Be Our Guest / Dr. Hans E. Geisler

Breast cancer research findings affirm long held pro-life position

The most recent issue of the influential journal Cancer Research dated Oct. 1, 2007, published exciting news from one of the leading cancer research institutions in the United States, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Wash.

According to a paper presented by Dr. V. K. Gadi, an assistant professor at the University of Washington, during the most recent meeting of the prestigious American Association for Cancer Research, a reason has been found to possibly explain why women who bear children have a lower incidence of developing breast cancer in later years.

The fact that this is true has been known for years, and now there is a proven scientific reason.

Parenthetically, this new scientific discovery probably explains why women who bear children in their early 20s have a significantly lower incidence of breast cancer than do those who wait until they are in their 30s to have a child.

According to Gadi, fetal cells have been found to remain in the mother’s body after she has borne a child.

In fact, his research group has shown that these fetal cells from a child growing in the womb take up a long-term residence in the mother’s body.

The researchers feel that the presence of these fetal cells, by a process called microchimerism, may actually alert the mother’s immune system to destroy nascent breast cancer cells.

Gadi feels that these findings will provide the impetus to stimulate further research on these microchimeric fetal cells.

Pro-life advocates have long been in the forefront of those who feel that not only does abortion mean the loss of an innocent life, it also produces bad psychological and physical side effects in women who have undergone an abortion.

Moreover, it certainly helps the pro-life cause when one of the most well-known cancer research organizations in the world publishes findings that back up what we, who oppose abortion, have been maintaining for more than 40 years.

(Dr. Hans E. Geisler is a member of St. Luke the Evangelist Parish in Indianapolis. He is a retired oncologist and gynecologist who recently completed advanced studies as an ethicist. He also is a member of the Archdiocesan Pro-Life Advisory Committee and serves on that committee’s speaker’s bureau. His e-mail address is Geisler_gynonc@msn.com.)†