Free Republic

NEW YORK — When future historians look back on the 21st century, one of the most iconic photos may be of a smiling, dark-haired man in blue scrubs protectively holding a newborn — the world’s first commercially produced “three-parent” baby. This is John Zhang, the Chinese-born, British-educated founder and medical director of a Manhattan fertility center that is blowing up the way humans reproduce. In 2009, Zhang helped a 49-year-old patient become the world’s oldest known woman to carry her own child. In the not-too-distant future, he says, 60-year-old women will be able to do the same. In 2015, Zhang...

During the Obama administration’s foray to London this last week, officials provided a special telephone number to journalists interested in discussing foreign-policy issues in an “on-the-record briefing call with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and National Security Advisor Jim Jones.” Unfortunately, as part of the curious run of bad luck currently afflicting our new Secretary of State, upon dialing the number the gentlemen of the press were greeted by a honey-voiced seductress, presumably not Secretary Clinton, offering them “phone sex” and seeking their credit-card number if they “feel like getting nasty.” No, it’s not a White House April Fool’s gag....

IT WAS A SPECTACULAR LATE-MAY AFTERNOON IN SOUTHERN ITALY,but the streets of Laviano — a gloriously situated hamlet ranged across a few folds in the mountains of the Campania region — were deserted. There were no day-trippers from Naples, no tourists to take in the views up the steep slopes, the olive trees on terraces, the ruins of the 11th-century fortress with wild poppies spotting its grassy flanks like flecks of blood. And there were no locals in sight either. The town has housing enough to support a population of 3,000, but fewer than 1,600 live here. SNIP The figure...

The gymnasium at Challenger Recreation Center is going full tilt, with youngsters sprinting up and down the court, heaving basketballs at buckets that tower over them. On each side, proud parents, camcorders and digital cameras hard at work, record the exploits of their offspring, mothers alternately cheering and rocking infants in their arms. Other kids are in the centre’s pool, its roller rink, its skating rink. In the summer, they flock to the baseball diamond and soccer field. To understand the essence of George W. Bush’s America, one should make the journey to Douglas County, southeast of Denver, long one...

Republicans Outbreed Us, Democrats Fret http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2004/12/10/114946.shtml Democrats' endless and often clueless stewing over the GOP's latest election triumphs just keeps getting funnier. Have you heard of "natalists"? They’re the left's new boogeyman. These curious Middle American creatures, it seems, care more about having a family than a summer home in the Hamptons. They tend to have conservative moral values. And ... they're reproducing! Now the media elitists are examining this phenomenon of flyover country as if it's some sort of exotic species that must be dissected, though perhaps not exterminated. The New York Times' David Brooks frets: "They are having...

From email: "There is a little-known movement sweeping across the United States," writes David Brooks in the New York Times. "The movement is 'natalism' ": All across the industrialized world, birthrates are falling - in Western Europe, in Canada and in many regions of the United States. People are marrying later and having fewer kids. But spread around this country, and concentrated in certain areas, the natalists defy these trends. . . .There are significant fertility inequalities across regions. People on the Great Plains and in the Southwest are much more fertile than people in New England or on the Pacific coast. You can...

here is a little-known movement sweeping across the United States. The movement is "natalism."All across the industrialized world, birthrates are falling - in Western Europe, in Canada and in many regions of the United States. People are marrying later and having fewer kids. But spread around this country, and concentrated in certain areas, the natalists defy these trends.They are having three, four or more kids. Their personal identity is defined by parenthood. They are more spiritually, emotionally and physically invested in their homes than in any other sphere of life, having concluded that parenthood is the most enriching and elevating...

South Korea's national health insurance will cover medical bills for natural childbirth starting next year, the Korea Times reported Saturday. The Times said the move is part of efforts to encourage more childbirths as the nation's birth rate dwindled far below the world's average. Health and Welfare Minister Kim Geun-tae has said the government will take measures to boost the number of births in order to address the prospect of an aged society. The National Statistical Office said the fertility rate of Korean women stood at 1.19 last year, the lowest among OECD member countries.

Feminism is the new natalism." With that statement, David Willetts, the U.K.'s shadow work and pensions secretary rocked the nation's perception about the Conservative Party's policies. Willetts released a document called "Old Europe? Demographic Change and Pension Reform." In it, he says the European economy risks disaster if more women do not have more children. Declining birth rates in Europe mean that over the next 50 years, the European Union will have 40 million more people over the age of 60 and a reduction of 40 million in the number of people ages 15 to 60. "By 2050 Europe will...