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- Alberta College Of Physicians Meeting To Discuss Freedom Of Conscience Legislation Tomorrow March 15, 2009
- At UN Obama Reps Push For Sexual And Reproductive Health March 13, 2009
- Birth Control Pills Linked To Breast Cancer, Again March 15, 2009
- Children Are Not Commodities March 15, 2009
- Conscience Rule Is Needed To Protect Ongoing Assaults On Workers' Religious Freedom Rights March 3, 2009
- Donate To LifeSiteNews In The Name Of Henry Morgentaler March 15, 2009
- European Christian Party Abandons Pro-Life & Pro-Family Positions March 15, 2009
- Here's How To Fight Back At Planned Parenthood March 13, 2009
- International Apologist, Stephanie Gray, To Speak At Ohio State University April 4 March 12, 2009
- LifeIssues.Net Newsletter #413 March 8, 2009
- LifeIssues.Net Newsletter #414 March 15, 2009
- Massive German Study Confirms Abortion Significantly Increases Premature Birth Risk February 11, 2009
- National Pro-Life Radio March 13, 2009
- One Small Victory For Freedom Of Speech March 5, 2009
- Stem-Cell Decision Exposes Religious Divides March 15, 2009
- Timothy Dolan, Named To Head NY Archdiocese February 23, 2009
1. Alberta College Of Physicians Meeting To Discuss Freedom Of Conscience Legislation Tomorrow – March 15, 2009
This Wednesday, March 11th, the Alberta College of Physicians and Surgeons are meeting to discuss legislation that would require doctors to perform, or give referrals, for abortions (and, should they become legal, things like assisted suicide, euthanasia, embryonic stem cell operations, etc, will also fall under this list).
The last time they met, in December, United Mothers http://www.unitedmothers.ca/actionlinks.php reports that they had received so much feedback on this that they could not review all of it – this is good news if the feedback was in favour of protecting freedom of conscience. No matter what province you live in, this is a trend that has been discussed in other Colleges of Physicians provincially and if it passes in any province it could set a pattern that will allow it to pass in others, so please take a moment to contact the Alberta College and urge them not to pass this.
2. At UN Obama Reps Push For ‘Sexual And Reproductive Health’ – March 13, 2009 At UN Obama Reps Push for ‘Sexual and Reproductive Health’
By Samantha Singson
(NEW YORK? C-FAM) The annual Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) meeting continues at the United Nations (UN) this week and delegates have begun the arduous task of negotiating the ‘outcome document’ a non-binding agreement on HIV/AIDS and care-giving that is the focus of this year’s session. While the meetings have been closed to non-government organizations (NGOs), the United States (US) delegation has openly stated that ‘sexual and reproductive health and rights’ would be a priority issue for the Obama administration.
At a briefing hosted by the United States, a member of the US delegation, Ellen Chesler, stated that it was a specific priority of the US delegation to ensure that ‘comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights’ are included in the document. She added that they are a ‘fundamental part’ of the Beijing Platform for Action of the 1995 UN women’s meeting held in Beijing, China, where countries ultimately rejected attempts to make abortion an international ‘right’. The idea of sexual rights was rejected at the Beijing conference. Additionally, the term ‘sexual and reproductive health and rights’ has been interpreted by radical feminist NGOs and some governments to include abortion.
Chesler, who authored a biography praising the work of Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger, also included ‘comprehensive sexual education, rights and services’, promotion of a new UN gender office, as well as US commitment to ratify the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) as priority issues for the Obama administration at this CSW.
At the end of the briefing, an audience member questioned the Obama administration’s support for abortion despite the myriad scientific evidence which shows how detrimental it is to the lives and health of women. Chesler dismissed the woman’s question stating that the evidence is ‘unreliable because it has ideological elements’.
Another contentious provision in the draft CSW document calls on states to support the CEDAW committee’s non-binding ‘concluding comments’. 185 countries have ratified the convention, but language supporting the CEDAW committee’s concluding recommendations remains controversial. The CEDAW committee has questioned more than 70 nations on their abortion laws even going so far as creating their own "general recommendation" that reads abortion into the document even though the nations that negotiated the treaty made sure that controversial issue was never mentioned.
Delegations are expected to battle it out over the CEDAW paragraph in negotiations this week over concerns that the committee is pressuring countries on abortion. Some feminist NGOs at the CSW, however, already consider abortion an accepted part of CEDAW and have now set their sights on using the CEDAW committee to protect ‘lesbian rights’ and same-sex ‘marriage’.
At an event commemorating 30 years of CEDAW, the Centre for Women’s Global Leadership claimed that CEDAW successfully established a ‘right to abortion’ by linking it to ‘reproductive health’. Organizers argued that now the CEDAW committee should focus on protecting a ‘woman’s right to choose their partners’, which is not limited to members of the opposite sex.
The CSW will conclude in New York on Friday.
View full article; www.c-fam.org.
3. Birth Control Pills Linked To Breast Cancer, Again – March 15, 2009
Date Published: Wednesday, February 25th, 2009
A recent study has concluded that birth control pill http://www.yourlawyer.com/practice_areas/defective_drugs use is linked with an increased risk of breast cancer, said Reuters, citing a report in the American Journal of Epidemiology.
Prior to this new report, the breast cancer-oral contraceptive link was, according to Dr. Lynn Rosenberg, from Boston University, and colleagues, based "largely on studies conducted before 1990," reported Reuters. The Denver Wellness Examiner pointed out that critics of these prior studies have long argued that the data is based on older medication and that there have been significant changes in dosing strength since the 1990s. Clearly, it noted, the critics have been proven wrong.
The researchers used information from the Case-Control Surveillance Study to look at birth control pill use and breast cancer risk in women diagnosed with breast cancer between 1993 and 2007, said Reuters. The study took also looked at race and tumor hormone receptors and involved over 2600 women; 907 with breast cancer and 1771 who did not suffer from breast cancer.
The team found that women who had taken oral contraceptives for at least one year experienced a 50 percent greater chance of developing breast cancer over women who took the pills for less time or who had never taken the pills, said Reuters. Also, greater duration, use in the past decade, and being of black ethnicity, all seemed to raise the incidence of breast cancer; however, the reason for those associations remains unclear. Hormone receptor status did not have an affect on the link. The team concluded that, "Given the widespread use of oral contraceptives, continued evaluation of their possible health effects may be warranted," quoted Rerters.
Estrogens, said the Denver Wellness Examiner, cause cells to multiply and divide, noting that the more a cell divides, the greater the chance for cancer to develop. The National Cancer Institute http://www.cancer.gov/ (NCI) explains that two types of oral contraceptives are available in the United States. One-a combined pill- contains two artificial versions of the natural female hormones estrogen and progesterone, similar to what the ovaries normally produce. The other-the minipill-only contains a type of progesterone.
Estrogen stimulates the growth and development of the uterus at puberty, causes the endometrium, or inner uterine lining, to thicken during the first half of the menstrual cycle, and affects breast tissue throughout a woman's lifetime, specifically from puberty to menopause. Progesterone is produced during the last half of the menstrual cycle; prepares the endometrium to receive the egg; and if an egg is fertilized, continues producing to prevent further egg release. It is because of this that progesterone is called, said the NCI, the "pregnancy-supporting" hormone.
Studies suggest that some cancers depend on naturally occurring sex hormones for their development and growth, specifically cervical and breast cancers.
In 2003, an NCI-sponsored study examined risk factors for breast cancer among women ages 20 to 34 versus women ages 35 to 54 and looked at women diagnosed with breast cancer and women's oral contraceptive use. The study found that breast cancer risk was highest in women who used oral contraceptives within five years prior to diagnosis, with women in the younger group being most susceptible.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 25th, 2009 at 1:31 pm and is filed under Legal News, Pharmaceuticals http://www.newsinferno.com/archives/category/pharmaceuticals.
4. Children Are Not Commodities – March 15, 2009
By Margaret Somerville
National Post Published: Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Re: Squalling Life After Death, March 9.
The fundamental ethical and legal principle governing society's and the law's actions affecting children is the "best interests" of the particular child, or the "best interests" of children in general. Nowhere is that mentioned in this article.
That means the "best interests" of children, not the wishes of adults, must be placed at the centre of decision-making regarding technological intervention in bringing children in to being. It also means that the informed consent of adults, including the pre-mortem consent of the sperm donor, is not a primary ethical consideration, as this article presents it as being, but a secondary one.
As well, these decisions should not be "just left to the families involved." Society is complicit in their implementation and, consequently, has independent ethical obligations to any resulting children.
The broad issue raised by reproductive technologies is: What are children's human rights with respect to their coming into being? I propose one aspect of those rights is children's right not to be intentionally created when they can never know one of their biological parents. Consequently, post-mortem sperm donation is ethically wrong, which places an obligation on society not to allow it.
Children are not commodities. They are not therapies for grief. People are not fungible (exchangeable) – we can't replace a person who dies with his child, even though we might long to be able to do so.
Margaret Somerville, McGill Centre for Medicine, Ethics and Law, Montreal.
5. Conscience Rule Is Needed To Protect Ongoing Assaults On Workers' Religious Freedom Rights – March 3, 2009
PewSitter.com: Voice of the Catholic Lay Faithful
Conscience Rule Is Needed to Protect Ongoing Assaults on Workers' Religious Freedom Rights
By Nancy Reyes
Pewsitter.com/
The most vulnerable, if Bush conscience rules are revoked will be those in training, especially in OB/Gyn field. March 3, 2009 – The rules enacted by the Bush administration to support the freedom of conscience of those working in health care system were to reinforce the earlier laws that date back thirty years.
Why are new rules needed if old ones already exist? What has changed is the advent of the various "abortion pills" and of euthanasia. It is no longer a matter of a physician or nurse not going into Obstetrics so they won't be forced to do abortions; it is now a matter that can affect every physician, nurse and pharmacist in the country.
There is a second thing that has changed over the past 30 years: In the past, physicians and pharmacists often were independent, running their own practice or pharmacy. Today, many work for large corporations.
Finally, by removing the regulations which require corporations to document that they were following the law protecting the conscience of their employees, it makes it easier to fire the employee. It removes the ability for employees to document that he or she is being fired for refusing to go along with abortions.
As a medical student in the mid 1960's, I was ordered to "assist" on abortions as part of my training. Even though abortions were illegal, one physician in that hospital was doing abortions, often listing them as normal surgery.
I refused to assist him with his abortions, and ended up being ridiculed in front of the other students for the refusal. That didn't bother me as much as you'd think: back then, only 5% of the medical students in my school were women, so we put up with a lot of what is now called "sexual harassment".
In revenge, the physician sent in a bad evaluation saying I refused to assist in surgery, and that I had failed the course. When I was informed of this by the Dean of Students, I explained what had happened, and that my objections were based on religious grounds; in the end, they did allow me to pass the course. However, I had learned my lesson, and as a result I did not take an OB/Gyn residency.
Three years later, right after Roe V Wade passed, my best friend was confronted with a similar threat. She had deliberately taken a residency at a Catholic hospital because as a pious Hindu, she did not believe in taking life.
Part of the training required them to "rotate" for three months to the local university hospital, supposedly to learn advanced surgical techniques. In reality, the residents were doing lots of abortions, making money for the hospital.
So my friend was ordered to perform abortions. When she refused, she was told to do them or she would lose her residency position (which would mean she would have to return to India).
She appealed on religious grounds, but the head of the University residency program instructed her that abortion was not illegal for Hindus, so she could not claim a religious exemption. Not knowing the law, and fearing deportation, she complied, fasting and praying on those days to make up for her sin.
Ironically, at the same University, some of her fellow residents were Muslim. They too were threatened with loss of their residency if they would not do abortions. So all of them said: We are Muslim. We will not do abortions. And if you try to force us, we will all quit. Since no residency is so large that they can afford to lose several residents at the same time, the Muslim physicians were allowed not to do abortions.
For nurses, the pressure was different. They had no choice. If one of the ladies was sent in to pass a second trimester abortion in her ward, she would simply be fired if she left the job or refused to care for that patient. But many nurses did object, and some nurses were unionized, and made their objections heard.
So hospitals decided mandatory "retraining", to change the minds of the nurses about abortion. Those that refused to be brainwashed or coerced were reassigned. But the hassle became so bad that the abortion business quickly moved to private clinics.
Now, fast forward 30 years.
Thirty years ago, the "morning after pill" was thought to be contraceptive, by stopping ovulation. Newer research shows that it also stops implantation of a fertilized ovum, so it is considered abortifactive, especially if given days after intercourse.
In the past, the only time physicians used the "morning after pill" was for rape; nowadays, it is being pressed as an ordinary means of contraception and there is a lot of pressure for the pill to be sold "over the counter" without a prescription. This is bad medicine for a lot of reasons (STD risk, the patient may already be pregnant, no counseling.)
So fast forward to the year 2000. I was a Federal physician, and a patient presented to the emergency room at 2 am for the "morning after pill".
I refused, not only for moral reasons, but because of good medical reasons (the risk of STD from casual sex). And the next day I was reprimanded for it, and one employee even hinted that I could be fired for it. I shrugged, and said: Been there, done that..." And indeed, nothing happened.
Ironically, Federal physicians in the military refused to cooperate when the Clinton administration tried to mandate abortion in military hospitals. And in the US Indian Health Service, many tribes object to abortion except to save the life of the mother, because many (but not all) tribes see abortion as against their traditions, so again, no problem.
But the most vulnerable will be those in training, especially for OB/Gyn or midwife training, where pressure groups are trying to mandate abortion training as part of ordinary prenatal care training?
The end result, of course, will be fewer and fewer pro life physicians in Ob/Gyn. And if euthanasia spreads, the pro life physicians and nurses may soon start leaving acute care wards and hospices rather than cooperate with killing their patients.
Nancy Reyes is a retired doctor living in the Philippines. She is the author of a number of blogs including Finest Kind Clinic and Fishmarket.
6. Donate To LifeSiteNews In The Name Of Henry Morgentaler – March 15, 2009
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7. European Christian Party Abandons Pro-Life & Pro-Family Positions – March 15, 2009
By Susan Yoshihara and Katharina Rothweiler
(NEW YORK – C-FAM) The European Parliament's largest umbrella group backed away from its strong pro-life and pro-family positions in a new draft position statement for the 2009 European elections. Members of the mainly Christian Democrat group pushed back last week with a host of amendments aimed at restoring the organization's traditional role of safeguarding human life and the family at the European Parliament.
In a position statement released in January entitled "Draft EPP Election Document 2009," the European People's Party (EPP) removed some bedrock principles supporting traditional marriage and human life found in their 2004 position statement. The EPP is the largest group in the European Parliament with 288 members from 74 coalition parties, primarily Christian Democrat Members of the European Parliament (MEPs). Members of the EPP will use the final version of the statement in the course of campaigning in the upcoming continent-wide elections, scheduled for the 4th through 7th of June.
According to the IONA Institute, an Ireland-based pro-life and pro-family non-governmental organization, the EPP dropped explicit opposition to "euthanasia, eugenics, human cloning" which it opposed in its 2004 statement, while retaining language defending "human life in all its forms (including embryos) and at all stages; to respect the human dignity in medical and genetic advancements." Similarly, the 2004 EPP document urged the European Union (EU) not to fund "biotechnological practices that are illegal to Member states," such as the current practice of the EU to fund embryonic stem-cell research.
The EPP's 2009 statement is also weaker on the protection of the traditional family, IONA says. Whereas the 2004 document pointed to the institution of marriage as a "unique tie of man and woman," the phrase was deleted from the 2009 draft text. Conversely, in its discussion of the “demographic winter” in Europe – a graying population having too few children – the new text adds a proposal that EU member states change national policies to recognize "the growing diversity in family relationships," a phrase conservatives warn can be interpreted to include homosexual "marriage."
National parties represented in the EPP have submitted proposed amendments to the text. A copy of proposed amendments obtained by the Friday Fax aims at restoring the strong pro-life and pro-family language deleted since the 2004 EPP statement. For example, one party proposes restoring references to protecting human dignity through a proper understanding of subsidiarity, a principle whereby decisions are made at the level closest to those affected by policy, and not by unaccountable bureaucrats and committees in Brussels.
Another proposed amendment focuses on replacing secular-humanist language in the 2009 text with explicit reference to Europe's Judeo-Christian heritage, arguing that while "there are of course other philosophical and political trends in Europe," it is through the Christian Democrats that "the Christian inspiration [of European culture] must be declared."
Final approval of text is scheduled for March 29th in Warsaw. Given the venue, the role of the Polish MEPs is thought to be pivotal and they are expected to lobby for a return to strong pro-life and pro-family statements.
8. Here's How To Fight Back At Planned Parenthood – March 13, 2009
Want to fight back at Planned Parenthood? Here's how... (Please forward this e-mail on to as many people as possible!)
LifeSiteNews.com | (888) 678-6008
http://lsnusa.qbasefundraising.com/QMail/Click/131/291/618304469/963/QMail.ashx
Donate to LifeSiteNews in the name of Planned Parenthood president, Cecile Richards, and we will mail her a personalized card telling her that your donation was made in her name!
Dear Friend,
Remember that letter we posted a month ago from the lady who revealed that LifeSiteNews convinced her not to abort her baby?
Well that letter has motivated us more than ever to send a strong message to the face of abortion in America – to the organization that, in the space of a single year, performed an unimaginable 290,000 abortions.
We want to tell Planned Parenthood that a “planned parenthood” shouldn’t imply a dead baby and a wounded mother, and we need your help.
So now, for a limited time, if you donate to LifeSiteNews.com in the name of Planned Parenthood president, Cecile Richards, we will mail her a card (see image below and text below right) telling her that your donation was made in her name.
Cecile Richards https://lsnusa.qbasefundraising.com/QMail/Click/131/291/618304469/966/QMail.ashx
“(First name and initial), from (state) has donated (amount) to LifeSiteNews.com in your name. The donation will be used to promote a culture of life through first-rate pro-life and pro-family news reporting! (First name) has asked us to remind you that all Americans, including the unborn, have an inalienable right to life, and that women deserve better than abortion.”
You probably remember during the last election when an e-mail went around asking women to donate to Planned Parenthood in the name of Sarah Palin. PP raised quite a bit of money, and Palin received a hefty stack of thank you letters. Well, now it’s your turn.
By donating to LSN today, you're hitting two birds with one stone: helping support the world’s most widely read international pro-life and pro-family news service, and sending a strong message to Planned Parenthood about the sanctity of life. Feel free to send this on to all your pro-life friends and *urge them* to do the same.
Thank you in advance for your generous donation.
Sincerely,
John-Henry Westen
Editor, LifeSiteNews.com
P.S. Click here to donate to LifeSiteNews https://lsnusa.qbasefundraising.com/QMail/Click/131/291/618304469/967/QMail.ashx and we will mail Planned Parenthood president, Cecile Richards, a card telling her that your donation was made in her name!
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9. International Apologist, Stephanie Gray, To Speak At Ohio State University April 4 – March 12, 2009
Columbus, OH – March 12, 2009 – Stephanie Gray, international pro-life apologist from the Canadian Centre for Bio Ethical Reform, will be speaking at the The Pro-Life Institute on April 4, 2009 from 10am-2PM at OSU’s University Hall.
Stephanie has given pro-life presentations across North America and in the United Kingdom. She has spoken at many post-secondary institutions such as the University of Toronto, York University, University of Calgary, Johns Hopkins University, George Washington University, and the University of Sussex in England.
She has also spoken to high schools, churches of various denominations, seminaries, and pro-life organizations. Stephanie has debated abortion advocates such as Ron Fitzsimmons, executive director of the National Coalition of Abortion Providers, and Dr. Jan Narveson, Philosophy professor and recipient of the Order of Canada.
One presentation attendee described Stephanie’s talk as, “interesting, convincing, moving, [and] excellent…” Another said, “I came in /choice/, I’m leaving /life/.”
Click OSU Pro-Life Institute Flyer to download PDF file.
Stephanie was the president of Lifeline, the University of British Columbia’s pro-life club from 1999–2001. At UBC she led the effort to display a smaller version of the Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) which generated significant media attention. Stephanie has been interviewed on multiple radio shows and has been a guest on television programs such as VTV News, Global News, 100 Huntley Street’s /Listen Up/, and the Miracle Channel’s /In Sight/. She has been interviewed by ABC-, NBC-, FOX-, and CBS-affiliated television news programs throughout the Midwest of the United States.
Stephanie holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of British Columbia. She is a co-founder and the executive director of the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform. The event is free to the public. Space is limited. An offering will be received. To RSVP email mark@prolifeinstitute.com.
For more information contact CBR Midwest at 614-419-9000 or cbrmidwest@cbrinfo.org.
10. LifeIssues.Net Newsletter #413 – March 8, 2009
Greetings from LifeIssues.net (www.LifeIssues.net)
Dear Friends for Life,
Here are some words for Pro-Lifers to live by.
Dr. Jack Willke, president of Life Issues Institute (http://www.lifeissues.org) and former president of National Right to Life Committee, Inc., published a column in the latest edition of Life Issues Connector in which he quoted "one of the preeminent academic voices of the pro-life movement," Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, who gave a speech about fifteen years ago in which he said:
"So long as we have the gift of life we must protect the gift of life. So long as it is threatened, so long must it be defended. This is the time to brace ourselves for the long term. We are today laying the foundations for the pro-life movement of the twenty-first century. Pray that the foundations are firm, for we have not yet seen the full fury of the storm that is upon us."
"But we have not the right to despair. We have not the right and we have not the reason to despair if we understand that our entire struggle is promised not upon a victory to be achieved, but a victory that has been achieved. If we understand that, far from despair we have right and reason to rejoice that we are called to such a time as this, a time of testing, a time of truth. The encroaching culture of death shall not prevail, for we know, 'the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.' The darkness will never overcome that light."
Those prophetic words should serve as strong encouragement to all of us as we face the anti-life onslaught currently underway.
God Bless; Jerry Novotny, OMI
(From Alex web poll) This link will bring you to a web poll that asks the question: Do you think assisted suicide should be legal. Please vote no and forward the email to your contacts. Thank you. http://www.wsbtv.com/surveyresults/18808609/index.html?section=health .
LifeIssues.Net Newsletter #413 – March 8, 2009
Table Of Contents:
1. Sex-Selection And Hair, Skin And Eye Color In High Demand From U.S. Artificial Reproduction Companies
2. Swiss Women Abandoning The Pill Due To Adverse Health Effects
3. Embryos Are Humans
4. Washington State To Allow `Dignity' Deaths
5. Researchers Find Safer Way To Produce Stem Cell Alternative
6. Designer Baby Row Over US Clinic
7. Little Miracles: The Pregnant Mother With Cancer Who Refused Chemotherapy To Save Her Twins... And Survived
8. Killing Without Consequences
9. Italian Doctor Claims He Cloned Three Babies
10. More Research Links Abortion With Preterm Births In Subsequent Pregnancies
11. Germany And Italy Have Done It – Shouldn't We? (Making Sense Out Of Bioethics)
12. Contraceptive Claims
Focus On Asia: "Infanticide, Abortion Responsible for 60 Million Girls Missing in Asia" – There is a little-known battle for survival going in some parts of the world. Those at risk are baby girls, and the casualties are in the millions each year. The weapons being used against them are prenatal sex selection, abortion and female infanticide \ the systematic killing of girls soon after they are born.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,281722,00.html
Item #1. Sex-Selection And Hair, Skin And Eye Color In High Demand From U.S. Artificial Reproduction Companies
Demand for sex-selection for in vitro fertilization is "rapidly growing" according to many private IVF facilities in the US. In a CNN report on sex-selection and other genetic screening tests at the Fertility Institutes IVF facility in California, a spokesman for the Center for Genetics and Society said that the widespread practice of sex-selective IVF could open the door to "a society where there are new kinds of inequality and new kinds of discrimination, a world that we really would not want to live in."
The CNN report focused on the success of the Fertility Institutes, a private artificial reproduction facility in Los Angeles that advertises "gender selection" by pre-implantation genetic diagnosis of already created embryos, and claims a nearly 100 per cent "success rate." The facility also claims to be the first to offer the "pending availability" of genetic tests to pre-determine the eye color, skin and hair color, and "cancer tendency" of embryos created in the lab.
View full article at LifeSiteNews.com: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/feb/09022707.html
Item #2. Swiss Women Abandoning The Pill Due To Adverse Health Effects
The use of the contraceptive pill is plummeting among younger women, in response to growing awareness of its destructive health effects, reports a French bioethics site. According to the site "Genetique," the use of "the pill" among women aged 15 to 24 years old dropped from 43% in 2003 to 26% in 2007. The rate of childbirth among the same group increased at the same time.
"The principal reason for this decrease is the attention paid by women to their health," says Genetique. "It is now proven that the pill suppresses libido and causes weight gain. The fear of cancer and sterility are equally responsible." According to numerous studies on the effects of the contraceptive pill, its use is also linked to increased risk of heart disease, hypertension, and stroke.
View full article at LifeSiteNews.com: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/feb/09022704.html
Item #3. Embryos Are Humans
There is no doubt that stem cell research, using exclusively adult stem cells, in and of itself, can be a thoroughly ethical and even necessary enterprise and, in fact, is already providing medical therapies and showing great promise for even more medical applications... On the other hand, the same cannot be said for embryonic stem cell research, which must kill human embryos in its research. There are at least two major arguments against embryonic stem cell research.
View full article at Ventura County Star: http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2009/mar/01/embryos-are-humans/
Item #4. Washington State To Allow `Dignity' Deaths
Terminally ill patients with less than six months to live will soon be able to ask their doctors to prescribe them lethal medication in Washington state. But even though the "Death with Dignity" law takes effect Thursday, people who might seek the life-ending prescriptions could find their doctors conflicted or not willing to write them.
Comment: Note that the Washington palliative care director won't rule out lethal overdoses in the future if "There's possibly a story out there, in the future, that's so compelling that maybe I would write a prescription." Palliative care has been touted as an alternative to euthanasia but, like hospice, it apparently can be corrupted. And note that Montana doesn't even have a reporting process. Also note that this article contains no link to any group criticizing assisted suicide. Poor journalism, at the least! – Nancy Valko, RN
View full article at Breitbart.com: http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D96LDB1O0&show_article=1
Item #5. Researchers Find Safer Way To Produce Stem Cell Alternative
Comment: Note this: "The point is, we don't know yet what the end potential of either of these approaches will be," said Mark A. Kay of Stanford University. "No one has cured any disease in people with any of these approaches yet. We don't know enough yet to know which approach will be better." Where has this guy been? Adult stem cells have long worked while embryonic have not. – Nancy Valko, RN
View full article at Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/01/AR2009030101741_pf.html
Item #6. Designer Baby Row Over Us Clinic
The LA Fertility Institutes run by Dr Jeff Steinberg, a pioneer of IVF in the 1970s, expects a trait-selected baby to be born next year. His clinic also offers sex selection. UK fertility experts are angered that the service will distract attention from how the same technology can protect against inherited disease. The science is based on a lab technique called preimplantation genetic diagnosis, or PGD.
This is the inevitable slippery slope of a fertility process which results in many more embryos being created than can be implanted.
See the full article at BBC News: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7918296.stm
Item #7. Little Miracles: The Pregnant Mother With Cancer Who Refused Chemotherapy To Save Her Twins... And Survived
A woman in north-west England refused cancer treatment for the sake of her unborn twins. Mrs. Rachel Crossland said: "there was no way I could deal with getting rid of my babies and having to then fight cancer." She received therapy after the babies were delivered by caesarean.
Full article at Mail Online:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1158354/Little-miracles-The-pregnant-mother-cancer-refused-chemotherapy-save-twins--survived.html
Item #8. Killing Without Consequences
Make no mistake: Legalizing assisted suicide is a big step on a dangerous and slippery slope, especially in a world where human life is growing cheaper by the minute. We've already seen that legalizing assisted suicide has led to non-voluntary euthanasia in the Netherlands.
I will say it over and over, until I am blue in the face: Every human life, from conception through natural death, is sacred. And to take that life unjustly is simply murder-the kind of thing the state has a sworn duty to stop.
Full viewing at BreakPoint: http://www.breakpoint.org/listingarticle.asp?ID=11352
Item #9. Italian Doctor Claims He Cloned Three Babies
An Italian doctor known for helping post-menopausal women to have children has claimed to have cloned three babies who are now living in eastern Europe.
View entire text at Telegraph.co.uk:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/4934967/Italian-doctor-claims-he-cloned-three-babies.html
Item #10. More Research Links Abortion With Preterm Births In Subsequent Pregnancies
Abortion increases the likelihood of subsequent premature birth by nearly two thirds, according to a survey of 21 studies on the subject published in the Journal of Reproductive Medicine.
View entire text at LifeSiteNews.com: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/mar/09030404.html
Item #11. Germany And Italy Have Done It – Shouldn't We? (Making Sense Out Of Bioethics)
Laws like those in Germany and Italy, while they would not stop every injustice done to embryos, could go a long way towards stemming the tide and assuring that further forms of laboratory barbarism and human exploitation do not become commonplace.
Nearly 500,000 human embryos are currently stored in liquid nitrogen tanks in fertility clinics in the United States, a number comparable to the population of a mid-sized city like Cleveland or Tucson. By contrast, only a handful of human embryos have been frozen and held in storage tanks in the entire country of Germany.
View entire text at CERC: http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/medical_ethics/me0131.htm
Item #12. Contraceptive Claims
Thomas Aquinas taught that not all the truths of the faith can be proved by reason, but all the objections to the faith can be disproved by reason. Perhaps this principle can be applied in the debate over contraception. With this in mind, let's look at some objections against the official teaching and at possible responses to the objections. If the objections can be shown to be weak, the position of the Church is strengthened.
View entire text at LifeIssues.net: http://lifeissues.net/writers/kac/kac_01contraceptiveclaims.html
You Can Change Society:
1. Be Informed: "My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge." Hosea 4:6. Visit Lifeissues.net Website for insights into current Life Issues www.lifeissues.net. All prior email Newsletters Archives are located online at http://lifeissues.net/newsletters/mojo.cgi?flavor=archive&list=lifenews&start=0.
2. Pray Daily: for the courage to be God's presence in society and to 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: Several years ago Fr. Jerry created a project entitled, "Journey for Life into the Heart of Asia". It 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: Life Issues Trends and Challenges".
To become a supportive Missionary participant for this Asian project, kindly send your donations 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 (or) jerry@shirt.ocn.ne.jp.
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.
11. LifeIssues.Net Newsletter #414 – March 15, 2009
Greetings from LifeIssues.net (www.LifeIssues.net)
Dear Friends for Life,
Ron Panzer for Hospice Patients Alliance (http://www.hospicepatients.org) sent me the following message last week.
Quote: The "tolerance" of those who preach about "choice" is nil. It's always a one-way street pushing death upon babies who have no choice in the matter, and elderly or disabled who have no choice in the matter. These "tolerant" "preachers of choice" NEVER, never promote the "choice" of life for the baby who is about to be aborted or the "choice" of those whose "quality of life" is "unacceptable" according to their subjective view.
Once no "choice" is allowed for health care professionals who object to performing or participating in abortion, the same "tolerance" will be offered to those nurses and doctors who object to euthanizing the unwilling victims. For economic or agenda-driven reasons, a massive push to "delete" the vulnerable is coming. The actual numbers has already been suppressed; the media censor every story about the killings we hear about every day, in hospitals, nursing homes and hospices.
While the killers hide behind the good reputation of those with integrity, they silently continue their gruesome work, blindsiding those who were led to believe in and trust those in the white coats.
See the article below about how "tolerant" policies are being proposed and implemented, step-by-step. Item #7
God Bless; Jerry Novotny, OMI
A Thought: An embryo is not some thing but someone. Talk of human rights is but a charade if it is only for the "chosen" of the human family. – Dan L Kennedy
LifeIssues.Net Newsletter #414 – March 15, 2009
Table Of Contents:
1. Death and the Organ Donor
2. Dignitas under investigation for 'profiteering' from assisted suicide patients
3. Obama ends stem cell funding ban
4. Extinguishing Physician Conscience
5. Embryonic stem-cell research a money-maker?
6. Everyone Against Abortion Raise Your Hand, New Pro-Life Video Grabs Attention
7. Physicians: Obama plan will 'shut down hospitals'
8. Studies Find Contraception Makes Women Obese and Newborns Too Thin
9. Bishop: "President Obama is forcing all American taxpayers to pay for this homicidal research"
10. 2.5M victims of human trafficking 'at any given time': UN
11. Sex Selection of Children
12. Testimony In Support of the Maryland Personhood Amendment
Focus On Asia: "Pakistan protest crackdown widens" – Authorities in Pakistan's north-west have banned political gatherings and a protest convoy has been halted in Sindh as a crackdown on activists spreads. The government says the march is aimed at destabilizing the country. The protest is causing widening international concern. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7941122.stm
Item #1. Death And The Organ Donor
While organ donation is a worthy goal when conducted ethically, it is very dangerous when physicians and ethicists redefine terms and devise new rationales without the knowledge or input of others, especially the public. This has been happening far too often and far too long in many areas of medical ethics and the consequences are often lethal. Opinions about medical ethics affect all of us and our loved ones. And good medical ethics decisions are the foundation of a trustworthy medical system. We are constantly exhorted to sign organ-donor cards and join state organ registries but are we getting enough accurate information to give our truly informed consent? This question is too important to just leave to the self-described experts.
View full article at LifeIssues.net: http://lifeissues.net/writers/val/val_34deathorgandonor.html
Item #2. Dignitas Under Investigation For 'Profiteering' From Assisted Suicide Patients
The Swiss euthanasia clinic Dignitas that has helped close to 1,000 people kill themselves is under investigation amid fears it may be profiteering from its vulnerable patients.
View full article at telegraph.co.uk:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/4160472/Dignitas-under-investigation-for-profiteering-from-assisted-suicide-patients.html
Item #3. Obama Ends Stem Cell Funding Ban
There is no doubt that stem cell research, using exclusively adult stem cells, in and of itself, can be a thoroughly ethical and even necessary enterprise and, in fact, is already providing medical therapies and showing great promise for even more medical applications... On the other hand, the same cannot be said for embryonic stem cell research, which must kill human embryos in its research. There are at least two major arguments against embryonic stem cell research.
View full article at BBC News: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7929690.stm
Item #4. Extinguishing Physician Conscience
You feel vaguely uncomfortable as you are placed in a darkened room in the Comfort Care wing of the hospital. In moments of lucidity, you wonder if you shouldn't have some oxygen, an IV or SOMETHING! But the appropriate therapy, kidney dialysis, is not on the approved list of treatments for patients over 65, having been deemed too expensive. The new regulations from the Department of Health and Human Services were presented just last month to your hospital's Futile Care Committee. It was decided at the highest levels that for those over 65 years of age, renal dialysis would not be a beneficial treatment, that the alternatives of a kidney transplant were too expensive, and that your quality of life on chronic dialysis would be too diminished.
View full article at American Thinker: http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/03/extinguishing_physician_consci.html
Item #5. Embryonic Stem-Cell Research A Money-Maker?
An oncologist well known for using adult stem cells to treat cancer says the recent repeal of restrictions on embryonic stem-cell research was not a good idea, either spiritually or medically. Dr. Francisco Contreras, director and president of Oasis of Hope Hospital, is known for combining conventional and alternative medical treatments with emotional and spiritual support. He says scientists have not found any practical use for embryonic stem cells. "All the breakthroughs you have heard in the news have come from adult stem cells," he points out. "So we can do a lot of research on the stem cell, but not necessarily coming from human embryos."
Some people are hoping for a financial windfall now that the ban has been lifted on embryonic stem-cell research, Contreras says. "All the [stem cell] lines that are being produced are patentable, and thus people are able to foresee tremendous amount of money coming in," he adds.
View full article at OneNewsNow: http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=447628
Item #6. Everyone Against Abortion Raise Your Hand, New Pro-Life Video Grabs Attention
A new pro-life video sponsored by Priests for Life is making the rounds across the Internet and is grabbing the attention of thousands. Titled, "Everyone Against Abortion Please Raise Your Hand," the video features a non-graphic image of a person holding the hand of a baby victimized by abortion.
"Let us mourn for these children," the video says. "May our hearts be broken enough for God to enter and stir us to action to defend their lives."
See the full article at LifeNews.com: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ql_7jnp--UE
Item #7. Physicians: Obama Plan Will 'Shut Down Hospitals'
Doctors are forecasting the closure of hospitals and clinics across America and a mass migration of physicians and their assistances to other careers should the Obama administration succeed in its attempt to overrule their rights of conscience.
"Thousands of conscientious and compassionate physicians, nurses, hospitals and clinics currently serve poor women and those who live in medically underserved areas," said David Stevens, CEO of the Christian Medical Association today.
"Many of these professionals and institutions are motivated and guided by longstanding Hippocratic ethics and biblical principles that preclude participation in abortion and other controversial procedures. Infringing on their right to practice medicine according to these life-affirming ethical standards will force them to leave the profession and to shut down the hospitals and clinics," he warned.
Full article at WorldNetDaily: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=90240
Item #8. Studies Find Contraception Makes Women Obese And Newborns Too Thin
University of Ottawa researchers have found that women who conceive within a month of taking birth-control pills tend to have premature babies or babies with a low birth weight. At the same time, another study from the University of Texas has revealed that users of the contraceptive "shot" are significantly more likely than other women to become obese.
Xi-Kuan Chen, an epidemiologist and senior analyst with the Canadian Institute for Health Information at the University of Ottawa said doctors should inform patients of the link between chemical contraceptives and low birth weight, which is a growing problem in Canada, because children born too thin are likely to suffer health problems later in life.
Full viewing at LifeSiteNews.com: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/mar/09030907.html
Item #9. Bishop: "President Obama Is Forcing All American Taxpayers To Pay For This Homicidal Research"
The Bishop of Phoenix in Arizona has written a straight-talking column responding to President Barack Obama's executive order providing federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.
"This means that American taxpayers will now be paying for the killing of human beings at a very early stage in their lives (as embryos), so that scientific research can make use of them for experiments that may or may not yield positive results," writes Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted in his diocesan newspaper, the Catholic Sun.
View entire text at LifeSiteNews.com: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/mar/09031106.html
Item #10. 2.5m Victims Of Human Trafficking 'At Any Given Time': UN
"In varying degrees and circumstances, men, women and children all over the world are victims of what has become a modern day slave trade," Ngozi Ezeilo wrote.
About 1.2 million of the total number of are children, she said, citing estimates by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).
View entire text at LifeIssues.net: http://lifeissues.net/writers/shu/shu_11girlscryabortion.html
Item #11. Sex Selection Of Children
This reflection takes up recent literature on sex selection of children, especially by abortion, and the right of children to be loved. Sex selection can occur in three ways: prior to conception by sperm separation, after conception but before implantation through genetic diagnosis of IVF embryos, and after implantation by abortion.
View entire text at LifeIssues.net: http://www.lifeissues.net/writers/kac/kac_02sexselection.html
Item #12. Testimony In Support Of The Maryland Personhood Amendment
The bottom line is that there is absolutely no question whatsoever as to when human beings begin to exist, and that arguments for "delayed personhood" can neither be scientifically nor philosophically defended successfully. To legally deny the youngest of new living innocent human beings their inherent right to life is unquestionably an obvious and odious violation of their civil rights, and it is about time that all involved in these debates be held to accountability.
View entire text at LifeIssues.net: http://www.lifeissues.net/writers/irv/irv_135marylandamendment.html
You Can Change Society:
1. Be Informed: "My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge." Hosea 4:6. Visit Lifeissues.net Website for insights into current Life Issues www.lifeissues.net. All prior email Newsletters Archives are located online at http://lifeissues.net/newsletters/mojo.cgi?flavor=archive&list=lifenews&start=0.
2. Pray Daily: for the courage to be God's presence in society and to 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: Several years ago Fr. Jerry created a project entitled, "Journey for Life into the Heart of Asia". It 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: Life Issues Trends and Challenges".
For information about no-cost Pro Life Talks to your group in Asia: contact Fr. Jerry at jerry@shirt.ocn.ne.jp.
To become a supportive Missionary participant for this Asian project, kindly send your donations 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 (or) jerry@shirt.ocn.ne.jp.
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.
12. Massive German Study Confirms Abortion Significantly Increases Premature Birth Risk – February 11, 2009
By Kathleen Gilbert
February 11, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A huge German study has further substantiated the link between abortion history and an increased risk of future premature births.
Dr. Manfred Voigt and his German colleagues evaluated over two million pregnancies between 1995 and 2000, making the 2008 study the most massive AVP (Abortion Very Preterm Birth) study in the last 30 years. (To view the abstract, go to: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18293256)
The control group of women in the study had no history of induced abortion, miscarriage or stillbirths. The rate of premature births in the control group was compared to that of three separate groups: women with abortions in their medical history (but no miscarriages or stillbirths), women with only miscarriages in their history, and women with only stillbirths in their history.
According to a press release by the Reduce Preterm Risk Coalition, the study found that for a woman with one prior abortion, VPB (under 32-34 weeks' gestation) risk is boosted by 30%, while more than one prior abortion increases relative VPB risk by 90%.
The study's data about women's prior abortion history was extracted from a perinatal data-base, and not via interviews conducted for the purpose of the study. Thus the Voigt team avoided the possibility of skewed results due to women falsifying their abortion history, a factor critics of the abortion-premature birth link have questioned in the past.
Preterm birth raises a child's risk for cerebral palsy, mental retardation, epilepsy, visual impairment, hearing disability, gastrointestinal injury, respiratory distress, and severe infections. Those born under 28 week's gestation have 129 times the risk of cerebral palsy as a full-term newborn, according to 2008 study by Dr. Eveline Himpens et al.
The German study joins a solid body of evidence showing the increased risk of preterm births for children who are brought to term after a previous abortion.
In the Winter 2008 issue of the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, Brent Rooney (MSc), Dr. Byron Calhoun, and lawyer Lisa Roche revealed that black American women, who abort nearly one out of every two children, are at three times higher risk for giving birth prematurely, and four times higher risk for giving birth extremely prematurely.
The article also suggested that "suction" abortions violate the 1947 Nuremberg Code, since there are no published trials of the procedure that validate its safety. (http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/dec/08120211.html).
Brent Rooney of the Reduce Preterm Risk Coalition urged U.S. President Obama to suspend government funding of abortion in light of strong evidence for the procedure's dangerous effects on women and children.
"Famous economist John Maynard Keynes said it best, 'When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?'" said Rooney.
See related LifeSiteNews.com articles:
Abortion Linked to Disproportionately High Rate of Black Premature Births.
Abortion Triples Chances of Future Low Birth weight Babies New Study Confirms.
For Life:
John Hof, President, Campaign Life Coalition BC
Box 12045 Murrayville PO
Langley, BC V3A 9J5
Phone: 604-534-4828
E-mail: info@clcbc.org
Website: www.clcbc.org
13. National Pro-Life Radio – March 13, 2009
http://www.nationalproliferadio.net/showdj.asp?DJID=47016.
14. One Small Victory For Freedom Of Speech – March 5, 2009
http://www.montrealgazette.com/opinion/editorials/small+victory+freedom+speech/1354828/story.html
The Gazette – March 5, 2009
McGill University's student government has bucked an unfortunate national trend by granting full club status to a student anti-abortion group.
The Student Society's decision to grant recognition to Choose Life is not so much a victory for pro-life forces as it is a victory for free speech and freedom of association, values that seem to be under attack, and poorly defended, on many Canadian campuses – where they should be safest.
Students at the University of British Columbia's Okanagan campus, for example, have denied status to an anti-abortion group, and Carleton University's student leaders are considering a motion to refuse support or space to any group that doesn't support "a woman's right to choose." But anti-abortion groups aren't the only ones having on-campus problems, which is what makes this fundamentally a free-speech issue. Pro-Israeli students often find their views marginalized as well. It appears to be a lot easier, for example, to organize an "Israel-Apartheid" week, like the current ones at McGill and Concordia, than to get a room and a time for a pro-Israeli speaker.
So the McGill students' decision is a hopeful sign that not all students have bought into the notion that debate should be limited to a very narrow spectrum of "acceptable" opinions. But some of the rhetoric in the society's heated two-hour debate over Choose Life's status illustrated the scope of the challenge to free debate: "There's a lot of legitimacy in calling this group oppressive to women," Councillor Sarah Woolf argued. "SSMU operates under an anti-oppressive environment, and we cannot allow this club to continue."
This is the old I-don't-like-what-they-say-so-they-should-shut-up formula, the very antithesis of free speech. To our dismay, it was echoed in a McGill Daily editorial under the ironic headline, "Campus is no place to limit choice." That headline neatly betrayed the argument of those who want to stifle the speech they don't like.
The university environment is specifically intended for open discussion of ideas. We have laws against libel and criminal incitement. The idea that otherwise lawful opinions should be banned at the whim of some elite with its own agenda should be repulsive to everyone who understands what a university is supposed to be. (Emphasis added).
© Copyright (c) The Montreal Gazette
15. Stem-Cell Decision Exposes Religious Divides – March 15, 2009
The embryonic stem cell research debate is steeped with religious arguments, with some faith traditions convinced the research amounts to killing innocent life, others citing the moral imperative to alleviate suffering, and plenty of religious believers caught somewhere in between.
President Barack Obama's order Monday opening the door for federal taxpayer dollars to fund expanded embryonic stem cell research again brings those often colliding interests to the fore.
Cardinal Justin Rigali, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Pro-Life Activities, called Obama's move "a sad victory of politics over science and ethics."
"This action is morally wrong because it encourages the destruction of innocent human life, treating vulnerable human beings as mere products to be harvested," Rigali, the archbishop of Philadelphia, said in a statement.
On the other side is the Rev. Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, a United Church of Christ minister and a professor at Chicago Theological Seminary.
"There is an ethical imperative to relieve suffering and promote healing," she said. "This is good policy for a religiously pluralistic society that cares about human suffering and the relief of human suffering."
Obama alluded to religion in announcing the changes, saying, "As a person of faith, I believe we are called to care for each other and work to ease human suffering. I believe we have been given the capacity and will to pursue this research and the humanity and conscience to do so responsibly."
Some religious traditions teach that because life begins at conception, any research that destroys a human embryo, as this research does, is tantamount to murder and is never justified. The Roman Catholic Church and the Southern Baptist Convention are among those that oppose the research.
Other more liberal traditions, including mainline Protestant and Jewish institutions, believe the promise to relieve suffering is paramount. In 2004, the governing body of the Episcopal Church said it would favor the research as long as it used embryos that otherwise would have been destroyed, that embryos were not created for research purposes, or were not bought and sold.
Under Jewish law, an embryo is genetic material that does not have the status of a person. According to the Talmud, the embryo is "simply water" in the first 40 days of gestation. Healing and preserving human life takes precedence over all the other commandments in Judaism.
Some groups and faiths are divided on the issue. Muslims disagree over — among other things — whether an embryo in the early stage of development has a soul. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or the Mormon church, has not taken a position.
The Rev. Joel Hunter, an evangelical pastor from Orlando, Fla., who serves on an Obama White House advisory panel, said he was encouraged by Monday's developments.
"The principle is still that it's not only understandable but in some ways moral to use embryonic stem cells that are destined for destruction for research for helping people," he said. "I think we have to tread very lightly and very carefully, and I think we have to be vigilant for years to come."
But most evangelicals criticized Obama's move. Gilbert Meilaender, a Christian ethicist at Valparaiso University and a member of the President's Council on Bioethics, created by President George W. Bush, said Obama's decision was especially disappointing because scientists are advancing toward being able to produce cells that act like embryonic stem cells without destroying any human embryos.
Meilaender said that while there is no good solution for frozen embryos left in storage at fertility clinics, destroying them for stem cell research is not the answer.
"My own position is that having, as it were, produced and used them once in the use of someone else's project, for a reproductive purpose, that using it once for someone else's purpose is enough," said Meilaender, a member of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.
Catholic bishops have been outspoken in opposing embryonic stem cell research. Other Catholics, though, are more open to lifting the Bush-era restrictions, with caveats. The Rev. Tom Reese, a senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University, said restrictions should be put on embryonic stem cell research — including prohibition on their buying and selling, and using only embryos that otherwise would be destroyed.
"I'm trying to make an argument for some middle ground here," Reese said. "Hopefully down the line we can reach a point where we don't have to use embryonic stem cell research."
Polls show some believers are willing to buck their leaders on the issue. Fifty-nine percent of white, non-Hispanic Catholics and 58 percent of white mainline Protestants favor embryonic stem cell research, according to a poll released in July 2008 by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. Only 31 percent of white evangelical Protestants, however, favored the research.
Princeton University politics professor Robert George, a Catholic and another member of the Bush-era Council on Bioethics, said the moral argument over embryonic stem cell research is not rooted in religion but in ethics and equality. He said research shows that an embryo is a human being in its earliest form of development, so we have to ask ourselves whether all human life should be treated equally, with dignity and respect.
"I don't think the question has anything to do with religion or pulling out our microscope and trying to find souls," George said. "We live in a pluralistic society where some people believe there are no such things as souls. Does that mean we should not have moral objections to killing 17-year-old adolescents?"
Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
16. Timothy Dolan, Named To Head NY Archdiocese – February 23, 2009
By The Associated Press 3:23 AM PST, February 23, 2009
Quotes from Monsignor Timothy Dolan, the former Milwaukee archbishop who has been named archbishop of New York.
"Maybe the greatest threat to the church is not heresy, not dissent, not secularism, not even moral relativism, but this sanitized, feel-good, boutique, therapeutic spirituality that makes no demands, calls for no sacrifice, asks for no conversion, entails no battle against sin, but only soothes and affirms." — a 2007 lecture on preaching.
"This is the time we priests need to be renewing our pledge to celibacy, not questioning it. The problems in the church today are not caused by the teachings of Jesus and of his church, but by lack of fidelity to them." — responding to a 2003 public letter from some Archdiocese of Milwaukee priests, saying celibacy should be optional.
"It bothers me if any politician, Catholic or not, is for abortion. Because in my mind, we're talking about a civil right, we're not talking about a matter of Catholic Church discipline. We can't allow the noble pro-life cause to be reduced to a denominational issue." — a 2004 interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
"What we have learned in the 'school of hard knocks' is that cooperation, mergers, consolidations, or closings are not successful when imposed from above. Dioceses where the bishop's office simply announces widespread reorganization without exhaustive dialogue, face bitterness, resentment and loss of people." — on why he didn't rush to reorganize the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, 2009.
Sources: Catholic News Service; Archdiocese of Milwaukee.
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