@OnceAStar: You might find this a propos: [www.jennymccarthybodycount.com]

@imovedthecatsoicouldtype: I love you. This post is the perfect combination of intellect, heart, and salt-of-the-earth good sense.

@anduin1: I agree wholeheartedly. I wish women thought more carefully about having children, and didn't do it just because they happened to get pregnant.

@Roski: Speak for yourself. I have loved a dozen kids in my life, and don't have any of my own yet. I'm also going to be a foster parent. None of those kids will be "my own", and yet I will love them with everything in me.

@AvalonBright: Oh, boo hoo. We don't want reactionaries like you.

@bingofrankenstein: This is so true. one of the biggest differences I have seen in my life, between people who live as though they have a basic right to exist, and those who live as though they don't, was their relationship with their fathers as children.

@lilithmelpomene: This. So, this. I would add that it is an integral part of the human condition to want to be liked, loved, accepted. And we don't just live with a desire for these things - we also live in fear of not having them, or losing them. Every message our tender hearts recieves about what makes us loveable…

@macbecks: Gotta love the irony that Canadian patients have their right to privacy extended to excised tissue, and yet women put under anaesthetic for non-gyno surgery get used as guinea pigs for pelvic exams in teaching hospitals, without their consent. Priorities!

@Koekjes: Here is an article on the topic: [www.theglobeandmail.com]

@megnificent: I thought HIPAA related only to personally identifiable information, though. Unless the patient had her name tattooed on the placenta, or other details were shared with the photo (place, time) which could lead to her identification, how would anyone know it was hers?

@NewsBunny: I would agree with you, but these students are still learning. If every stupid immature mistake I made while I was learning the ropes of the workplace (not a specific one; I mean the way of the world outside of my childhood home) was held against me like this, I would be living in a cardboard box, begging…

Since the placenta wasn't identifiable, I don't see how it invaded the patient's privacy to show it. I think people are too sentimental about their biological material in general. I am also vehemently opposed to the oversharing that goes on on FB (especially using ultrasound images as profile pictures), so my…

This is the best article I have ever read on the subject of men struggling with how they view women, and what changes they can make in order to make the world a better place for their daughters, in terms of body image: [www.danoah.com]

@AvalonBright: "Fat glorification"? #no

One of my activist friends says; "Reality skews left." I've really found that to be true. In my experience, the lefties of the world are much more in touch with reality (See: harm reduction strategies) than righties (See: abstinence-only education, which only works in Fairytale Fiction-land).

@zu_zu: Sorry, that wasn't my intention; I didn't read your comment that way, I was just using what you said as a springboard to address another facet of the issue. You wrote; "All these different viewpoints from people who fundamentally agree on a topic simply shows how complex this issue is." And I couldn't agree…

@Neroon: Yes. So true. A part of me feels like when ostensibly pro-choice people act like abortion as a greater concept is some necessary evil, or a small tragedy, they are missing the point of believing in choice; which is to hold that a woman's right to choose not to be a mother, or not to have a child at that time,…

@ImogenKey: I have friends who ate out of garbage cans - and less drastically, I personally was unable to fulfil my life's dream because of my mother's poverty. I only work to make money to pay rent, and I know I can never have my dream job, ever, for as long as I live. Poverty literally ruined my career. I think some…

@zu_zu: Frankly, I don't care if some women DO use abortion as birth control - if they can afford to do it that many times (in countries where it is a paid procedure), fine by me. A fetus is not a person, it is completely void of significance, other than that which external, existing people attach to it - if in your…

@LadyTudorRose: I don't know how fourteen year olds feel about dreams, but I guess Lola could be into mumbo-jumbo... and M does have the curious trait of having vivid dreams, which she often remembers - she's been mentioning her dreams in interviews, for years.