Weekly News

In the aftermath of the recent breakthrough in somatic cell reprogramming that has rendered embryonic stem cell research virtually obsolete, all of us – scientists and non-scientists alike – would do well to reconsider and reaffirm a cardinal principle of Western Civilization: Thou shalt not deliberately kill an innocent human being.

For the past several years, the practitioners of embryonic stem cell research have systematically violated this most basic of moral axioms, by killing human embryos for the purpose of extracting their pluripotent stem cells. Proponents of the procedure held out the promise, which was never fulfilled, that embryonic stem cell research might lead to cures for a variety of disabilities and diseases ranging from spinal cord paralysis to multiple sclerosis.

It happens that we all began life as a human embryo – that is to say, as a tiny, developing human being from fertilization to the end of the first eight weeks of gestational age. The hard and inescapable truth is that in harvesting human embryonic stem cells, researchers inevitably kill the donor human being.

As a proponent of the sanctity of human life, United States President George W. Bush cannot condone such death-dealing medical research, no matter how promising, so he announced in 2001 that his administration would restrict funding for human embryonic stem cell research to 60 already existing stem cell lines "where the life and death decision has already been made." In response, many critics maligned Bush as a mindless Christian with a heartless lack of compassion for all of the patients who desperately hope for a cure derived from embryonic stem cell research.

Following an extensive debate on this same issue, the Parliament of Canada enacted legislation in 2004 which authorizes medical researchers to harvest human embryonic stem cells from so-called surplus human embryos produced for reproduction in an in vitro fertilization clinic. Given this precedent, one can only wonder what other human beings might next be designated as surplus to Canadian needs and consigned to death for the potential benefit of others.

Meanwhile, in November, two teams of researchers, one led by Shinya Yamanaka in Japan and the other by James Thompson in Wisconsin, confirmed that they have succeeded in reprogramming adult skin cells to behave like pluripotent embryonic stem cells that can be coaxed into growing into all the main tissue types in the body including muscles, neurons and heart cells. Dr. Robert Lanza, one of the foremost authorities on stem cell research, has hailed this achievement as "a tremendous scientific milestone – the biological equivalent of the Wright brothers' first airplane."

Richard Doerflinger, deputy director of the secretariat for pro-life activities for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, was no less enthusiastic: "It's a win-win," he exclaimed. "The scientists can get all the benefits they think they might get from embryonic stem cells, and the rest of us can applaud and support it."

While it sometimes seemed that only theologically orthodox Christians and Jews were concerned about the fundamental ethical dimensions of the debate over embryonic stem cell research, that was not the case. Thompson says he, too, has always had concerns about killing human embryos. He told the New York Times: "If human embryonic stem cell research does not make you at least a little bit uncomfortable, you have not thought about it enough."

Yamanaka, a father of two, concurs. Eight years ago, he first looked down a microscope at a human embryo in an in vitro fertilization. In recalling this revelatory experience, he said: "When I saw the embryo, I suddenly realized there was such a small difference between it and my daughters. I thought, we can't keep destroying embryos for our research. There must be another way."

Thanks mainly to Yamanaka and Thompson; we now know that, indeed, there is a better and easier way to acquire pluripotent human stem cells for medical research. It follows that there is no longer any scientific or medical excuse for continuing with death-dealing, human embryonic stem cell research. The sooner this morally debased line of scientific inquiry is stopped, the better.

Catholic magazine target of human rights complaint

Canada’s national Catholic magazine of news, opinion and analysis has joined a range of other, prominent publications, groups and individuals who have recently become targets of human rights-based legal attacks.

The Canadian Human Rights Commission has advised Catholic Insight magazine that Edmonton resident Rob Wells has filed a nine-point complaint against it on the grounds of offence to homosexuals. The magazine’s editor, Father Alphonse de Valk, dismisses the complaint as unfounded and says he intends to contest it vigorously. He notes his publication adheres to the teachings of the Catholic Church on homosexuality, which are clear that persons with same-sex attraction must be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity and every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided.

At the same time, he adds that in a democratic country respecting freedom of the press and religion, a magazine such as Catholic Insight has the right and responsibility to report on, analyze and comment on the activities of any segment of society that is involved in lobbying and activism on issues of public policy, such as changing the legal definition of marriage, adoption rights, the reallocation of social benefits and other vital questions.

Father de Valk observes the text of Mr. Wells’s complaint consists of three pages of isolated and fragmentary extracts from articles dating back as far as 1994, without any context. This creates a misleading impression of the tone of the magazine’s overall coverage of the homosexual issue. Mr. Wells, he notes, has an additional human rights action in progress against leader Ron Gray and his Christian Heritage Party and in 2006, launched an action against three Canadian websites. Both complaints have been over the issue of homosexuality.

Catholic Insight recently dealt with an unsuccessful attempt by a Toronto resident to strip it of its funding under Heritage Canada’s Publications Assistance Program, once again over alleged offence to homosexuals. Father de Valk says the magazine considers all of the actions against it to be trumped up and made with the intent to harass.

I thought Communiqué readers might appreciate seeing my correspondence with Janet Folger, author of Criminalizing Christianity and a popular Internet and talk-radio host, after she contacted me at my home in Langley, BC for a half-hour interview.

ROG
First, many thanks for having me on your program Monday; it was an exciting interview, and it opened a lot of future possibilities. I’m going to mention it in my next weekly Communiqué (sent by e-mail to our members, supporters and critics), and if I may, I’ll post the archive location on your web page.

You said you want to help us in this fight for free speech, and I’d like to tell you how you can do that.

Let me explain that Canada’s Parliament has made fund-raising very, very difficult for parties not yet represented in the House of Commons; while voting to let their already-elected parties share $30 million a year of taxpayers’ money, they put severe restrictions on the ability of other parties to raise funds. Because of this, I’m determined that the money our members and supporters give to the Christian Heritage Party for its election campaigns is not going to be drained off into court costs; so I’ve set up a separate legal defence fund to carry this fight forward. Because it’s not a registered charity, there are no tax receipts. But I know the people who support this cause won’t be doing for tax receipts, but because it’s something they believe in. However, Parliament cannot restrict how much anyone can give to a legal defence fund, nor where the funds come from. The CHP cannot receive funds from outside Canada, but the legal defence fund can.

The address to which people can send donations, if they want to support this cause, is:

Ron Gray Legal Defence Fund; c/o Ronald McDonald Law Office; 406 Stafford Dr.; Lethbridge, AB; T1J 2L2

I want to sketch some background for you on the free speech issue in Canada, because it relates directly to how the saints must fight the same fight in the USA.

In both our nations, democracy grows out of our Christian heritage. While it’s true that democracy (of a sort) was born in Athens, that didn’t last long. Democracy died after 45 years in Athens, and died an even quicker death in Rome.

Our form of democracy, however, springs from a different fountainhead: Magna Carta.

In 1215, at Runnymede in England, a foundation was laid. Magna Carta had some serious flaws ‘it was an atrociously anti-Semitic document’ but it gave us the principle that there is a ‘higher law’, which even the Crown, must obey... and that Law is found in the Bible.

On that basis ‘a sense of accountability to Almighty God’ democracy was able to grow and flourish for 800 years. But in the 20th century, when that sense of accountability was eroded by ‘higher criticism’ and Secular Humanism, the decay of democracy began to follow the path of Athens and Rome. This ‘descensus averno’ of democracy was vividly described by Alexander Fraser Tytler, Lord Woodhouselee, (1747-1813), a Scottish-born British lawyer and historian:

"The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:

It was faith in God that allowed our form of democracy to transcend this 200-year limit, although it did so in different nations at different times. But we are now, because of growing apostasy, running in the same ruts other cultures followed.

In the form of democracy that you and I grew up in, government was kept accountable by being divided into three parts: the legislature (accountable to the people), the executive branch and the civil service (accountable to the legislature), and the judiciary (accountable to the Constitution).

What has happened in Canada ‘and is happening in the United States’ is akin to a kind of civil war: one branch (the judiciary) has invaded the exclusive territory of the only branch that is accountable to the people: the legislatures.

In both our nations, legislatures have supinely acquiesced before this invasion, unwilling to defend their constitutional prerogatives, because most legislators operate in abject fear of the unelected mainstream media – Arguably the most powerful voice in the Public Square, and today the handmaiden of aggressive monopolists.

Judicial activism and the cowardice of the elected legislators have subverted the Constitution in Canada.

When Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau ‘patriated’ Canada’s Constitution – that is, he brought the authority to amend our Constitution out of the British Parliament in London (where it had been since Confederation in 1867), home to Ottawa – at the same time he also entrenched a Charter of Rights and Freedoms into the Canadian Constitution. (Our Party, the Christian Heritage Party, believes it should have been a ‘Charter of Rights and Responsibilities’, but let that issue pass for the moment.)

When several committees of Parliament were drafting the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in 1980-81, one of those committees was assigned to consider Section 15 (called the ‘equality rights’ section); it was proposed that the committee consider adding ‘sexual orientation’ to the list of protected categories (which are: race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age or mental or physical disability). They debated the idea for two days, then voted 22-2 to leave that phrase out.

One of the MPs, Jean Chrétien (who later became Prime Minister of Canada), said that the phrase (sexual orientation) ‘doesn’t belong in any law, because no one knows what it means!’ So Parliament deliberately left it out. In that form, the Charter went back to Parliament and was passed; and with the Charter entrenched in that form, the new Constitution was sent to the provinces to be ratified, and thus became the highest law in the land.

That was in 1982. Thirteen years later, in 1995, when a case filed by two homosexual men came before the Supreme Court, the judges arbitrarily ruled that ‘sexual orientation’ must be ‘read into’ Section 15.

In so doing, the justices were actually amending the Constitution, for the Charter is part of the Constitution.

But that wasn’t legal: the Constitution contains a formula for its own amending, which for a minor change requires the agreement of the federal Parliament and 7 of the 10 provincial legislatures representing 50% of the population. A major change (which this surely was) requires the unanimous consent of all 11 legislatures.

Our struggles to contain the homosexual agenda have been hampered for 12 years by that one unconstitutional act of the Supreme Court.

That’s why the Christian Heritage Party has proposed that Parliament should create a Standing Committee on the Judiciary (SCJ), and give it the authority to review any court decision on the sole grounds of conformity to the letter and spirit of the Constitution. If the SCJ considered that a court decision violated the Constitution, it would bring a bill into Parliament to amend that decision (so that the body of precedent would not be contaminated by an unconstitutional ruling). That would make the courts accountable to the SCJ for the constitutionality of their rulings; the SCJ would be accountable to Parliament; and Parliament is accountable to the electorate.

It is absolutely imperative that the courts – in both our countries – be made accountable to the Constitutions under which they are created!

Sodomy, n. A crime against nature. --American Dictionary of the English language, Noah Webster 1828.

Words mean something. Noah Webster knew that well. Just hearing the word sodomy sounds harsh. This is evidence of how far we have slid.

“Whoever, therefore wishes to ruin a nation, has only to get this vice introduced; for it is extremely difficult to extirpate it where it has once taken root because it can be propagated with much secrecy… and when we perceive that it has once got a footing in any country, however, powerful and flourishing, we may venture as politicians to predict that the foundation of its future decline is laid and that after some hundred years it will no longer be the same…powerful country it is at the present.” (Sir John David Michaelis, Commentaries on the Laws of Moses, 1814.

In 1988, 74.9% of the American Public thought that sex between two people of the same gender was always wrong. By 1998, the percentage had fallen to 54.6% (National Opinion research Center, The University of Chicago.)

Perhaps no other movement in the history of America has had so much success in such a short time. We must examine the homosexual agenda’s success in changing American Culture and attempting to redefine the family, not only to understand how to combat it, but to provide a glimpse of the potential of the American Church if only we were so vocal and dedicated.

The strategy was revealed 20 years ago in a 1987 article titled, “The Overhauling of Straight America,” and a 1989 book titled “After the Ball.” In which two radicalized homosexual activists Marshall Kirk and Hunter Madsen published their plan. Both Kirk and Madsen were highly educated men. Kirk was a Harvard educated researcher in neuropsychiatry, and Madsen had a doctorate in politics from Harvard, and was an expert on public persuasion tactics and social marketing. ( The Marketing of Evil, David Kupelian, p.23)

Firstly, Kirk and Madsen in The Overhauling of Straight America, write in regards to talking about gays and gayness, “The principal behind this advice is simple: almost all behaviour begins to look normal if you are exposed to enough of it at close quarters and among your acquaintances.” (Sears and Osten p. 18)

“The main thing is talk about gayness until the issue becomes thoroughly tiresome.” According to Sears and Osten this will have one of two effects. “1. It convinces people that homosexual behaviour is just another lifestyle, or 2. causes them to get so sick of the issue that they throw their hands up in disgust or become exhausted and then withdraw. Either way the homosexual activists win.” (Sears and Osten 17-18)

Portraying homosexuals as an oppressed victim is the second part of Madsen and Kirk’s strategy because it plays into all Americans sense of fairness. This can be seen in the framing of the AIDS debate (primarily spread by homosexual behaviour) as a civil rights issue (AIDS was formally called GRIDS, G stands for ‘Gay”) He who frames the argument wins.

This was also seen through the Matthew Shepherd murder case when two non-religious men killed another man for drugs. The case was blown up by the national media to be a homophobic hate crime spurred on by “hateful” evangelicals preaching against sin. In the media Christians are then compared to Hitler and the KKK, instead of Mother Theresa, William Wilberforce (the Christian who abolished the British slave-trade), and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

By piggybacking on the civil rights issue and slandering blacks, homosexuality has become the cause de jour to appeal to liberal sensitivities of fairness and justice. The “Gay Rights” issue is now seen as a “just cause.” Examples of this in Hollywood are the film Philadelphia, where Tom Hanks is fired from his job by discriminating hate-mongers, and Broke Back Mountain where Heath Ledger can’t really live out the true love and life he wants because of an oppressive society. Rather than showing two men living in San Francisco with high discretionary income and a lavish lifestyle they are shown as oppressed and victimized. This idea of making the homosexual appear oppressed and the victimizer bad can adroitly be perpetuated showing scenes of Fred Phelps, (of God Hates Fags lore) protesting funerals, which furthers the myth that Christians are mean and bigoted people.

Lastly, soliciting funds for radicalized homosexual groups has been widely successful. Ford Motors, Kraft, Home Depot, Proctor & Gamble and many more corporations indirectly or directly contribute to the advancement of the homosexual agenda. They do this through sponsorship, advertising, donations, and legislative endorsement. Careful coordination with corporations and the media have been tools in the propaganda campaign to mainstream homosexual sodomy. These are the engines that drive the homosexual activist groups such as GLSEN (which are proliferating our schools), and Equality Forum (A lobbying and legislative homosexual group.)

Eric Pollard, the founder of ACT-UP (a militant homosexual group) claimed Hitler’s Mein Kampf as a model for the “gay” agenda. (Sears and Osten, p. 26)

“Something of even the most insolent lie will always remain and stick- a fact which all the great lie-virtuosi and lying-clubs in this world know only too well and also make the most treacherous use of… By clever and persevering use of propaganda even heaven can be represented as hell to the people, and conversely the most wretched life as paradise.” (Mein Kampf)

Kirk and Madsen reiterate Pollards ideas; “We have in mind a strategy as calculated and powerful as that which gays are accused of employing by their enemies. It’s time to learn from Madison Avenue, to roll out the big guns. Gays must launch a large-scale campaign to reach straights through the mainstream media. We’re talking about propaganda.” (Sears and Osten p. 27) So far they are achieving their carefully laid out goals.

What is the real face of homosexuality? Is it the radicalized homosexual trying to legalize sex between men and boys (NAMBLA)? Is it someone like Rosie O’ Donnell or Ellen? Or is it our co-worker or family member, our son or our daughter? Is it the people who shut down the local parks for public sex within eyesight of children, leaving condoms strewn around the park? Perhaps it is all of these for sin has degrees of evil.

In my own life I see various shades of this sin that traps so many. A friend of mine once shared with me that he watched his father commit suicide when he was 15. Since then he has engaged in hundreds of acts with other men and is currently in a “monogamous relationship.” Perhaps he is seeking the love of the father he never got. Another young man I know suffered seizures, and increasing paralysis, and died earlier this year from AIDS which he contracted from earlier involvement in homosexual sin. Two friends I know have parents that left their families for another “same sex” partner. Their families have been torn asunder. Behind the glitzy glamour of Hollywood are real people with real sin, which has real consequences. Who will speak the truth to these people, to these families?

Last year I submitted a resolution to the State Convention of Ohio Baptists urging Christian parents to pull their children out of public school and either home school or provide Christian private education. It was a wakeup call to pastors and parents in our state newspaper due to the advancing homosexual agenda and Darwinian dogma in public schools. Within the next few weeks homosexual activists wrote in and repeated the tired old saw calling me a bigot, or exclaiming that I was spreading hate. One person said there was no gay agenda in schools that the only agenda was for her to get up go to work and pay taxes like every “normal” American. Being called names in a newspaper or blog is a small price to pay. In the future it may not be so easy.

We have already seen in Canada where a free speech chill has come after the passing of hate crimes legislation. The same legislation is being advanced in America (SB 777 in California, and through hate crimes bills.) Canadian Pastors have been fined for speaking out against homosexuality. Programs like Focus on the Family are not able to be aired in Canada.

It is time to count the cost. We have all the freedoms and opportunity now to confront this sin. But time is running out. Will we sit cowardly in our stained glass fortresses while Sir John David Michaelis’ words ring prophetic towards America, “that the foundation of its future decline is laid?”

If a 1-2 percent minority can change the face of American Culture and public policy, then anything can be achieved.

We have both the numbers, and the truth. If speaking the truth is a hate crime. Let us be found guilty.

Nick is Executive Director of Reform America, and Ohio Coordinator for Exodus Mandate. In addition, he spends time as a free-lance writer articulating the Christian viewpoint into our culture.

Rather than in any way modifying their One-Child Policy, the Chinese government has now increased fines for couples who violate this Policy. The fines will be escalated if their income is greater. Calls had been heard for a relaxation, because of its effect of creating an aging population and a gender imbalance. However, we are told that there is not the slightest doubt that the One-Child Policy will continue to be enforced. Nationwide in China, six males are born for every five females and forecasts have been made by demographers that in another ten years 37 million men will be unable to find wives. The figure today stands at 18 million.

Time Off to Make a Baby: the Russian region of Ulyanovsk has declared a holiday allowing its citizens to time off from work to conceive a child. It will award prizes to those who give birth exactly nine months later. This is the third year for such a contest and the number of participants and prizes has increased each year. At present, the Russian population is deceasing at an alarming speed.

On the Internet from DNA Worldwide, one can now obtain the pink or blue early test kit, which tests the blood of the mother to check for male Y chromosome in the unborn baby's DNA. It claims that it can reveal the sex of the baby in the first six weeks of pregnancy, and is done on a finger stick sample of blood. Pro-life leaders and medical professionals are rightly concerned about this, as it almost certainly will lead to more sex selection abortions.

Fr. Jerry Novotny, OMI

Thought: "Their aggressors, government-sponsored militias, have been integrated into the police and army units in western Sudan's Darfur region and dispatched to camps for the internally displaced where they perpetrate further heinous acts against the most vulnerable." – Bishop Ricard at U.N. Meeting

Table Of Contents:
1. Mexican Catholic Church Mexico Opposes Terminally Ill Law; Fears Will Lead To Euthanasia
2. Rape Case Ruling Shocks Australia
3. World 'Must Do More' For Children
4. Abstaining From Abstinence
5. Study Confirms Link Between Cervical Cancer, Birth Control Pill
6. Ethics Sparked Stem Cell Discovery
7. Reprogramming Works In Mice
8. Save The Planet: Tax Babies
9. Meet The Women Who Won't Have Babies - Because They're Not Eco Friendly
10. Preserving Life? The Vatican & PVS
11. Organ Donation: The Inconvenient Truth
12. What Is The Purpose Of Life?

Focus On Asia: – "State-Run Developers Profit as the Poor Weep" – The Korea National Housing Corporation and the Korea Land Corporation and other government agencies in charge of supplying land have been cited for making improper profits by inflating the cost of developing land. That's according to the result of a one-year investigation by the Korea Independent Commission Against Corruption into the practices of government agencies in supplying land.

Item #2. Rape Case Ruling Shocks Australia
A judge's decision not to jail nine men guilty of raping a 10-year-old girl in an Aboriginal community has triggered outrage in Australia.

Item #3. World 'Must Do More' For Children
In a report it noted considerable strides had been made to meet pledges in education and areas of health care. But it stressed that "much more must be done" in order to meet the 2015 Millennium Development Goals deadline.

The report identified areas for urgent action as maternal mortality, HIV prevention and pneumonia, which kills more children than any other illness.

The UN agreed a set of Millennium Development Goals in 2000 to improve standards in key areas such as education, employment and health care by 2015.

Item #4. Abstaining From Abstinence
Last month Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine made a decision that must have Planned Parenthood officials dancing in the streets: He cut off state funding for abstinence-based sex education programs.

Why would Planned Parenthood be so happy about this? Because they were the ones who urged Kaine to do it. But the objections of the country's biggest abortion provider to abstinence programs are proof, in a sense, that these programs really do work.

Kaine's communications director said the governor believes that the state should fund sex-ed programs that talk about contraceptives. She also said that Kaine "wants to see us funding programs that are evidence-based."

As a Planned Parenthood spokesman helpfully added, "There is no evidence that abstinence-only programs equip teens with the education they need to delay sexual activity" and prevent pregnancy and the spread of disease.

Nonsense: There is abundant evidence that these programs work, and work well – including a study that took place right in Virginia under the governor's nose. This study, conducted by the Institute for Research and Evaluation, concluded that Virginia teens who receive abstinence education are half as likely to initiate sexual activities as students who did not receive this education. And contrary to what Planned Parenthood suggests, Virginia's abstinence programs do include information about contraception and sexually transmitted diseases. But they put it in the proper context: that abstaining from sex is the only way to avoid the dangers of casual sex.

Item #5. Study Confirms Link Between Cervical Cancer, Birth Control Pill
Women who take the birth control pill for 10 years have nearly double the normal risk of developing cervical cancer, but the risk begins falling as soon as they stop and returns to near normal within 10 years, according to a study released Thursday.

View full text at The China Post:
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/health/2007/11/10/130303/Study-confirms.htm

Item #6. Ethics Sparked Stem Cell Discovery
Ethical qualms moved Japanese scientist Shinya Yamanaka to work on reprogramming, his stunning recent breakthrough in stem cell research. In an interview with the New York Times, Dr Yamanaka remembers a day eight years ago when he paid a social visit to a friend's IVF clinic. He peered through a microscope. "When I saw the embryo, I suddenly realised there was such a small difference between it and my daughters," said Dr. Yamanaka, 45, a father of two and now a professor at Kyoto University. "I thought, we can't keep destroying embryos for our research. There must be another way."

See the full article at NYT:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/11/science/11prof.html?_r=2&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1197523620-8+VIZqH289XUrwryVYuF5w

Item #7. Reprogramming Works In Mice
Reprogrammed cells have apparently cured sickle cell anaemia in mice; a development which scientists say proves that clinical applications of the new technique are feasible. Researchers at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, published their results in the journal Science. "This demonstrates that iPS [induced pluripotent stem] cells have the same potential for therapy as embryonic stem cells, without the ethical and practical issues raised in creating embryonic stem cells," says leading stem cell scientist Rudolf Jaenisch. "All the parameters we can measure are now normal. The mice are cured."

Full article at washingtonpost.com:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/06/AR2007120602444.html

Item #8. Save The Planet: Tax Babies
Two Australian medical academics made world headlines this week by endorsing a Chinese model of population control to reduce the human carbon footprint. Barry Walters, a professor of obstetrics at the University of Western Australia, has called for a carbon tax on newborns in the Medical Journal of Australia. "Every newborn baby in Australia represents a potent source of greenhouse gas emissions for an average of 80 years, not simply by breathing, but by the profligate consumption of resources typical of our society," says Walters.

His solution? A "baby levy" of A$5,000 on third and subsequent children, plus an annual tax of A$400 to A$800 annually for the life of the child to purchase and maintain the four hectares of trees needed to sequester 17 metric tons of carbon dioxide. As offsets, carbon credits would be granted for contraceptives, intrauterine devices, diaphragms, condoms and sterilisation procedures. The credits would go to the user and to "family planning clinics and hospitals that provide such greenhouse-friendly services".

Full Article at The Medical Journal of Australis:
http://www.mja.com.au/public/issues/187_11_031207/wal10921_fm.html

Item #9. Meet The Women Who Won't Have Babies – Because They're Not Eco Friendly
The notion that children are a form of pollution has true believers outside Australia. London's Daily Mail, which, in addition to (or perhaps because of) its salacious gossip and titillating photos, is a remarkable chronicler of the contemporary mores, recently profiled a 35-year-old woman, Toni Vernelli, who was sterilised to "protect the planet" about 8 years ago. Several doctors refused to do the operation, but she "relentlessly" hunted one down. Her boyfriend, whom she met at an animal rights demonstration, even gave her a congratulations card.

"Having children is selfish," she says. "It's all about maintaining your genetic line at the expense of the planet. Every person who is born uses more food, more water, more land, more fossil fuels, more trees and produces more rubbish, more pollution, more greenhouse gases, and adds to the problem of over-population."

View entire text at Daily Mail:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/femail/article.html?in_article_id=495495&in_pag%20e_id=1879_blank
Item #10. Preserving Life? The Vatican & PVS
One must bear in mind that decisions to withdraw feeding tubes for patients in PVS are extremely rare. Patients who are in PVS are in that state because their families want to continue care. Certainly no health-care institution, Catholic or not, should require the discontinuation of tube feedings for such patients.

The final analysis in interpreting the CDF document is that the moral criteria for discontinuing tube feeding for PVS patients must meet a very high, but not absolute, standard. It should be just as clear that this does not mean that every Catholic must die with a feeding tube in place.

Item #11. Organ Donation: The Inconvenient Truth
Organ donation can be a moral good if the means used to obtain the organs is itself morally good. The circumstances under which this holds true have been described. The critical question is whether a person is truly dead when declared "brain dead" or to have suffered "cardiac death." The answer, in light of the scientific evidence, is that it has not been established cardiac or brain death criteria indicate the real death of a patient with certainty. Mauro Cozzoli, writing about the status of the embryo, has stated, "The uncertainty with regard to whether we are dealing with a human individual is not an abstract doubt, regarding a theory, principle, or doctrinal position (dubium uris). As such, it is a doubt about a fact concerning the life of a human being, his existence here and now (dubium facti)." As such, "it creates the same obligations as certainty.

Item #12. What Is The Purpose Of Life?
Consider all the learning there is in this world, in libraries, in books, journals, periodicals, etc. What, ultimately, is it all for? The answer is: to serve human beings. All of it converges on the human person, whose life is brief. And to serve the ordinary human person is to serve God, not because in some pantheistic way man is God, but rather because through love one becomes the other, and God loves the least of us so much that He is the least among us.

Get Involved:
1. Be Informed: "My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge." Hosea 4:6. Visit Lifeissues.net for information at http://www.lifeissues.net.
2. Pray Daily: for the courage to be God's presence in society and strongly support those who are deemed "unworthy of life". "If My people who are called by My Name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land." 2 Chronicles 7:14
3. Become Involved: "Journey for Life into the Heart of Asia" is a project, which appeals for donations to help finance plane travel for lectures and seminars to developing countries in Asia. Strong focus is placed on reaching Asian Catholic Major Seminaries, Schools, Parishes, Hospitals and Family/Pro Life related groups. A series of Life Issues lectures places emphasis on "The Asian Family at Crossroads: Trends and Challenges". For inquires about no-cost Pro Life Talks to your group within Asia: contact Fr. Jerry at jerry@star.quolia.com . To become a supportive Missionary participant for Human Life in Asia, kindly send your donations directly to: Fr. Jerry Novotny, OMI; LifeIssues.net, Editor; Akebono-cho 1-15-9; Kochi City, Japan, 780-8072; (or transfer donation directly to ProLife bank account: Jerome Novotny, Shikoku Bank, Asakura Branch, No. 102-1-0080824)

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

In this final 2007 issue, I thank you for all the good work you have done this past year focusing on the Family and Pro Life Issues. You are being God's "Presence" in this modern secular society. You are helping to stabilize the "Culture of Life" by your everyday life. Let me share with you the following Christmas thought:

The Christmas song "O Holy Night" includes the following words: "Truly he taught us to love one another. His law is love, and his gospel is peace. Chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother, and in his name all oppression shall cease."

This is a reminder that as we celebrate Christmas, we renew our commitment to end all oppression, particularly of those who are most oppressed, the children living before birth within their mothers, children who have been deprived of legal protection, and are oppressed by the mythology of choice.

This song is also a reminder that 570 million people live in Asian slums. Few people are aware that around one in every three, who live in Asia's cities, live in slums. This number will only get bigger as rapid urbanization continues in Asia. The poor are encouraged to live and work in cities to provide cheap labour on which city economies are built, yet no provision is made for them to live safely and affordably to benefit from the city's development.

In order for Christ to be born this year, the oppression of our unborn children must cease; the oppression of 570 million slum people must cease. May Our Blessed Mother give us the strength this Christmas to be silent no more, to bring the real Christ into our current societies and become more active than ever in Family/Pro Life Issues.

May you all have a joyous Christmas and a grace-filled New Year. And may the Lord grant peace to our whole, suffering world, and in a special way, for those suffering in Asia. Be assured of my prayers and Mass during this Holy Season!

Thought: "When I saw the embryo, I suddenly realized there was such a small difference between it and my daughters. I thought, we can't keep destroying embryos for our research. There must be another way." - Dr. Shinya Yamanaka, Kyoto University

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40472

Item #1. Embryonic Stem Cell Alternative Researcher Doesn't Like Destroying Life
Dr. Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University made international headlines recently when he devised a new process that allows for the creation of embryonic stem cells without the destruction of human life. Now, Yamanaka says he was prompted to search for ethical alternatives by his own conscience.

View full article at LifeNews.com: http://www.lifenews.com/bio2295.html

Item #2. India's Gender Ratio Getting Worse As Sex-Selection Abortions Continue
The gender ratio in India is growing worse as sex-selection abortions and infanticides continue in the Asian nation, a new report reveals. Officials there have been working overtime to try to halt the practices, but the illegal use of ultrasounds continues and is allowing parents to kill unwanted girl babies.

View full article at LifeNews.com: http://www.lifenews.com/int563.html

Item #3. You've Had A Baby, Doctors Tell Coma Victim
Lisa Allinson, 34, who was left in a coma after she suffered pre-eclampsia which caused a massive stroke, woke from the coma after six weeks to be told she had become a mother. After six months in hospital, she has now been allowed home to celebrate her baby's first Christmas.

View full text at telegraph.co.uk:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/12/21/ncoma121.xml

Item #4. Iraq Children 'Paying High Price'
Two million children in Iraq are facing threats including poor nutrition, lack of education, disease and violence, the UN children's agency, Unicef, has said.

Item #5. Protect Your Children From Harm
Parents have joined together to publish reports on the serious problems facing our young people today.

Item #6. Designer Baby Fear Over Heart Gene Test
A British couple have won the right to test embryos for a gene that leads to high cholesterol levels and an increased risk of heart attacks, The Times has learnt.

The decision by the fertility watchdog will reopen controversy over the ethics of designer babies, as it allows doctors to screen embryos for a condition that is treatable with drugs and can be influenced by lifestyle as well as genes.

Item #7. Sex Education Found To Help Teenagers Delay Sex
A study by the University of Vermont has shown that children whose parents have completed a programme to improve their communication skills with their children are significantly less likely to have or plan to have sexual intercourse within the next year. Dr. Rex Forehand said, "It's not only important for parents to communicate with their children about sex; it's important how they do it.

Item #8. Christmas And Commercialism
It seems as if Christmas arrives earlier and earlier each year and many people I know keep talking about how the glory of Christmas is eroded by rampant commercialism and materialism. Not long after the Halloween candy is eaten, the sounds of Jingle Bell Rock start to invade department stores and the "happy holidays" greetings begin to be heard.

It seems as if the Christ Child lost the battle over the meaning of Christmas long ago to the retailers who urge all of us to buy that special "something" for someone. As they keep saying, "remember that Christmas is for giving." Their message is "buy."

Full Article at Christian Newswire:
http://www.mja.com.au/public/issues/187_11_031207/wal10921_fm.html

Item #9. Hong Kong Bishop Defends Rights Of Families To Teach Children
Sex education does not have to be contraception education, said the bishop of Hong Kong. And he called on society to promote families as children's first educators in the area of sexuality.

In a pastoral letter for Christmas, Cardinal Joseph Zen responded to a push toward giving more information about contraception to young people and proposing "timely abortions" as the solution to unexpected pregnancies.

"The holy Infant in the manger is crying," he wrote, "for too many young people are misled, too many families are shattered, too many little lives are abandoned."

Item #10. A Brief Focus On Islam
It's not every day that religion appears as a front-page story in today's newspapers, particularly on a regular basis. But over the past 20 years one religion has made the front page perhaps more than any other . . . the religion of Islam. Islam claims up to one billion followers worldwide. It is not only the fastest growing religion in the world, but its influence touches virtually every area of life – not only the spiritual, but the political and economic as well. What is more, its influence is being felt closer and closer to home. There are now up to 5 million Muslims in the U.S., and over 1,100 mosques or Islamic centers.

What does Islam teach? How are the teachings of Islam similar to those of Christianity? How are they different? What should our attitude be toward Islam, and toward those who follow this powerful religion? These are some of the questions we want to address in this essay.

Item #11. A Brief Focus On Buddhism
For centuries, Buddhism has been the dominant religion of the Eastern world. Today it remains the predominant religion in China, Japan, Korea, and much of Southeast Asia. With the rise of the Asian population in the U.S., Buddhism has made a tremendous impact in the United States. Presently, there are over 300,000 Buddhists in the U.S.

Item #12. A Brief Focus On Buddhism
Though Hinduism may seem far removed from our everyday experience, it's becoming increasingly important that we as Christians understand this mysterious religion from India. This is so, if for no other reason than that Hinduism claims 1/6 of the world's population, with over 750 million followers worldwide. But it's also important because its influence is being felt more and more in our own country.

Please consider making a year-end gift to our work here in Asia. Over 30 years we have worked tirelessly to defend the dignity of the human person within the Family and Life Issues context by remaining faithful to the moral tradition of the Roman Catholic Church. Please take a moment to join us in our missionary work by making a gift to support us. It is only through your generosity that we are able to continue to serve the Church in the defence of human life. (See below #4.)
Be Informed: "My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge." Hosea 4:6. Visit Lifeissues.net for information at http://www.lifeissues.net.
Pray Daily: for the courage to be God's presence in society and strongly support those who are deemed "unworthy of life". "If My people who are called by My Name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land." 2 Chronicles 7:14
Become Involved: "Journey for Life into the Heart of Asia" is a project, which appeals for donations to help finance plane travel for lectures and seminars to developing countries in Asia. Strong focus is placed on reaching Asian Catholic Major Seminaries, Universities, Parishes, Hospitals and Family/Pro Life related groups. The lectures place emphasis on "The Asian Family at Crossroads: Trends and Challenges". For inquires about free Pro Life Talks to your Asian group: contact Fr. Jerry at jerry@star.quolia.com. To become a supportive Missionary participant for Human Life in Asia, kindly send your donations directly to: Fr. Jerry Novotny, OMI; LifeIssues.net, Editor; Akebono-cho 1-15-9; Kochi City, Japan, 780-8072 (or transfer donation directly to ProLife bank account: Jerome Novotny, Shikoku Bank, Asakura Branch, No. 102-1-0080824)

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

I just listened to this sermon from John Piper this morning on my mp3 player and then found a website that had the sermon notes. I openly wept as I heard the message, children are near and dear to my heart BUT more importantly they are near and dear to God’s heart. I have included Piper’s sermon notes as my New Year’s challenge to each of you whether you are actively serving in Ministry or not. Here is a direct link to the sermon if you wish to listen to it: Children in Jesus

Please do not merely ignore this message or say “I’ll just file it away and listen to it at some point.” I feel that this is extremely important.

And when they came to Capernaum; and when he was in the house he asked them, "What were you discussing on the way?" But they were silent; for on the way they had discussed with one another who was the greatest. And he sat down and called the twelve; and he said to them, "If any one would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all." And he took a child and put him in the midst of them; and taking him in his arms, he said to them, "Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me."

If you leave out the heartache of miscarriages and the genocide of abortion (which this conference did) the statistics of the conference are painful enough. Fourteen million children who reach the age of birth die each year before the age of five. If we could all put a face on each of those children and hear the wheezing and the cries and feel the final limp silence, what an ocean of grief would fill the world. I always marvel at the awesome emotional depth and complexity of God that enables him to empathize with the grief of millions and millions of parents all the time, and yet rejoice with those who rejoice in him.

Of these fourteen million, about ten million die from five conditions: about five million from diarrhoea, about three million from measles, tetanus, and whooping cough, and about two million from respiratory infections, mainly pneumonia. Most of these could be saved by simple Oral Rehydration Therapies for the diarrhoea, a five-dollar injection for the measles, tetanus and whooping cough, and a $.50 antibiotic for the respiratory problems. But of course the vast majority of these children are among the desperately poor, far from the medical blessings we take for grated. About 800,000,000 people live in absolute poverty. Of these, 70,000,000 are on the threshold of starvation. Another 400,000,000 consume less than the "minimum critical diet." Half of the children of the absolute poor do not live to be 5. Over 100 million children are always hungry. Keep in mind that about 195,000,000 of these poor are professing Christians.

Even if Jesus hadn't said things as stunning as we read in this text, children would have to be a major concern, because 30% of the world's six and a half billion people are under the age of 15. There are at least 90 countries where over 40% of the population is under 15 and several countries like Kenya and Zimbabwe where over half the population is under 15.

Increasingly these children are not only the victims of malnutrition and disease and starvation but also of violence. Let me make this painfully vivid with a quote from a letter I got last week from Robert Seiple, the president of World Vision.

One of our sponsored children, a 14-year-old Palestinian boy living on the West Bank, was caught by 16 Israeli soldiers as he was writing graffiti on a wall. The soldiers placed him up against the wall, and one shot him four times in the eye. As he lay on the ground, still alive, he was savagely beaten for almost an hour. During that time he was forced to stick his finger into his wound and wipe out the graffiti with his own blood. He was then bound and dragged through the village streets; finally thrown into the back of a jeep, and rudely dumped at a local hospital. Miraculously, he lived. Tragically this incident is not atypical. The entire drama was witnessed by an American. It has since been recorded in Western journals.

Now the point here is not to criticize other nations, or to say that atrocities only happen to children in war-torn regions. America is one of the most violent countries in the world against its children. Not only do we kill a million and a half pre-born children a year, but 22% of the children in America live in poverty; one out of every four girls under eighteen has probably been sexually abused by someone close to her; possibly as high as 30% of all mental retardation may be owing to foetal alcohol syndrome; one study of 36 hospitals showed that in 10% of the pregnancies mothers used illegal drugs during pregnancy; and 89% of school teachers surveyed report that abuse and neglect of children are a problem in their education. The American home is increasingly an unsafe place for children to be. And there is no better place. The family is God's will.

Now let me put over against this the word of the Lord Jesus--the word that has absolute authority for all Christians and shows us how to spend our short lives in the most significant way, and gets at the root of why so many children suffer from neglect and abuse.

In our text Jesus says two very powerful things that will transform the way we relate to children. And between these two things, one in verse 35 and the other in verse 37, Jesus places a real living child. Let's listen to these two things that Jesus says and see what the child has to do with each one.

The first thing Jesus says is in response to the fact that the disciples were discussing who of them was the greatest. Verse 34: "But they were silent; for on the way they had discussed with one another who was the greatest." To this Jesus responds with his first word (verse 35): "He sat down and called the twelve; and he said to them, 'If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.'"

What Jesus does here is very profound. He recognizes in his disciples' quest for greatness a good thing that has become ugly and distorted by sin. And instead of destroying the whole distorted thing, he describes a pathway on which the distorted and ugly pursuit of greatness will be radically transformed into something beautiful. Nowhere does Jesus criticize a person for pursuing true greatness or true significance. I think that's because he created us to be great and to be significant – to come to the end of our lives and feel that they were well spent and well invested. But what has happened to this God-given longing for greatness is that it has been corrupted by sin in two ways:

1) It has been corrupted into a longing not to be great, but to be known as great; and
2) It has been corrupted into a longing not to be great, but to be greater than someone else.

In other words, the joy of true greatness has been perverted by sin into the carnal pleasure we sinners get when others praise us and when we think we are greater than others are. Jesus sees this in his disciples and instead of destroying the whole distorted thing; he describes a pathway on which it will be radically transformed into something beautiful.

He says true greatness is not wanting to be first while others are second and third and fourth, but true greatness is the willingness to be last. And true greatness is not positioning yourself so that others praise you, but true greatness is putting yourself in a position to serve everyone – to be a blessing to as many as you possibly can.

So Jesus doesn't condemn the quest for greatness. He radically transforms it. Go ahead and pursue it, he says. But the path is down, not up.

Take pastors, for example: the measure of true greatness is not how many people come to his church or how many books he has written, or how many conferences he speaks at, or how many stations carry his radio program. The measure of true greatness is to what degree has the impulse to self-exaltation been crucified? How much heartfelt desire to serve others has there been? How much readiness and willingness to decrease while others increase?

Beware how you measure greatness in the servants of the Lord. Paul said, "Do not pronounce judgment before the time, until the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then every man will receive his commendation from God" (1 Cor. 4:5; cf. Rom. 2:29). That's the first thing Jesus says in this text. "If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all." And before he says the second he takes a child and puts him in the circle of apostles. Verse 36: "And he took a child, and put him in the midst of them; and taking him in his arms . . .” First he set the child in the midst of the group, and then he picked up the child in his arms.

Now why did he do this? What does this action have to do with the teaching on true greatness that Jesus just gave to the twelve in verse 35?

The point is so clear that Jesus doesn't have to say it. The point is that children are among the "all" of verse 35: "You must be the servant of all . . ." For example, here's a child. I am taking this child in my arms to show you that if you would be great, if you would be first, you must be the servant of children. You must take time for children. You must not look down on or despise children. You must not say this is simply women's work. If you would be great, you will not rule out nursery duty; you will pray earnestly about teaching primaries; you will think hard about leading a boys' club or girls' club; you will spend yourself in the fight to overcome child-killing. Why does Jesus illustrate his point about serving with a child? The discussion wasn't about children. Why does Jesus bring them in?

The answer is that there is no political payback in serving children: they can't vote. And they don't give speeches about how great is your helpfulness. In fact they pretty much take for granted that you will take care of them. They don't make a big deal out of the fact that you pour your life out for them. And so, children prove, more clearly than any other kind of people, whether you are truly great or not--whether you live to serve or live to be praised. (Cf. Luke 14:13-14 for how the poor, the maimed, the lame and the blind also prove this.)

Now comes the second thing Jesus said (v. 37), and it is utterly unexpected. We might have expected him to pick up on his point in verse 35 and apply it to children. Something like: "Now here's a child. The person in our society that men don't serve. The person men don't take the time for. The person you don't think is worth your time. Well I am showing you that children are worth your time. They are significant. When you receive one of them and serve one of them you are serving a person just as valuable as the emperor of Rome."

But that is not what Jesus says. Jesus turns the whole discussion away from the value of the child to the value of God. This is what is so different about Jesus and about the Bible--even from many of our Christian child-advocates writing today. Jesus says: "Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me."

Two things are utterly crucial in caring for children. One: is it done in Jesus name? "Whoever receives one such child in my name . . ." Ministering to children in any way but in the name of Jesus, does not fulfil the will of Jesus. And the second crucial thing in caring for children is that we do it with a longing to experience more of Jesus and more of the One who sent him, God the Father. "Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me and whoever receives me receives not me but the One who sent me."

Why does he say this? Why does he bring everything to a focus on God and the value of receiving more of God? Do you ever want to say to Jesus, "Lighten up? Does everything always have to be theological?" The answer is yes, it does. For Jesus everything has to do with God, or it is fundamentally distorted.

And if someone asks, "What about the children"? Aren't you supposed to serve the children because of the children? Surely the answer of Jesus here is this: you serve a child best when you receive a child and care for a child and spend time with a child and hold a child NOT in the name of the child, or in the name of mankind or in the name of mercy or in the name of America's future, but in the name of Jesus, the Son of the living God. And you serve children best when you receive a child not merely because your joy is first in the child, but first and finally in God.

Why is this the best way to serve? Because the most important blessing you can give to a child is the all-satisfying centrality of God in life. And, believe me, this is caught more than taught. And that's why you must serve them in this way; you would lead them in this way.

Now put the two things Jesus said together. In verse 35 he said: if you would be first you must be last of all and servant of all (especially children). And in verse 37 he said: if you receive a child in my name you receive God. In other words, when I call you to be the servant of all, including children, I am not calling you to some heroic self-sacrifice. I am calling you to stop chasing the bubbles of man's praise and start pursuing God. Stop trying to receive praise in the service of men and starting receiving God in the service of children. What do you want? Do you want the fleeting praise of mortal men? Or do you want God?

"As for me and my house we will serve the Lord." Joshua 24:15 – www.musicalprayers.com

In other words, 2007 has been yet another year filled with drug company connivery, regulatory nightmares, and plenty of underhanded scheming.

Here, then, is my annual review of the most heinous of these outrages. Please fasten your seatbelts, take a deep breath, and we'll go for a wild ride through the darkest caverns of the medical mainstream.

The year of living outrageously got off to a big start in early February when Texas Governor Rick Perry issued an order mandating that all Texas girls entering sixth grade receive a shot of Gardasil, the vaccine that protects against certain strains of the human papillomavirus (HPV), which can cause cervical cancer. Mandating a vaccine to prevent a sexually transmitted virus that's easily detected and treated when women have annual gynaecological exams is bad enough. The frosting on the cake: Turns out Gov. Perry has some links to Merck (the maker of Gardasil), not the least of which includes a $6,000 contribution Merck's political action committee made to the governor's re-election campaign.

http://www.hsibaltimore.com/ealerts/ea200702/ea20070208a.html

About six months later, the British Medical Journal reported that the FDA's Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) had received reports of three deaths and more than 1,600 other adverse reactions linked to Gardasil over the past year.

Texas wasn't the only state interested in forcing vaccines on school children. On a blustery Saturday morning in November, hundreds of parents lined up outside a Maryland courthouse – ordered there by the state's attorney to explain why they had not had their children vaccinated. They also had the option of bringing their children along so the kids could receive multiple vaccinations on the spot, even though this might have posed a health risk for some children. And again, money was at the root of the state action. According to the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS), a substantial amount of state funding for the school district would have been lost if students and their parents failed to comply with the ordered vaccines.

Gardasil, the cervical cancer vaccine recommended for girls as young as 12 years old, is causing side effects ranging from seizures and numbness to dizzy spells, fainting and paralysis.

More than 17 girls a week in Australia have experienced such reactions after receiving the vaccination, but the country’s Department of Health and Aging refuses to release their details.

Further, as of November 30, 2007, 496 adverse reaction reports were filed with Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Association (TGA). Of them, 468 had the cervical cancer vaccine as the sole suspected cause.

In the United States, up to 1,700 women have reported adverse reactions from Gardasil, including at least seven deaths.

To date, more than 10 million doses of Gardasil have been distributed worldwide.

TGA noted that the safety of Gardasil was being monitored by officials in Australia and overseas, and that the adverse reactions are consistent with those expected from any vaccine.

Dr. Mercola's Comments:

There is no doubt that many well-intentioned moms out there are being deceived, or at the least seriously misled – by Merck, Gardasil’s maker, the media, public health officials, and perhaps their own physicians – into believing that Gardasil is a good thing for their daughters.

But instead of hearing about Gardasil, the “long-awaited cure for cervical cancer” (as it’s portrayed in the media), what if it was put to you this way:

Gardasil has caused thousands of serious reactions (some of them deadly), and your daughter can still get human papillomavirus (HPV) after receiving it.

As Merck's own literature says, Gardasil does not protect women against some "non-vaccine" HPV types. So allow me to repeat myself: even if girls accept the risks and get vaccinated, they can still get HPV.

And as the above article illustrates, the risks are significant and are being reported not only in the United States but overseas as well.

In the United States, as of August 2007 a review of the National Vaccine Information Center revealed the following, quite alarming, statistic about this unnecessary vaccine: 2,207 adverse reactions to Gardasil have been reported. Among them:

5 girls died
31 were considered life-threatening
1,385 required a visit to the emergency room
451 of the girls have not recovered as of July 2007
51 of the girls were disabled

All of these side effects for a vaccine that MAY (but then again, may not) prevent HPV -- an infection that clears up on its own 90 percent of the time.

Rather than subjecting your daughter (and now possibly your son!) to this potentially dangerous vaccine, you may want to nip the problem in the bud before it ever starts. Here’s how:

Recognize that cervical cancer (or any cancer) is not caused by a “vaccine deficiency.”

Talk to your kids about HPV. This infection is sexually transmitted, so it can be prevented 100 percent with lifestyle choices.

Realize the power of your emotions. An emerging school of thought called German New Medicine (GNM) shows how specific stressful events or “conflict shocks” trigger cancer and other diseases in your body.

Dr. Ryke Geerd Hamer, who developed GNM, believes that you cannot die of cancer in and of itself. Rather, the disease of cancer is a phase that occurs while your body heals itself from this emotional trauma.

People worsen after a cancer diagnosis, then, because of the corresponding mental stress, sleep deprivation, being given a negative prognosis, and even due to conventional cancer treatments. The key to overcoming the disease lies in resolving your emotional conflicts.

Keep your immune system strong. A healthy immune system is better able to handle a heavier emotional and physical stress load. The ideal healthy habits to keep your body and mind strong are detailed in these 12 changes that will cut your cancer risk in half.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2007/12/22/thousands-have-gotten-sick-from-gardasil-hpv-vaccine.aspx

Problems with the cervical cancer vaccine for girls as young as 9 starting to emerge.

Five schoolgirls at Sacred Heart Girls' College in suburban Melbourne, Australia, were confirmed to have taken ill after receiving an injection of Gardasil, the newest vaccine to be mandated for young girls. Soon after the vaccination, twenty-six girls were seen at the campus medical clinic; five were admitted to the hospital after being injected. Two of the girls kept in overnight in observation for dizziness; one had temporary paralysis and loss of speech.[1]

In the U.S., symptoms similar to those experienced by the Australian girls have been reported to the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS.) Since the approval of the vaccine in June 2006, there have been 1261 adverse events reported. Here are a few examples directly from the VAERS reporting pages:

“Immediately after injection patient complained of severe pain at site. Fell off table and fainted for approximately 10 - 15 seconds. Hyperventilating. Complained of headache, blurry vision; vision test was normal. Vomiting x 1 in parking lot and speech was momentarily inarticulate. Sent to ER where her neurological exam was normal except for word recall "coffee instead of coughing" and said "Sired instead of tired."

“A female patient was vaccinated with a first dose of HPV Vaccine. Subsequently as the patient was leaving the examination room, the patient fainted. The patient recovered shortly after fainting.”

“A 14 year old female was vaccinated with Gardasil. It was reported that the patient was sitting on a bench. When the nurse left the room, the patient apparently fainted and ended up falling off bench. It was reported that it was unsure if the patient had broken her nose but there was blood. At the time of this report, the outcome of the events were unknown.”

VAERS is a passive surveillance system and depends upon voluntary reporting by clinicians of serious health problems following vaccination. Reports can also be filed by parents. Although VAERS reports do not prove causation, they can provide a warning system that a vaccine may be causing health problems.

It has been estimated that fewer than 10 percent, even as low as 1 to 4 percent, of adverse events from a prescription drug or a vaccine are ever reported.[2] If only 1 percent of all adverse events associated with Gardasil are being reported to VAERS, there could have been as many as 126,000 acute health problems from the vaccine in less than one year. The long term neurological or immune system complications are completely unknown. It is uncertain if any of these vaccinated children will go on to develop fertility problems, cancer or damage to their genes, all of which Merck admits in its product insert have not been studied.

John Iskander, from the Center for Disease Control’s immunization safety office has said, "There is absolutely no reason to think that there is anything in this vaccine that's going to make people more likely to faint.”[3] Despite his assurances, there are ingredients in the vaccine that can cause recipients to become dizzy and faint.

Histidine , an amino acid, readily converts into another amino acid, histamine, when it enters the body. When released, histamine causes redness, swelling, itching and allergic reactions leading to widening of capillaries, decreased blood pressure… people can faint. The vaccine also contains Polysorbate 80, an agent used in creams, ointments, lotions, and multiple medical preparations including vitamin oils, and anticancer agents. Polysorbate 80 is a can cause potentially fatal reactions in including anaphylaxis, characterized by a sharp drop in blood pressure, hives, and breathing difficulties… people can faint.[4]

Fainting spells after vaccination can have serious consequences. An article published in the Archives of Paediatric and Adolescent Medicine (1997), reviewed the 697 reports of syncope (fainting) that occurred after vaccination and had been reported to VAERS between 1990 and 1995. More than 97 percent of the events have occurred within 30 minutes of a vaccine, establishing a causal relationship. Of these, six patients sustained a serious head injury, including skull fracture, cerebral bleeding and cerebral contusion. Three of these patients required brain surgery and two were left with substantial residual neurological deficits at six months to two years after follow-up. [5] Dizziness and fainting after vaccination is not something to be taken lightly.

As for the children in Australia, the vaccination program is scheduled to continue next month. “The college is confident that this program of vaccination is safe to offer to students," says Christopher Dalton, the school principal. "We will be working with the Department of Human Services Victoria and the City of Monash Immunization Services in the planning vaccination program."

The assumption is that illness and dizziness are “normal reactions” to a vaccine. The overriding theme is that “We've have a vaccine, and we will use it.”

4. Coors, EA. Polysorbate 80 in medical products and non-immunologic anaphylactoid reactions. Ann Allergy Asthma Immunol. 2005 Dec; 95(6): 593-9. PMID: 16400901

5. Braun MM, et al. Syncope after immunization. Arch Paediatric Adolescent Med 1997; 151:255-9.

Dr. Sherri Tenpenny is respected as one of the country's most knowledgeable and outspoken physicians regarding the impact of vaccines on health. Through her education company, New Medical Awareness, LLC, she spreads her vision of retaining freedom of choice in healthcare, including the freedom to refuse vaccination. Dr. Tenpenny's new book, FOWL! Bird Flu: It's Not What You Think , was released in April 2006.

The strangest thing about abortion is how many people want to hear nothing about them.

PUBLICATION: The Ottawa Sun
DATE: 2007.12.20
EDITION: Final
SECTION: News
PAGE: 2
BYLINE: ANN MARIE MCQUEEN

The strangest thing about abortion is how many people want to hear nothing about them.

Which is sort of odd, don't you think? This is Canada, right? We can talk about anything. In yesterday's paper alone, the Sun featured stories about a program to stop domestic violence – don't you sometimes wonder why we need programs to help men stop beating up and sometimes killing their wives? – the brutal, random murder of a kindly 74-year-old man in Kitchener while he was handing out Christmas cards and a 35-year-old Brockville high school teacher charged with having sex with a female student.

Is it too taboo to devote a couple of pages to the anniversary of one of the country's most significant legal decisions, the Jan. 28, 1988 Supreme Court of Canada ruling overturning our country's abortion law?

"I will tell you why no one is interested in talking about this: It is categorically none of their business, that is why," wrote one reader. "Whether to have an abortion or not is a private matter between a woman and her conscience and her doctor – period."

And that was from someone who went on to say "no one has the right, especially men, to tell women what they can and cannot do with their bodies."

In publishing the "Abortion" series, which ran from Saturday to Tuesday, we were expecting to be bombarded by letters from right-to-life organizations and individuals. After all, I was not exploring if abortion was right or wrong. I was checking in, taking the pulse. The law is, after all, the law.

What took me aback the most were letters from people who have deeply suffered from their abortions. From women, yes, but men too. I didn't expect to have people pour out their hearts full of pain to me, a stranger reminding them of the very procedure, which scarred them so.

"It is not just about the woman," one wrote. It seems that men are left out at this stage... as if we did not exist," wrote one man. "Only after the child is born are expectations and responsibilities placed on us. I would have done anything to have kept my son or daughter."

People are so resilient in this world, they recover from unspeakable experiences. It frustrates me when people don't want to let their pain go. But perhaps, I'm reasoning these days, after reading letters about scars running decades deep, when the thing that is hurting you is the thing you chose to do, it's that much harder to get past it to a new normal.

"It's not a popular cause," Life Canada president Joanne Byfield said bluntly. "We know that."

But we live in a free and democratic society and the people who believe a person is a person from the moment he or she is conceived have all the right in the world to do so. Just like those who think a woman's rights trump those of the foetus, and so she should be able to decide – freely, without restrictions or hurdles or much in the way of limits – what to do with one growing in her belly.

Sometimes we forget, I think, the most important thing, and that is we are all connected, part of a collective unconscious made up of individual feelings.

It's so easy to discount the "other side" of anything as ignorant or crazy, or weird, or uneducated, or Neanderthals.

Some of them are, sure. But most are just like us, with a different point of view, one that demands respect just by its very existence.

I like talking about things, particularly those no one wants to discuss. I guess that's why I was drawn to the newspaper business.

Thankfully, people here at the Sun don't mind dredging up some of the tough stuff too.

Gardasil, the cervical cancer vaccine recommended for girls as young as 12 years old, is causing side effects ranging from seizures and numbness to dizzy spells, fainting and paralysis.

More than 17 girls a week in Australia have experienced such reactions after receiving the vaccination, but the country’s Department of Health and Aging refuses to release their details.

TGA noted that the safety of Gardasil was being monitored by officials in Australia and overseas, and that the adverse reactions are consistent with those expected from any vaccine.

The Ontario Court of Appeal redefined the family by ruling that a five-year-old boy can have three legal parents; namely, his biological father and mother and her lesbian partner. FULL STORY >>

A 20-year legal battle between Little Sisters, a Vancouver gay and lesbian bookstore, and the Canadian Border Services Agency ended when the Supreme Court of Canada denied the store’s request that it order the government to cover its future legal bills. The store had initially gone to court after Canadian customs officers seized imported “gay erotica” which they deemed to be obscene. FULL STORY >>

A Canadian study revealed that babies conceived through assisted reproductive technology face a slightly higher risk of having a birth defect (nearly three per cent) compared to babies who were conceived naturally (just under two per cent). FULL STORY >>

A consumer backlash prompted Telus, Canada’s second-largest telecommunications company, to cancel a new service offering pornography to cell phone customers. FULL STORY >>

Statistics Canada reported that the national birthrate in 2006 remained unchanged for the tenth straight year at 1.5 children per woman, or well below the rate required (2.1 children per woman) to prevent Canada’s population from a future decline. FULL STORY >>

The Institute of Marriage and Family Canada welcomed proposed changes to the tax code contained in the new federal budget, including a new child tax credit and a boost in the tax credits available for spouses with little or no income. FULL STORY >>

A study by the pro-abortion group Canadians for Choice found that the number of hospitals in Canada performing abortions fell from 17.8 per cent in 2003 to only 15.9 per cent in 2006. FULL STORY >>

The U.S. Supreme Court voted 5-4 to uphold the 2003 law banning partial birth abortions. Opponents had objected that it made no exception for cases where allowing the pregnancy to continue placed the mother’s health at risk. The Supreme Court disagreed, saying, “The government may use its voice and its regulatory authority to show its profound respect for the life within the woman.” FULL STORY >>

A survey found that 54 per cent of working Canadians value family life above everything else, beating out work (10 per cent) and money (five per cent). But many also said they were having a hard time trying to give family the priority it deserved. FULL STORY >>

A poll conducted by Kids Help Phone found many parents are in denial about the dangers posed by their children’s online Internet activities, leaving themselves basically ignorant as to the true extent of the problem and their kids even more vulnerable to abuse. FULL STORY >>

Scientists in Japan and the U.S. announced that they had succeeded in reprogramming mouse skin cells into fully functioning human embryonic stem cells. FULL STORY >>

Statistics Canada reported that the number of fathers who took a leave of absence from work after a new child arrives, whether by birth or adoption, rose from 38 per cent to 55 per cent between 2001 and 2006. FULL STORY >>

The Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear the case of a woman who wanted to absolve her husband of any parenting responsibilities for the baby she had conceived through a sperm donor. The husband had said he did not want to become a father. FULL STORY >>

A Health Canada study found that 14 per cent of teenaged girls started smoking in 2006, down from 18 per cent a year earlier. The percentage of teenaged boys who started smoking was also down, but only by half as much. FULL STORY >>

B.C. Attorney-General Wally Oppal said he would consider asking the B.C. Court of Appeal to rule on whether the law banning polygamy in Canada is constitutional. At issue would be whether or not the law violates Charter guarantees of freedom of religion. FULL STORY >>

Members of Quebec’s only Mennonite community decided to leave their homes in Roxton Falls rather than comply with an order to close down their faith-based school and hand their children over to the public school system. FULL STORY >>

A Harris/Decima poll found that 42 per cent of Canadians felt that marriage was more important in their lives now than they “may have felt in the past.” Only 17 per cent said it was less important to them now than previously. FULL STORY >>

Statistics Canada reported that, for the first time in the nation’s history, a majority of Canadians aged 15 and older (51.5 per cent) were not married in 2006, up from 38.6 per cent in 1986. Over those two decades, the proportion of families headed by a married couple fell from 80.2 per cent to 68.6 per cent. FULL STORY >>

An American study suggested that teenagers who take part in a family meal five or more times each week are much less likely to start smoking and abuse drugs and alcohol. FULL STORY >>

An analysis of tax returns and survey data between 1982 and 2004 by Statistics Canada revealed that apart from the 20 per cent of people at the top of the wage scale, the average earnings of Canadian households had remained virtually unchanged. FULL STORY >>

Quebec reported 7,400 births during July, making it the largest monthly total of births in the province so far this decade. Not since the late 1980s had Quebec experienced so many births. FULL STORY >>

The Quebec government announced that as of September 2008, children in public and private schools must attend a secularized course on moral education that gives equal weight to Christianity, Judaism, aboriginal spirituality, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism. FULL STORY >>

United Nations experts warned that human cloning is so close to becoming a reality that the world must move quickly either to ban it or pass laws to protect cloned humans from “potential abuse, prejudice and discrimination.” FULL STORY >>

Pro-lifers hailed the possible end of the debate over the morality of human embryonic stem cell research after rival researchers in Japan and the U.S. succeeded in making human skin cells behave like embryonic stem cells. FULL STORY >>

The Manitoba government introduced a bill that would make it a crime for people to come across what looks like child pornography on the Internet and fail to report it. Those convicted could face up to $50,000 in fines or up to two years in jail. FULL STORY >>

An Angus Reid poll found that 68 per cent of Canadians believe a family member should have the final say on whether to remove a patient in a vegetative state from life support. Only 15 per cent said it should be up to doctors to decide. FULL STORY >>

Join family psychologist Dr. James C. Dobson for the Best of 2007 – Marriage, a special collection of the year’s most requested radio broadcasts on developing and maintaining a healthy marriage. Also available on our bookstore are the Best of 2007 broadcasts on parenting, faith and balanced living.

Pastors, you ’re invited to a special event by Focus on the Family Canada! Take a well-deserved break and meet marriage specialists Dr. Gary and Barbara Rosberg, who will discuss ways to strengthen your own marriage as well as those in your church and community. Be sure to invite other members of your pastoral staff and your spouse!

“We are not called to be successful, we are called to be faithful. I wasn't born to be famous, or rich, I was born to know and love and serve our Lord Jesus Christ.” – Actor Eduardo Verástegui, star of the film Bella

Phone: 1.800.661.9800 | Mail: Box 9800 Stn Terminal, Vancouver BC, V6B 4G3 | Email:letters@fotf.ca

13. UN University Wants To Reopen Settled But Contentious UN Cloning Debate – January 3, 2008

I) Bill C-2 (Age of Protection) Passes House of Commons!
II) Bill C-484 Unborn Victims of Crime Act Deemed Votable!
III) When Will the Second Reading Vote be held?
IV) Partner with us in 2008

“I say THANK YOU to all of you who made this so easy and so effective to help us reach our government... my children, my grandchildren, my great grandchildren say THANK YOU!”

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Just in time for Christmas, I know you would want to hear this great news in response to your recent lobbying efforts on two key child protection bills.

We are in this battle to win and need your support as we work together toward further victories.

In our October 4 newsletter we asked you to “Help pass the Age of Protection by Christmas.”

Thank you for your personal efforts in contacting your MP in support of the Government's “Tackling Violent Crime Act” Bill C-2.

Currently before the Senate, this bill has already passed second reading on December 12 and has now been referred to the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee.

If passed by the Senate, C-2 will raise the age of consent from 14 to 16 to further protect our youth from predators.

In addition, this “Tackling Violent Crime Act” will also protect society from dangerous offenders, get serious with drug-impaired drivers and toughen sentencing and bail for those who commit gun crimes.

Thank you for calling and writing to the sub-committee members. It made a difference!

On Wednesday, December 5, the PROC Sub-Committee on Private Members’ Business deemed votable the Unborn Victims of Violence Act Bill C-484.

Unlike a similar bill last session, this re-worded bill emerged alive from the sub-committee after being deemed votable.

Should an election be called before this bill has had a full hearing, it will certainly return as a private members bill in the next session, without fear that it could be deemed non-votable.

Private Members Bills are permitted two one-hour sessions of debate at 2 nd reading. The first hour of debate on C-484 took place on December 13, prior to the House rising for Christmas Recess until the end of January.

According to the bill’s sponsor, Sherwood Park MP Ken Epp, the second and final hour of debate at 2 nd reading is anticipated to take place on Friday, February 29.

The 2 nd reading vote is expected to take place shortly after on Wednesday, March 5. This vote will determine whether the bill will continue to the Justice Committee stage or die.

To be as effective as we must be in our work to defend children, family, faith and freedom in 2008, it is critical that we receive your support.

By committing as little as $8 a month ($25/quarter) you will greatly help us in our efforts to impact our nation for the better. Please consider becoming a quarterly donor today.

United Mothers is a registered not-for-profit organization. However, due to the advocacy-based nature of our work, we are unable to issue tax receipts.

Wishing you and your family a full measure of joy, gratitude, and peace this Christmas,

Campaign Life Coalition National Newsletter (Current)

Catholic magazine target of human rights complaint