OPED: Sarah Palin as McCain's VP

The details of the birth of Gov Palin's child are ironic, as it leads one to question her pro-life principles. A reasonably intelligent person can determine that Palin was reckless with the life of her unborn child. (Go to www.adn.com, April 22 edition for the fully-disclosed details). Palin made the decision to travel to Texas to a Governor's conference while 36 weeks pregnant, a time during which obstetricians would tell you it’s foolish to travel via plane. Air travel is a known risk for pregnancy complications, which is indeed what happened. The governor, while on a self-promoting trip to deliver a speech, had premature rupture of fetal membranes: her water broke. Call your local OB department and ask what to do if you think that your water has broken. You’ll be advised to seek an immediate hands-on examination by an obstetrician. The baby will be placed on a monitor to make sure it’s OK. Premature rupture of membranes can lead to life-threatening infection and premature delivery. What did Sarah Palin do? She did NOT go to a local hospital and did NOT have her baby checked on a fetal monitor to make sure it was OK. She called her family practice doctor in Alaska for advice. What advice was given isn’t clear, but it’s clearly quoted that she "did not ask for a medical OK to fly". Whether it was OK to fly should be the FIRST question anyone considering traveling by air should have, if they were at all interested in protecting the life of the unborn. Regardless, she decided to give her speech at the conference without having any evaluation other than the long-distance advice of a family practitioner. Her speech was more important to her than making any effort to make sure her unborn child was OK. Then, she decided to fly back to Alaska, an 11-hour trip. In addition, she failed to inform flight personnel that her water had broken. Airlines are unequipped to handle most emergencies at 30,000 feet, particularly the kind Palin put her unborn child at markedly increased risk for. These emergencies include birthing a premature infant or uncontrolled maternal bleeding. This was her FIFTH pregnancy and delivery can happen rapidly and unexpectedly. The baby or Palin could easily have died. In the ADN article Palin downplays her decision to fly, implying traveling was reasonable as she wasn't in labor. If so, then why was she immediately hospitalized after returning to Alaska? Why was there an induced delivery of a 36-week infant by 6:30 am soon after her return? Again, ask any OB doctor. Induced delivery of a premature infant ALWAYS indicates a problem. The two most likely would be fetal infection, (a likely event given her failure to seek meaningful medical attention for her baby) or fetal distress by monitor. Ask your OB doctor if the risks Palin took with the life of her unborn child are risks they would have advised for ANY reason. Then ask yourself whether Palin is truly pro-life, or only pro-Palin.

It is difficult to be in Gov. Palin's shoes while she was pregnant. However, as a physician, I can say without any doubt, her actions around 36 weeks gestation had NOTHING to do with the birth of a baby with Trisomy 21 (Down's Syndrome). To suggest that it did demonstrates an amazing lack of knowledge about genetic birth defects. I have no horse in this race but she seems to have been remarkably effective in cleaning out the good old boy corruption network in Alaska. All three of the most powerful of the old guard in the state (including Sen Stevens) are all currently under indictment. There is an awful lot of implication based on unknown facts in the comment which can only be designed to show Gov. Palin in a bad light. I find it very refreshing to see someone actually do more than pay lip service to corruption. I don't believe she will be Sen McCain's choice for a number of political reasons but she easily has as much experience and significantly more accomplishments than Sen. Obama so it could not be used as an argument against her by the Democratic Party. To describe her "reckless" activities as resulting in a child with Down's Syndrome is patently ridiculous.

JakeW didn't say, or even imply, that Palin's actions had anything to do with Trisomy 21 (Down's Syndrome). He just said that her actions were reckless, dangerous, and called into question her ability to make judgments that are truly pro-life, in the best interests of the unborn baby's health.

"In the debate about the rights of the unborn, we are asked to broaden the circle of our moral concern..." ---President George W. Bush, November 5, 2003 President Bush's words are also the language of animal rights. Animal rights activists also speak of expanding our sphere of moral concern to encompass an excluded class of beings. British author John Wynne-Tyson wrote a book in the '70s on animal rights and vegetarianism entitled The Extended Circle. Australian philosopher Peter Singer, similarly, is renown not so much as a bioethicist or a Princeton University professor, but for his views on animals, which are actually quite egalitarian. Singer insists that using membership in the human race as the criterion for personhood is discrimination: comparable to racism or sexism. In this case, we call it speciesism. At the time of the controversy over the Reagan administration's "Baby Doe" rules, Peter Singer wrote in Pediatrics: "If we compare a severely defective human infant with a nonhuman animal, a dog or a pig, for example, we will often find the nonhuman to have superior capacities, both actual and potential, for rationality, self-consciousness, communication, and anything else that can plausibly be considered morally significant."

In his article, "Bridging the Gap," Peter Singer writes: "Baby Valentina was born in Palermo, Italy, in April 1992. She was an anencephalic -- that is, she was born with all of her brain, except the brain stem, missing. This meant that she would never be able to be conscious... or to experience anything at all. Such babies usually die within a few days of birth. Valentina's parents, seeking to salvage something out of a birth that was... less than they had expected, offered her as an organ donor. "Amidst heated public debate, the Italian court ruled that this could not be permitted. to take the hear or any other vital organ from a living human being, even one with nothing more than a brain stem, would also not be allowed in other countries. So Baby Valentina died, and her organs could not be used to save any other babies. "Only two months after the death of Baby Valentina...Dr. Thomas Starzl, a transplant surgeon, removed the liver from a healthy baboon and transplanted it into the heart of a man who was dying from liver disease. The baboon, a healthy, sentient, intelligent, responsive animal, was killed immediately after the liver was taken; the patient died about two months later. No court stepped in to prevent the use of a baboon's liver. "The traditional sanctity-of-life ethic forbids us to kill and take the organs of a human being who is not, and never can be, even minimally conscious; and it maintains this refusal even when the parents of the infant favor the donation of the organs. At the same time, this ethic accepts without question that we may rear baboons and chimpanzees in order to kill them and use their organs. "Why does our ethic draw so sharp a distinction between human beings and all other animals? Why does species membership make such a difference to the ethics of how we may treat a being?"

These must be the most insane comments I have ever read online (and there's a lot of garbage on the internet) except for the points of the Dr. below. First off, why do we differentiate between human beings and animals? Slap yourself! What I'm most concerned with, however, are the extremely rude and insensitive comments about Governor Palin's flights--suggesting that she was not "at all interested in protecting the life of [her] unborn." Shame shame shame! I have been a full-time volunteer in the pro-life movement for the past decade, and you're the type of nut job who gives us all a bad name! Clearly it was a jugement call, but she was at no more risk of going into labor in the air than she was on the ground according to the Mayo Clinic. http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/air-travel-during-pregnancy/AN00398 She had barely arrived at the date when the most paranoid mothers would have started avoiding air travel. Of course, delivering at 30,000 feet is not the ideal, but having had four previous healthy pregnancies she had no reason to expect to have her baby four weeks early. She should be held up as a pro-life hero. Many of us can talk the talk, but she has truly walked the walk. I doubt that a fifth child was part of her plan after she became governor, but she welcomed the pregnancy--even after it was determined that the baby had Downs Syndrome. Instead of criticizing her we should thank her for her courageous example.

A statement by Rodger Schlickeisen, president of Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund: -- “Senator McCain’s choice for a running mate is beyond belief. By choosing Sarah Palin, McCain has clearly made a decision to continue the Bush legacy of destructive environmental policies. “Sarah Palin, whose husband works for BP (formerly British Petroleum), has repeatedly put special interests first when it comes to the environment. In her scant two years as governor, she has lobbied aggressively to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling, pushed for more drilling off of Alaska’s coasts, and put special interests above science. Ms. Palin has made it clear through her actions that she is unwilling to do even as much as the Bush administration to address the impacts of global warming. Her most recent effort has been to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to remove the polar bear from the endangered species list, putting Big Oil before sound science. As unbelievable as this may sound, this actually puts her to the right of the Bush administration. “This is Senator McCain’s first significant choice in building his executive team and it’s a bad one. It has to raise serious doubts in the minds of voters about John McCain’s commitment to conservation, to addressing the impacts of global warming and to ensuring our country ends its dependency on oil.” -- Back in the early '90s, George Bush Sr. referred to environmentalists as "the spotted owl crowd," making it clear that Republicans don't understand environmentalism. "And (yet) they call themselves 'pro-life'," mused Alan Colmes a few years ago. I am disheartened by Sarah Palin's record on the environment, her ties to Big Oil, and her being an "avid hunter and fisher," but I'm not surprised. She is, after all, a conservative Republican, running for VP on a Republican ticket. To her credit, Sarah Palin is a member of Feminists For Life--an organization that is both pro-woman AND pro-life. I wish pro-life Dems had the kind of visibility within their own Party that pro-choice Republicans have in theirs.

I am an OB doc. If she thought her membranes were ruptured, she should have sought a medical evaluation in person prior to boarding a prolonged flight. As a fifth-time mother, she could easily have gone into labor while on the plane. She also could have had a fetus in distress from umbilical cord prolapse or from very low amniotic fluid volume - neither of which would give her symptoms. An infection could have started after rupture of membranes or even caused the rupture of membranes, though those are less likely. I think traumadoc misunderstood what JakeW was trying to say about travel and OB complications. My take on JakeW's comments is that she traveled at 36 weeks and risked a labor-related event occurring, and it did - rupture of membranes (in this case preterm, premature rupture of membranes). I don't think JakeW meant that the Down Syndrome was caused by late preganncy travel or the rupture of membranes. In fact, much of JakeW's take on the medical aspect of this pregnancy event is fairly accurate. If she indeed talked to her doc, hopefully the doc would have said she should be locally evaluated prior to attempting travel back to Alaska, especially with a fetus with a known genetic change that could require special care immediately after birth. It would be interesting to know what motivated her to attempt travel under those circumstances. It would also be interesting to know the details of any conversation she had with her physician, if one indeed took place. At any rate, the choice to travel even with suspected rupture of membranes for that long of a flight is folly. Fortunately for mom and baby it did not turn into disaster. I sincerely hope others don't take this decision and apply it to their own circumstances.

If actions speak louder than words (or lofty speeches), let's take a closer look at the Real McCains: What of McCain’s first wife Carol? John McCain's infidelities put strain on his first marriage, and he was divorced from Carol McCain, his wife of 15 years, in 1980. He married Cindy a month later. Then, “In 1989, following two back surgeries, Cindy McCain became addicted to the painkillers Vicodin and Percocet. To keep up with her daily need of 10 to 15 pills, she used other people's names for prescriptions and stole drugs from the American Voluntary Medical Team...” - http://www.snopes.com/politics/mccain/cindy.asp Her addiction isn’t the big story, but rather how John McCain tried to cover-up the illegal activity with his political power. And in trying to link Obama with Rezko, McCain has re-opened the door to yet another scandal in his past--The Keating Five. It is said that the VP pick is the first example of presidential judgment for a candidate. Conservatives have always hated Hillary because she wanted to pursue a career in law rather than serve “tea and cookies.” Here we have Sarah Palin, who is praised for being a mother of five, including a baby with Down Syndrome. Where are those fundamentalists now when this woman is choosing to pursue fame and fortune instead of putting “family values” first? Moose meat versus arugula is the least of our worries. Palin is anti-science. She does not believe in evolution, or climate change, or development of natural gas and other clean fuels, and most of all she does not believe in women’s rights. There is a reason the prior presidential hopeful Lindsey Graham is not, and probably never will run for President -- the Terri Schiavo intervention. That’s when Americans woke up to the fact that religious radicals had taken over the Republican Party. Palin would shake things up all right, she’d help take this country back to the Dark Ages along with McCain. First McCain shovels some populist poop by promoting a Gas Tax Holiday, then he scoffs at Obama’s reference to proper tire pressure, and now he is the Drill Shill. McCain is already touting a joint energy plan with Palin, who is anything but a visionary. But most of all, after eight miserable years of Bush/Cheney, our country wants to move forward, not backward. Americans should seek higher qualifications for the highest office in the land. Like Bush with his C-grade average and business failures (or think Harriot Myers, Monica Goodling), neither McCain nor Palin have very impressive credentials from education to career achievements outside politics. In the meantime “my friends,” not only has McCain voted with Bush 90% of the time, let’s not forget that McCain is to the right of Bush in regard to war-mongering. We’ll have to get out the old bumper stickers: “Four More Wars!” and “Drop McCain Not Bombs”

OBdoc, JakeW, and twt are spot on. As a proselytizing "pro-life" mom, she risked her premature child's life by traveling and then traveling again even after her membranes broke. It was irresponsible to board that flight in an unknown condition, potentially disrupting an entire flight had it be necessary to land emergently. It's further irresponsible to seek a 5th pregnancy at 43, given the increased prevalence of Down Syndrome in the older, multiparous woman.

I'm a nurse, so I know that no pregnant woman - especially not one carrying a high-risk fetus with known Down Syndrome - would do what Gov. Palin herself admits she did when her amniotic membrane ruptured prematurely while she was in Texas. And no doctor in his right mind would have told such a pregnant woman to do what she did. And I doubt that Miss "Pro Life" here would put such a premature fetus at such high risk, either by flying to Texas in the first place or flying back to Alaska after she claims her water broke. Which leads me to wonder if she did this because she knew that she was not the one who was pregnant and about to give birth to a Down Syndrome baby. I saw the family's holiday photo. The oldest daughter has a rather obvious round tummy - while the Governor showed no physical signs of pregnancy when she officially announced it at seven months in March. And apparently, some of the daughters classmates at a high school in Ankorage say she had been absent for several months prior to this birth, with what was explained as a bad case of "mono". At the announcement in Dayton on Friday, it was the oldest daughter carrying the baby. Today at a campaign stop in Pennsylvania, the noticeable absence of the older daughter and baby were explained - it was baby's nap time and they were both in the bus. Now I have no problem with a mother trying to protect her daughter - but could this Wunderkind of a Corruption Buster be pulling off her own cover up - and allowing herself to be elevated to hero status by the anti-abortion fanatics for having giving birth to a baby known to have Down Syndrome as a testament to her firm pro-life beliefs. Oh, I do hope some mainstream media checks this out - before the National Enquirer has to get to the truth like they did with John Edwards' little cover-up.

I am not a Nurse. I am a Pediatrician with two Doctorates in Developmental Biology. What this 'Nurse' is saying is out of her area of expertise. This is why this ‘Nurse’ is not a licensed OBGYN. Judge for yourself if the rest of her rambling is something an educated person could say. The biggest point is this: Unlike Obama and Biden, McCaine and Palin do not condone or support infanticide.

I am not a Pediatrician. I am a celebrated Astro-Physicist and Bio-Geneticist who has won the Nobel Prize on two occasions, one for my work in researching the effects of chromosonal development on unborn infants. I have been published in seven languages and I work part-time as an OBGYN as a hobby. What this "Pediatrician" is saying is complete nonsense and highly ignorant. This is why this "Pediatrician" is a Republican. The biggest point is this: Unlike McCain and Palin, Obama and Biden demonstrate the judgment and character necessary to lead our country in a new direction toward peace and prosperity. And unlike Palin, they do not lie to cover up a scandalous pregnancy that flies in the face of their stated positions.

Some sobering thought for both sides in the Sarah Palin frenzy. I never heard of her before Friday’s announcement. I immediately googled her and found some fascinating material. Keep in mind this was before all the new pages appeared so all the articles were on what see had actually done. OMG! Everyone seems assured Biden will destroy her in the VP debate. Newsflash, 2 years ago she debated the sitting GOP Governor, who also happened to have spent over 20 years in the US Senate, and killed him and won the election in a landslide. Every seems assured she wont hold up without a teleprompter. Watch this video interview with Newsweek on female governors last march. http://www.newsweek.com/id/156190?tid=relatedcl There seems to have been a 2 year old grassroots effort to get her to VP, first for Rudy, and only later for Jonnie. Look for the older stuff on this site; front page is RA RA for her now. http://www.palinforvp.com/ Was she behind this? Is this part of HER overall plan? Newsflash for the GOP bigwigs that think they can use her to stay in power and forget about her, that’s what all the Alaskan GOP bigwigs thought to, they don’t have jobs now. She is so hated by the old time GOP powers that her name is not mentioned on the GOP’s state website. “In the roughly three years since she quit as the state's chief regulator of the oil industry, Palin has crushed the Republican hierarchy (virtually all male) and nearly every other foe or critic. Political analysts in Alaska refer to the "body count" of Palin's rivals. "The landscape is littered with the bodies of those who crossed Sarah," says pollster Dave Dittman, who worked for her gubernatorial campaign. It includes Ruedrich, Renkes, Murkowski, gubernatorial contenders John Binkley and Andrew Halcro, the three big oil companies in Alaska, and a section of the Daily News called "Voice of the Times," which was highly critical of Palin and is now defunct.“ From http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/013/851orcjq.asp Funniest video take on Sarah, done by 2 guys who think there slamming her, just like Archie Bunker was supposed to be making fun of people like him. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-W5IAPK0hbU&feature=related

On the issue of Governor Palin's water breaking when she was in Texas, please realize that sometimes the water can break prematurily even when a person is not in labor. Of my seven pregnancies several of them had the water rupture in the 5th month and went full term and only one of them ruptured naturally at full term and that one was an abnormal presentation, "arm over the head".