Weekly News

For a number of years now, a great deal of discussion has taken place among scientists and in the popular media about the genetic engineering of children. Will it soon be possible, for prices widely affordable at least to the upper-middle class, to guarantee that children have a high IQ, or excellent athletic ability, or be over 6 feet tall, or have blond hair and blue eyes? Is it right to commodify children in this way, and have parents choosing options as they do with cars? And wouldn't it be boring to live in a world someday where almost everyone is extremely intelligent and beautiful? Variety, or even the politically correct term "diversity," is the spice of life.

But not everyone wants what seemed to be the three genetic engineering options: refrain and let nature take her course, attempt to repair genetic diseases but otherwise let well enough alone, or select positive qualities in children. There are parents who are deliberately ensuring that their children are born with disabilities, from deafness to dwarfism. A fourth option - inflicting permanent disabling conditions on children - is now being used.

For some years now, some deaf parents have refused to allow their deaf children to receive cochlear implants that would enable them to hear. The devices must often be implanted when children are very young in order to work, so such parents condemn their children to a lifetime of deafness when they could have been able to hear.

Some dwarf couples are even using in-vitro fertilization to create embryos in the lab, then killing the normal ones and implanting the ones with the dwarfness gene to ensure having a dwarf child.

The standard Marxist-Frankfurt School arguments are used to justify such acts by Deaf Life magazine and other radical organizations representing some disabled people. They argue that deaf folks, dwarfs, and others aren't disabled at all, just different. Deaf Life types complain of an "oralist" culture that discriminates against deaf people who use sign language. "Oralism" oppresses the deaf, you see, just as racism, sexism, heterosexism, and other isms ad nauseam oppress others.

In a Jan. 21, 2007 story, the Associated Press reported that, of American clinics it surveyed that perform embryo screening, 3% admit to screening in favor of disabilities. This story contains perhaps the most revealing statement on the question. It was uttered by a dwarf woman angered that anyone would dare suggest that deliberating inflicting permanent suffering on children is bad: "Cara Reynolds of Collingswood, N.J., who considered embryo screening but now plans to adopt a dwarf baby, is outraged by the criticism. 'You cannot tell me that I cannot have a child who's going to look like me,' Reynolds said. 'It's just unbelievably presumptuous and they're playing God.'"

Funny to think that it's playing God to say it's wrong to use high-tech techniques to choose certain qualities in children rather than letting nature take her course. Isn't intervening to choose a major genetic quality in your child much more like playing God?

First abortion, then fetal and embryonic tissue experimentation, and on the anti-child bandwagon goes. Some kill children because they have disabilities; others choose to inflict suffering that only God could possibly have a right to allow. What hate there is in the world.

I will let others comment upon the dark spiritual impulses that must be behind a parent's decision to do such a thing. But I will ask this: How relativistic can a society become and still be worthy of preserving?

Things must change soon. With such degeneration, and such low birthrates in this anti-child age, things must change or we shall perish. I am banking on the former.

Joseph A. D'Agostino is the outgoing Vice President for Communications at PRI.

PRI; P.O. Box 1559; Front Royal, Va. 22630; USA
Phone: (540) 622-5240 Fax: (540) 622-2728
E-Mail: colin@pop.org
Media Contact: Colin Mason
(540) 622-5240, ext. 209
Website: www.pop.org

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2. Dutch Euthanasia, By Wesley J. Smith - April 2, 2007

Dutch Euthanasia:
http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/?p=682

Monday, April 2, 2007, 10:20 AM

In his book /Seduced by Death/, Herbert Hendin reported that one reason the Dutch people have not turned against their euthanasia law is that doctors and the media in Holland do not candidly report about the many abuses and violations of the law that occur with regard to their country's euthanasia policy.

A Recent News Report
http://www.radionetherlands.nl/currentaffairs/eut070330mc on Radio Netherlands, to commemorate the fifth anniversary of formal legalization, gives a good example. It contained no discussion of the approximately 1,000 patients who, without requesting euthanasia, are nonetheless killed by Dutch doctors. It contained no discussion of the Dutch Supreme Court permitting the depressed to be assisted in suicide. It contained no substantive dissent at all.

It did, however, contain quotations from Dr. Bert Keizer, author of the book /Dancing with Mr. D/, in which he describes his euthanasia work as a nursing home doctor. He said, for instance, "People who ask for euthanasia are not put under pressure, they are under the burden of suffering."

Hendin and others have demonstrated otherwise. And there are all sorts of ways to pressure patients into killing themselves - some of which in Keizer himself notes in his own book. For example, there's Van de Berg, a Parkinson's patient who asks for euthanasia. But before Keizer can kill him, Van de Berg receives a letter from his religious brother telling him that it would be a sin to commit suicide and would violate the way they were raised as children by their parents.

The man hesitates. Keizer is not amused. From page 94:

And now this letter, which to my surprise, he takes seriously. I don't know what to do with such a wavering death wish. It's getting on my nerves. Does he want to die or doesn't he? I hope I don't have to go over the whole business again. ...Suddenly, I have an idea: "You know what we'll do? We'll ask Hendrik Terborgh, our vicar. Would you agree to that?" He cries and types "yes."

Next day Hendrik tells me that it's all right. He refers to his meeting with Van de Berg. "Well, he knows what has to be done. He knows what he wants now." ... It goes well. He has good veins.

Keizer does not tell us what the vicar told Van de Berg, but I think it is a good bet he didn't engage in suicide prevention or validate the brother's religious concerns. Also, note that Keizer is far more concerned about the bureaucratic matters than with the well being of his own patient. One can imagine how depressing it would feel to have such a doctor, how alone and abandoned it would seem.

Here's another form of pressure: Not telling a patient about the ability to control pain, or even waiting for a final diagnosis before agreeing to kill a patient. Keizer is asked to euthanize Teus, a man whom he /thinks/ - but does not know - has lung cancer. He discusses the case with his colleague on page 37, who asks if the patient is really suffering badly. "Is it for us to answer that question? All I know is that he wants to die more or less upright and that he doesn't want to crawl to his grave the way a dog crawls howling to the sidewalk after he's been hit by a car.

Patients with cancer /do not/ have to die in this manner. Proper medical care would prevent it. But this is never mentioned to the patient. Nor, from what we read, does Keizer even know about the powers of morphine to control cancer pain. He doesn't even discuss hospice with Teus or his family - which is outrageous negligence. Instead, as he describes on page 39, when Keizer gets ready to euthanize Teus, he will countenance no doubts: "I tell Jaarsma and De Goover [Keizer's colleagues] that Teus is going to die that evening. Jaarsma seems sore but raises no objection. De Goover looks sharply at me, trying to work out how scared I am. If anyone so much as whispers 'cortisone' or 'uncertain diagnosis,' I'll hit him."

The most telling passage in the book may come when Keizer is asked by a colleague whether he should love his patients. "'What about love,' Herman wonders. 'Shouldn't you love your patients, if only a little?' I don't know right away what to say. I think it's good for the profession if I heave a deep sigh now and declare my assent. And there are situations that upset you. But love? I doubt it."

Those we would kill, we must first dehumanize - or at least, we must divorce ourselves from their humanity. This abandoning ethic is repeatedly illustrated by Dr. Keizer's book. Everyone who wants to read first hand about the cold, sterile, anti-human values intrinsic to the euthanasia movement should read his /Dancing with Mr. D/.

/Wesley J. Smith is a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute, an
attorney for the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide, and a special consultant to the Center for Bioethics and Culture./

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3. EPC Believes Acquitting Gary Howes Was Error - April 13, 2007

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition believes that Judge Edward Slinger of the Preston Crown Court (Britain) erred when he acquitted Gary Howes of offering suicide assistance via the Internet.

We need to be able to interpret our laws in such a way to protect people from Internet suicide predators in the same way as we protect children from Internet child porn predators.

Canadian law states (sec 241) that you cannot aid, abet or counsel suicide, whether suicide ensues or not you are liable to 14 years in prison. We need to recognize that laws that protect others from suicide predators need to be protected based on abetting suicide by means of communication including the Internet. This could be accomplished simply by the courts recognizing that abetting may occur by other means of communication.

There are depressed school girls (troubled teens) and people who experience depression and mental breakdown who need to be protected from others. The law appropriately recognizes the need to protect the nations most vulnerable citizens. The law needs also to be interpreted to include communications medium that did not exist at the time the law was written.

Alex Schadenberg

From The Times - April 13, 2007

Internet 'Suicide Helper' Found Not Guilty

Stewart Tendler, Crime Correspondent

A computer analyst who posted a message on the Internet offering to help suicide attempts was cleared yesterday of breaking the law after a judge ruled that there was insufficient evidence.

Gary Howes, 44, was charged after a reporter on the Lancashire Evening Post went undercover posing as a depressed schoolgirl and a bullied schoolboy in response to the message.

Judge Edward Slinger ordered the jury at Preston Crown Court formally to acquit Mr. Howes of three charges of attempting to help a person commit or attempt suicide but said that the story "filled the court with the greatest unease".

Mr. Howes, from Chesham, Buckinghamshire, posted a message on the internet in which he invited anyone who needed assistance in committing suicide to contact him and said: "I will be only too happy to help."

Nicholas Kennedy, for the prosecution, said that a mature woman student, who had suicidal thoughts at times and suffered from depression, saw the message.

Using an alias she contacted the message sender who, the court was told, offered help and outlined his method, which involved drugs and asphyxiation. The message, from Mr. Howes, went on to say he could be present for the suicide, the court was told.

Mr. Kennedy said the woman contacted Stefanie Hall, at the newspaper, who had been investigating easily accessible advice to vulnerable people on possible suicide methods.

Using fictitious characters, one a depressed 16-year-old girl, and the other a bullied 14-year-old boy, Mrs. Hall made contact with the defendant who went on, through a e-mails, to offer a method he described as "painless and quick" to commit suicide.

He said that there was no need for them to fear, assured them that it could be arranged quickly and asked for telephone numbers so that contact could be made.

Mr. Howes also wanted assurances that the people he was in contact with were genuine and not from the police or press. Police traced him to a London flat where he was arrested. Officers seized two photographs depicting people with bags over their heads.

Mr. Howes in a defence statement later claimed that he had been indulging in fantasy and had no intention of counselling anybody to commit or attempt suicide.

Judge Slinger ruled that the Crown had to prove that the defendant intended to assist in a suicide or attempt a suicide. It had also to prove that he attempted to do so by some act, which was more than merely preparatory.

'Your troubles will be over soon'

"E-mails to "Daniel"

"Take heart, your troubles will be over very soon. You will never have to worry about letting anyone down again."
"
I can guarantee that it won't hurt. It will be just like falling asleep and travelling to a far better place."

"You will soon be free of all your pain ... Just bring your medication. I will do the rest." E-mails to "Jennie"

"Things do look bleak for you don't they? It could soon be over. I have a quick and painless method."

"My Dear Daniel, there's no need to be afraid, it will just be like drifting off into a long peaceful sleep."

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4. Federal Chairman Has Gloomy Outlook - April 1, 2007

http://www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?idCategory=34&idarticle=7544

Ben Bernanke warns Senate committee that baby boomers' retirement plans will place huge burden on the economy and the next generation: demography is destiny.

Thursday, January 18, 2007 - Martin Barillas http://www.speroforum.com/site/author.asp?AUTH_ID=39

Chairman Ben Bernanke of the Federal Reserve said today on Capitol Hill that lawmakers have waited too long to take into consideration the fact that baby-boomers will begin to reach retirement age in 2008. "If early and meaningful action is not taken, the US economy could be seriously weakened" said Bernanke at his inaugural appearance before the Senate Budget Committee, "The longer we wait, the more severe, the more draconian, the more difficult, the objectives are going to be. I think the right time to start was about 10 years ago."

Sounding like a warning cry, Bernanke proclaimed, "We are experiencing what seems likely to be the calm before the storm" and "Unfortunately, economic growth alone is unlikely to solve the impending fiscal problems." Retiring Americans over the next few years will mean massive costs in welfare and social security retirement benefits. Bernanke also said that US retirement entitlements would climb from about 8.5 percent of the US gross domestic product (GDP) to 15 percent by 2030.

Ranging in to field of soothsaying, Bernanke said "Dealing with the resulting fiscal strains will pose difficult choices for Congress, the Administration and the American people" and that future generations would bear the cost of social security schemes in a bleak economic environment. Bernanke said that this budgetary "crisis" threatens US living standards should Congress fail to act on funding shortfalls for Social Security and Medicare.

Bernanke refused to "support of defend or oppose" specific spending or tax plans, saying "tax cuts don't pay for themselves" and their impact depends on their nature.

However without changes, Bernanke said, the United States will run large annual deficits and ever increasing debt to support programs such as Medicare. The current national debt could climb to levels not seen since the Second World War. "A vicious cycle may develop in which large deficits lead to rapid growth in debt and interest payments" and lead to a "fiscal crisis."

With 78 million baby boomers about to retire, a flat fertility rate, and upward life expectancy, not even a doubling of the current immigration rate can solve the looming crisis, he predicted. Bernanke did suggest that Congress should look to simplifying the current Federal tax code and adjusting the nation's health care plans.

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5. Grassroots Pro-Life Effort Calls For Monthly Nationwide Participation - April 6, 2007

WASHINGTON, Apr. 6 /Christian Newswire/ - A grassroots nationwide monthly effort is taking place today, Friday, April 6th 2007. The project, called MonthlyCallForLife.com, encourages Pro-Life people to contact their representatives on the first Friday of every month in order to ask them to oppose abortion and human killing research.

Information is available on the website which helps locate the proper representative, what they might want to say to them and when to call.

Peter Shinn, founder of MonthlyCallForLife.com stated:

"MonthlyCallForLife.com was created so that the people of America could speak up regularly for the first right which is declared in the Declaration of Independence, namely the 'Right to Life', without which we cannot have 'Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness'. On the first Friday of every month, we unite and 'Call for Life' to help bring an end to abortion and challenge the culture of death.

MonthlyCallForLife.com is a grassroots project growing in America, without corporate funding or donations, to help the unborn."

Peter Shinn is the Technical Director for NationalProLifeRadio.net, the founder of ProLifeNews.tv, which is the largest nationwide Multimedia Pro-Life News source and ProLifeUnity.com. He is also the Program Manager for Faith and Action Live, the weekly radio and Internet TV broadcast for Faith and Action, which is broadcast from our nation's Capital.

To contact Peter Shinn for more information or interviews please call 703-787-8723 or send an E-Mail to:
contact@monthlycallforlife.com.

Christian Newswire

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6. Hong Kong Reports Mainland Chinese Eating Infants - Mar 29, 2007

The Next Magazine - Mar 29, 2007

You have to be kidding right? Unfortunately this is really happening!

The Next Magazine, a weekly publication from Hong Kong, reported that infant corpses and fetuses have become the newest supplements for health and beauty in China. Not only is the placenta considered a beauty remedy, but also aborted fetuses are much sought after delicacies. In Guangdong, gourmet body parts are in high demand and can even be purchased through hospitals. The magazine's investigations into this form of cannibalism took them to Liaoning province.

According to The Next Magazine, during a banquet hosted by a Taiwanese businessman, a servant Ms Liu from Liaoning province on the mainland inadvertently revealed the habit of eating infants/fetuses in Liaoning province and her intention to return for the supplement due to health concerns. The Taiwanese women present were horrified.

Ms Liu also disclosed that even though people can afford the human parts there are still waiting lists and those with the right connections get the "highest quality" human parts, which translates to the more mature fetuses. A male fetus is considered the "prime" human part.

At the The Next Magazine's request, Ms Liu personally escorted the reporter to a location where a fetus was being prepared. The reporter observed a woman chopping up a male fetus and making soup from the placenta. During the process, the woman even tried to comfort everyone by saying, "Don't be afraid, this is just the flesh of a higher animal."

The boy's remains were cremated in the mountains in accordance with the customs of the region.

In fact, in China, reports about meals made from infant flesh have surfaced from time to time. A video is on the Internet for people to view. In the introduction, the Chinese claim that eating a human fetus is an art form.

On March 22, 2003, police in Bingyan, Guangxi Province seized 28 female babies smuggled in a truck from Yulin, Guangxi Province going to Houzhou in Anhui Province. The oldest baby was only three months old. The babies were packed three or four to a bag and many of them were near death-none were claimed by their parents.

On the morning of October 9, 2004, a person rifling through the garbage on the outskirts of Jiuquan city in the Suzhou region, found dismembered babies in a dumpster. There were two heads, two torsos, four arms, and six legs. According to the investigation, these corpses were no more than a week old and they had been dismembered after cooking.

Although China has laws that prohibit the eating of human fetus, the regime's forced abortions to ensure the one child policy is strictly adhered to thereby creating many opportunities for these sorts of atrocities to occur.

What would make people do such a thing without any fear of condemnation? Since Mao's Cultural Revolution, a complete lack of morality and respect for human life has become the norm in China. Over time, domination by the Chinese Communist regime has led to inhuman behavior and human rights violations resulting in abnormal practices such as cannibalism.

Click here to read the original article in Chinese

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7. Japan Promoting Adoption Over Abortion - April 1, 2007

Spero News

Japan promoting adoption over abortion
http://www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?idCategory=33&idarticle=8120

Japan is emulating India in launching "public cradles against abortion": a hospital in Kumamoto has a "baby box" for mothers to leave their unwanted babies.

Asia News - Saturday, February 24, 2007
http://www.speroforum.com/site/author.asp?AUTH_ID=147

Japan has also set up "public cradles against abortion". Following India, which last week launched a "cradles scheme" against abortions and foeticide of girls, the Japanese Health Minister approved a decision taken by a hospital in Kumamoto to have a "baby box" for the public.

Hospital officials said the box was intended to ensure absolute privacy for those parents who wanted to abandon their newly born babies. The "box" is an incubator, which is always working and monitored by a nurse of the hospital. Babies can be put there through an opening in the hospital wall.

According to officials of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, the proposal "does not violate any law but should be supported because it protects the safety of unwanted babies."

Clearly, they added, from a legal point of view, the hospital would have to answer for the safety of the children. All the same, "the government will do everything possible to help through adoption and tax reduction campaigns".

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8. Lifeissues.net Newsletter #317 - April 01, 2007

Greetings from LifeIssues.net (www.lifeissues.net)

Dear Friends for Life,

An essential argument for those wanting over-the-counter sales of the morning-after pill to teens is that it will reduce pregnancies and abortions. Here is what happened in Britain. We note that the morning-after pill has been available in England over-the-counter to young teenage girls for the last five years. During this time abortion rates have risen in the fifteen to forty-four age groups from 11 per 1,000 women in 1994 to 18 per 1,000 in 2004. Abortions have risen from 186,300 in 2001 to 194,400 in 2005.

In spite of this fact, a high court in Chile has approved the right of the government to distribute the morning-after pill to minor teenagers without the parent's knowledge or consent.

In addition, a meta-analysis of 23 published reports conducted in ten countries has been reported in the prestigious journal, Obstetrics and Gynecology. It demonstrates that the morning after pill does not reduce pregnancy rates or abortions. It concluded, "Increased access to emergency contraception pills does enhance its use, but has not been shown to reduce unintended pregnancy rates." The authors noted, "No study has shown that increased access to this method reduces unintended pregnancy or abortion rates on a population level." They concluded that the use of this bill "Is unlikely to produce a major reduction in unintended pregnancy rates no matter how often women use it."

Kindly share this knowledge with your friends and students.

God Bless, Fr. Jerry, omi

(A Thought:) Who is abortion good for? Women who abort are three times more likely to report symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder compared to women with unintended pregnancies who deliver (Journal of Anxiety Disorders). Women with a history of induced abortion are three times more likely to use illegal drugs during a subsequent pregnancy (British Journal of Health Psychology).

Lifeissues.net Newsletter #317 - April 01, 2007

Table Of Contents:
1. Reproductive Rights: Embracing The Lie
2. The Dark Side Of Population Control
3. India: Two Steps Forward, One Backward
4. HIV Infections On The Rise In Asia
5. Breastfeeding Alone Cuts HIV Risk
6. UN Officials Draft Document Re-Interpreting 29 International Law Rights To All Include Homosexual Rights
7. Abortion And Embryo Manipulation Tools Of Economic Progress Causing Society's Death
8. Thinking Outside The Egg, Scientists Propose Interspecies Cloning
9. Prenatal Screenings: Parents Of Children With Down Syndrome Speak Of Joys, Sorrows
10. Cloning Doubletalk
11. Pope: "Demographic Profile" Shows Europe Soon To "Take Its Leave From History"
12. Kansas Bishops Launch Education Campaign On Immorality Of Embryonic Stem Cell Research

Focus On Asia: 132 million in Asia 'face starvation'. Warming may cut harvests by 30% in 2050s. Grain harvests in the Asian region will drop by as much as 30 percent, leading to skyrocketing food prices and the starvation of 132 million people in Asia in the 2050s, if fossil fuels continue to be consumed at the current rate, according to a report of the Working Group II of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. (The Yomiuri Shimbun)

http://www.worldpress.org/link.cfm?http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/features/science/20070329TDY01001.htm

Item #1. Reproductive Rights: Embracing The Lie
Recently, I read a press release on Reproductive Rights and African-American Women by abortion advocate Ipas. We all too often hear of women's organizations talk about women's rights and reproductive freedom. I found it interesting because while Ipas was ranting about the reproductive choices of black women being almost non existent...I found myself thinking about the facts regarding African Americans and abortion.

Fact: Since 1973, MORE THAN 44 million unborn children have been legally killed in this country - of those killed almost 15 million of them where black.

View full file at Christian Newswire:
http://www.christiannewswire.com/news/456442374.html

Item #2. The Dark Side Of Population Control
According to China's State Population and Family Planning Commission, "by 2020 some 30 million Chinese men will not be able to find wives." If these thirty million men were a country, they would be one of the forty most-populous countries in the world. This inability to find wives, in the commission's words, "may lead to social instability."

View full text at BreakPoint:
http://www.breakpoint.org/listingarticle.asp?ID=6239&zbrandid=420&zidType=CH&zid=1279886&zsubscriberId=136625765

Item #3. India: Two Steps Forward, One Backward
A government report released as part of an extensive national family health survey has come as a rude shock for a state long regarded as progressive. It placed Tamil Nadu high on a list of states where wife beating is common.

View full text at IPS News:
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=36843

Item #4. HIV Infections On The Rise In Asia
The number of people in Asia infected with the AIDS virus threatens to double over the next five years unless governments do more to stop the spread of HIV, officials said Friday.

About 8.6 million people are infected in Asia with HIV.

At the current level of inadequate response, it is expected this number will rise to about 20 million in the next five years," the independent Commission on Aids in Asia said.

View full text at The Conservative Voice:
http://www.theconservativevoice.com/ap/article.html?mi=D8O6FU780&apc=9020

Item #5. Breastfeeding Alone Cuts HIV Risk
Exclusively breastfeeding until a baby is six-months old can significantly reduce the risk of mother-to-child HIV transmission, an African study says.

View full text at BBC News:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6507309.stm

Item #6. UN Officials Draft Document Re-Interpreting 29 International Law Rights To All Include Homosexual Rights
At the Human Rights Council in Geneva this week, a radical homosexual umbrella group released a homosexual rights document authored by several UN human rights officials that claims even the youngest children are capable of discerning their sexual identity. It adds they should be given governmentally protected free reign to express that identity.

See the full article at LifeSite:
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/mar/07032906.html

Item #7. Abortion And Embryo Manipulation Tools Of Economic Progress Causing Society's Death
Abortion and embryo manipulation in the name of science are tools used in the relentless search of economic progress, but far from making society go forward, they destroy its values. These accusations are made in a statement released by the Bishops' Conference of Korea, which calls on the government to give priority to fundamental values and the protection of human dignity, neglected in their view in the name of economic development. One of the consequences of this situation has been the lowest birth rate in the world, and especially the destruction of human values, which have been replaced by a culture of death.

Full Article at AsiaNews.it
http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=8861&size=A

Item #8. Thinking Outside The Egg, Scientists Propose Interspecies Cloning
Currently, the few scientists actively pursuing human cloning are hobbled by a nearly non-existent human egg supply. And each researcher will need thousands of them.

"Getting eggs from women is the bottleneck to cloning," Cibelli said. "An alternative would be welcomed."

All three U.K. teams aim to get around that bottleneck by taking DNA from patients sick with a disease like Alzheimer's and fuse it with cow eggs that have had all their genetic material removed. The hope is that the human DNA will trick the eggs into thinking they're pregnant, beginning development.

After about five days of growth, the cloned embryos would be destroyed and the stem cells extracted. The stem cells would be grown in their labs and the researchers could look for the onset of diseases, study their development and test experimental drugs on the cells.

Comment: Of course, we embryonic stem cell research opponents are just a bunch of alarmists! --Nancy Valko, RN

View full article at USA Today:
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/genetics/2007-03-22-animal-cloning_N.htm

Item #9. Prenatal Screenings: Parents Of Children With Down Syndrome Speak Of Joys, Sorrows
Like other 14-year-olds, Grace Mehan enjoys playing sports, hanging out with her friends, going horseback riding and acting.

She also has Down syndrome.

Her father Tom Mehan, of Mary Queen of Peace Parish in Webster Groves, said the blessings the family has received since her birth have been abundant. He said his daughter's life is filled with value - a life that others should value as well.

View entire text at ReviewOnline:
http://www.stlreview.com/article.php?id=12598

Item #10. Cloning Doubletalk
Senators Dianne Feinstein and Orrin Hatch have just introduced Senate Bill 812, which explicitly legalizes human cloning and - since a shortage of human eggs is currently impeding human cloning research (one egg is needed for each attempt at cloning) - the bill also authorizes researchers to pay women to undergo egg procurement.

And if the purpose of the legislation wasn't bad enough, there's its name: Feinstein and Hatch mendaciously named S. 812 the "Human Cloning Ban and Stem Cell Protection Act of 2007."

How can a bill to legalize human cloning be instead called a ban? Through the time-tested method of disingenuous legislating - the bogus definition. Here's a rarely discussed truth: Key words and terms in legislation mean only what a bill's authors say they mean, rather than their actual definitions. If a dung beetle was defined in legislation as a butterfly, for the purposes of that bill, the dung beetle would be a butterfly. Which is essentially what S. 812 does. It defines the term "human cloning" inaccurately and unscientifically so that Feinstein and Hatch can pretend their bill will outlaw human cloning.

View full text at Weekly Standard:
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/013/441vfewj.asp

Item #11. Pope: "Demographic Profile" Shows Europe Soon To "Take Its Leave From History"
Europe's rejection of its traditional Christian identity is leading to its imminent disappearance from the world stage, Pope Benedict XVI said in an address to a congress of the Commission of the Bishops' Conferences of the European Community (COMECE) on March 24.

"[I]n demographic terms, it must unfortunately be noted that Europe seems set on a path that could lead to its exit from history," Pope Benedict XVI stated at the event commemorating the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Rome on March 25, 1957, which formed the foundations of today's European Union.

Read full article at LifeSite:
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/mar/07032606.html

Item #12. Kansas Bishops Launch Education Campaign On Immorality Of Embryonic Stem Cell Research
The Catholic bishops of Kansas have launched a campaign to help the public understand the moral and ethical problems associated with embryonic stem cell research. The initiative was taken in response to increasing pressure for state laws approving research into human cloning and embryonic stem cell techniques.

The bishops commissioned a stem cell education video, available at http://saintmaxworldwide.org/ that offers a "clear and concise guide" to the debate over research using human embryos. Entitled "The Science of Stem Cells: Finding Cures and Protecting Lives," the 12-minute video explains underlying facts in the stem cell debate largely missing from media coverage, including the failure of embryonic research to produce any cures from disease, the facts of human cloning, and the success rate of ethically-acceptable adult stem cell research.

See the full article at LifeSite:
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/mar/07032002.html

Get Involved:

1. Pray Daily that we all may have the courage to be God's presence in society and strongly support those who have been deemed "unworthy of life".

2. Be Informed at Lifeissues.net website: http://www.lifeissues.net.

3. Become A Missionary For Human Life: "Journey for Life into the Heart of Asia" is a project, which appeals for donations to help finance travel expenses for talks to undeveloped countries in Asia. Fr. Jerry's lectures this year will emphasis "The Asian Family at Crossroads: Life Issues, Trends and Challenges". For Lectures in Asia: contact Fr. Jerry. To become a supportive Missionary for Human Life in Asia, kindly send your donations directly to: Fr. Jerry Novotny, OMI; LifeIssues.net, Editor; Akebono-cho 1-15-9; Kochi City, Japan, 780-8072 (or transfer donation directly to ProLife bank account: Jerome Novotny, Shikoku Bank, Asakura Branch, No. 102-1-0080824)

Contact Editor:
Jerry Novotny, OMI; Akebono-cho 1-15-9; Kochi City, Japan, 780-8072; Tel/Fax: 088-843-0406; E-Mail: jerry@lifeissues.net

Contact Assistant Editor: Mr. Marlon Castillo Ramirez; Author of Book: "The Sights and Soul of Life"; E-Mail: mcr4lifeissues@gmail.com

Websites by Editor:
English LifeIssues Site: http://www.lifeissues.net,
Japanese LifeIssues Site: http://www.japan-lifeissues.net,
OMI Site: http://www.omijapankorea.net/index.html

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9. Lifeissues.net Newsletter #318 - April 08, 2007

Greetings from LifeIssues.net (www.lifeissues.net)

Dear Friends for Life,

In his rising from the dead, Jesus has given us the power to rise above ourselves; may we walk in the light that brightens the path of faith.

Happy Easter, Fr. Jerry

Expansion of Easter Message by Dr. Dianne Irving, Ph. D.

Dear Fr. Jerry:

Thank you very much for your lovely prayer - and all you have done. Hopefully more people can rise above themselves to a clearer understanding of the natural law - which, as St. Thomas reminds us, is a participation in the Eternal Law - which indeed brightens our path of Faith. As the Church teaches, to knowingly and willingly violate the natural law, as with the Eternal Law, constitutes direct and indirect material and formal cooperation in evil. No light shines there, and no true Faith...

Hope you had a very Blessed and Happy Easter! God bless - Dianne

(A Quote:) "...The deliberate decision to deprive an innocent human being of his life is always morally evil and can never be licit either as an end in itself or as a means to an end... the use of human embryos or fetuses as an object of experimentation constitutes a crime against their dignity as human beings who have a right to the same respect owed to a child once born, just as every person. This moral condemnation also regards procedures that exploit living human embryos and fetuses - sometimes specifically 'produced' for this purpose by in vitro fertilization - either to be used as 'biological material' or as providers of organs or tissue for transplants in the treatment of certain diseases. The killing of innocent human creatures, even if carried out to help others, constitutes an absolutely unacceptable act." - Evangelium Vitae, March 1995.

Lifeissues.net Newsletter #318 - April 08, 2007

Table Of Contents:
1. Chinese Thank John Billings, Father Of Natural Family Planning
2. Amnesty International UK Backed Abortion After Members Voted No
3. Burmese Army Using Rape To Terrorize Villagers
4. Multiculturalism And Islam; Civil Unions And Homosexuality
5. Abortion And Embryo Manipulation Tools Of Economic Progress Causing Society's Death, Say Bishops
6. Human Rights Group Points To Rising Incidence Of Child Trafficking In China
7. Japan Save Haven For Newborns To Reduce Abortions Draws Criticism
8. Christians Angered By Easter-Time Promotions For Questionable Works About Jesus
9. Really Unpleasant Things Happen With Suicide
10. Mexico Catholic Bishop: Lawmakers Who Back Abortion Excommunicated
11. Abortion And Ruined Relationships
12. Post-Hippocratic Barbarism

Focus On Asia: Prepare for bird flu pandemic. World Health Organization (WHO) chief Margaret Chan on Monday urged governments to prepare for a bird flu pandemic, describing it as a certainty although the timing and severity was unknown. http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/268122/1/.html

Focus On Rap Music: LifeSiteNews shares the following message with its viewers this morning. Do you recall the encouraging music videos by the hip-hop rappers, one regretting an abortion and the other in thanksgiving for not being aborted? Those were awesome tools for pro-life evangelization. Well here's another, in our top story today on the episode of House. The video is a must see for all your friends and acquaintances.

http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/feb/07021204.html

John-Henry Westen, Editor, LifeSiteNews.com

Item #1. Chinese Thank John Billings, Father Of Natural Family Planning
The death of Professor John Billings, who through his research into natural family planning methods helped avoid tens of thousands of abortions. Currently his method, which is approved by Beijing, is used by over three and a half million Chinese couples.

View full text at AsiaNews.it:
http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=8913&size=A

Item #2. Amnesty International UK Backed Abortion After Members Voted No
The British affiliate of Amnesty International recently changed its position to support abortion and say that nations, which prohibit abortions, are contributing to human rights abuses. However, the position change came after the group's own internal polling found its members opposed the decision.

View full text at LifeNews.com:
http://www.lifenews.com/int237.html

Item #3. Burmese Army Using Rape To Terrorize Villagers
Rape is being used as a "weapon" to terrorize villagers in Burma leading to a refugee influx in neighbouring India, a new report claims. More than 100,000 people - more than 15% of the population - have fled Burma's Chin state, a lush thin strip of land the size of Belgium, into north-eastern India in recent years.

View full text at Guardian Unlimited:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/burma/story/0,,2048433,00.html

Item #4. Multiculturalism And Islam; Civil Unions And Homosexuality
Islam has always been merciless on homosexual relations. Yet there is silence in Italy among Muslims on civil unions and homosexuality. There is a kind of manipulation of Islam on the part of liberal progressivism. If Europe and America want to change the concept of "family", they must take account of universal religious traditions. The second in a series of articles on multiculturalism.

View full text at AsiaNews.it:
http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=8708&geo=&theme=&size=A

Item #5. Abortion And Embryo Manipulation Tools Of Economic Progress Causing Society's Death, Say Bishops
All of Korea's bishops have signed and released a message in which they attack the South Korean government for promoting abortion and stem cell research in the name of economic progress. For them abortion and embryo manipulation destroy man's dignity and sacredness, and are the cause for a declining birth rate and society's perversion.

View full text at AsiaNews.it:
http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=8861&size=A

Item #6. Human Rights Group Points To Rising Incidence Of Child Trafficking In China
Rural Chinese children increasingly risk being sold or forced to become beggars, petty thieves or sex workers as their farmer parents flock to cities looking for work, an international rights group said yesterday.

China has a thriving black market in girls and women sold as brides, and in babies who are abducted or bought from poor families for sale to couples wanting children.

The government says that it has cracked down harshly on such cases and that the trend is decreasing.

See the full article at Taipei Times:
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2007/04/05/2003355350

Item #7. Japan Save Haven For Newborns To Reduce Abortions Draws Criticism
Jikei Hospital in the southwestern city of Kumamoto, which has ties to the Catholic Church, plans to build a hatch where parents can leave a baby. When a child is placed there, alarms will go off alerting hospital officials.

"We do not perform abortions. We have always been a hospital that values life," Yukiko Tajiri, head of nursing at the hospital, told Reuters. "I hope that this will attract more women to consult us, so that they know they have more options."

Full Article at LifeNews.com: http://www.lifenews.com/int240.html

Item #8. Christians Angered By Easter-Time Promotions For Questionable Works About Jesus
It's a predictable part of the Easter season: The period of reflection on the Crucifixion and Resurrection has become a popular time for marketers to roll out works - from the scholarly to the sensational - that challenge Christianity's core beliefs.

In the last several years, churchgoers have been hit with a steady stream of claims that Jesus didn't die on the cross, that he had a wife and kids, and that the Bible is a fraud.

Christians across a broad spectrum of belief are angered by the trend. They accept the freedom to question religion, but wonder why the assaults come during their faith's most sacred days.

"Why are they doing it now and why are they doing it in such a provocative way?" asked the Rev. James Martin, a Jesuit writer and author of "My Life With the Saints."

"We have nothing to fear from serious scientific inquiry, but when it's slanted and leaves out the religious point of view, it's very misleading. It can all be tied together in a slick package that can be very compelling."

View full article at SignOnSanDiego.com:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/20070405-1125-easter-skeptics.html

Item #9. Really Unpleasant Things Happen With Suicide
"It's been said, and I think it's very true, that verbal engineering precedes all social engineering," said Rita Marker, the executive director of the Steubenville, Ohio-based International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide, in a recent interview. The "social engineering" to which she referred is the move in the United States and abroad to legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide.

View entire text at calcatholic.com:
http://www.calcatholic.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?id=a729181d-aa75-4327-a70d-d5e6bc9255ef

Item #10. Mexico Catholic Bishop: Lawmakers Who Back Abortion Excommunicated
A leading Catholic official in Mexico said Wednesday that any lawmakers in the capital city's legislature that vote for a bill to legalize abortion there will be excommunicated when the first legal abortion is done. Both the city's legislature and the Mexican Congress are considering bills to allow abortions.

View full text at LifeNews.com:
http://www.lifenews.com/int241.html

Item #11. Abortion And Ruined Relationships
Human beings do not survive well as disembodied egos. Abortion creates an acute separation reaction that, on a variety of levels, divides women and men from each other, their aborted children, their families, their community, and God. Post abortion healing is effective because it restores connections and reconstructs the value of one's traditions and inner beliefs. Through healing, despair gives way to hope, isolation gives way to connectedness, and hatred of others and self gives way to the capacity and desire for authentic, self giving love.

Read full article at LifeIssues.net:
http://www.lifeissues.net/writers/bur/bur_16chap16grief1.html

Item #12. Post-Hippocratic Barbarism
There was a time when I might have believed humanity had passed beyond barbarism of past centuries and into sunlit enlightenment. I might have believed it if I was kept unaware of 20th Century barbarism. This western barbarism culminated in cultural embrace (even celebration) of abortion on demand, and, more recently, the advent of euthanasia consciousness. Yes, if I had lived in a bubble apart from the happenings of man, I might have believed a myth that humanity is capable, on its own, of attaining glorious heights of refined enlightenment.

Read full article at LifeIssues.net:
http://www.lifeissues.net/writers/pic/pic_01barbarism.html

Get Involved:

1. Pray Daily that we all may have the courage to be God's presence in society and strongly support those who have been deemed "unworthy of life".

2. Be Informed at Lifeissues.net website: http://www.lifeissues.net/.

3. Become A Missionary For Human Life: "Journey for Life into the Heart of Asia" is a project, which appeals for donations to help finance travel expenses for talks to undeveloped countries in Asia. Fr. Jerry's series of lectures this year emphasis "The Asian Family at Crossroads: Life Issues, Trends and Challenges". Inquire about "no-cost to your group" Lectures (including travel) to anyplace in Asia: contact Fr. Jerry. To become a supportive Missionary participant for Human Life in Asia, kindly send your donations directly to:

Fr. Jerry Novotny, OMI; LifeIssues.net, Editor; Akebono-cho 1-15-9; Kochi City, Japan, 780-8072; (or transfer donation directly to ProLife bank account: Jerome Novotny, Shikoku Bank, Asakura Branch, No. 102-1-0080824)

For those who participate, one Mass will offered each week this year for their special intention.

Contact Editor:
Jerry Novotny, OMI; Akebono-cho 1-15-9; Kochi City, Japan, 780-8072; Tel/Fax: 088-843-0406; E-Mail: jerry@lifeissues.net

Contact Assistant Editor: Mr. Marlon Castillo Ramirez; Author of Book: "The Sights and Soul of Life"; E-Mail: mcr4lifeissues@gmail.com

Websites by Editor:
English LifeIssues Site: http://www.lifeissues.net,
Japanese LifeIssues Site: http://www.japan-lifeissues.net,
OMI Site: http://www.omijapankorea.net/index.html.

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10. Make Plastics Found In Recalled Pet Food Linked To Deaths - March 30, 2007

WASHINGTON - Recalled pet foods contained a chemical used to make plastics, but government tests failed to confirm the presence of rat poison, federal officials said Friday.

The Food and Drug Administration said it found melamine in samples of the Menu Foods pet food, as well as in wheat gluten used as an ingredient. Cornell University scientists also have found the chemical, sometimes used as a fertilizer, in the urine of sick cats, as well as in the kidney of one cat that died after eating the company's wet food.

Click Here For a List of Pet Food Brand Names Subject to Recall.

Menu Foods recalled 60 million containers of cat and dog food earlier this month after animals died of kidney failure after eating the Canadian company's products. It is not clear how many pets may have been poisoned by the apparently contaminated food, although anecdotal reports suggest hundreds if not thousands have died. The FDA alone has received more than 8,000 complaints.

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11. Mandated HPV Vaccinations Pose Challenge To Parental Rights - March 27, 2007

Dear Friend of the Family,

Despite the eradication of many diseases, the 21st century is a difficult time for parents, grandparents and others entrusted with the care and guardianship of children. We must be constantly vigilant as national and international trends challenge our rights to oversee the nurturing and care of our children.

Front and center today is the attempt by state governments in the United States to mandate Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccinations for young girls, directly challenging parental rights. On Tuesday, the Conservative Government of Canada included in its budget proposal $300 million for these vaccinations. The proposal calls for each province or territory to determine whether or not vaccinations would be mandatory or voluntary.

Let's set the stage for this controversy. In June 2006, the U.S. Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommended HPV vaccinations for girls ages 11 and 12. Last month, Texas Governor Rick Perry set off a firestorm of controversy when he issued an executive order mandating that all females entering the sixth grade receive the vaccine, with some exceptions, for the prevention of HPV. Many parents were furious, and Texas House Bill 1098 was introduced in an attempt to overturn the executive order.

More than half of U.S. states are now attempting to mandate or legislate vaccination requirements for girls as young as 11.

HPV can only be contracted through sexual activity and is America's most common sexually transmitted infection. The virus is most frequent among U.S. women in their early 20s, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The disease causes genital warts, cervical dysplasia and occasionally cervical cancer. The infection typically disappears within two years, and most infected people don't even realize they have the virus. This vaccination addresses just four of the more than 100 types of HPV.

There was a time when vaccinations served the public interest in an attempt to prevent polio and other diseases contracted through no fault of their own. Now we see governments attempting to force vaccinations upon people for behavior, which can be prevented. The HPV vaccine does not prevent all forms of cervical cancer, but it may give a false sense of security while encouraging risky behavior.

Mandating vaccinations for this disease is a very troubling attack on parental rights. It clearly undermines parents' authority to determine their children's health care and it inhibits their ability to encourage positive child behavior. Many parents fear that requiring the vaccination, like compulsory "safe-sex" education, sends the wrong message to students.

Vaccinations may give a false sense of safety leading to higher sexual activity, risking disease and pregnancy. Furthermore, vaccinations are not necessary for every girl, many of whom abstain sexually until marriage and will not be subject to the risk of STDs. Certainly, when government requires a vaccination to prevent a disease that can be completely avoided by abstinence it undercuts the importance of abstinence programs that are also government funded.

The vaccinations are costly, approaching $1,000 in some regions. Of valid concern to parents is the fact that the only vaccine currently approved, marketed by Merck under the name Gardasil, has not been tested for pre-teens. The attempt to fast-track this drug for marketing raises significant ethical questions. Taxpayer-supported public schools could punish students for non-compliance and incur resulting legal actions. Mandatory vaccines would result in windfall profits for Merck.

Two prominent organizations are calling for restraint on mandatory vaccinations:

· The American College of Pediatricians is opposed to "any legislation, which would require HPV vaccination for school attendance. This would amount to a precedent-setting action that trespasses on the right of parents to make medical decisions for their children as well as on the rights of the children to attend school. Most 9-12 year old children are not sexually active; many have not entered puberty. Forcing a parent to forsake his/her better judgment and discuss this information with the child would be inappropriate and unnecessarily intrusive."

· The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), a leading vaccine safety and informed consent advocacy organization, is urging state legislatures to investigate the safety and cost of mandating Merck's HPV vaccine for all pre-adolescent girls before introducing legislation amending state vaccine laws. NVIC reports that testing of the drug resulted in numerous health problems, including loss of consciousness, seizures, arthritis joint pain and Guillain-Barre Syndrome.

The National Conference of State Legislatures carries a complete list of legislative action on HPV vaccines. Check your state and contact your lawmakers to voice your concerns about the problems with forced vaccinations.

Additionally, parents may want to consider discussing human sexuality with their children in a way that is consistent with their family's values at a time they deem appropriate. Parental involvement is highly important in an era when schools often portray human sexuality to children in ways that families find inappropriate.

Sincerely,

Carol Soelberg, President
United Families International - www.UnitedFamilies.org

In NS it was announced last week in the Halifax Herald that the Government of NS is considering a vaccine program using Gardasil in our schools. The article even suggested 5 year olds. This has to be a major concern for all of us. It seems to have the overtones of a Planned Parenthood philosophy. The more they try to fix the problem the worse it seems to get.

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12. New Book Discredits Lost Tomb Of Jesus - April 6, ?2007

The Jesus Tomb: Is It Fact or Fiction? Book Discredits Documentary "The Lost Tomb of Jesus"

A new book says The Lost Tomb of Jesus documentary was deceptive to its viewers and illusory to the scholars that worked on the production.

FORT MYERS, Fl., Apr. 6 /Christian Newswire/ - New evidence surrounding The Lost Tomb of Jesus including personal interviews by leading scholars consulted in the film, suggest the 2,000 year old Jerusalem tomb is NOT the Jesus of Nazareth's final resting place. In the new book, The Jesus Tomb: Is It Fact or Fiction? Scholars Chime In, Don Sausa reviews all of the claims, math, and the 'evidence' of The Lost Tomb of Jesus, to simply answer one question: Is it fact, or fiction?

The documentary that aired on March 4th, 2007 and the companion book, The Jesus Family Tomb, come from science fiction director James Cameron, controversial journalist Simcha Jacobovici, science fiction author Dr. Charles Pellegrino, and textual scholar Dr. James Tabor.

The book's findings suggest that some plausible explanations were
conveniently ignored in the documentary, such as the different types of family relationships Jesus and Mariamne ("Mary Magdalene") could have had. For instance, they could have been father and daughter, paternal cousins, half brother and sister, or grandparent and grandchild.

"Our review of the evidence, DNA findings, statistical analysis, and personal interviews of the experts used in the film clearly show that the claims are largely based on speculation and hype," said Don Sausa.

For additional information on the news that is the subject of this
release (or for a sample review copy), contact Don Ariel at
support@thevisionpress.com or visit www.JesusTombReview.com. Book distribution date is April 16, 2007, ISBN 0978834690. Author is available for interviews.

/About author: Author and speaker, Don Sausa, is a member of the Society of Biblical Literature, an organization that promotes biblical scholarship. He has studied biblical history for over 10 years, and is an ordained elder for the Fort Myers Ortiz Church./

Christian Newswire

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13. Stopping The Abortion Juggernaut - April 5, 2007

PRI Weekly Briefing
5 April 2007
Vol. 9, No. 13

Stopping the Abortion Juggernaut - by Carlos Polo

After the partial legalization of abortion in Colombia, the international pro-death movement expected a domino effect throughout Latin America. Monica Roa, the Colombian front man for the Center for Reproductive Rights, hurriedly visited Argentina, Peru, and several other nations to propose legislation similar to that, which passed in Columbia. Giddy from their success in Columbia, the international abortion groups had every expectation of subverting the legal protection of the unborn in country after country.

As usual, they underestimated the Central Americans, Nicaragua in particular. Nicaragua last year abolished the sole exception of "therapeutic abortion," and continues to move away from legalized abortion. Not only that, but its strong defense of Life is serving as the catalyst for renewed opposition throughout Latin America to abortion. The result is that the momentum has shifted, and the supposed domino effect is now occurring in the opposite direction. Just last month the Chilean Congress rejected a "therapeutic abortion" bill in record time.

The abortion lobby seems to expect long-established legal systems to simply collapse before their misinformation campaign. But this isn't happening. Instead, they are increasing being defeated by a popular outcry.

Unlike Spain, where pro-choice health officials lied about women's health issues, the prompt action of the Chilean Congress destroyed any opportunity for a pro-death PR campaign. Compare this with Columbia, where a slick PR campaign fooled the public into accepting cleverly worded pro-choice tenets long enough for pro-death legislation to be passed. But you can't fool all the Latinos all of the time. The fact is, more and more citizens of Latin American countries are aware that they are being lied and manipulated on these issues, and are refusing to compromise. That's why there is a reverse domino effect.

This reverse domino effect may also be affecting Latin American presidential elections, where two anti-American candidates, Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and Evo Morales in Bolivia, opposed to abortion and population control have been elected. The election of these Leftist populists has alarmed neighboring countries. There is no other explanation for the abysmal failure of candidates Lopez Obrador in Mexico and Ollanta Humala in Peru. In Peru, the open support Chavez was catastrophic for Humala's cause.

The European Union and other donors are threatening to cut aid to the poor country of Nicaragua if abortion isn't legalized. This shouldn't surprise us, since it is the practice of the Left everywhere to abrogate democracy when it suits them. When that fails, they seek to overturn decisions made by elected legislators through unelected judges by filing a flurry of lawsuits.

The focal point of the current struggle is the Supreme Court of Nicaragua. Radical feminist organizations, in conjunction with IPAS (the principal entity behind the infamous hand-held suction abortion machine), have argued that the law abolishing "therapeutic abortions" is not constitutional. On March 8, pro-abortionists barraged the Nicaraguan judges with a mass media campaign. They held public meetings in the streets and published in two paid ads in La Prensa, the most important newspaper in Managua, the capital city. These meetings and ads featured the tired lie: Abortion must be legalized or women will die. One ad was paid for by the Inter-American Development Bank, a division of the World Bank, by the foreign aid ministries of the UK, Liechtenstein and Switzerland, and by the embassies of Germany, Austria, Denmark, Spain, Finland, France, Iceland, Japan, Norway, China and Sweden. All this pressure on little Nicaragua because the people there value life.

But if their support of abortion was more insistent this time, it was also much more subtle. Their ad focused less on failed rhetoric about "reproductive rights" than on emphasizing the purported goal of "stopping violence against women." Nicaragua's total ban on abortion, La Prensa declared in another ad, was the real violence being committed against women. The "international" storm troopers also mentioned the CEDAW committee and their support for its recommendations to the state of Nicaragua on violence against women.

Pro-life forces massed at the Supreme Court on March 21. The judges in Nicaragua accepted, as is customary, testimony from the Catholic Church. Dr. Roberto Sanchez, a respected jurist who may himself soon join the Supreme Court, testified that the law that abolished "therapeutic abortion" did not violate any constitutional principle. Rather, he said, it corrected a contradiction between the Constitution and the Civil Code of Nicaragua, the latter of which asserts that unborn babies are persons and enjoy several explicit rights.

In other testimony, Dr. Rafael Cabrera completely debunked the argument of the pro-abortion feminists, that therapeutic abortion was necessary to save the life of the mother. Dr. Cabrera, gynecologist, presented a chart listing all the emergency medical situations that are used to claim that abortions are needed "to save women's lives." He explained each one in turn, clearly and convincingly demonstrating that a doctor with current technology is always able to offer his patients - born and unborn ones - the choice of life.

Dr. Erwin Rodriguez, a famous gynecologist whose students constitute the majority of practicing gynecologists in Nicaragua today, also presented testimony. At the end one of the judges, a well known pro-abortion feminist and unreconstructed Sandinista, asked Dr. Rodriguez about the "hard case" of terminal cancer. "Wasn't an abortion necessary then" she asked him. Dr. Rodriguez showed that it was impossible for a woman to conceive in those circumstances.

All the while, the ordinary people of Nicaragua worry about the threat of international agencies and donor nations to cut off aid unless they sacrifice their little ones. How much does it cost to have sovereignty for a small Latin American country?

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14. Two Cited At Good Friday Rescue - April 6, 2007

WARMINSTER, Penn., Apr. 6 /Christian Newswire/ - Over 100 pro-life supporters from the group Survivors United participated in a "rescue" today at an abortion clinic in Warminster, Pennsylvania, just outside Philadelphia. Thirty members of the group risked arrest by conducting a "sit-in" at the abortion clinic doors.

Two people were cited on charges of trespassing. The group of mostly post-Roe young people, led by Survivor United Director Mark Houck and former Operation Rescue leader Mike McMonagle, was informed that the clinic had closed for the day. An estimated 20 abortions had been scheduled.

One pro-life participant was injured when he was struck with a car driven by an angry abortion supporter. The pro-lifer was transported by ambulance to a local hospital, but is expected to make a complete recovery.

"We are seeing more and more young people embracing the pro-life position on abortion, perhaps because so many of their peers have been lost since abortion has been decriminalized," said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman, who commented on the rescue from his office in Wichita, Kansas. "This next generation takes the loss of life through abortion very seriously, and are willing to step up to a high level of commitment to see to it that innocent lives are spared."

"We applaud those who today displayed Christian love for the pregnant women and their pre-born children by peacefully placing their bodies between the scheduled victims and the abortionist," said Newman. "The Bible tells us that greater love has no man than those who lay down their lives for others."

Read Survivors United Press Release:
http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=n9joo5bab.0.87zno5bab.tuqepibab.948&ts=S0240&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.christiannewswire.com%2Fnews%2F25632703.html

/About Operation Rescue Operation Rescue is one of the leading pro-life Christian organizations in the nation. Its activities are on the cutting edge of the abortion issue, taking direct action to restore legal personhood to the pre-born and stop abortion in obedience to biblical mandates. /

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15. World Premiere Of 'The Case For Christ's Resurrection' Airs April 4th On TBN - March 28, 2007

LOS ANGELES, Mar. 28 /Christian Newswire/ - Officials for Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN), the world's largest religious broadcaster and America's most-watched faith channel, announced that the network will air the world premiere of the inspirational and challenging documentary The Case for Christ's Resurrection April 4th at 5:30 p.m. (PST).

Produced by Grizzly Adams Productions with a team of veteran scientific researchers, historians, forensic scientists, botanists, theologians, and biblical archaeologists, the feature-length program analyzes historic records, an ancient burial shroud, current medical knowledge, and scripture to build a compelling case for the death and miraculous resurrection of Jesus Christ.

David Balsiger, vice president of Grizzly Adams Productions and senior producer of The Case for Christ's Resurrection, noted that throughout history thinking men and women have wrestled with the question: Does indisputable evidence exist to prove the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ? "The answer is a resounding 'Yes!'" said Balsiger. "We've researched all the relevant elements to which thoughtful people appeal when addressing this timeless theme. We feel strongly that The Case for Christ's Resurrection will convince the most skeptical about the historical legitimacy of Jesus Christ, and will confirm and strengthen the faith of those who already believe this timeless and eternal account found in Scripture."

Dr. Gary Habermas, a research professor and chair of the department of theology at Liberty University, noted there is growing proof that the events depicted in the Gospel accounts in Scripture will stand up to rigorous scrutiny. "Science, combined with written descriptions by non-Christians of the events of Jesus' life and death, make it clear that Christian beliefs are grounded in fact," said Habermas.

The film demonstrates that following his death; Jesus was seen by numerous people, both believers and non-believers. "There were at least 500 eyewitnesses in and around Jerusalem who actually saw or talked with Jesus after his resurrection," explained Balsiger. "Beyond the Bible, there are more than 20 non-Christian sources written between 30 and 130 A.D. that refer to Jesus of Nazareth as a historical figure. Twelve mention his death and provide details on how he died. Ten of these refer to his resurrection."

The documentary also examines the controversial Shroud of Turin, that many scientists and scholars now believe is the actual burial cloth of Christ. One of the most fascinating parts of the program shows how holographic scientists in Holland created a three- dimensional holographic image of the face and body of Jesus Christ. "Nearly 50 scientific discoveries on the Shroud tie this burial cloth to the biblical account of the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ," said Balsiger.

"The Case for Christ's Resurrection is a program worth seeing over and over again because it provides new scientific evidence of Christ's resurrection," said Paul Crouch Jr., TBN's Vice President of Administration. "We're thrilled to offer it during the Easter season to our viewers. We believe it will inspire and challenge all who watch."

The Case for Christ's Resurrection will air on TBN on April 4th at 5:30 p.m. (PST). The show is in part based on a book of the same title authored by Balsiger and co-author Charles E. Sellier.

TBN is the world's largest religious network and America's most watched faith channel. Each day TBN offers 24 hours of commercial-free inspirational programming that appeals to people in a wide variety of denominations. TBN now reaches every major continent via 54 satellites and more than 12,000 television and cable affiliates worldwide. In the United States, TBN is available to 92 percent of the total households. Its website receives more than 27 million visitors monthly. In addition to TBN, the network owns and operates seven networks, including: The Church Channel, JCTV youth network, TBN Enlace USA Spanish network, and Smile of a Child TV children's network. For more information on TBN, visit www.tbn.org.

Christian Newswire

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16. Zell Miller On Abortion, Over 45 Million Killed - March 18, 2007

In Canada the rate is 410 per day or 105,000 a year. In NS, with its small population, there have been 33,519 abortions since 1989 up until 2003 and 2,692,327 from 1970 until 2003 in Canada, which is more than the total population of Atlantic Canada. Comments: Good report!

Zell Miller: Abortion Killed Over 45 Million

Former Sen. Zell Miller says abortion has claimed the lives of more than 45 million Americans since 1973, and is to blame for manpower shortages in the U.S. military and the looming Social Security crisis.

"How could this great land of plenty produce too few people in the last 30 years?" Miller asked during a recent fund-raiser in Macon, Ga. "Here is the brutal truth that no one dares to mention: We're too few because too many of our babies have been killed. Over 45 million since Roe v. Wade in 1973."

"If those 45 million children had lived, today they would be defending our country, they would be filling our jobs, they would be paying into Social Security," Miller said, according to LifeSiteNews.com. "Still, we watch as 3,700 babies are killed every single day in America. It is unbelievable that a nation under God would allow this."

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