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Sex Workers as Vulnerable Subjects in Research

  TUSKEGEE AND GUATAMALA November 16 th 1972 saw the hurried end and closure in Macon County, Alabama of a syphilis research program more famously known as The Tuskegee Experiment. Researchers had intentionally not treated 600 participants who had syphilis despite the fact that penicillin had been discovered as a cure and was available, withheld information about penicillin and prevented them from accessing syphilis treatments available for the purpose of monitoring and documenting the progression of syphilis in human subjects, all under the guise that they were receiving free health care from the national government. The experiments went on for 40 years before a leak to the media eventually caused its demise. This may be arguably the most infamous biomedical experiment in US history. While researching the Tuskegee Experiment in 2005, Professor Susan Mokotoff found documents detailing yet another heinous experiment cloaked as research known as the Guatamala experiment. W

The Month That Was; Of Politics and Idle Talk.

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This has been quite the amazing month in our political sphere and in Kenya at large. I really don’t know why comedians stick to the rubbery tasting tribal jokes when we have all this going on. Some amuse, some befuddle but all are part of our dear Kenya. Uhuru ‘big talk, no walk’ Kenyatta was at it again making a long-winded hollow address justifying the Anglo-leasing payment that will be(had already been) made. He took a swipe at the AG’s office for the failure and said that he has kept his stance but ‘was forced’ to make the payment otherwise we would not be eligible for the upcoming Euro-bond issue. The president who led a house committee investigating the matter back in the day had this to say about Anglo-leasing on April 5 th 2006- “I have no fear in saying that those individuals have no loyalty to this country but to themselves. They existed in the previous government and exist in the current one,” he said, referring to the Kanu regime under which the deals were conceiv

Euthanasia

“Think of all those ages through which men have had the courage to die, and then remember that we have actually fallen to talking about having the courage to live.” ― G.K. Chesterton , George Bernard Shaw O, let him pass. He hates him That would upon the rack of this tough world Stretch him out longer. Shakespeare Nothing sparks more flames than discussions on life and death and perhaps the crux in this imperfectly weighing boat is our understanding of the nature and meaning life. This debate should include retrospect (looking at the cultures, traditions and norms that we held), the present (the extent to which they have changed and our willingness to re-draw the lines) and the future (the social, economic and normative effects.) The media, the purveyor of all things newsworthy (arguable) have for a long time portrayed euthanasia as an individual decision with effects on the individual only but matters of this magnitude may apart from being prone to abuse, have an e

Sex, Contraceptives and Abortions

ROMEO O, she is rich in beauty, only poor, That when she dies with beauty dies her store. BENVOLIO Then she hath sworn that she will still live chaste? ROMEO She hath, and in that sparing makes huge waste, For beauty starved with her severity Cuts beauty off from all posterity. Romeo uses a metaphor of wealth and spending to suggest that Rosaline's vow of chastity is akin to hoarding her "riches" (her "beauty). By refusing to have sex and, therefore, children who might carry on her legacy, Rosaline is basically "wasting" her "beauty," which will "die" with her instead of living on in her children. Let’s move past the law and what we traditionally consider right and wrong for this particular discussion. Let’s talk about sex, condoms, contraceptives and abortion. Let’s talk about these dirty words our sanctimonious selves won’t even utter out loud as we read this. According to the Ea