumed the benefit would be not scaring away people away due to the negative connotation of the word experimental. I don’t think the author has one specific intended audience, the author’s credibility is not applicable to the article he’s just the journalist that wrote it.

I don’t have some personal vendetta against freezing eggs but it’s not something I would ever do. Human have been evolving for almost 3 million years now, there’s a reason our bodies work the way they do. It’s only natural that mankind wants to take full advantage of technology however I feel too often the scientific community disrupts natural lifecycles and processes for the sake of convenience. For example when a person runs a low grade fever it’s the body’s way of raising the metabolic rate to kill bacteria and disrupt viruses because the pathogen that invaded the body producing illness can most likely only survive best in a small margin of temperature (body temperature.) It’s an evolutionary mechanism that helps us naturally kill pathogens. Although a high grade fever should be treated aggressively low grade fevers should be left alone. Research has proven this yet parent still force Tylenol on every child with a temp over 98.6 which is one reason efforts are being toward education in the public health sector related to this. This is just one of many examples where medicine interferes with natural human processes.

Freezing eggs would be another example; aging is associated with negative health consequences no matter how healthy you are. Every day you’re exposed to more carcinogens then the day before, the telomeres on your DNA shorten a tiny bit more with every duplication; your arteries harden a tiny bit and are exposed to more glucose and triglycerides. I could go on and on basically we eventually die because all these things just eventually accumulate to the point where they body losses looses ability to compensate. So mother nature knowing this, created an optimal window of fertility where compensatory mechanisms are high and there is an optimal environment for a fetus. This clever feature of the body ensures that there is a direct relationship between fertility and health ie: good DNA, healthy body = fertility; advanced age, bad DNA, bad fetus environment = infertile. By freezing one’s eggs you’re potentially inserting a viable egg into a less then optimal environment. More research needs to be done but personally I don’t think it’s a good idea.

On October 1 2012, Fox News published an article titles “Why ObamaCare has doctors depressed and Discouraged” This article was written by Doctor Marc Siegel an associate professor of medicine and medical director of Doctor Radio at NYU Langone Medical Center. He is also a member of the Fox News Medical A team and author of “The Inner Pulse.” In the article he discusses his personal dissatisfaction with Obama care and states that the majority of doctors are also opposed to it. Evidence supporting his declaration is based on many surveys such as Deloitte, Sermo, Doctor-Patient Medical Association and Investor Business Daily and his own informal surveys. Reasons for his dissatisfaction were generalized he says doctors are already “overburdened, underpaid, ill equipped…..” and that the problems which will be generated from Obama care will result in many doctors cutting back on accepting new patients especially Medicare patients. Siegel points to the growing doctor shortage in this country and says that Obamacare will only exacerbate the shortage. Many of the surveys cited mention that the same doctors and pessimistic about the future of medicine and would not recommend their children to enter healthcare as an occupation. I think the authors attended audience is really anyone that will be affected by Obamacare.  I personally agree that Obamacare is riddled with problems and will exacerbate problems already present in the healthcare system plus create new ones even more detrimental then the ones that would result if the current system remained unchanged. Although I think the current system is in need of reform in my opinion Obamacare is not the answer.