Cuba's Medicine Verde
These days a sick Cuban might visit a Santeria priest for assistance with an appeal to Babalu-Aye, the orisha in the Santeria pantheon believed to cure illness, or a University of Havana trained physician versed in the country's thousands of healing plants and herbs. It's all part of the integration of medicine verde, green medicine, into Cuba's public health care system.

The practice of medicine in Cuba has undergone some radical changes in recent years, reports the on-line magazine Salon. With the cancellation of Soviet aid in the early 1990's and the continuing American trade embargo, Western pharmaceuticals are all but unavailable. The government is integrating native botanicals and traditional remedies to meet the country's health needs.

The changes, a return to pre-Revolution days when centuries-old healing techniques were the norm, have many adherents on the island. At a recently opened government clinic near Havana, doctors aggressively promote such self-healing techniques as yoga and stress management. An official of the Ministry of Public Health was quoted as saying "For Cuba's common illnesses … green medicine usually works at least as well as the drugs, without the side effects."

In a country so poor that the majority of the population cannot afford aspirin, paying for modern pharmaceuticals is the most unpleasant side effect of all.

Kosher IVF
Orthodox Jews facing infertility now have the option of seeking assisted reproduction services that are certified kosher. Two clinics, both in New York City, have arranged for Rabbinical oversight to ameliorate some of the concerns Orthodox Jews have about infertility treatments.

In Manhattan is the Brandeis Center, a fertility clinic that has entered into an agreement with the kosher certification organization Vaad HaKashrus, reported the Baltimore Jewish Times. The Vaad will monitor the Center's procedures and ensure that they are in accordance with Halachah, or Jewish law.

Because of improprieties at some fertility clinics and the importance of lineage to Jews, the Vaad has instituted a program where specially trained women are present at all times during the procedures. It is their job to assure that samples are not mislabeled or misplaced, and that devices used for handling ova are sterilized to eliminate the possibility of sperm lingering from previous procedures. Sidney Greenwald, one of the founders of the Brandeis Center said "[Orthodox couples] would be at ease here. They know it will be their child."

The clinics have also made provisions for the collection of semen samples that are in accordance with Halachah. Although Jewish law forbids the wasting of semen, Rabbi Moshe Heinemann, rabbinic administrator of the Vaad, says it is permissible to produce semen for fertility treatments. "The most preferable is post-coital," he said, a process for which the clinics use specially designed condoms. Welcome to sex at it's safest.

Persian Family Values
For centuries, the tribes that live on the Arabian Peninsula have followed a simple code when it comes to marriage: keep it in the family. Marriage to a cousin or other tribal kin helps preserve family wealth while contributing to the clan's support and defense. In Saudi Arabia the marriage rate between first cousins, second cousins, and other relatives is estimated at fifty-seven percent.

While this tradition cements social bonds in these ultraconservative countries it has exacerbated the spread of genetic disease, according to the Washington Post. Blood disorders such as sickle cell anemia and the hemoglobin deficiency thalassemia are up to twenty percent more common here than in places where the gene pool is more mixed.

Islam does not call upon believers to marry within families, nor does it expressly prohibit it. Supporters of the practice recall that the prophet Muhammad's daughter married her cousin, and it is considered by many the surest way to avoid the uncertainty that can accompany marrying a "stranger."

The Prince Salman Center for Disability Research in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, is currently conducting a comprehensive study of the problem, and international groups such as the World Health Organization are developing policies to address the far-reaching effects of intermarriage. But the question remains: to what extent will biological imperatives drive societal evolution in these notoriously resistant-to-change societies?