an orange cat questions the ethics behind the court's decision.

If abortion can be allowed upto 20 weeks, why not beyond it? …

Abortion beyond 20 weeks is allowed when the mother's life is in danger. But regardless of how seriously defective a foetus is, aborting it after 20 weeks is illegal. Is it really ethical to give birth to a baby, knowing that it will never have a normal life?Every parent wants his/her child to grow up healthy. Who would want to see their kid on pacemaker and life support from the moment of birth, dependant on them for everything?

At an MSN forum, the question of abortion as a parental choice provokes a lot of responses. One commenter compares abortion to murder and says

In this case it is mercy killing. Just a point think, would one approve abandoning a life if such a defect was known later after birth? If we can trust the medical report why can't we trust the medical science for the cure too?

Another commenter responds

Aborting a child is a painful decision for any woman (and her partner) to take. If the mother-to-be is not emotionally and financially able to handle the needs of her child-to-be, it would be better to abort than to bring forth an un-wanted child.

Sameer Agarwal asks what the consequences will be on the child who will later find out that he or she was not wanted in the first place. Maami's Weblog has a post that has a lot of commenters expressing sympathy for the parents, and for the child who might be born with a severe disability. Chennai Television explores the idea of science and religion playing a role in abortion laws.
The other aspect to this issue is that the couple did not opt for an illegal abortion, and instead sought permission from the courts. Mumbai Metblogs says

First it is not that we have hundreds of Nikita’s walking in every day asking for court’s help to abort a child. Secondly the one person who has faith in the laws and wanted to go about the right way has been bowled out. After this I don’t think that people will have any hopes of receiving the justice to any issue. The moral of the story is such incidents will make the people loose faith in law and justice.

The other issue that emerges is the potential misuse of a law that allows abortions beyond 20 weeks, which might increase the already existing problem of sex-selective abortions. However, the court does not seem prepared to make any exceptions to the law, which hasn't been changed in years.

As Dr. Datar later said, this legal battle shall help in increasing awareness about the lacunae that exist in the present laws and the need for making amendments to Section 5 of the MTP Act, 1971. The issue of the quality of life after birth, still rages on. The law needs amendment, and the legislators need to get their act together quickly.

Image by Robert Miller used under cc license.

The XVII International AIDS Conference will take place in Mexico City between August 3rd and the 8th, and Witness' THE HUB has a series of videos uploaded by community members and organizations reflecting diverse approaches to HIV-AIDS related issues. The innitiative is towards creating a repository of work, testimonies, video and photographs to be shared through their site before, during and after the conference. Videos already online in THE HUB's AIDS conference special coverage page include testimonials from India, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Malawi.

“Lives in Focus“, a website on living with HIV/AIDS in India brings us A Medical Miracle, a video interview with a young girl living with HIV in a shelter. For this child, receiving first line anti-retroviral drugs has made it possible for her to thrive beyond expectations, surpassing the short life expectancy that used to be the norm for children with HIV/AIDS. In the 4 minute video, 12 year old Deepti sings her favorite song and tells about her life in the shelter.

From the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Ajedi-ka organization is prompting viewers into action through a video excerpt titled Awaiting Tomorrow where 25 year old Jean-Jacques speaks about the current situation in the Eastern Congo, where the government doesn't provide economic aid towards purchasing medications, thus reducing the life expectancy of HIV/AIDS + population, and the government has also ignored the requests for testing and treatment centers.

The Tichezerane AIDS Support group in Malawi has created a Participatory Video where they speak about their experience in the group, their daily activities and how the group has improved their lives. Their support of sick members, the workshops where they learn improved farming techniques so they can have fresh vegetables to eat and sell and the impact the group has had on married lives is also shown in the video.

MuJtAbA describes how the time has passed since he came back to Bahrain for a break [Ar]:

He then explains why he was thinking about Bahrain so much earlier in the year - and how he coped:

Now his break is over, and he is returning to India for two more years of study - and he tells us what he is returning to:

He mentions some aspects of life in India that he appreciates, as well as the things he is not looking forward to:

My Fear came true, close to the Bangalore Blasts, serial blasts rocked Ahmedabad on Saturday Evening. As with Bangalore blasts all the blasts were low intensity blasts. More than 100 people are injured and are admitted to the hospital.

Musings from Chennai writes on the lack of security measures.

State Governments should step up their activity to modernise the police force, equip them with CCTV cameras, phone monitoring and above all allow them to work independently to prevent crimes instead of forcing them to perform mundane activities.

I dont see any point in blaming central government - i also dont see any point when central agencies say that they have issues alert to various state - they are routine alerts - no value in them.

On a forum called pagalguy, a user asks who is to blame for the appallingly low levels of security in Indian cities.

But do we all really think that they are to be blamed entirely for these blasts and such savagery? Is it really possible for the security agencies to track the movement of over 1 billion citizens of our country? Do we, as responsible Indians, don't have any duties to perform here? What do we do about such situations? Is it right to just kick-up some mud in the aftermath of the blasts and then get back to our lives again?

At another forum called IndiaMike, a user, living close to the location of the blasts writes

… heard one almighty ‘whoomp' earlier on close to our own house (Maninagar) and asked the wife what that noise was ? Now watching the news on TV. Brother-in-law stays close to where one of the bombs went off.

Luckily all the family are safe. Never gave much thought to bombings til now…

While the television news media in India is covering the news as it unfolds, much like yesterday, some people have been twittering. A user Siyab twitters - “I mean,look at the Ahmedabad blasts: ppl started reporting it long before the news sites published it… “. Meanwhile, Retributions asks why there's an appeal for communal harmony after all bomb blasts.

Indian Raksa writes on the system's failure to address lapses of security, outlining the usual series of events after an attack.

* The Attack
* The Appeal for calm
* The Condemnation
* The Blame Game (which Shantanu somehow missed)
* The suspected “Foreign Hand”
* The Arrests
… the arrested are prosecuted then sentenced to death or put in jail after many years of trail, then mercy petitions are filed with the president, which remains pending like the unattended files in our government offices or the judgment itself leads to outrage which causes more blasts or the convicts are released as ransom for a VIP or his son or daughter or the passengers of a hijacked plane, these escaped terrorists in turn mastermind more attacks.

The scene was busy with people getting anxious and asking what's going on, however I have not see anything in particular. It was all filled with Police men trying to sort out the chaotic traffic and managing people.

Bangalore has been a high growth city for past 10 years now and has been peaceful. However, it seems like many people do not want that to happen. It can also be a political unrest or some kind of terrorist act. However, in the past couple of years this has been the 3rd biggest incident of Bomp blast in a city like Bangalore.

iisc life trawls the web for some information and doesn't find much. Bangalore Metblogs has some information on the exact location of the blasts. Keep Sakes points out to the inadequate infrastructure in the city.

Already we have no electricity, no petrol, no diesel, no infrastucture, no pavements to drive on (yeah, we drive on pavements, for the lack of space elsewhere), no rains, no metro , not even a proper name to call the city - “bangalore? bengalooru? bengaluroo? what??”… and now, of all things, we have a blast??? Isnt the city already on its way to ruin by itself that one H-A-D to put in a blast into this concotion as well ?

Vikas Sharma talks of the poor security arrangements in the city.

It was bound to happen. With light security, poor enforcement of law and laid back attitude of the Bangalore police, Bangalore would surely be targeted sooner or later. I started writing this post when I heard of one bomb blast near Madiwala, by now the count has gone up to eight! I hope this is not the signs of things to come… God forbid.

I have just passed Mysore road a few minutes back and am happy to be in front of my PC in the office, but still unsure if there could be bomb nearby…

Hari Shenoy writes about the anxiety that people in his office are experiencing.

Nayandahalli, which is quite close to my office has also been the location of one of the explosions, and the proximity of this explosion to my office has had people here up in a tizzy. There is a palpable tension in the atmosphere with cell phones ringing or people making calls to their near and dear ones hoping that they stay put in a place that is safe or stay at home out of harm's way.

While news channels (Times Now) was stating that the target was primarily the IT sector, with blasts on Hosur Road, Koramangala and such, it is quite unfounded to make such an assumption since the IT industry people would be the ones that would be among the most ensconed and protected among all others, given the levels of security within and outside their premises.

Quite a few people are twittering about the blasts. Jace says “… despite that we're a half kilometre away from the nearest blast. people are relieved their internet connection hasn't been hit.”. Constant updates on twitter user blastnews.