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1. Canadian Christianity National Headlines - December 14, 2006
Marriage activists call for referendum and royal commission
Some Christian activists are determined
to uphold the traditional definition of marriage as the union of a man and a
woman, even though Parliament voted December 7 against a motion that could have
allowed for that definition to be enshrined in law. - More
Student association limits anti-abortion speech
The Carleton University Students Association
(CUSA) has passed a recommendation that some critics say violates the free speech
rights of pro-life groups. - More
Pro-chastity filmmaker wins six-year legal fight
Michelle Messina's first film was just
156 seconds long - but Fruitful Sex was an instant hit at several movie festivals
when the Toronto woman released it in 1998. - More
OttawaWatch: The straight goods on political sex talk
When will it be that advocating for traditional
marriage will lose its "us against them" approach which, at best,
is a spin-off of our adversarial political structures? - More
Comment: Light the Christmas tree!
This afternoon we put up the Christmas
tree, for the first time in six years. - More
Toronto filmmaker Michelle Messina, director of Fruitful Sex.
News briefs
o Anglicans
question lack of stats
o Condemnation
of human trafficking
o KAIROS
hosts poverty forum
o More
News round-up
o Christmas
o Polygamist
cult at Bountiful
o Conservatives,
social conservatives and women's issues
o More
2. Canadian Same-Sex 'Marriage's Real Goal Is To Abolish All Marriage Says Author - September 25, 2006
Says Canadians "being played for a bunch of fools by your legal-political elite"
September 25, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In a National Review Online article this past February, U.S. author/researcher Stanley Kurtz charged that Canadians still don't get it that the legal change to the definition of marriage to include same-sex couples is part of an overall strategy to completely abolish marriage in Canada.
The Tories promised motion to re-visit the same-sex marriage issue in Parliament is about to be introduced this October or November and yet many religious and other groups and pro-marriage Canadians are perceived by pro-family leaders as again making only weak, half-hearted efforts to support the motion. The Stanley Kurtz article may help Canadians become more aware about the severe consequences of losing the vote on that motion and the vote on any following bill to re-instate the traditional definition of marriage.
Kurtz starts his article by noting the mid-January 2006 Justice Department study that called for the decriminalization and regulation of polygamy.
With that in mind he follows: "And even that is only part of the story. Canadians, let me be brutally frank. You are being played for a bunch of fools by your legal-political elite. Your elites mumble a confusing jargon to your face to keep you from understanding what they really have in mind."
Kurtz continues with some very brief but explosive quotes from a 2001 Law Commission study, "Beyond Conjugality," that questioned whether there should even be any continued legal privileges and obligations for marriage after gay 'marriage' is legalized.
Even though the 2001 report was made public he says, "nobody got it. Everyone noticed that a government commission had backed same-sex marriage. But few recognized, grasped, or could bring themselves to take seriously, the central thrust of Beyond Conjugality: that after the legalization of same-sex marriage, Canadian marriage itself ought to be abolished."
The plan is so obvious says Kurtz. "It's like this. The way to abolish marriage, without seeming to abolish it, is to redefine the institution out of existence. If everything can be marriage, pretty soon nothing will be marriage."
The most worrisome part of all this, according to Krutz, is that despite the obvious evidence, "The Canadian public cannot bring itself to believe that the abolition of marriage is the real agenda of the country's liberal legal-political elite."
Polygamous Muslims and Mormons fit right into the strategy, says Kurtz, only to politically justify further changes, which would have as their ultimate real goal the elimination of all marriage.
See the complete Kurtz article with all his evidence and reasoning The Conspiracy to Abolish Marriage in Canada http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/sep/060925a.html
See also Stanley Kurtz's article Beyond Gay Marriage
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/002/938xpsxy.asp
3. Children's Rights - Newspaper Ad And What To Do - December 6, 2006
Dear friends,
Our Canadian Parliament will likely vote whether to review the current marriage law that allows same sex partners to marry and has, as a consequence, the effect that children's right to both a mother and a father is denied.
The ad was placed in this week's the Hill Times, Parliament Hill's weekly newspaper.
You may circulate this ad to your MPs riding office(s) by fax, email, regular mail or hand delivery.
All MPs also need to hear from you, their constituents. Those who are in favor of traditional marriage need your support. Those who are undecided or even against must also hear from you.
Your calls can influence your MP. Just make sure you identify yourself as a resident of his-her riding.
You may also call the leaders of the parties opposed to this review, i.e. Liberal,
NDP and Bloc if you are in Québec, and invite them to recognize that
children have rights and reopen the marriage law. Leaders of these 3
parties are exerting considerable pressure not to reopen the issue, concentrating
on adults as if children simply don't exist!
Liberal - Stéphane Dion - Ottawa Office: 1-613-996-5789; fax: 1-613-996-6562;
Riding Office: 1-514-335-6655; Fax: 1-514-335-2712 NDP - Jack Layton -
Ottawa Office: 1-613-995-7224; Fax: 1-613-995-4565
Riding Office: 1-416-405-8914; Fax: 1-416-405-8918 info@jacklayton.ca
Bloc - Gilles Duceppe - Ottawa Office: 1-613-992-6779; Fax: 1-613-954-2121
Riding Office: 1-514-522-1339; Fax: 1-514-522-9899
Even our Prime Minister needs to hear about children.
Conservative - Stephen Harper - Ottawa Office: 1-613-992-4211; Fax 1-613-941-6900
Riding Office: 1-403-253-7990; Fax: 1-403-253-8203
You can get your MP's coordinates by dialing 1-800-O-Canada (1-800-622-6232) from 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM or go to http://www.parl.gc.ca/information/about/people/house/PostalCode.asp?Source=SMlang=E and enter your postal code.
The issue of children's rights is one of fundamental justice. Refusing to reopen marriage means that children do not have any right to a father and a mother. It means that we are choosing to be partial, and unjust.
Let's speak up for children! Debate starts Wednesday with a vote likely no later than Thursday. Do it now!
Preserve Marriage PDF file link follows:
Preserve Marriage - Protect Children's Rights
4. Christian Culture Lecture - January 12, 2007
Please click on the link to see this PDF file. This is a rare opportunity to
attend a Christian
Culture Lecture.
Please pass on this information to others if you are not interested in attending
yourself.
5. Communiqué Of The Christian Heritage Party Of Canada - November 28, 2006
Volume 13 No. 48 - Nov. 21, 2006
Stop listening to naysayers: We can win!
Two columns that came to me by e-mail last week fit together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle-and when the pieces were put together, they produced a conclusion that might surprise at least one of the authors.
Tristan Emmanuel of the ECP Centre wrote one of the columns. It was a clarion call for "SoCons" - Social Conservatives -
"Neither Liberals nor the national media control all the variables that could impact the upcoming election." He wrote. "Hubris does not win elections.
"But if we listen to our opponents, then we are sure to give in and give up. We would do well to learn from their own determination back in the early ' 70s, the homosexual lobby was told in the strictest possible terms that they would never achieve social acceptance-never-did they listen?
"Now that the tide has changed, should we listen to them?
"Nothing is hopeless. When the media pelts us with negative messages, we know it's time to tune them out, turn them off and stay the course."
The very next e-mail I opened was a Chicago Sun-Times column by Mark Steyn.
The headline made the point:
The only choice on war is to win it or lose it.
Both writers were essentially making the same point: whether it's a shooting war or culture war, those who would preserve our society must resolve to "stay the course." There is no other option.
But there's a more subtle point to be derived from linking their counsels: history is only in our own hands alone if we choose to capitulate; we must remember that it is God who raises up and puts down governments.
In the same sense, if we listen to those who say, "Ideological purists
cannot win; we must compromise so we can gain or hold power" we concede
the field to the enemies of what is right. And we betray a lack of trust in
God.
Those who say Biblical principles cannot win are, in effect, saying that God has lost His power to rule in the affairs of men. That's simply not true!
Compromise is always the first step towards quitting. Already, we see the mentors of the global jihad rejoicing that the Democrats won the midterm elections in the USA: they foresee a compromise on Iraq, and they see it as a step towards victory for the jihadists.
Indeed, it was a series of "pragmatic" compromises that led us into the quagmire of social crises that have, step-by-step, betrayed our children. A little here, a little there-and suddenly we realized that the goal posts had been moved so far that Christians were off the playing field!
The question isn't whether God is for this group or against that group; the real question is: "Who is uncompromisingly for HIM?"
SoCons - and especially Christians - should take this morsel of advice from Tristan Emmanuel and Mark Steyn: stop listening to the naysayers, and find the courage to do what you know in your heart is right!
By RON GRAY - CHPLeader@chp.ca CHP National Leader
This Communiqué may be copied and is available free via e-mail or fax.
If you or someone you know would like to receive this publication contact Sylvia
at edchp@qc.aira.com or send your subscription to the national office: Christian
Heritage Party of Canada; PO Box 4958; Station E, Ottawa ON; K1S 5J1
Phone: 1-819-281-6686
Fax: 1-819-281-7174
E-mail: NationalOffice@chp.ca
Read about the CHP (Christian Heritage Party of Canada): http://www.chp.ca or text only Archive: http://www3.telus.net/chp
6. Decision Of Ontario Court Of Appeal To Allow 3 Parent Families - Jan. 12, 2007
REAL Women
of Canada
"Women's Rights Not at the Expense of Human Rights"
NGO in SPECIAL consultative status with the Economic and
Social Council of the United Nations
Media Release
Decision of Ontario Court of Appeal to Allow 3 Parent Families
For Immediate Release
Ottawa, Ontario
January 3, 2007
Judicial activism has again created confusion, disruption and division in Canada. This occurred in the decision of the Ontario Court of Appeal to allow a child to have three legal parents consisting of two lesbian mothers and the natural father, the sperm donor.
The court claiming that this arrangement was in the child's "best interests" changed the intent and the wording of the Ontario Children's Law Reform Act without apparently bothering to take into consideration the wider implications of its decision. If a child can now have three parents, why not four or six? Children born into marriages or common law arrangements which end in divorce or separation, may now be subject to multiple parents, unrelated to them by blood or adoption, having legal claims over them, as the adults in his / her life enter into other relationships.
In short, children are now pawns in an adult game promoting adult interests and satisfactions, but not necessarily the best interests of children.
The truth is, the courts were never established to decide these far ranging controversial social issues since the courts can only decide cases on the narrow facts before them. Unlike Parliament, the courts do not have access to extensive research facilities, nor to all the social facts involved in the issue, nor can the courts make compromises often necessary in such issues.
An appointment to the bench does not necessarily mean the acquiring of wisdom or common sense. The courts, therefore, should defer these complex social issues to Parliament since judicial activism leads to confusion not only to the child involved, but also to the infrastructures in society put in place to protect children and others.
- 30 -
Contact:
C. Gwendolyn Landolt, National Vice President, (905) 787-0348, (905) 731-5425
Diane Watts, Researcher, (613) 236-4001, (905) 889-1993
7. Don't Believe The Hype, Wal-Mart Is Still In Bed With Homosexuality - November 23, 2006
Operation Save Wal-Mart press conference, Friday, Nov. 24
Contact: Rev. Flip Benham, Dr. Pat McEwen, 972-200-4074 on site, both with Operation Save America, Operation Save Wal-Mart
CHARLOTTE, NC, Nov. 22 /Christian Newswire/ - In a statement to the American Family Association yesterday, Wal-Mart agreed that they, "...will not make corporate contributions to support or oppose highly controversial issues unless they directly relate to our ability to serve our customers". To this we say, "NUTS!"
"Wal-Mart is running scared! It fears the power of the Church of Jesus Christ to move in people's hearts and change them - to change even where they shop. Wal-Mart needs to fear the God of Sam Walton!"
· Wal-Mart is still a "corporate member" of the National Gay
&
Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, and will continue a financial stake in promoting
the radical homosexual agenda.
· Wal-Mart still dispenses the "Plan B" abortion pill that
kills unborn children.
· Wal-Mart has not issued an apology for its actions.
· Wal-Mart has not fired its homosexual marketing agency.
· Wal-Mart has not removed the many filthy books for sale on its website.
While Wal-Mart has caved on controversial corporate sponsorships, the Gospel continues. Christians from across the nation will bring the Good News of Jesus Christ to Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores this Friday, November 24th. They will call Wal-Mart's corporate leadership to true repentance, repentance that goes beyond last minute face-saving efforts, half-way apologies, and crocodile tears.
"Every executive at Wal-Mart that allowed this to happen needs a good old fashioned spanking" said Flip Benham, Director of Operation Save America, creators of the SaveWalMart.com website. "What Wal-Mart has done is sin! It is a betrayal our Lord Jesus, of Sam Walton's Christian legacy, and Christian families everywhere. Wal-Mart must bear the fruit of repentance."
"Sam Walton is dead. He can't fix the sorry estate Wal-Mart finds itself in. He faithfully ran his lap of the race and served his Lord well. Now it's our turn!"
We continue to encourage men and women, dads and moms, grandpas and grandmas, Christians from every walk of life to call on Wal-Mart to change its course and return to traditional family values and the Biblical principles that made it great.
We are not a protest. We are a proclamation that Jesus Christ is Lord! We are
calling an "old friend" back to its Godly roots. Wal-Mart can be saved
and so can America. It begins with God's Church!
What: Operation Save Wal-Mart Press Conference
Where: Wal-Mart on J.W. Clay Street, off Harris Blvd., Charlotte, N.C.
When: Friday, November 24, 2006, 11:30 A.M.
8. European Demographic Crisis And The Pope By Joseph A. D'Agostino - February 1, 2007
Dear Colleague:
At Christmas, Pope Benedict made extensive comments about Europe's demographic decline, raising our hopes that he will author an encyclical on this most fundamental issue. As Shakespeare put it, "The world must be peopled."
Steven W. Mosher, President
PRI Weekly Briefing - 12 January 2007, Vol. 9, No. 2
The European Demographic Crisis and the Pope - By Joseph A. D'Agostino
Many believe that the College of Cardinals chose Joseph Ratzinger as Pope in a final effort to rescue Europe from the secularism, hedonism, and anti-procreationism that threaten to obliterate it over the next few decades. Cardinal Ratzinger even chose the name of St. Benedict, the Father of Europe, as his papal name. Unless Pope Benedict XVI succeeds in this task, which is an unlikely eventuality, the next Pope will probably come from another continent and focus his energies elsewhere than on the fast-dying Old World.
In the meantime, Pope Benedict has had much to say about the decadence of the wellspring of Western Christendom. I believe that low birthrates will become a more and more prominent part of the debate over Europe's future (or lack thereof), and an ever-more-acknowledged piece of evidence damning the post-modern secularist project. On a few occasions in public fora, the Pope has highlighted collapsing birthrates and explored their meaning. Most recently and perhaps most extensively, he did so during his annual Christmas speech to the Roman Curia on December 22.
The speech, given in the Clementine Hall of the Vatican, recapped notable events of the year, including the Pope's trip to Spain. "The visit to Valencia, Spain, was under the banner of the theme of marriage and the family," said His Holiness. "It was beautiful to listen, before the people assembled from all continents, to the testimonies of couples - blessed by a numerous throng of children - who introduced themselves to us and spoke of their respective journeys in the Sacrament of Marriage and in their large families. They did not hide the fact that they have also had difficult days that they have had to pass through periods of crisis. Yet, precisely through the effort of supporting one another day by day, precisely through accepting one another ever anew in the crucible of daily trials, living and suffering to the full their initial 'yes,' precisely on this Gospel path of 'losing oneself,' they had matured, rediscovered themselves and become happy."
Benedict used the recollection of this experience to muse upon the nature of Europe's demographic crisis. Even the inflated statistics of the United Nations Population Fund put Europe's total fertility rate at a fatal 1.4 and assert that Europe's population is already shrinking.
"Before these families with their children, before these families in which the generations hold hands and the future is present, the problem of Europe, which it seems no longer wants to have children, penetrated my soul. To foreigners this Europe seems to be tired, indeed, it seems to be wishing to take its leave of history," the Pope said, referencing the suicidal impulse of that apostate continent. "Why are things like this? This is the great question. The answers are undoubtedly very complex… In mentioning these difficulties, perhaps the reasons also become clearer why for many the risk of having children appears too great. A child needs loving attention. This means that we must give children some of our time, the time of our life. But precisely this "raw material" of lifetime - seems to be ever scarcer. The time we have available barely suffices for our own lives; how could we surrender it, give it to someone else? To have time and to give time - this is for us a very concrete way to learn to give oneself, to lose oneself in order to find oneself."
In modern societies, organized around production - economic production, not the production of the next generation of human beings - and infected with the feminism that has led to two-income households as a necessity for middle-class lifestyles, people haven't the time for children. Could many more deeply critical observations of modern life be made than this?
In addition, the Pope noted, adults no longer have a clear idea of how to raise children. "In addition to this problem comes the difficult calculation: What rules should we apply to ensure that the child follows the right path and in so doing, how should we respect his or her freedom?" he said. "The problem has also become very difficult because we are no longer sure of the norms to transmit; because we no longer know what the correct use of freedom is, what is the correct way to live, what is morally correct and what instead is inadmissible. The modern spirit has lost its bearings, and this lack of bearings prevents us from being indicators of the right way to others."
The Pope explained that the situation is even worse than this. "Indeed, the problem goes even deeper," he said. "Contemporary man is insecure about the future. Is it permissible to send someone into this uncertain future? In short, is it a good thing to be a person? This deep lack of self assurance - plus the wish to have one's whole life for oneself - is perhaps the deepest reason why the risk of having children appears to many to be almost unsustainable."
When doubt whether it is 'a good thing to be a person' becomes widespread in a civilization, what can save it but a profound spiritual renewal? Given the risible self-destruction of Europe's moribund Protestant churches, can any force other than the Catholic Church provide this renewal for Europe? Or perhaps Europe's fast-growing, high-fertility Muslim population will provide its own spiritual reformation for the continent.
"In fact, we can transmit life in a responsible way only if we are able to pass on something more than mere biological life, and that is, a meaning that prevails even in the crises of history to come and a certainty in the hope that is stronger than the clouds that obscure the future," continued Benedict. "Unless we learn anew the foundations of life - unless we discover in a new way the certainty of faith - it will be less and less possible for us to entrust to others the gift of life and the task of an unknown future. Connected with that, finally, is also the problem of definitive decisions: Can man bind himself forever? Can he say a 'yes' for his whole life? Yes, he can. He was created for this. In this very way, human freedom is brought about and thus the sacred context of marriage is also created and enlarged, becoming a family and building the future." The Pope went on to criticize the conditional yeses blessed by the state in civil unions for unmarried couples and to deplore the anti-human nature of same-sex 'marriage.'
Those in favor of sodomy have no respect for the human body, he said. "Such theories hold that man - that is, his intellect and his desire - would decide autonomously what he is or what he is not. In this, corporeity is scorned, with the consequence that the human being, in seeking to be emancipated from his body - from the 'biological sphere' - ends by destroying himself," asserted Benedict. Looking at the undisputed trends in the Western world, how can anyone disagree?
The Pope has made other, less extensive public references to declining birthrates as well. To a group of Canadian bishops on their ad limina visit May 20, he said, "Central to the cultural soul of the nation is Christ's immeasurable gift of faith which has been received and celebrated over the centuries with deep rejoicing by the peoples of your land. Like many countries, however, Canada is today suffering from the pervasive effects of secularism. The attempt to promote a vision of humanity apart from God's transcendent order and indifferent to Christ's beckoning light, removes from the reach of ordinary men and women the experience of genuine hope. One of the more dramatic symptoms of this mentality, clearly evident in your own region, is the plummeting birthrate. This disturbing testimony to uncertainty and fear, even if not always conscious, is in stark contrast with the definitive experience of true love which by its nature is marked by trust, seeks the good of the beloved, and looks to the eternal."
On Aug. 31, 2005, during a Wednesday public audience, the Pope said, "The Psalmist extols in particular 'the sons of youth': The father who has had sons in his youth will not only see them in their full vigor, but they will be his support in old age. He will be able, therefore, to face the future confidently, like a warrior, armed with a quiver of those victorious pointed 'arrows' that are his sons. The purpose of this image, taken from the culture of the time, is to celebrate the safety, stability and strength found in a large family, such as is presented anew in the subsequent Psalm 128, in which the portrait of a happy family is sketched. The last picture shows a father surrounded by his sons, who is welcomed with respect at the city gates, the seat of public life. Begetting is thus a gift that brings life and well-being to society. We are aware of this in our days in the face of nations that are deprived, by the demographic loss, of the freshness and energy of a future embodied by children."
Birthrates are low not only in Europe and Canada, but in most of the rest of the Christian world including Latin American nations and the United States. Our societies are aging rapidly. This disaster is so grave, and its metaphysical roots so deep in the souls of Christian men and women, that we can hope that the Pope will write an encyclical solely about this crisis. Such an encyclical will raise this issue to the level of importance and awareness that it deserves, and perhaps prompt a solution before it is too late. And aren't the low birthrates of every Western nation proof of the wisdom of the Church's teachings on secularism, marriage, feminism, contraception, and abortion?
Islamic jihad and 'global warming' are often presented as the most dangerous threats to the Western world today, yet they pale in comparison to the demographic crisis since, of course, without people, nothing else matters. We can await such a papal document with hope.
Joseph A. D'Agostino is Vice President for Communications at the Population Research Institute.
PRI; P.O. Box 1559; Front Royal, Va. 22630; USA; Phone: (540) 622-5240 Fax: (540) 622-2728; E-Mail: jad@pop.org
Media Contact: Joseph A. D'Agostino; (540) 622-5240, ext. 204; Website: www.pop.org
(c) 2007 Population Research Institute. Permission to reprint granted. Redistribute widely. Credit required.
If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation to PRI, please go to http://pop.org/donate.cfm.
All donations (of any size) are welcomed and appreciated. To subscribe to the
Weekly Briefing, go to: http://pop.org/subscribe-weekly.cfm
or E-Mail us at pri@pop.org and say
"Add me to your Weekly Briefing." The pro-life Population Research
Institute is dedicated to ending human rights abuses committed in the name of
"family planning," and to ending counter-productive social and economic
paradigms premised on the myth of "overpopulation."
9. Euthanasia Prevention Coalition Questions Direction Of CHPCA - January 19, 2007
Response to the position of the Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association's position on euthanasia and assisted suicide - January 9, 2007
The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition questions the direction of the Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association (CHPCA) concerning their statement on Physician Assisted Dying that was approved by their Board of Directors - November 22, 2006.
The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition exists to prepare a well-informed, broadly based, network of groups and individuals who support measures that will create an effective social barrier to euthanasia and assisted suicide. We are a national voice that represents nearly 4000 groups and individuals.
The CHPCA appears to be asking for further consultation over the next two years from their membership concerning a new policy on euthanasia and assisted suicide. In the meantime they have established a set of principles that their membership is asked to consider in relation to these issues.
The documents guidelines have been worded in a neutral manner. There is no way to indicate whether the CHPCA supports or opposes euthanasia and assisted suicide, but rather recognizes that it is currently illegal and health-care providers should have the right not to participate in such acts. Therefore the CHPCA appears to have changed their position to a neutral position until 2008 when they will once again review their position.
Even the title of their Policy Alert was: Physician Assisted Dying (PAD) Issues Document, represents a change in direction based on language. At the World Federation of Right to Die Societies International Conference that was in Toronto - September 2006, their was a commitment by the Right to Die community to change the language in the debate concerning euthanasia and assisted suicide so their message would appeal to more people. The CHPCA has changed its language to the preferred language of the Right to Die lobby.
The CHPCA also states in its draft CHPCA Statement: "However, despite access to high quality end-of-life care, a small number of Canadians may still choose to have control over their own death. As hospice palliative care practitioners, we will respect their right to choose and will not abandon them."
When analyzing the reasons why the small number of Canadians may still choose to have "control over their own death", that if you respect their "right to choose" you are in fact abandoning them. You are abandoning them to their fears, to their depression, to their family pressures, and to their existential questioning, rather than affirming them as a valued member of society. This statement is a direct threat to our most vulnerable members of society, who even question the value and dignity of their own life.
Our primary concern lies with the inconsistency of the CHPCA position in relation to their Recommendations. They state: "Before considering legalizing euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide, Canada has a responsibility to ensure that comprehensive, compassionate hospice palliative care is available to all, and that Canadians are aware of these services and how to access them."
Considering the lack of access to hospice palliative care that many Canadians face, and considering the lack of awareness of existing services and options for end-of-life care, we wonder why the previous statement was not enough for the CHPCA to renew their opposition to legalizing euthanasia and assisted suicide, at least until the time when all Canadians have access to comprehensive, compassionate hospice palliative care.
The position of the CHPCA should state: Until every single Canadian can be guaranteed quality end of life care, so that they have a legitimate choice to make, then we cannot start the debate on euthanasia and assisted suicide. And we are not there yet. And we are a long way from being there.
Alex Schadenberg, Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition
Phone: 1-877-439-3348
E-Mail: _info@epcc.ca
10. Feminism's Triumph: The Extermination of Women - 19 January 2007
Sex-selective abortion is threatening the stability of major Asian nations. In America, our elected representatives should not only combat this scourge abroad, they should ensure it doesn't become common here. - Steven W. Mosher, President
PRI Weekly Briefing - Vol. 9, No. 3 - 19 January 2007
Feminism's Triumph: The Extermination of Women - By Joseph A. D'Agostino
In the last two years, international organizations and Asian nations have stepped
up their efforts to eliminate sex-selective abortions, which have created a
massive dearth of girls in many nations over the past 20 years.
With the new year, some new statistics have been released. The result of these efforts? The sex imbalance continues to worsen, not improve, thanks to the ever-increasing spread of cheap abortion and ultrasound technology into more and more areas of China, India, and other countries.
One expert who spoke at the United Nations estimates that up to 200 million women and girls are missing worldwide because of sex-selective abortion and female infanticide. Some experts put the figure as low as 60 million. All agree it gets bigger every day.
With rapidly growing Asian and Muslim immigrant communities in the United States, will a sex ratio imbalance soon emerge here, unless sex-selective abortion is outlawed? Last year, a Zogby/USA Today poll found that 86% of Americans oppose sex-selective abortions. Sex imbalances have already been documented among Canada's Asian immigrant communities.
Feminists like to blame this rapidly-worsening situation on 'patriarchy', but that has been around for thousands of years and is less powerful today than ever before. What is new is the access to abortion in so many places. And this has long been a paramount goal of feminists: To grant the 'right to control her own body' to each woman on Earth via unrestricted abortion. That, combined with falling prices for the ultrasound machines that can reveal an unborn child's sex, has produced the disastrous situation that the Asian world is in now.
And just how, exactly, are men on the whole supposed to benefit from being unable to find wives? By 2020, 30 million Chinese men of marriageable age are expected to be in that situation because of 30 million 'missing' young women. Many historians warn that a large number of unmarried men in a society is a recipe for social unrest and war. The kidnapping of women for forced marriage and prostitution is already increasing exponentially in Asia. This is a disaster for both sexes and society as a whole.
The great experiment of feminism, just 40 years or so old as a social force, has produced this wonder: The ever-growing elimination of more and more girls worldwide. And so far, nothing can stop it. Indeed, from the feminist perspective, how or why should it be stopped? If women have a right to an abortion, why can they not exercise it on the basis of sex selection? Is the abortion her choice, or the government's?
Also, beyond mere personal preference, many women and their husbands have rational reasons for preferring sons over daughters. For example, most Chinese still live on farms barely above subsistence level. A son is better able to perform the hard work that farm life demands than a daughter. Sons and sons' wives traditionally care for the sons' parents, while daughters join their husbands' families.
When you consider that China's Communist government forcibly limits Chinese families to one or two children, it's no surprise that Chinese couples employ abortion to ensure having a son while staying under the limit. They murder their own children to comply with the law while ensuring their own survival in old age. Some Indian states, too, employ coercive practices to limit family size to two. Western feminists supported population control from the very beginning, believing that fewer children would liberate women from the 'oppression' of motherhood. And tax, spending, and economic pressures all over the developed world have made child-raising very expensive.
Outlawing sex-selective abortion has not made any difference in China and India. There is no way to enforce such a ban when abortion laws are so permissive. The only solution, of course, is a return to a culture that values all human life, and legal protection for unborn children. Growing sex ratio imbalances provide strong evidence for the practical arguments against abortion, separate from moral ones. Some large societies could simply fall apart if abortion is not restrained.
Let's look at some of the statistics for the sex imbalances that the brave new world of abortion has wreaked in just two decades. According to China Daily, 118 Chinese boys were born for every 100 Chinese girls last year, up from 110 just five years earlier. The maximum natural imbalance is 107 boys per 100 girls. The 118-100 Chinese split is just for births and doesn't account for the far greater number of girls than boys who are allowed to starve to death as children, or who are sent off to ill-managed government orphanages (95% of Chinese orphans are girls). In prosperous Guangdong province in southern China, the ratio has reached 130 boys per 100 girls, proving that financial hardship is not the primary cause of this phenomenon. UNICEF estimates that there are only 832 girls per 1,000 boys in China, making the world's largest country also its most sex-imbalanced.
India, the world's second-largest nation, has the second-worst sex ratio, with 927 girls for every 1,000 boys. Again, poverty is not the primary root cause: In the Indian state with the highest per capita income, Punjab, the imbalance is 793 girls for every 1,000 boys. Fifteen years ago, when India was poorer and abortion and ultrasound less affordable, it was 874 per 1,000 in Punjab. Sex imbalances in China and India really matter, because together, these two countries have over one-third of the Earth's population. UNICEF, no opponent of abortion in general, says 7,000 fewer girls are now born in India each day than nature would dictate, and ten million have been killed during pregnancy or just after in the past 20 years.
Taiwan has 110 boys born for every 100 girls, and South Korea has 108.
The Toronto Globe & Mail has noticed a slight tendency toward sex-selection among South Asian immigrant communities. Focusing on the areas in which many of these immigrants have chosen to settle, the newspaper reported, "Figures from the 2001 census supplied by Statistics Canada suggest a slight skew in the usual gender ratio among people with South Asian backgrounds... According to the 2001 census data, the proportion of girls under 15 in the South Asian communities of Mississauga and Brampton is two percentage points below the ratio for the rest of the population in those municipalities."
That's not nearly as bad as in India, where the difference is 6%, or China, where it is 12%. Yet, as these communities grow rapidly and become less and less assimilated with their host country - which the Globe & Mail says is the trend - will sex-selective abortion increase?
Sex imbalances are worsening in Middle Eastern and African countries as well, with abortion and ultrasound gradually penetrating traditional cultures there. Can Europe, with its expanding immigrant communities and shrinking native populations, be immune?
Reliable data on the United States' immigrant communities is hard to come by. Certainly, the United States as a whole has no unnatural imbalance in her boy-girl ratio.
Should we wait for this problem to develop into a substantial one here before
taking action? As Americans, we should ensure that this immoral and socially
destructive habit does not become entrenched here as our Chinese and other immigrant
communities continue their rapid growth.
China and India outlawed sex-selective abortion years ago, to no effect, and their societies are headed over a cliff. Here in the United States, with our more effective regulatory structure, we should outlaw this practice and seek to eliminate it elsewhere around the world before this crisis gets any worse.
The worsening sex ratio of the world in general, and Asia in particular, is proof that abortion-on-demand isn't practical.
Joseph A. D'Agostino is Vice President for Communications at the Population Research Institute.
PRI
P.O. Box 1559
Front Royal, Va. 22630
USA
Phone: (540) 622-5240 Fax: (540) 622-2728
Email: jad@pop.org
Media Contact: Joseph A. D'Agostino
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Website: www.pop.org
(c) 2007 Population Research Institute. Permission to reprint granted. Redistribute
widely. Credit required.
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The pro-life Population Research Institute is dedicated to ending human rights abuses committed in the name of "family planning," and to ending counter-productive social and economic paradigms premised on the myth of "overpopulation."
11. Fighting Back Against Fashion Industry - November 24, 2006
The following article is located at:
http://www.christianity.ca/family/parenting/2006/11.003.html
A program for girls, teaches them modesty, purity and chastity as well as the
ins and outs of hair, make-up and posture. The girls model what they've learned
on a catwalk. - By Sara Loftson
These days Emily Morrow-Fick keeps busy organizing runway lessons, wardrobe fittings and easing last-minute stage fright as she prepares 55 young girls to take center stage at a Pure Fashion fashion show.
A model walks on the runway of the 2005 Pure Fashion Show in Atlanta, Georgia,
while other young women look on.
"It's not just about fashion, a lot of it is teaching girls how to present
themselves without feeling like they have to act like Britney Spears or Paris
Hilton," said Morrow-Fick, 18, a student at St. Mary's College and the
co-chair for Pure Fashion in Calgary.
Pure Fashion is a Catholic program that promotes modest dress for girls in
grades eight through 12.
Young women attend training sessions to learn about the virtues of modesty,
purity and chastity, as well as the ins and outs of hair, make-up and posture.
This all leads up to a fashion show where the girls model all that they've learned
on the catwalk.
"Trendy but tasteful" is the catch phrase national chairwoman Brenda
Sharman uses to describe the philosophy behind Pure Fashion.
"Pure Fashion has grown into a whole person developmental program. Modesty
is more than what you wear on the outside, it has to be an exterior reflection
of an interior attitude," Sharman, who brings 20 years experience in modeling
and acting to Pure Fashion, told The Catholic Register in a telephone
interview from Atlanta, Georgia.
"Their intention should be to turn as many hearts as possible, not heads."
Pure Fashion lists specific clothing guidelines girls are to abide by during
the fashion show and potentially retain once it's over. Material must not be
thin nor sheer, necklines should not be more than four fingers below the collarbones
and skirts and dresses should be no shorter than four fingers above the top
of the kneecaps are three examples.
"Girls are very hesitant to accept the idea of being modest in a society
that tells them to wear short shirts, heavy eye make-up and act ditzy. They
are hesitant to be more confident unless they are wearing these clothes,"
said Morrow-Fick.
Not all girls buy into the Pure Fashion message, but the program is meant to
plant a seed for the future, added Morrow-Fick.
Sharman agrees living out the principles of Pure Fashion is not easy. "It's
a countercultural message because right now all the things you read are about
how to be hot and sexy."
Anne Moroney, 14, has been sold on the Pure Fashion message. On May 7-06 she
participated in her third fashion show at the Spruce Meadows Congress in Calgary.
"I really like fashion and clothes but I also think that we should stand
up for all the rest of the girls and show we can be stylish and modest and really
show our dignity and show we're worth dressing nicely," said Moroney, who
convinced two girlfriends to join her this year.
… her daughter's confidence has increased since modeling with Pure Fashion.
Moroney said it helps having peers who also practice modesty. "There's
always pressure to dress immodestly, especially from girls your age and our
culture is very immodest. You'll go into a store and try on something immodest
because it's hard to find other clothes."
Barbara Moroney said she's noticed her daughter's confidence has increased
since modeling with Pure Fashion. She welcomes the modesty message coming from
outside the home.
"The pressure is for them to sell their body," said Moroney, a Catholic
who home-schools Anne and her five other children. "In many ways they are
still little girls, so I think it's about trying to protect them without becoming
the enemy, but sometimes it can be a battle. They tend to say the parents are
the bad guys."
The Moroney family got involved with Pure Fashion through the Challenge Girl
Club, a Catholic leadership program for girls within Regnum Christi, an international
Catholic lay and religious movement. Seven years ago, a group of mothers and
daughters in the United States decided to hold small informal fashion shows
that promoted modest dress in church halls and basements.
It's grown to 15 chapters in the United States and one permanent location in
Calgary that started three years ago. In just three years, the Calgary chapter
has grown, its budget going from $2,500 to $35,000. The ultimate goal is to
make Pure Fashion into a product that can be franchised, said Jodie Britton,
chairwoman for Pure Fashion Calgary.
Britton's unchurched background inspired her interest in the program. "I
can attest coming from teenage years without Christ that there's no fulfillment
in shopping or boys," said Britton, mother of three boys.
She said she tries to help girls become real models as role models. She believes
girls who learn the virtue of modesty are models for living chastely later in
life. "The girls that I do know that are 18-19 are able to be more well-balanced
and peaceful and happy because they've remained pure of body and heart so the
temptations just aren't there in a relationship."
Pure Fashion is slowly expanding in Canada. Vancouver and Edmonton have hosted
informal Pure Fashion shows and in just under two months a group of women in
Halifax slapped together a Pure Fashion show held April 2, 2006. After four
preparatory sessions, Keri Webber was one of 25 models aged ten-18 who strutted
down the catwalk.
"It was really fun. (It) made you realize how much you come across to
other people," said Webber, 17, a Grade 11 student who had no previous
modeling experience.
Webber said after the show she went to Old Navy and bought all the outfits
she modeled in the show.
Melanie Douchesne had a similar experience. Since participating in the show
she doesn't wear low-cut shirts or low-rise pants. "I can bend down and
not worry about my underwear sticking out."
"I find once you're out of high school it's not as bad," said Melanie
Douchesne, an 18-year-old first-year student at St. Mary's University in Halifax.
"I don't find that there is any pressure any more. I just wear the clothes
that suit my personality."
Although Douchesne said she may be in the clear, she thinks junior and early
high school-aged girls face the most pressure. "Everyone dresses up and
tries to be that pretty girl in school. I see my little sister and her friends
do it and they are only 14 and 15 years old."
In the first of four sessions, the girls learned how to stand up to the pressure
of society and the media. They analyzed magazine ads. A recent university grad
spoke about her battle with anorexia and two university-aged men described what
they look for in a woman. They talked about how they wouldn't take an immodestly
dressed girl seriously in the future, said Webber.
"The more skin girls show (the more) guys (stop) looking at them for their
personality. They are more like, they think she has a nice body," said
Webber, explaining what she learned during the presentation.
"Our theme is looking good inside and out," said Donna Webb, one
of the workshop facilitators. "You might attract someone for a little while,
but will they stay?"
"My senses are assaulted all the time when I walk down the street,"
Webb said. "There's no modesty, no purity left in the culture. And it's
sending our young people in the wrong direction. We just want to open their
eyes to a different way of life."
Webb said although she doesn't have any daughters, she has a vested interest
in teaching girls the value of modest dress.
"I have five sons. It's important to me the type of women they are going
to be attracted to. They will be the mothers of my grandchildren."
… it does not tout itself as Catholic-run.
Webb decided to spearhead the fashion show after she received a call from friend
and Juno-nominated Catholic recording artist Janelle Reinhart. As the national
spokesperson, Reinhart composed the Pure Fashion theme song "It's a new
day." She sings it at fashion shows across North America.
Webb and the other organizers were impressed with the 200-person audience and
expressed interest in putting another show together next year.
Now that Pure Fashion is branded as its own organization, separate from Regnum
Christi, it has its own logo, posters and Website,
though it does not tout itself as Catholic-run.
"If we are going to address this worldwide problem of immodesty, then
we have to be inclusive," Sharman explained. "It's going to take all
of us uniting as Christians to fight this battle because Satan has been alive
and well in the fashion industry."
Originally published in the Catholic Register, May 7, 2006.
Used with permission. Copyright © 2006 Christianity.ca.
Copyright © 2003 The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, All Rights Reserved.
12. Historic Declaration On Marriage Signed By Over 40 Denominations And Faith Leaders - November 15, 2006
For immediate release from The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada - November 10, 2006
Ottawa - On November 9, Bruce J. Clemenger, president of The Evangelical
Fellowship of Canada, joined Most Rev. Marcel Gervais, Roman Catholic Archbishop
of Ottawa, Very Reverend John Jillions, Dean Annunciation Orthodox Cathedral
(Ottawa), Orthodox Church of America, and Rev. Ken Bellous, executive minister
of the Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec, in an historic presentation
to MPs of a joint Declaration
on Marriage (French
version), signed by over 40 denominational and religious leaders.
"As different faith communities, we came together to present to Parliament
and society as a whole, our common view on marriage," said Clemenger. "The
Prime Minister, by promising to hold a vote to re-open the debate on marriage,
is giving Canadians an opportunity to have sober, second-thought on this issue.
As communities of faith, we would welcome an opportunity to participate in reasoned
and constructive public dialogue concerning the nature of marriage."
Gervais repeated what is essential for the participating faith
groups. "Our appeal is that law and public policy recognize the essential
and unique importance of marriage as the union of one man and one woman for
the security, nurturing and well-being of children. As religious leaders from
diverse faith communities, we find common ground in affirming that the best
interests of the child must prevail over adults' exercise of their liberty."
"This Declaration on Marriage is consistent with thousands of years of
reflection and practice," stated Bellous. "We seek justice for all
while valuing the importance of marriage."
The Declaration on Marriage is intended to give guidance to Parliamentarians
and to members of society as Canadians continue to debate this important issue.
The signatories represent a broad spectrum of the faith communities from across
Canada. And denominational and religious leaders are continuing to sign the
document (additional signatories will be available in the web version of this
release). "Today, several others have asked to be included," said
Clemenger. "I don't recall a time when such a broad spectrum of denominational
and religious leaders have signed a common declaration such as this. It is very
encouraging."
There are reports that the vote on the motion to reopen the marriage debate
could happen as early as December.
-30-
For more information contact:
Gail Reid
Director, Communications
The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada
905 479 5885 x 227
reidg@efc-canada.com
13. Lifeissues.net Newsletter #305 - January 5, 2007
Greetings from LifeIssues.net (www.lifeissues.net)
Dear Friends for Life,
A Happy New Year! We wish our readers a year filled with much joy and happiness. A year filled with warmth, peace and respect for human life.
The New England Journal of Medicine is one of three or four most prestigious medical journals in the world. Its editorial policy has been strongly pro-abortion and pro-euthanasia. Now it has published a report asking China to scrap its one child population policy. The article states that their policy is "outdated." It states, "With the freedoms that have resulted from wealth and globalization, the one child policy seems increasingly anachronistic... and... a relaxation of the one child policy would be desirable." It notes the gender imbalance, 117 males for every 100 females. It notes that China's policy has "helped its economic prosperity but that it is now outdated."
A new report from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, September 2006 detailed at the rate of births in 2000 was 117 boys to 100 girls. The new rate, as of 2004, is 121 to 100.
The U.N. Secretary General's study on violence against children is being debated. The British pro-life group, S.P.U.C., in a press release, urged the U.N. "to include a world-wide prohibition of abortion, the greatest of all violence against young, defenseless, human beings. The gravest abuse of children is to deprive them of life before they are even born. Tragically, this U. N. study makes no reference to the tens of millions of babies unjustly killed every year in countries throughout the world."
God Bless, Fr. Jerry, omi
(A Thought) Growth in friendship between husband and wife requires that they make constant efforts to grow in love of God and neighbor and avoid sin - not only sins against chastity but also sins like pride, anger, alcohol abuse, drug addiction, laziness, holding grudges, withholding forgiveness and much else. - Bishop Martino.
Lifeissues.net Newsletter #305 - January 5, 2007
Table Of Contents:
1. Doctors Group Suggests More Prenatal Testing, Could Lead To Abortions
2. Schools Offering Morning After Pill
3. Personhood And Planned Parenthood
4. Persistent Vegetative State: It's Not What We Thought
5. Towards A Creative Response To Infertility - Irish Bishops
6. IVF: Why We Must Be Told The Truth Over Birth Defects
7. Ukraine Babies In Stem Cell Probe
8. Western Nations "Committing Suicide" Thanks To Under-population
Problems
9. Pre-Cana And Post-Abortion Trauma - Psychological And Pastoral Implications
10. Pre-Cana And Post-Abortion Trauma - A Response To Psychological And Pastoral
Implications
11. CWA: Morning-After Pill Fails Tests
12. Where Are The Mothers Of America?
Focus On Asia: Backward Villages at Eastern Regions.... Out of 70,611 villages in Indonesia, 32,379 of them are categorized as backward - with 62 percent of them are situated in the eastern regions of Indonesia, said Development of Disadvantaged Regions Minister Syaifullah Yusuf yesterday (01/04) at his office. According to Syaifullah, out of the entire backward villages, 17,649 of them are located in backward regencies. In addition, out of 440 regencies in Indonesia, 199 of them are backward. (Worldpress.org, 05 January 2007)
Item #1. Doctors Group Suggests More Prenatal Testing,
Could Lead To Abortions
A leading national doctors' group is suggesting that every pregnant woman, regardless
of age, be offered the chance to have prenatal testing for the birth defect
known as Down syndrome. However, tests showing disabilities in unborn children
may prompt more abortions.
View full text at LifeNews.com: http://www.lifenews.com/nat2842.html
Item #2. Schools Offering Morning After Pill
Two city high schools have been offering students the morning after pill in
a bid to help cut the number of unwanted teenage pregnancies, it has emerged.
Earlham High School and Hewett School are two of the 13 schools across the county currently operating health clinics giving youngsters access to contraception by family planning officers - even if they are below the age of consent.
Health workers say the clinics provide an invaluable service to encourage teens
to delay sex, alongside supporting sexually active pupils with advice on contraception
and minimizing risk-taking sexual behaviour.
But parents of pupils at the school are shocked the service is being offered.
View full text at Evening News 24:
http://new.eveningnews24.co.uk/content/news/story.aspx?brand=ENOnline&category=News&tBrand=ENOnline&tCategory=news&itemid=NOED01%20Jan%202007%2013%3A05%3A38%3A430
Item #3. Personhood And Planned Parenthood
In a commentary noting the importance of pursuing legislation establishing the
personhood of the preborn, ALL's Jim Sedlak notes, "If the truth about
the personhood of the human being from its point of creation was ever to be
written into law, Planned Parenthood would be virtually out of business. One
third of Planned Parenthood's clinic income comes from the killing of human
beings who are in the first nine months of their lives."
View full text at American Life League: http://www.all.org/article.php?id=10902
Item #4. Persistent Vegetative State: It's Not
What We Thought
A startling discovery published in the journal Nature has dramatically upset
the applecart. Conventional wisdom believed that a person in a persistent vegetative
state (PVS) was someone who was lying there, unresponsive, like a vegetable.
We strongly disagree with the term "persistent vegetative state,"
because it dehumanizes the patient. It's very similar to how the word "fetus"
is used to dehumanize the unborn child. Just as it's easier to abort a "fetus"
than an unborn child, it's much easier to dehydrate and starve to death a body
resembling a "vegetable" than it is to intentionally end the life
of a loved one.
View full text at Life Issues Institute, Inc.: http://www.lifeissues.org/connector/2006/oct_PVS.htm
Item #5. Towards A Creative Response To Infertility
- Irish Bishops
In their initial response to the report of the Commission on Assisted Human
Reproduction (CAHR) in 2005, the Irish Catholic bishops focused primarily on
the issue of respect for the right to life. However, the document, "Towards
a Creative Response to Infertility", recently published by the Irish Bishops'
Conference, is a more substantial response, and has an analysis of the each
of the 40 recommendations made by the CAHR. The bishops agree to a greater or
lesser extent with nine of the recommendations, but disagree clearly with the
31 other recommendations. The bishops identify a number of principles which
are non-negotiable, and which underpin the approach of the Catholic Church,
among others, to issues of human procreation. These are respect for the right
to life and bodily integrity, respect for the family, and respect for the meaning
and purpose of human sexuality. The Bishops believe that there is a real need
for legislation to control the technology of assisted human reproduction. "Any
new legislation", they argue, "which would permit these fundamental
rights to be eroded would ultimately be contributing to a serious decline in
the standards of justice and equity in every aspect of our civil society".
View full text at Family and Life: http://www.familyandlife.org/newsview.php?id=270&cat=8&subcat=18
Item #6. IVF: Why We Must Be Told The Truth Over
Birth Defects
The lack of any British studies into the long-term effects of IVF is criticized
in an opinion piece by Jerome Burne in the "Daily Mail". Noting that
1.4% of UK births are now due to IVF, he cites practitioners who want research
into such conditions as autism, cerebral palsy and cancer among children, and
miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy and ovarian hyperstimulation among women. Critics
of the lack of research include Richard Kennedy of the British Fertility Society,
Dr Stuart Sutcliffe of the Institute of Child Health, Professor Gedis Grudzinskas
of the London Bridge Fertility Centre, and Dr Ian Gibson, MP. Dr Sutcliffe referred
to a report by the Medical Research Council, which concluded that babies born
via IVF should be monitored well into adulthood because "many of the techniques
have not been properly researched and tested". He pointed out that firmer
evidence is particularly important in IVF, because those undergoing treatment
are often so focused on the goal of having a child that they find it hard to
take the risks seriously.
See the full article at Daily News:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/health/healthmain.html?in_article_id=421977&in_page_id=1774
Item #7. Ukraine Babies In Stem Cell Probe
The BBC has obtained video footage, which suggests that stem cells are being
harvested from aborted and newborn babies for sale around the world. Ukraine
has become the stem-cell capital of the world, in a trade based on unproven
claims that stem cells they harvest can help fight diseases. In the autopsy
room of a maternity hospital in Kharkiv, the BBC obtained evidence of corpses
of aborted and newborn babies that had been dismembered, which is not standard
post-mortem practice."
View full article at BBC News: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6171083.stm
Item #8. Western Nations "Committing Suicide"
Thanks To Under-population Problems
Remove the threat of Islam, remove the threat of Marxism, even remove the threat
posed by the process of cultural breakdown per se, and the West is still on
a rapid course to suicide. It's a very simple biological reality: Western people
are not having enough children.
All Western nations are currently headed for extinction. Societal suicide couldn't be any simpler than that short of a country nuking itself.
View full article at LifeNews.com: http://www.lifenews.com/int107.html
Item #9. Pre-Cana And Post-Abortion Trauma, Psychological
And Pastoral Implications
There is a movement in some dioceses toward incorporating post-abortion trauma
and healing into marriage preparation workshops, or Pre-Cana. The rationale
behind this movement is quite valid. Without healing, post-abortion trauma has
the potential to cause great harm to a marriage.
However, we believe that including this topic in marriage preparation workshops places a very sensitive question in a public context that is much better suited to a private discussion with a priest or deacon. In our consideration of this topic, we point out those items which are too delicate and private for a public venue, but which are instead a confessional matter with major psychological implications. We also address practical questions about the objectives of marriage preparation programs and about the demographic disposition of the Catholic engaged population.
View entire text at Ethics & Medics: http://www.ncbcenter.org/em/0701-1.aspx
Item #10. Pre-Cana And Post-Abortion Trauma - A
Response To Psychological And Pastoral Implications
We welcome the opportunity to respond to Dr. DiVietri and Mr. Bozza, and appreciate
their sensitivity, concern, and care for those wounded by participation in abortion.
We begin by offering a brief background regarding our work in the field of post-abortion
education and healing.
Dr. Theresa Burke is the author of Forbidden Grief \ The Unspoken Pain of Abortion, an internationally recognized work in the field of post-abortion trauma. She has developed a number of treatment models for abortion and sexual abuse that have brought the emotional and spiritual healing of Christ to over sixty thousand men and women through diocesan and other faith-based ministries. Rachel's Vineyard, an international ministry of Priests for Life, has held over 1,852 healing weekends throughout the nation and is now available in seventeen countries. Together, we have been providing education and treatment models for professionals, religious, clergy, and laypersons, as well as leadership training for the many different ministries using the Rachel's Vineyard healing programs.
Our expertise is in the field of post-abortion trauma and healing with individuals, couples, and families. We rely on the knowledge and experience of those working in Family Life ministries and marriage preparation programs to decide in what ways they might integrate the information and experience we share regarding the relational dysfunction that can result from abortion trauma.
View entire text at Ethics & Medics: http://www.ncbcenter.org/em/0701-2.aspx
Item #11. CWA: Morning-After Pill Fails Tests
Journal reports that no study found a decrease in pregnancy or abortion rates,
even with increased use.
Read full article at Christian Newswire: http://www.christiannewswire.com/news/510851868.html
Item #12. Where Are The Mothers Of America?
First things first. Fertilization of a woman's egg [I hate that term; it should
be - oocyte] by a sperm causes pregnancy. The optimal place where fertilization
takes place is in the upper third of the fallopian [uterine] tube. Let there
be no mistake about it: pregnancy begins with the fusion of the sperm and the
egg [see Carlson, Bruce M. 1994. Human Embryology and Developmental Biology.
Page 3. Mosby, St. Louis.]. It is NOT at implantation, in spite of what Planned
Parenthood and others may claim. This is because the developing embryo takes
about 5 to 6 days before getting to the uterus, where it will implant. All the
while, development of the new individual human being is taking place.
See the full article at LifeIssues.net by C. Ward Kischer: http://lifeissues.net/writers/kisc/kisc_27mothers.html.
Active Participation:
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. Think about participating in Fr. Jerry's "2007
Speaking Tours" to poorer countries in Asia. 'Journey for Life into the
Heart of Asia' is a project, which appeals for donations to help finance travel
expenses. The lectures this year will continue to place emphasis on "The
Asian Family at Crossroads: Trends and Challenges". We are now starting
to prepare for 2007. For those who wish to participate actively by supporting
this missionary project, 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)
4. Prior issues of LifeIssues.net Newsletter available
online.
http://lifeissues.net/newsletters/mojo.cgi?flavor=archive&list=lifenews&start=0.
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 Director:
Mr. Marlon Castillo Ramirez
Author of Book: "The Sights and Soul of Life"
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
14. Lifeissues.net Newsletter #306 - January 14, 2006
Greetings from LifeIssues.net (http://www.lifeissues.net/)
Dear Friends for Life,
We now have report from the UN Population Division (UNPD) not to be confused with the United Nations Fund for Population Activity, which has quite a different position. The UNPD has stated, "Even though population increased more rapidly during the 20th century than ever more, economic input grew even faster owing to the accelerating tempo of technological progress. While world population increased four fold, world real gross domestic product increased twenty to forty times. This allowed the world to not only sustain a four-fold population increase but also to do so at vastly higher standards of living." (UNPD)
Government subsidies increase French birth rate. Uniformly across most of Europe the reproductive birth rate hovers around 1.4 babies per woman in her lifetime. The demographic fallout from this will be catastrophic. Alone among western countries France comes close to replacement level at 1.8. Part of the reason at least for this is that France spends 15% of its total budget for family and child services. These incentives include: (1) Three year paid parental leave with guaranteed job protection upon returning back to work; (2) Universal full time preschool starting at age 3; (3) Subsidized daycare before age 3; (4) Stipends for in home nannies and (5) Monthly child care allowances that increase with the number of children.
In closing, I'd like to mention that Human Life International has opened new web-based information, www.AbortionViolence.com. Easy to navigate, it separates murders, rapes, and other violence by abortionists, men who kill girlfriends or wives because they are pregnant and other crimes. It shows the pro-abortion movement to be the most violent political movement in U. S. history, documenting over 7,000 violent acts. This includes 269 homicides since 2000.
God Bless, Fr. Jerry, omi
(A Thought) Teachers face a daunting task today, given the fact that children are bombarded with incitements to be unchaste and may have hardly heard the word "chastity". .
Lifeissues.net Newsletter #306 - January 14, 2006
Table Of Contents:
1. Swiss Euthanasia Group Under Fire After Painful Assisted Suicide Death
2. New Report Admits: Emergency Contraception Does Not Reduce Abortion
3. Condoms Are Not Aids Solution
4. Aids, A Disease Largely Of Poverty
5. The Stem Cell Debate: Science Vs. Deception
6. Stem Cell Basics - Introduction
7. Let Us Work To Build An Integral Humanism
8. Canadian Hospice Association Slammed For Abandoning Opposition To Euthanasia
9. Christian Medical Association Condemns "Baby Supermarket"
10. Joy At Tiny Early Baby's Survival
11. "Embryos Are Humans," Says U.S. Government Report On Stem Cell
Research
12. Mother's Pride As First Child To Be Born From Frozen Egg Starts School
Focus on Asia: A report released here Thursday
said there will be 30 million more males of marriageable age in China than females
by the year 2020, which will make it difficult for men to find wives. The report,
issued by the State Population and Family Planning Commission, said China's
sex ratio for newborn babies in 2005 was 118 boys to 100 girls, compared with
110:100 in 2000. In some regions, the sex ratio has reached 130:100.
"Discrimination against the female sex remains the primary cause of China's growing gender imbalance," said Liu Bohong, vice director of the women studies institute under the All-China Women's Federation. Liu said that rural people in China are widely believed to be more "traditional", preferring sons to daughters, but the newborn gender imbalance is also widening in cities. More: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6171083.stm
Item #1. Swiss Euthanasia Group Under Fire After
Painful Assisted Suicide Death
A Swiss euthanasia group that says it has coordinated the deaths of more than
600 people at its clinics there is coming under fire after a German woman apparently
suffered tremendous pain when she died at one of its facilities. The SonntagsZeitung
newspaper in Zurich reported Sunday that a 43 year-old German woman with the
initial A.H. screamed in pain for over four minutes before her death. The Dignitas
group gave her a lethal cocktail last November that eventually took her life.
View full PHP file at LifeNews.com: http://www.lifenews.com/printpage.php
Item #2. New Report Admits: Emergency Contraception
Does Not Reduce Abortion
To date, no published study has been able to yield evidence for a decline of
abortion rates with wider use of 'emergency contraceptives', although numerous
studies and clinical trials have taken place that were "specifically designed
to address this issue," researchers say in a new report.
View full text at LifeSite: http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/jan/07010908.html
Item #3. Condoms Are Not AIDS Solution
The hyper-focus on condoms is irrational and dangerous - not only in light of
Uganda's nearly solitary success, but also by virtue of dozens of accepted facts
about condom limitations. Condoms are only 85 percent effective against pregnancy,
and demonstrate a troubling inability to stop HIV transmission. Dr. Green notes
that a startling meta-analysis found HIV infection occurred in approximately
20 percent of couples despite consistent condom use in vaginal sex. Indeed,
reputable estimates of condom effectiveness range widely, from 35.4 percent
to 94.2 percent. Condoms also do not stop common STIs like HPV and herpes simplex.
According to University of Toronto professor Rupert Kaul, Africans with herpes
type 2 (which infects up to 70 percent of local populations) are 10 times more
likely to contract HIV. This possible herpes/condom/HIV connection is unlikely
to get attention from the AIDS establishment.
View full text at Ruthland Herald: http://www.rutlandherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070110/NEWS/701100331/1039/OPINION03
Item #4. AIDS, A Disease Largely Of Poverty
A startling discovery published in the journal Nature has dramatically upset
the applecart. Conventional wisdom believed that a person in a persistent vegetative
state (PVS) was someone who was lying there, unresponsive, like a vegetable.
We strongly disagree with the term "persistent vegetative state,"
because it dehumanizes the patient. It's very similar to how the word "fetus"
is used to dehumanize the unborn child. Just as it's easier to abort a "fetus"
than an unborn child, it's much easier to dehydrate and starve to death a body
resembling a "vegetable" than it is to intentionally end the life
of a loved one.
View full text at News From Bangladesh: http://www.bangladesh-web.com/news/view.php?hidDate=2007-01-11&hidType=FEA&hidRecord=0000000000000000144932
Item #5. The Stem Cell Debate: Science Vs. Deception
I'll get right to the million-dollar question: if the use of embryonic stem
cells has been both unsuccessful and unethical, and the use of stem cells from
adults, umbilical cord blood, and so forth, has been successful and ethical,
why the resistance to adult stem cells and the huge push for embryonic stem
cells?
There are several reasons. First, the researchers do think that embryonic stem cells might be more flexible, more useful for certain kinds of basic research, not so much for direct cell therapies, (though they tend to get misrepresented as useful for those therapies), but for studying disease models and so on. Obviously, if they end up with the right to make embryos to order, by cloning, they would have much more control over studying early human development and perhaps even get to the point of making tailored children, in the future. There are a number of reasons why the researchers want the embryo to be established as an object of research, even beyond stem cells.
Also, I think there's an economic bias. Biotechnology companies want a product they can bottle and sell, and patent. And that's much less true of adult stem cells - you cannot patent the stem cells that are in a person's own body. You cannot patent a surgical procedure for using those cells to heal that person. But if they could derive treatments from embryonic stem cells, they would have a product to sell and of course they would not have to share the profits with the donor, who has been destroyed.
View full text at petersvoice.com: http://www.petersvoice.com/mallon/column21.php
Item #6. Stem Cell Basics - Introduction
T.P. Collins, M.D., is writing a definitive exposition of the problems with
human embryonic stem cell research.
See the full article at Catholic Medical Weekly: http://www.cathmedweek.blogspot.com/2007/01/stem-cell-basics-introduction.html
Item #7. Let Us Work To Build An Integral Humanism
The Pope has criticized increasingly worldwide abortion and human cloning in
an address to diplomats. Speaking to members of the diplomatic corps accredited
to the Holy See, Benedict XVI analyzed the most important events of the last
year including terrorism, migration, poverty and fair trade. He said: "How
can we not be alarmed, moreover, by the continuous attacks on life, from conception
to natural death? Such attacks do not even spare regions with a traditional
culture of respecting life, such as Africa, where there is an attempt to trivialize
abortion surreptitiously...Other forms of attack on life are sometimes committed
in the name of scientific research. There is a growing conviction that research
is subject only to the laws that it chooses for itself and that it is limited
only by its own possibilities. This is the case, for example, in attempts to
legitimize human cloning for supposedly therapeutic ends."
View full article at EWTN: http://www.ewtn.com/vnews/getstory.asp?number=74673
The Pope has also said in a homily on Jan. 7th that in each newborn we recognize that life is a gift of God.
View full article at EWTN: http://www.ewtn.com/vnews/getstory.asp?number=74670
Item #8. Canadian Hospice Association Slammed For
Abandoning Opposition To Euthanasia
The Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association (CHPCA) appears to have abandoned
its opposition to euthanasia after issuing a neutral draft statement on the
issue. The draft uses language similar to that of pro-euthanasia lobbyists,
as it says that while the organization "does not view euthanasia or physician-assisted
suicide as a part of quality end of life care... A small number of Canadians
may still choose to have control over their own death. As hospice palliative
care practitioners, we will respect their right to choose and will not abandon
them." Alex Schadenberg, Executive Director of Canada's Euthanasia Prevention
Coalition expressed dismay. He said: "The CHPCA has changed its language
to the preferred language of the Right to Die lobby...This statement is a direct
threat to our most vulnerable members of society, who even question the value
and dignity of their own life."
View full article at LifeSiteNews.com: http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/jan/07010909.html
Item #9. Christian Medical Association Condemns
"Baby Supermarket"
Christian doctors in America have criticized a Texas IVF clinic that offers
"designer babies" to prospective parents. The Christian Medical Association
(CMA) spoke out against the Abraham Centre of Life, in San Antonio, which advertises
made-to-order embryos screened for hair and eye colour, intelligence, and other
characteristics or a fee of about $10,000. Dr. David Stevens, head of the CMA,
said: "By stressing the educational level of sperm and egg donors, this
centre is preying on parents who have fallen victim to the false notion that
babies are a status symbol, and that intelligence, race or appearance are somehow
measures of worth. Do we really want to grade babies like meat in a supermarket?"
View entire text at LifeSiteNews.com: http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/jan/07010905.html
Item #10. Joy At Tiny Early Baby's Survival
A baby born extremely prematurely in Britain is progressing well. Doctors at
the University Hospital of Wales gave Kaven Gainey only a 5% chance of survival
when he was born at 23 weeks gestation, weighing only 1lb 6oz. However, after
two operations and five months in hospital, Kaven was well enough to go home
with his parents. His mother Victoria Simmonds said: "When I look back
now I don't know how we got through it, but obviously we had to. We had to keep
going because Kaven was obviously fighting for survival."
View entire text at BBC News: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/south_east/6242735.stm
Item #11. "Embryos Are Humans," Says
U.S. Government Report On Stem Cell Research
A new report by the United States governments' Domestic Policy Council admits
that embryos are human beings; the only differences between embryos and other
human beings, says the report, are accidental differences in levels of development.
"Embryos are humans in their earliest developmental stage," writes the Council.
"We do not have to think that human embryos are exactly the same in all ways as older humans to believe that they are entitled to respect and protection. Each of us originated as a single-celled embryo, and from that moment have developed along a continuous biological trajectory throughout our existence. To speak of 'an embryo' is to designate a human being at a particular stage."
Read full article at LifeSiteNews.com: http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/jan/07011009.html
Item #12. Mother's Pride As First Child To Be Born
From Frozen Egg Starts School
In June 2002, she became Britain's first "Ice Baby" - the first child
to be born to a mother who had her eggs frozen, stored and then thawed for use
in IVF treatment.
The egg that was to become Emily was taken from her mother Helen and frozen for six months, before being defrosted and fertilized with sperm from her father Lee. The embryo was then successfully implanted into her mother's womb, and she was born normally.
See the full article at Daily Mail: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=427954&in_page_id=1770.
Active Participation:
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. Think about participating in Fr. Jerry's "2007
Speaking Tours" to poorer countries in Asia. 'Journey for Life into the
Heart of Asia' is a project, which appeals for donations to help finance travel
expenses. The lectures this year will continue to place emphasis on "The
Asian Family at Crossroads: Trends and Challenges". For those who wish
to become part of this missionary "Journey For Life", 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)
4. Prior issues of LifeIssues.net Newsletter available
online. http://lifeissues.net/newsletters/mojo.cgi?flavor=archive&list=lifenews&start=0.
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 Director:
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
15. Lifeissues.net Newsletter #307 - January 21, 2007
Greetings from LifeIssues.net (http://www.lifeissues.net/)
Dear Friends for Life,
Sexuality and marital love are the topics of this month's issue of the World Youth Day 2008 online newsletter (E-pilgrimage). The organizers intend to help young people spiritually prepare for the pilgrimage to the international gathering, which will be held in Sydney, Australia, next year. . Until recently, society provided teenagers with classroom instruction in "safer sex" and "comprehensive sex education." In general, these curricula fail to provide a strong message to delay sexual activity, fail to deal adequately with the long-term emotional aspects of sexuality, and fail to provide students with the skills needed to develop intimate loving marital relationships as adults.
The causes and consequences of so many casual, careless, even cold teen attitudes about sex, reach far and wide. Some now charge that boomers, the generation that celebrated sexual liberation, have raised a generation of teens for whom sex and intimacy mean nothing. You've heard about charges of an epidemic of meaningless teen sex, and the cost to a society that celebrates sex without significance.
Young people need guidance in their crucial time of transition where choices about sex, love and relationship affect every aspect of their future. Let's ask ourselves how we can help them make a difference in their lives.
God Bless, Marlon Castillo Ramirez
Assistant Editor
(A Thought) "There are many voices in the modern world that overestimate the importance of sex - as if no one could be happy who had not had sex in the last few hours - or trivialize or underestimate its power - as if it were no more humanly significant than any other bodily function... sexuality and fertility are precious and important things which can be used to express some of the noblest things about human relationships, or which can be used instead to hurt and exploit." Bishop Anthony Fisher, Auxiliary of Sydney
Lifeissues.net Newsletter #307 - January 21, 2007
Table Of Contents:
1. Scientists: Adult Blood Cells Have Similar Traits as Embryonic Stem Cells
2. 51% of Women Are Now Living Without Spouse
3. Incremental Infanticide: Who is it good for?
4. Cause of Death: Sloppy Doctors
5. Parents demand a say in contents of controversial school course
6. Fact Sheet and Talking Points: Convention on the Elimination of All Forms
of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)
7. Brazilian Governor Wants to Install Condom Dispensers in Schools
8. Doctors 'only pretend' to do resuscitation
9. Hospitals 'must offer' rape victims pill
10. Morning-after pill to be offered to 11-year-olds
11. Embryos for sale
12. Catholics' ID aims to avert ward euthanasia
Focus on Asia: Leading Chinese human rights activist Chen Guangcheng has lost his final appeal against a conviction, which supporters say was political. Mr. Chen was jailed in 2006 for four years and three months for damaging property and disrupting traffic. But his lawyers said the real reason was Mr.Chen's exposure of violations to China's one-child policy, including forced sterilizations and abortions. Analysts say the case again shows China's refusal to tolerate dissent. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/6254591.stm)
Item #1. Scientists: Adult Blood Cells Have Similar
Traits As Embryonic Stem Cells
A new research report from scientists at the University of Minnesota shows that
adult stem cells taken from bone marrow can replenish immune systems ravaged
by radiation. They found the bone marrow cells can also make brain and liver
cells in mice.
Dr. Catherine Verfaillie, of the University of Minnesota Stem Cell Institute, said that these adult stem cells can be grown indefinitely in the lab and show some of the same properties as embryonic stem cells.
"The cells not only survived when transplanted but they completely repopulated the blood system of the mice," Verfaillie said in a statement about the studies.
View full file at LifeNews.com: http://www.lifenews.com/bio1952.html
Item #2. 51% Of Women Are Now Living Without Spouse
For what experts say is probably the first time, more American women are living
without a husband than with one, according to a New York Times analysis of census
results. In 2005, 51 percent of women said they were living without a spouse,
up from 35 percent in 1950 and 49 percent in 2000.
Coupled with the fact that in 2005 married couples became a minority of all American households for the first time, the trend could ultimately shape social and workplace policies, including the ways government and employers distribute benefits. Several factors are driving the statistical shift. At one end of the age spectrum, women are marrying later or living with unmarried partners more often and for longer periods. At the other end, women are living longer as widows and, after a divorce, are more likely than men to delay remarriage, sometimes delighting in their newfound freedom.
View full text at The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/16/us/16census.html?_r=1&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fPeople%2fR%2fRoberts%2c%20Sam&oref=slogin
Item #3. Incremental Infanticide: Whom Is It Good
For?
The medical profession is taking baby steps toward killing severely disabled
newborns. The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists in Britain is
calling for taking the next step in euthanasia or "mercy killing."
That won't be allowed to be conceptually clear, though. Instead, it will be
presented as a neutral discussion looking at all the possibilities of the mercy
killing of severely disabled babies. The college calls it a "deliberate
intervention" to cause the death of such disabled infants, and wants to
initiate simply a debate and analysis of possible legalization of such direct
killing. The college was most careful to state it was not necessarily supporting
such killing, but was only supporting talking about this deliberate intervention
and its ethical and legal implications. This is, of course, a classic example
of the deliberate incremental steps of euthanasia advocates and the techniques
successfully used to enable those steps.
Withdrawing or withholding treatment in cases of severely disabled newborns or infants is legal in many cases, sometimes without the permission of the parents, or even against the wishes of the parents. In those cases of hospital desire to withhold or withdraw treatment, futility of treatment is the reason generally given. In cases where the parents support withholding and withdrawing treatment, the quality of life of the child is the predominant reason. This step in indirect killing was taken with the same strategy as the new step suggests. Working groups reported to medical journals, but the working groups were usually activists for the step.
View full text at The Medical Post: http://www.medicalpost.com/opinions/oped/article.jsp?content=20070108_185648_5640
Item #4. Cause Of Death: Sloppy Doctors
Doctors' sloppy handwriting kills more than 7,000 people annually. It's a shocking
statistic, and, according to a July 2006 report from the National Academies
of Science's Institute of Medicine (IOM), preventable medication mistakes also
injure more than 1.5 million Americans annually. Many such errors result from
unclear abbreviations and dosage indications and illegible writing on some of
the 3.2 billion prescriptions written in the U.S. every year.
To address the problem-and give the push for electronic medical records a shove-a coalition of health care companies and technology firms will launch a program Tuesday to enable all doctors in the U.S. to write electronic prescriptions for free. The National e-prescribing Patient Safety Initiative (NEPSI) will offer doctors access to eRx Now, a Web-based tool that physicians can use to write prescriptions electronically, check for potentially harmful drug interactions and ensure that pharmacies provide appropriate medications and dosages. "Thousands of people are dying, and we've been talking about this problem for ages," says Glen Tullman, CEO of Allscripts, a Chicago-based health care technology company, that initiated the project. "This is crazy. We have the technology today to prevent these errors, so why aren't we doing it?"
View full text at Time: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1578074,00.html
Item #5. Parents Demand A Say In Contents Of Controversial
School Course
The president of the National Catholic Federation of Parents' Associations in
Spain, Luis Carbonel, is demanding the Ministry of Education allow parents to
have a say in the contents of the controversial course "Education for Citizenship
and Human Rights," which the government is seeking to make mandatory, "in
order to avoid having each local region in the country structure the course
according to its own understanding of values."
Carbonel said the contents of the controversial course should be subject to parental consent and that sections that parents object to should be excluded. As long as parents are not allowed to exercise their right to educate their children according to their own values, Carbonel argued, the teaching of this course constitutes "illegitimate interference" by the State.
View full text at CNA: http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=8399
Item #6. Fact Sheet And Talking Points: Convention
On The Elimination Of All Forms Of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)
Not only is the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
Against Women (CEDAW) treaty not necessary, its ratification would challenge
and undermine the laws and culture of the United States.
Unlike hundreds of other nations that sign and ignore international agreements, the United States takes treaty agreements seriously. According to Article VI, Section 2, of the U.S. Constitution, treaties-along with the Constitution and United States laws-are "the supreme Law of the Land." Our founding fathers believed that any ratified treaty should be constitutional.
Further, the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women requires countries that ratify CEDAW to report to the committee every four years on how their country is implementing the treaty.
See the full article at Concerned Women for America: http://www.cwfa.org/articles/12166/BLI/nation/index.htm
Item #7. Brazilian Governor Wants To Install Condom
Dispensers In Schools
The ministries of Health and of Education in Brazil have announced a plan to
install condom dispensers in public schools that offer sexual and reproductive
education courses.
According to Ricardo Henriques of the Ministry of Education, "the idea of putting condoms in schools" is so that "young people have the right to exercise choice."
A 2005 school census revealed that 98,000 schools have courses on the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases. Of those, 17% of secondary schools and 9% of primary schools distribute the condoms without charge.
View full article at CNA News: http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=8385
Item #8. Doctors 'Only Pretend' To Do Resuscitation
Doctors and nurses in Irish hospitals are intentionally going too slowly in
their efforts to resuscitate some terminally ill patients who suffer a heart
attack, a new study claims. The practice, known as a "slow code",
has happened where a patient is not under a Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) order,
or the family has asked for everything to be done to save them, but the doctor
feels cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is futile and will only prolong suffering.
Afraid of litigation but also anxious to spare the patient a violent, painful
procedure, medical staff instead go through the motions of attempting resuscitation,
but do not make a sincere effort to revive the patient.
"Slow codes were intended as a humane act and resulted from the lack of consensus with doctors, poor communication, the lack of a legal framework, and a lack of open discussion about death and end-of-life issues in Ireland," said Jacinta Kelly, a lecturer at the School of Nursing and Midwifery at Trinity College Dublin and author of the study.
View full article at Times on Line: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-2546377,00.html
Item #9. Hospitals 'Must Offer' Rape Victims Pill
Governments should enforce strict guidelines on hospitals requiring them to
offer rape victims the morning-after pill, a rape crisis counsellor says.
The call comes after revelations Catholic-controlled hospitals are refusing to supply the morning-after pill to rape victims.
Catholic Health Australia's Code of Ethical Standards says raped women should not be referred to centres that offer the morning-after pill.
View entire text at TheAge.com.au: http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Hospitals-must-offer-rape-victims-pill/2007/01/11/1168105099045.html
Item #10. Morning-After Pill To Be Offered To 11-Year-Olds
Kids as young as 11 are being offered the morning-after pill from school in
a bid to cut teenage pregnancy. Lambeth council is piloting a project at two
secondaries. Free pregnancy tests are also available.
Drop-in clinics have been set up at Stockwell Park School and the Park Centre
in West Norwood as part of the scheme already set up in 13 schools across the
country in November.
The clinics, run by specialist family planning nurses, offer students emergency contraception and pregnancy testing as well as advice and information about sexual matters.
View entire text at South London: http://icsouthlondon.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0200southlondonheadlines/tm_headline=morning-after-pill-to-be-offered-to-11-year-olds&method=full&objectid=18449686&siteid=50100-name_page.html
Item #11. Embryos For Sale
As any devotee of Internet shopping knows, there are few things these days that
cannot be bought off the shelf. Snap-on teeth, brand-new breasts, even human
kidneys can be yours "to go" if you have the cash and the determination
to find them.
But until now, embryos were not one of those things. Yes, you could buy yourself an egg and some sperm in separate transactions or find an IVF patient who would donate leftover embryos to you. But buying a ready-made embryo as you might purchase a Marks & Spencer suit - surely that would be taking consumer culture too far?
Apparently not. A company in Texas that calls itself "the world's first human embryo bank" is offering couples and single women the chance to order from its batches of existing embryos after browsing detailed information sheets about the race, education, personalities, hair and eye color of the egg and sperm donors.
Read full article at Times On Line: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,174-2542397,00.html
Item #12. Catholics' ID Aims To Avert Ward Euthanasia
Catholics fearing an increasing acceptance of euthanasia in Britain are carrying
religious 'ID cards' telling doctors not to withhold liquid from the patient.
Tens of thousands have been sold on the website of the Association of Catholic Women. It reads: 'In case of my admission to hospital, please contact a Roman Catholic priest. I would like my nursing care to include fluids - however administered.'
A General Medical Council spokesman said it was unaware of the card, but insisted that staff and members would be referred to the GMC's religious and ethical guidelines in ensuring respect for p