WARNING- THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS SOME INFO WHICH SOME MAY FIND DISTURBING OR UPSETING.
85 percent of the time, I like to think the world's a wonderful place. we have tecnology and nature all rolled into one delicious sushi-package, we all have different place to visit and new things to learn. most of the time, the world's a very pleasent, innocent place to be. But 15 percent of the time, horrible things happen. people crash planes into buildings, tecnology is faulty, nature is being destroyed and the odd teenager sometimes drops a baby bomb on her parents and boyfriend. but only very ocassionally do i read or hear something and feel all these emotions at once-
- Degust.
- Shock.
- disbelief.
- and maybe just a little bit heartbroken.
I have only one word to discribe all those emotions coming together- HORRIFIED.
Now, before i explain the debate relevence, read the passage below from wikipedia about "Lina Medina". I watched a documentry about her and was so shocked i suspected i should probably look her up to check this wasn't some kind of fake-

"Little Lina lived with her father, mother and eight siblings in Antacancha, 450 kilometres east of Lima, the capital of Peru. The shamans in the village became concerned about her belly getting bigger and bigger and asked her father, Tiburcio's permission to perform an exorcism to get rid of "the snake under her belly". Permission was granted and the ritual was performed. However this did not have the desired effect and her parents started believing that she was gravely ill with a tumor growing in her stomach.

They then travelled the 70 kilometres to the town of Pisco to Dr Gerardo Lozada who took charge of Lina's preliminary tests. He immediately noticed the size of her stomach and also thought that it might be a tumor. However, after evaluating her clinical tests many times and with the scientific thoroughness required by the circumstances, he declared Lina to be 8 months pregnant. He immediately informed the police who in turn immediately arrested her father, as the prime suspect of having sired the baby. He was soon released though as no there was no evidence against him. One of Lina's siblings, a mentally disabled, 9 year old, brother was then suspected of fathering the baby but this also could not be proven.
As a young adult, she worked as a secretary for Dr Lozada, who saw to her being educated and who also helped her to put Gerardo through high school.
At the age of 33, Lina married Raul Jurado and spent her married life in "Chicago Chico", a very poor suburb of Lima. In 1972 she gave birth to another son. During the 80's her house was demolished to make way for a highway and she did not receive any compensation whatsoever.

After almost 70 years it is still a mistery as to who fathered Gerardo. Lina and her husband still lives in poverty and it was reported in the "El Pais" journal that she has only one ambition: to obtain compensation from her government for the house they demolished."

ok, i could probably follow up a hundred debate relevences to follow that passage, but i'll narrow it down to four:

Debate relevence one- Who impregnated Lina?
in the passage, it states there were two possible father- her nine year old brother and her father. So, a lot of questioning around this topic is- who impregnated her? it had to be someone, so who? the majority of people think it may have been her father--- who many suspected of doing sadistic abuse to his own daughter, seems the most likely. But then again, there is no history of Mr.Medina having any pyshcological or criminal records like that, and his friends and family discribed him as a honourable, kind hearted citizen who would never harm a fly. (PW's take on it- yeah right.) so, if that's true then the only possible father would have to be her older brother but--- how? at the age of nine, and in those times, it's likely you would be very uneducated about sex, adult relationships or anything of the sort and i find it unlikely that he was the father. what do you think?

D.R 2- If abortion existed at the time and it wasn't to late to have a abortion, should Lina of had one?
For me the answer is pretty simple and straightforward, it seems unfair that a child would have to be forced into adulthood before her sixth birthday. But apprantly according to quite a few blogs, even in the case of a five year old- abortion is never ok. for me, this sounds ridiculous, if not completely cruel, but i just wanted to ask wheather her pregnanacy should of been terminated if it was possible to everyone reading, just out of curiosity, and if you don't think abortion was exceptible even in the most extreme of cases- why? And even if you are pro-life would you make a exception in this case?

D.R 3- should Gerado of been adopted instead of living with his mother and grandparents?
Another issue faced with the pregnancy of Lina Medina, is, ok, should they of kept the baby Gerado living in the same house as his mother? True, he didn't actually know she was his mother, but after going through a pregnancy and ceasarian, was it fair that Lina couldn't forget about the horrible things that happened to her and move on? even at the age of five, she must of been embaressed, traumatized maybe even ashamed. And now, having a constant reminder of her mis-fortune everyday. On the other hand, some could argue it was the best dicision as it apprantly "educated ms.Medina and it could of been heart-breaking for all the family to see gerado go, and also to be abandoned due to someone else's mistakes."

D.R 4- Should Gerado of been told about his mother?
Ok, this is a harder one to form a opinion on. Should Gerado, at the age of ten, of been told that his big sister, is actually his mother. Now, one hand, no one would want to be told that. if you have a older sister, or brother, and your "parents" just broke it to you that actually, either your big sister gave birth to you or your brother is the reason for your existance, how would you feel? there was no actual need to tell him, why put someone with a happy life through a unessicary truth? it's almost like taking a normal life away from this 10 year old. But on the other hand, doesn't he have the right to know? he has just as much right to know about his true origin as we do our origins, so would it of been fair if he was robbed of that? this one's reasonably hard to get my head round.

So, that's four questions i'm asking anyone who's reading this and 1 shock i'm presenting one who's reading this. i'm interested to hear your opinions and well, thank you for reading.
-pandawinx.