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National Pro-Life Conference Oct 25-27 Moncton, NB Crowe Plaza Hotel 1-888-796-9680 Speakers: Mary Ann Kuharshi, Dennis Savoie,Lorraine Hartsook,Rev. John Ensor, Ntalie Hudson,John Henry Weston, |
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Tax funded Abortions in NS [FAQ's] |
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Oh! Canada |
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- Alert To All C.A.S.E. Members – September 17, 2007
- Birth Control Pill Creates Blood Clot Causing Death Of Irish Woman – September 10, 2007
- Canadians Still Value Marriage – September 17, 2007
- Dr. Dobson Says Dogs Receive More Protection Than Babies – September 6, 2007
- Gardasil Vaccine Not The Only Option For Preventing Cervical Cancer – September 10, 2007
- Homosexual Indoctrination Grade 12 Curriculum To Start In British Columbia Schools – September 10, 2007
- International Symposium On Euthanasia And Assisted Suicide – September 6, 2007
- J K Rowling Advocates Physician-Assisted Suicide – September 6, 2007
- Lifeissues.net Newsletter #340 – September 9, 2007
- Lifeissues.Net Newsletter #341 – September 16, 2007
- Lifesitenews.Com - Wednesday September 12, 2007
- National Right To Life (US) – Today's News & Views – September 13, 2007
- Special Details Planned Parenthood Abortion Mill Deception, Concealing Rape – September 10, 2007
- UNFPA Funding Cut For Sixth Year; Bush Withholds $34 Million – September 12, 2007
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1. Alert To All C.A.S.E. Members – September 17, 2007
Prime Minister Harper has decided to reconvene Parliament on October 16 th, when he presents a new Speech from the Throne. September 17 th was the originally scheduled date to open parliament. This delay allows the opposition parties to vote on the government’s agenda and there is a distinct possibility the government could be defeated.
Consequently, Bill C-22 will not make it out of senate: Bill C-22 will die.
Please contact the senators immediately at: leg-jur@sen.parl.gc.ca.
Express your deep concern that the death of this bill, Bill C-22, The Age of Protection Act will profoundly affect the youth of Canada.
The Senate meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays. So its first day back should be September 18th. For information on whether the Senators will sit on September 18th, please see www.parl.gc.ca/legisinfo.
It would also be useful to contact Justice Minister Rob Nicholson and remind him of our concern that this bill be passed immediately. He can be reached by e-mail at: webadmin@justice.gc.ca.
This is a critical time for the passage of this bill and we need everyone’s help to get the Senators to bring it to Third Reading in the Senate and pass it into law. Please act now and support our efforts to finally have this law enacted.
Many thanks,
Mary Hawkley; Co-President C.A.S.E. – September 5, 2007
2. Birth Control Pill Creates Blood Clot Causing Death Of Irish Woman – September 10, 2007
Family warns others to beware of the health risks of the pill – By Elizabeth O'Brien
DUBLIN, August 17, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – An Irish woman has died of a blood clot after taking the birth control pill for several years. Her family and an investigating doctor have publicly attributed her death to the use of the contraceptive.
On March 22 of last year, 31-year-old Julie Hennessy was found dead on the floor of her living room, Ireland Independent reports. Although she was a non-smoker of healthy weight, the woman had been taking the drug Mercilon for a number of years. This resulted in her developing deep vein thrombosis (DVT), a condition in which a blood clot forms in a deep vein-usually in one of the appendages. As in the case of Miss Hennessy, a DVT can break off and lodge in the lungs, causing death.
After her inquest on Tuesday, Julie's father Ray, speaking on behalf of his family-his wife Angela and their two daughters-drew special attention to the fact that the pill was the main factor in the death of his daughter.
"The Pill was the major cause of our daughter's death and we want to put it on record that other young women should be aware of these dangers," said Mr. Hennessy. "Doctors are aware of the risks but I want to warn young women of the possible consequences of taking it. I wouldn't like this to happen to another family."
Speaking before the Dublin County Coroner's Court, pathologist Peter Szontagh-Kishazi emphasized that the contraceptive pill had caused Julie Hennessy's DVT.
"The only important factor was the oral contraceptive pill," he said.
"Clotting is a well-known risk of using the contraceptive pill. There is no other medication that has such a big risk as the oral contraceptive pill," said Dr Szontagh-Kishazi."
Some investigators attempted to blame the condition on the air travel that Julie went on for her work. Nevertheless, Szontagh-Kishazi said that although flying, especially economy class, has caused blood clots before, this was not the reason for her death because in such a case the clot would have happened in the plane. In this case, her condition was "a recent complication".
Blood clotting is only one of the many medical risks of taking the contraceptive pill. According to noted endocrinologist (hormone doctor) Dr. Maria Kraw, studies have shown that taking oral contraceptives increases a woman's risk of breast cancer by 24%. Hormonal contraceptives also make the body much more susceptible to the Sexually Transmitted Infection (STI) known as the human pampilloma virus (HPV). Other STI's such as HPV, Gonorrhoea, Chlamydia, Chancroid and Syphilis are also more common in people who take the pill. In addition, the pill has been known to cause osteoporosis and reduce milk production in lactating mothers.
(Read full report on talk by Dr. Maria Kraw: http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/aug/07080903.html).
Studies have also shown that the pill likely causes a decreased sex-drive, and one particular report showed that the drug raises the risk of heart attack by 100%.
(Read http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/jul/05071207.html).
In addition, the birth control pill has been proved to cause frequent medical abortions by making the wall of a woman's uterus hostile to a newly conceived person. The resulting condition in the womb can cause problems later on when the woman wants to conceive a child. In fact, women who take birth control have a 26% lower fertility rate.
(Read full report on talk by Dr. Maria Kraw: http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/aug/07080303.html).
Referring to trial runs of the pill in Latin America, Kraw stated, "They started off using ten times the amount of estrogen - 'We're really going to shut down that brain' - Well, what happened? Women died in the first phase trial of these medications, but they were in Puerto Rico so, (the attitude was) 'well…. we didn't really have medical ethics, so we'll just keep going and trying.'"
These risks are present, however, even in the regular, low-dose contraceptive pill. As Kraw pointed out, "The problem is that this (death) is still occurring even as the dose of estrogen has lowered itself to only about 4 times with the low-dose pills."
Related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Birth Control Pill May Permanently Reduce Sex Drive Study Finds
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/may/05052603.htmlBirth Control Pill May Cause Prostate Cancer and Bladder Disease in Mothers' Children
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/may/05050411.html3. Canadians Still Value Marriage – September 17, 2007
Canadians Still Value Marriage – September 12, 2007
Many Canadians still attach great personal importance to marriage, a new survey commissioned and reported by Canadian Press suggests.
In a poll of just over 1,000 people by Harris/Decima, 42 per cent of respondents said that marriage was more important in their lives now than they “may have felt in the past.” A further 39 per cent said their views on marriage had not changed. Only 17 per cent said it was less important to them now than previously.
Yet when the question was framed in the context of “Canadian society” as opposed to personal feelings, the results were very different. A majority (53 per cent) said that marriage was less important as a social institution now than in the past, while only 13 per cent said it had become more important to Canadian society.
“At one in the same time,” Harris/Decima president Bruce Anderson told CP, “many Canadians feel that marriage is a good and important institution, but recognize and are comfortable with the fact that not everyone needs to feel the same way.”
Half of those surveyed also said that children who were raised in a two-parent home were more likely to become productive members of society compared to those who grew up in other family structures. Thirty-nine per cent said it made no difference.
But at least in one area, there is no ambivalence among Canadians. Almost three-quarters of respondents (74 per cent) said they felt that it was harder today than in the past to make a marriage work. Only three per cent said it took less effort.
Anderson attributed this lopsided outcome to a general awareness that more marriages are ending in divorce – especially among older Canadians – compared to past decades, combined with the added pressures on both parents to work outside the home.
“There’s a perception that those strains have increased and as a consequence, keeping a family together, making a marriage work, is more difficult than it was,” he said.
To Clarence Lochhead with the Vanier Institute for the Family, these results show that Canadians “still do have the sense that marriage signifies a commitment above and beyond the common-law relationship.” And “a lot of people,” he added, “still do marry with a strong religious set of reasons.”
The survey was released to coincide with the publication this week by Statistics Canada of new data based on the 2006 Census, which focuses on the numbers of families and households in Canada as well as the marital status of Canadians. And for the first time, the number of same-sex married couples will be included.
In 2001, when the previous Census was carried out, married couples accounted for 70 per cent of all families, while the proportion of common-law couples stood at 14 per cent.
Foetal Alcohol Children Need More Help – September 12‚ 2007
Medical researchers at the University of Manitoba are calling on governments to boost the financial support given to the growing numbers of children who are being born with Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD), Canadian Press reported last week.
The study notes that children with FASD – permanent brain damage suffered in the womb as a result of the mother drinking alcohol – often end up spending much of their youth in foster care. The researchers put the onus on the provinces to try to prepare them to live independently as adults.
“Most people at age 18 aren’t ready to go out and be independent, and children with developmental disabilities . . . need additional support,” social work professor Don Fuchs told CP.
The same group of researchers had estimated in a previous study that 17 per cent of the children in Manitoba’s child welfare system have FASD.
What is needed, Fuchs believes, is a heightened awareness of the need for women to abstain from alcohol while pregnant. “If you look at how the smoking cessation [programs] have broadened out, that’s the kind of range of interventions that are going to be needed to have an effect,” he said.
Toronto-based paediatric toxicologist Dr.Gideon Koren, for one, has no patience with fellow physicians who assure their female patients that there is no danger to their unborn babies if they choose to drink “in moderation” while pregnant.
“I’m afraid to tell you it happens now as we talk,” Koren told the Winnipeg Free Press. “We’ve published several papers that show that it’s not uncommon for physicians to still tell women it’s still OK to drink moderately.”
The report was released at the eighth annual Foetal Alcohol Canadian Expertise Research Roundtable, a one-day conference held recently in Winnipeg.
During the conference, as the Winnipeg Sun reported, participants were told of the launch of the Canadian Foundation on Foetal Alcohol Research, the first of its kind in the world.
“This will ensure that researchers, especially young researchers, have the resources and support they need,” said Dr. Louise Nadeau, a professor at the University of Montreal who also chairs the foundation’s first board.
“Family Hour” Less Family Friendly – September 12‚ 2007
The once highly touted “family hour” of primetime broadcast television viewing is becoming just another wasteland of sex, violence and profane language, according to the latest study done by the California-based Parents Television Council (PTC).
As Reutersreported last week, the non-profit media watchdog group found that between 8-9 p.m. Monday through Saturday and between 7-9 p.m. on Sundays, the number of televised violent incidents had risen by 52.4 per cent since 2001. The amount of sexual content also rose by 22.1 per cent over the same period.
“There is no longer a family hour,” PTC president Timothy Winter told the Los Angeles Times. “For people who grew up watching The Cosby Show or The Wonderful World of Disney . . . those days are gone.”
Winter added that parents should not take much comfort in the fact that the use of profanities had dropped by 25.4 per cent. That decrease, he told Reuters, was due to fewer uses of so-called milder forms of foul language, while the use of more offensive “bleeped” words – which most children can easily figure out – had increased 40 per cent.
The PTC analyzed 180 hours of original programming on six broadcast networks – ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, MyNetworkTV and the CW – over three two-week periods in 2006-07.
Overall, it found what it defined as 2,246 instances of violent, sexual and profane content, or one every 4.8 minutes, during the “family hour.” And of the 208 program episodes viewed, it said that only 10.6 per cent had no objectionable content.
4. Dr. Dobson Says Dogs Receive More Protection Than Babies – September 6, 2007
http://www.citizenlink.org/CLtopstories/A000005297.cfm
Stories of animal brutality outrage America as partial-birth abortions go unnoticed.
If we can judge the heart of a man or women by their treatment of animals, what can we say about the individual whose heart is cold toward human life?"
In his 90-second "Focus on the Family Commentary" airing today on ABC radio, Dr. James C. Dobson, founder and chairman of Focus on the Family, questions the outrage following accusations that NFL player Michael Vick abused animals. No such outrage was heard.5. Gardasil Vaccine Not The Only Option For Preventing Cervical Cancer – September 10, 2007
The following important announcement was posted today to the Vote Life, Canada! blog.
Go to http://votelifecanada.blogspot.com/2007/08/gardasil-vaccine-not-only-option-for.html
Vote Life, Canada! prepared an analysis of the proposed use of the Gardasil vaccine, in response to a growing series of announcements (and attendant controversy) about its use in Canadian provinces. This article was directed at publication in Newfoundland and Labrador’s largest daily newspaper but at this point no final word has been received as to whether it will see publication there.
Gardasil Vaccine Not the Only Option for Preventing Cervical Cancer
Last week the Right to Life Association issued a press release outlining its concerns regarding the provincial government’s newly announced HPV Vaccination Program. A small controversy erupted, with many Newfoundlanders quickly adding their viewpoints.
However, in the interests of informed consent for all Newfoundlanders, much more needs to be said about this vaccination proposal, which will see 2,800 grade six girls throughout the province immunized from the human papilloma virus (HPV), a virus known to cause many types of cervical cancer. The province will fund the three-year program with its allotment of $4.6 million from a $300 million federal total.
At first glance this appears to be quite a beneficial – even marvellous – project. Why not take steps to protect women from a dreaded disease and why not use one more vaccine, among many, in grade school in order to do so? But are there reasons to be sceptical of such a plan? If so, one ought to start first with the most serious concerns, those relating to the health and safety of those women who receive the Gardasil vaccine produced by drug giant Merck Frosst.
According to the U.S. based National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), among the symptoms and illnesses (2200 reported) of greatest concern associated with Gardasil and reported to FDA’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) are death (seven deaths have been filed) and Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS).
In describing GBS, NVIC quotes the National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke: “GBS is a serious disorder in which the body's immune system attacks part of the peripheral nervous system. The first symptoms of this disorder include varying degrees of weakness or tingling sensations in the legs. In many instances, the weakness and abnormal sensations spread to the arms and upper body. These symptoms can increase in intensity until certain muscles cannot be used at all and, when severe, the patient is almost totally paralyzed. … Vaccinations can trigger onset of GBS.”
NVIC insists that the U.S. Center for Disease Control “should immediately issue a public advisory to doctors, parents, and vaccine recipients that Gardasil is associated with 15 reports of GBS in VAERS.” Yet Merck, as well as Canadian federal and provincial officials, have told us nothing about this.
Gardasil has undergone less than four years of testing and relatively few girls (1200) between the ages of 9 – 15 years were involved in the testing. More surprisingly, out of that total, a miniscule number (100) were nine years old. This does not generate a high level of confidence in the short-term, or even the immediate, safety of the vaccine. We certainly have no answers about the vaccine’s long-term safety, yet Merck (and our provincial government) proposes to make this age group the target population for mass vaccination. It is not surprising then that some have characterized the vaccination program as a huge Canadian experiment with young schoolgirls as the guinea pigs. For example, might one of the side effects of this vaccine be to render girls sterile at some point in the future?
Regarding the efficacy and costs of Gardasil, some significant difficulties are also posed. Very importantly, it must first be noted that HPV infection does not equate to contracting cervical cancer. The majority of women infected with HPV – even the high-risk variety – will not develop cervical cancer. In no sense does Canada have a cervical cancer “crisis,” and in no sense will Gardasil “eradicate” Canada’s cervical cancers.
A group of McGill medical specialists headed up by epidemiologist Abby Lippman will be publishing a summary of their numerous concerns about the Gardasil vaccine later this month in the August edition of the Canadian Medical Association Journal. Lippman states emphatically that there is no such crisis of cervical cancer in Canada but that the flurry of recent announcements by politicians and the aggressive marketing techniques of Merck have manufactured an “epidemic of fear” in Canada.
Gardasil shows POTENTIAL to prevent SOME cervical cancer. There are more than 30 types of HPV which can cause cancer and for those women – firstly, who receive Gardasil; secondly, who receive Gardasil before being infected; and thirdly, whose protection by Gardasil is still active and effective [uncertainty prevails on this point] – there is protection against 4 of the most common types which together cause about 70 per cent of cervical cancers. When all is factored in, some believe the vaccine MAY help to prevent less than 17% of cervical cancers. Cancer experts predict that cervical cancer will take the lives of about 390 women this year in Canada.
The vaccine is given by means of three injections over a six-month period of time, and is very expensive, costing about $400 per person. The Canadian Women’s Health Network expresses doubt that the benefits of the vaccine justify such a high price tag and suggests that the money be used instead to improve the Pap smear process. Research has strongly and consistently indicated that if every woman were to receive regular Pap smears, cervical cancer in Canada could be virtually eliminated. Oddly enough, the Gardasil vaccine raises the spectre that women might be lulled into a false sense of security, and overlook the acute need for Pap smears and routine exams by their physicians. If such proved to be the case Canada could conceivably see an increase in the rate of cervical cancer.
Further number crunching raises more doubts – even a startling picture. Reliable indications are that Gardasil’s potency declines significantly after about four years yet cancer data show that the average cervical cancer patient is 47 years of age. If young school children are vaccinated at 9-13 years of age, how many injections or boosters during their lifetime might they need in order to stay protected? The higher the number the better for Merck’s bank account.
The HPV vaccine "touches on very deep sexual, social, ethical values," says Margaret Somerville, Faculty of Medicine professor at McGill University. A good mix of these is apparent in the hostile reaction to the message that government will take care of the risks of a disease that is spread ONLY by sexual promiscuity. At the root of such a reaction is the simple but profound truth, and moral standard, that a young man and young woman getting married, both having no prior sexual intimacy and contact, and both remaining faithful to each other for life, have ZERO risk of contracting HPV. HPV is spread only through the peculiarity of multiple sex partners. Like HIV, it is for all practical purposes a behavioural disease.
In a society where many outrightly dismiss, are ignorant of, or have abdicated their parental responsibilities for the moral (and sex) education of their children, this standard seems not only utopian but its very suggestion is said to be offensive and intolerable. Nevertheless, the Gardasil message is clear: “Your little girl, as young as nine, will not remain abstinent but will engage in, or is preparing to engage in, sexual activity. She needs to be vaccinated.”
Some have compared the Gardasil campaign to the push to promote condoms, which, in creating a false sense of security about “safe sex,” has resulted in overall increased risk. In the strategy to control the spread of STD’s, condoms have been a failure. “Condoms aren’t enough to do the trick – let’s throw in the Gardasil.”
Furthermore, widespread immunization by government meddles with the right of parents to choose the appropriate time to decide when and how their children will be exposed to the topic of sexuality. Against their better judgment and wishes they are forced to engage in the discussion.
Finally, some misconceptions need correcting.
The federal Health Canada website states: “Anyone who has had sex is at risk for HPV.” This is obviously not true in the case of the young man and woman described above whose lives and marriage are ruled by monogamous standards. Does the Canadian government assume all its citizens deal with multiple sex partners?
HPV is not like polio or some other serious, preventable disease treated with a vaccine. HPV is a disease contracted through vaginal, oral or anal sexual intercourse – and only by those means. Your daughter will not catch HPV by sitting next to someone who has it.
Gardasil offers no protection whatsoever against other serious STDs, such as Chlamydia, herpes, gonorrhoea, syphilis, HIV, AIDS; nor is it effective against the other more than 26 kinds of HPV.
Provincial Health Minister Ross Wiseman said he believes the vaccination program will do more good than harm. So is he saying that, after spending nearly five million hard earned health dollars to protect women from a cancer causing STD that comes only through multiple partner sex, if 2,800 young girls are vaccinated and some MAY be saved from cervical cancer twenty years or more hence but one or more girls die or are incapacitated after being vaccinated, that the program was a success? Perhaps Merck-Frosst, as well as our politicians, haven’t gone to such depths in their thinking. That possibility is indeed a scary – and dangerous – one.
Eric Alcock, President & NL Provincial Director
1-709-773-0700Vote Life, Canada!
"Justice for Canada's Unborn through the Christian's vote."Website: www.votelifecanada.ca
Blogspot: http://votelifecanada.blogspot.com/ updated regularly!
Vote Life, Canada!Suite A102-602, 1075 Bay St., Toronto, ON, M5S 2B2
6. Homosexual Indoctrination Grade 12 Curriculum To Start In British Columbia Schools – September 10, 2007
Result of Human Rights settlement by the government with homosexual activists – by Hilary White
VANCOUVER, September 4, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Starting next week, British Columbia will introduce its grade 12 "Social Justice" elective course that will see homosexuality promoted in BC schools as an "alternate lifestyle" equivalent to natural marriage. The course is only the first part of a larger K-12 curriculum resulting from a Human Rights complaint settlement by the government with a pair of homosexual activists.
The British Columbia Human Rights Commission ordered that Murray Corren and his homosexual partner Peter Corren be allowed to force the BC Education Ministry to accept their curriculum and that parents will not be allowed to remove their children. Murray Corren wanted the K-12 curriculum to include, "Queer history and historical figures, the presence of positive queer role models – past and present – the contributions made by queers to various epochs, societies and civilizations and legal issues relating to (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered) people, same-sex marriage and adoption."
It was revealed in 2006 that the provincial government had signed the settlement contract with the two men giving them unprecedented control over the content of the curriculum. The contract stipulated that the education ministry would meet with the men every six months until September 1, 2007 to allow them to oversee the development process.
The Vancouver Sun reports that among the "key learning concepts" in the new course are "ableism, ageism, anthropocentrism, consumerism, cultural imperialism, extremism, feminism, fundamentalism, heterosexism, humanism, racism, sexism and speciesism."
Heterosexism is defined as a "prejudice against homosexuals on the assumption that heterosexuality is the norm".
Glen Hansman, president of the Vancouver Elementary School Teachers' Association admitted in the Sun that the curriculum will require students to examine injustices to homosexuals because of the assumption that heterosexuality is normal and to "take a stand against these injustices."
Sean Murphy, spokesman for the BC Catholic Civil Rights League is quoted by the Sun saying that the course "can be used by individual teachers as a vehicle to turn students against the Catholic Church on the grounds that it violates human rights by opposing practices like abortion, contraception and homosexual conduct."
With the inclusion in the list of "speciesism", the course will also introduce the concept of animal rights, a key issue in the world of secularist utilitarian bioethics that proposes human beings are no more important than animals. The term was coined by Peter Singer, the Princeton bioethicist who promotes infanticide and euthanasia on utilitarian grounds. Singer is generally considered the "father" of the modern extremist animal rights movement.
The two homosexual men filed a complaint against the B.C. Ministry of education in 1999 alleging that the Ministry's curriculum didn't adequately "address issues of sexual orientation." The result was a curriculum, the writing of which was supervised by Murray Corren, that teaches students that the "gay lifestyle" is safe and as natural as heterosexual relations.
The pair particularly objected that the law allowed an opt-out provision in which teachers are under an obligation to advise parents when a subject deemed to be "sensitive" is raised in the classroom. The complaint demanded that homosexuality be removed from the list of issues considered officially "sensitive."
The issue has sparked protest rallies by parents' groups concerned by the erosion of parental rights and the right of religious people to protect their children from secularist indoctrination.
Read LifeSiteNews.com extensive coverage:
Is Canada Heading Towards a Totalitarian State? An Essay by Michael D. O'Brien
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/feb/05022810.html
B.C. Gay Couple Seeks Mandatory Homosexual School Curriculum Without Parental Opt-Out
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/jul/05071106.html
Documents Reveal Government Signed Over Control of Education to Homosexual Activists
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/jun/06061907.html
BC Parents Will Have to Lie to Keep Kids out of Gay Advocacy Curriculum
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/sep/06091307.html
Gov't Agrees to Mandatory Homosexual Curriculum with No Opt-Out for Students or Parents
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/jun/06060101.html
900 Protest in Vancouver Over Homosexual Activist Control of Gay Curriculum in Schools
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/aug/06082807.html7. International Symposium On Euthanasia And Assisted Suicide – September 6, 2007
Click here for symposium website!
International Symposium on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide:
Current Issues – Future Directions
Friday, Nov 30 th, Saturday, Dec 1, 2007 at the: Four Points Sheraton – Toronto Airport Hotel .
Organized by: the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition - Canada
Co-Sponsored by: Euthanasia Prevention Coalition – Canada, NOT DEAD YET – USA, Compassionate Healthcare Network – Canada, Physicians for Compassionate Care – USA, Vermont Alliance for Ethical Healthcare – Vermont, Care NOT Killing Alliance - UK, No Less Human, UK.
Nearly every leader and significant speaker on the issues of euthanasia and assisted suicide will be attending this Symposium. Make sure that it includes you .
The program begins on Friday November 30 th at 9:30 am and ends on Saturday at 5:30 pm. The Friday night dinner speaker is Professor Margaret Somerville founding director of the McGill Centre for Medicine, Ethics and Law.
The list of speakers include:
• Margaret Somerville , the founding director of the McGill Centre for Medicine, Ethics and Law. Somerville is the author of many internationally recognized books including: The Ethical Imagination and Death Talk.
• Dr. Peter Saunders is the director of the Care NOT Killing Alliance in the UK, that co-ordinates organizations in the UK that oppose euthanasia and assisted suicide and support palliative care. They were instrumental in defeating a recent assisted suicide bill in the UK.
• Dr William Toffler is the national director of Physicians for Compassionate Care in Portland Oregon, a national organizations of physicians who oppose euthanasia and assisted suicide in the US.
• Dr. Bob Orr is the director of the Vermont Alliance for Ethical Health Care opposes assisted suicide and promotes ethical healthcare practices. They were instrumental in defeating a recent assisted suicide bill in Vermont.
• Diane Coleman is the founder of NOT DEAD YET, a leading disability rights group in the US.
• Stephen Drake is the research director for NOT DEAD YET.
• Allison Davis is the national co-ordinator of No Less Human in the UK, a national disability rights organization.
• Hugh Scher is the legal counsel for the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition and the former chair of the Council of Canadians with Disabilities Human Rights Committee. Hugh is a leading lawyer in Canada on Human Rights, Constitutional and End-of-Life Issues.
• Alex Schadenberg is the Executive Director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition in Canada.
• Rita Marker is the Executive Director of the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide. Rita is the leader and the unifying force for groups that oppose euthanasia and assisted suicide.
• Wesley J. Smith, attorney for the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide. Smith is the author of many books including: Forced Exit. Smith is a powerful speaker.
• Bobby Schindler is the brother of Terri Schiavo and works for the Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation.
• Catherine Frazee is the co-director of Ryerson University (RBC) Institute for Disability Studies, and the former chair of the Ontario Human Rights Commission (1990 - 95). She is an extraordinarily gifted intellectual leader.
• Bert Dorenbos is the leader of Cry for Life in the Netherlands.
• Cheryl Eckstein is the founder of the Compassionate Health Care Network in Canada.
• Dr. Paul Byrne is a Neonatologist from Ohio and a recognized expert in the area of Brain Death.
• Dr Mark Mostert is an expert on the Nazi T4 - euthanasia program.
There has never been a Symposium on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide like this before.
The cost for the Symposium is:
$189 - adult, $100 - students or people with disabilities.
(Includes Friday lunch & dinner and Saturday lunch.)
Register by contacting the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition at: info@epcc.ca or call toll free: 1-877-439-3348.
Please contact the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition for special one-day rates.
Reserve your room by calling the Four Points Sheraton – Toronto Airport at: 1-800-368-7764 and indicate that you are reserving for the Euthanasia Symposium. The room rate is $109.00 per night.
For further registration information contact the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition at: info@epcc.ca or call toll free: 1-877-439-3348.
Euthanasia Prevention Coalition – www.epcc.ca – info@epcc.ca – 1-877-439-3348
8. J K Rowling Advocates Physician-Assisted Suicide – September 6, 2007
http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=11893
Among the Intellectualoids
Correction: J. K. Rowling Advocates Physician-Assisted Suicide – By David Haddon
Published 8/17/2007 12:05:50 AM
In my previous article, I pointed out that J. K. Rowling's making the standard arguments for euthanasia the motivation for Severus Snape's accession to Albus Dumbledore's request that Snape kill him amounted to advocacy of euthanasia. I stand corrected. What I had not realized was that this conversation in which Dumbledore appeals to Snape's compassion for a sick old man was in the context of a doctor-patient relationship (Deathly Hallows, pp. 680-681).
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Indeed, Professor of Potions Snape has a detailed knowledge of healing potions and incantations with which, for example, he saved Draco Malfoy from bleeding to death when cut up by Harry's Sectasempra curse in the previous book. Dumbledore only regains consciousness after Snape pours "a golden potion down Dumbledore's throat" (p. 680). And after giving him the bad news that he has no more than a year to live, Snape lectures his patient in true doctorly fashion: "'If you had only summoned me a little earlier, I might have been able to do more, buy you more time!' said Snape furiously." So Rowling is right on the cutting edge of the issue of physician-assisted suicide (PAS) as it is playing out in Europe and the United States.
Rowling's brilliant portrayal of the defects of UK (and American) politicians and bureaucrats through the medium of the blindness, ruthless ambition, and incompetent arrogance of the bureaucrats of the Ministry of Magic shows her to be an incisive critic of the political scene. She cannot be unaware of the political tendency of the moral arguments she is instilling into the minds of unsuspecting children.
This is why we cannot treat these fantasies as fictions unrelated to life. The greatest moral teachers and the greatest demagogues have always used stories to teach either their moral and spiritual truths or their lies. These are children's books that are forming the unconsciously absorbed worldview and morality of millions of children.
From the perspective of orthodox Christians, whether Roman Catholic, Orthodox or Reformed (my perspective); a murder-suicide pact cannot be justified by any hoped for result (e.g., preserving Snape's double-agency) because it violates a clear commandment of God. As another British literary artist put it, God has "fix'd his canon 'gainst self-slaughter" (Hamlet) and other forms of murder. Parents need to know it when an author of children's books justifies such law-breaking in the minds of children.The issue comes down to this: Are your ethics based on an end-justifies-any-means morality or on an objective and unchanging code? Rowling along with the media and academic elites of the modern West opt for the former; many conservatives and all orthodox Christians for the latter.
David Haddon is a Left-Coast writer and prolife activist of Evangelical persuasion.
9. Lifeissues.net Newsletter #340 – September 9, 2007
Greetings from LifeIssues.net (www.lifeissues.net)
Dear Friends for Life,
Germany is now paying for babies. Reacting to the rapidly dropping birth rate, Germany will now pay to have new babies. The program allows new parents, who stop working, to receive two-thirds of their net wages for twelve months, and if they are poor, a higher percentage. Unless births pick up from this effort, Germany's current population of 82,000,000 is scheduled to drop to approximately 70,000,000 in 2050.
The pressure is maintained on Nicaragua. The pro-abortion folks in Europe continue to be upset by Nicaragua's adopting a constitutional amendment protecting from conception. Now the EU is threatening to cut funding for the entire nation unless they change their Constitution and allow the killing of babies.
Jerry Novotny, omi
Lifeissues.net Newsletter #340 – September 9, 2007
Table Of Contents:
- China To Act On Gender Imbalance
- Battle Lines Being Drawn For New War Over Stem Cells
- Face-off Looms At New Planned Parenthood
- California Company: We'll Turn Your Child's Sibling Embryos Into Extra Body Parts
- Australia Hospital Becomes First To Sell Dangerous RU 486 Abortion Drug
- Portugal Does 526 Abortions Since Parliament Legalized Them In July
- China's Male-Female Birth Ratio Alarming In Most Cities Nationwide
- Abstinence Remains Best Form Of Birth Control According To Christianet.Com Poll
- A Mercy Killing Or Murder?
- Crisis Looms As 18 Million Chinese Can't Find A Wife
- Wages Up In China As Young Workers Grow Scarce
- Women's Health Care – A New Era
Focus On Asia: "Interview – Drugs, conflict spur HIV in Asia Pacific region"
HIV infections are increasing at a worrying 10 percent a year in the Asia Pacific region, a top UN AIDS official said on Tuesday, putting the rise down to intravenous drug use, sex workers and conflicts. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/COL141335.htm.Item #1. China To Act On Gender Imbalance
The Chinese government says it is drafting new laws to tackle the growing gender imbalance caused by the widespread abortion of female foetuses.View full article at BBC News: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6963445.stm
Item #2. Battle Lines Being Drawn For New War Over Stem Cells
Clashes between the high-tech and the holy are looming anew as political changes force stem-cell research back onto the public agenda, raising a host of new bioethical concerns for doctors and patients. And a Toronto physician is going to have his say about where this all leads. View full text at thestar.com: http://www.thestar.com/News/Ideas/article/249590Item #3. Face-off Looms At New Planned Parenthood
Following on the heels of similar projects in Illinois and Oregon, it has been reported that Planned Parenthood has been quietly been buying up property for a new $4 million headquarters and clinic in Denver. According to the Denver Post, "The organization initially intended to complete the whole project in secrecy in order to avoid the kind of protests and delays that Planned Parenthood's building projects have ignited elsewhere." Planned Parenthood now anticipates there will be protests. Local pro-lifers say they will indeed fight the effort.View full text at The Denver Post: http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_6666100
Item #4. California Company: We'll Turn Your Child's Sibling Embryos Into Extra Body Parts
A firm called Stem Cell Life Line has found a point of convergence for the twin evils of in vitro fertilization and human embryonic stem cell research. It is telling parents of children conceived through in vitro fertilization that "We'll turn your spare embryos into embryonic stem cell lines tailored to your child's potential future medical needs."View full text at LifeSite: http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/aug/07082208.html
Item #5. Australia Hospital Becomes First To Sell Dangerous RU 486 Abortion Drug
Royal Women's Hospital in Melbourne received permission from the nation's drug regulatory agency yesterday to give women the dangerous abortion drug RU 486. The hospital filed an application in December to become the second place to sell the abortion drug after a Cairnes-based abortion practitioner. The facility asked the Therapeutic Goods Administration to allow 10 physicians to sell the mifepristone pills, responsible for the deaths of thirteen women worldwide. Now that the TGA has approved the application, Royal Women's Hospital could have the abortion pills on hand within weeks.
View full text at LifeNews.com: http://www.lifenews.com/int402.htmlItem #6. Portugal Does 526 Abortions Since Parliament Legalized Them In July
A new report from the National Health Service of the government of Portugal finds that 526 abortions have been done since the nation's parliament approved a law legalizing them. That law took effect in July and, shortly thereafter, a large abortion business in Spain built a new abortion facility in the nation's capital.
See the full article at LifeNews.com: http://www.lifenews.com/int403.htmlItem #7. China's Male-Female Birth Ratio Alarming In Most Cities Nationwide
A new report from China's Family Planning Association finds that the male-female ratio in most of the cities in the Asian nation is alarmingly skewed because of sex-selection abortions and infanticides. The practices have run rampart in response to the coercive one-child family planning policy the nation instituted. With most of the residents of China allowed just one baby per family, residents are following their cultural preferences and trying to have boys instead of girls. They've resorted to sex-selection abortions and infanticides as a result and that has caused the disproportionate percentage of boys to girls to skyrocket.Full Article at LifeNews.com: http://www.lifenews.com/int405.html
ITEM #8. Abstinence Remains Best Form of Birth Control According to ChristiaNet.com Poll
ChristiaNet.com, the world's largest Christian portal with twelve million monthly page loads, recently asked, "Is birth control acceptable for Christians?" Bill Cooper, President of ChristiaNet responded, "Family planning shows responsible Christian behaviour." Most Christians agreed that abstinence is the most effective way to prevent unwanted children.Full Article at Christian News Wire: http://www.christiannewswire.com/news/488544001.html
Item #9. A Mercy Killing Or Murder?
Comment: It isn't hard to imagine tricking someone with Alzheimer's into signing over their life's savings - nor is it a stretch to imagine the person had no idea he was going to be a member of a right-to die org., and that later they were going to be killed. It could have been a cover-up, but just guessing as there isn't enough info in this report. I was remembering when John Hofsess, president of Victoria (Canada) Right to Die, forged a letter that was supposed to have been written by Sue Rodriguez, a woman who was fighting along with John, to have the right to assisted suicide. The letter was published in the Vancouver Sun paper. I made a phone call to the paper saying I doubted Sue wrote such a letter, and asked if they had checked it with her? Shortly after, the reporter called me back and said indeed Sue had not written the letter, nor had she seen it. Sue broke off with John Hofsess after that, but months later got her way when a doctor secretly assisted her suicide. These people will go to any lengths to get what they want. – Cheryl, CHNView entire text at news.com.au:
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,22323835-5001021,00.html
ITEM #10. Crisis Looms As 18 Million Chinese Can't Find A Wife
Fears of sexual turmoil and 'bachelor villages'.View entire text at Guardian: http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2156355,00.html
Item #11. Wages Up In China As Young Workers Grow Scarce
Chinese wages are on the rise. No reliable figures for average wages exist; the government's economic data are notably unreliable. But factory owners and experts who monitor the nation's labour market say that businesses are having a hard time finding able-bodied workers and are having to pay the workers they can find more money.View entire text at NYT:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/29/business/worldbusiness/29labor.html?em&ex=1188532800&en=b597d4594bd68033&ei=5087
ITEM #12. Women's Health Care - A New Era
Currently used artificial reproductive technologies involve the use of artificial insemination. They also include in vitro fertilization in which very high doses of hormones are given to women to make them produce more ova, and may involve the use of women as egg donors and as providers of surrogate wombs. These procedures are morally unacceptable. In contrast, NaProTechnology simply involves keeping a record of the menstrual cycle. Fertility is sometimes achieved by lovemaking on the fertile days. In other cases, records of the cycle help the physician to diagnose and treat the cause of the infertility, e.g., endometriosis, ovulation irregularities, stress, and anxiety. NaProTechnology is both morally good and medically effective.View entire text at LifeIssues.net: http://www.lifeissues.net/writers/she/she_39healthcare.html
Get Involved:
- Inform yourself on crucial issues at Lifeissues.net: 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".
- Supportive Missionary For Human Life: "Journey for Life into the Heart of Asia" is a project, which appeals for donations to help finance travel expenses for talks to developing countries in Asia. Strong focus is placed on reaching Asian Catholic Major Seminaries, Schools and Family related groups. A series of 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.Contact ASSISTANT EDITOR: Mr. Marlon Castillo Ramirez; Author of Book: "The Sights and Soul of Life"; E-Mail:mcr4lifeissues@gmail.com.
Websites by Editor:
English LifeIssues Site: http://www.lifeissues.net,
Japanese LifeIssues Site: http://www.japan-lifeissues.net,
OMI Site: http://www.omijapankorea.net/index.html.10. Lifeissues.Net Newsletter #341 – September 16, 2007
Greetings from LifeIssues.net (www.lifeissues.net)
Dear Friends for Life,
Spain approves law allowing cloning. Spain's Parliament has just passed a law allowing "therapeutic" cloning of human beings. The law prohibits "reproductive" cloning or carrying the implanted baby to term. But it "permits the production of cloned embryos in order to obtain research material from them." This is another way of saying clone and kill. For the way to "obtain research material" is to kill them.
Jerry Novotny, omi
Lifeissues.Net Newsletter #341 – September 16, 2007
Table Of Contents:
- Stem cell study helps heart disease patients
- Catholic response to stem cells
- A moving video.
- Mother Teresa: A Suffering Servant
- Men and the Abortion Aftermath
- Cardinal O'Brien resigns from Amnesty International
- Italian Hospital Aborts Healthy Twin and Leaves Handicapped Sibling
- RU486 Poses Risk To Women Using It
- Chinese Parents Take Family Planning Officials to Court Over Forced
Abortion - Desperation spurs poor Pakistanis to sell kidneys
- "Personalized" Embryonic Stem Cells for Sale
- Vatican Newspaper Calls Abortion Assassination
Focus On Asia: Testimony of a Dad after abortion: "Quite often I even wake up in the morning thinking painfully of the undeniably selfish act I did over 11 years ago. I know I overrode in my core being my conscience (dulled at the time) and my Fatherhood instinct. No two ways about it: I acted – no, I was a coward. My action, despite my confession and repentance before my Creator – continues to rob much of the joy from my life. I would do anything (if God would accept the bargain) to reverse that fateful mistake." – See more testimonies at: www.priestsforlife.org/testimonies.
Item #1. Stem Cell Study Helps Heart Disease Patients
View full article at ABC News Australia:
Research at Newcastle's John Hunter Hospital on the use of adult stem cells is showing promising signs for victims of heart disease.http://abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/08/28/2016990.htm?section=australia
Item #2. Catholic Response To Stem Cells
‘It is better for one man to die for the people than for the whole nation to be destroyed.’ these words of Caiphas, aimed at convincing Pilate to Crucify Jesus, reflect the same issues wrongly posed by the popular media to the people of today. ‘Is it acceptable to kill human life of a foetus, so that others may benefit?’Much discussion is occurring regarding the use of stem cells. As with any scientific discussion that enters the public domain, mass misinformation and exaggeration of facts is occurring, so that the faithful are cornered into the position to ask themselves whether stem cell research reflects the will of God, or whether this is a deception of the evil one, aimed at desanctification of human life. The Holy Fathers of the Church teach us that the ‘devil may appear as an angel of light’, could stem cells be one of these situations in which something is given to us that appears life promoting but really is a dangerous trap?
View full text at Catholic Online: http://www.catholic.org/featured/headline.php?ID=4746
Item #3. A Moving Video
Comment: Many thanks to Mark Pickup for this gem. Just before my first appearance before our Parliament, when they were considering changing the law regarding assisted suicide, I became friends with Roy Slater, who at the time had been diagnosed with ALS 13 yrs ago. I interviewed him and used that interview in my presentation. I believe Roy's statement helped the Members of Parliament see that ALS (the same disease Sue Rodriguez had) was not an immediate death sentence, and furthermore, life was sacred and each day precious. On my web site you will also see one of the most famous and celebrated of scientists. Hawkings has lived with ALS for over 40 years – his disease has not stopped him from accomplishing the desires of his heart - "Professor Hawking has twelve honorary degrees, was awarded the CBE in 1982, and was made a Companion of Honour in 1989. He is the recipient of many awards, medals and prizes and is a Fellow of The Royal Society and a Member of the US National Academy of Sciences." The video that Mark sent is indeed very moving – thanks Mark. Cheryl, CHN: http://www.aish.com/movies/blinkofeye.asp
Please view the one-minute video at the address noted above. In this time when death is viewed as better than disability, the short video carries a simple truth profoundly stated. It moved me beyond words. It states, in a most eloquent way, what I believe with all my heart: all human life matters. Send the link to all your friends and contacts.Sincerely, Mark Pickup; Founder, HumanLifeMatters; http://www.HumanLifeMatters.com
Item #4. Mother Teresa: A Suffering Servant
Newly published letters, written by Mother Teresa over more than 60 years, form a new book called Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light. So what do the letters of Mother Teresa reveal? For one, they reveal the true cost of discipleship. To follow Christ is to embrace suffering and the Cross. And, at times, to say with Jesus, ‘My God, my God, why did you abandon me?’ Certainly Mother Teresa took on the suffering of the world just as her Lord had done. And she demonstrated a kind of faith that few ever experience. But hers is a faith that will be a lasting witness to the world when Christopher Hitchens and the media critics are long forgotten.View full text at Breakpoint:
http://www.breakpoint.org/listingarticle.asp?ID=6988&zbrandid=420&zidType=CH&zid=1758617&zsubscriberId=136625765
Item #5. Men And The Abortion Aftermath
In this interview with ZENIT, Burke discusses the type of wounds men experience when they have been involved in an abortion, avenues for healing, and how to help the women they love also find healing after an abortion.Q: Your new book, "Redeeming a Father's Heart," addresses the suffering men experience from abortion. Why do you think this issue has gotten so little attention until now?
Burke: We have all heard the exhausted phrase repeated over the years that "abortion is a private personal decision between a woman, her health care provider and her God."
Men were seen to be peripheral figures in the process, detached and unaffected by the woman's "choice."
The reality is that men are involved in 95% of all abortion decisions, and they are profoundly impacted by their participation in the abortion of their child.View full text at Zenit.org: http://www.zenit.org/article-20362?l=english
Item #6. Cardinal O'Brien Resigns From Amnesty International
Cardinal Keith O'Brien has today written to the Director of Amnesty International in Scotland advising him that he intends to resign his membership of the organisation following the decision by the International Council of Amnesty International to support the provision of abortion services. In his letter, Cardinal O'Brien states his decision is made with "great sadness" but on the grounds that the organisation's new stance places it "in contravention to that basic right to human life". Cardinal O'Brien first joined Amnesty as a student over 40 years ago and has supported it over many decades.See the full article at Scottish Catholic Media Office: http://www.scmo.org/_titles/view.asp?id=527
Item #7. Italian Hospital Aborts Healthy Twin And Leaves Handicapped Sibling
A mother pregnant with twins has reported an Italian hospital for aborting her healthy twin rather than her twin suffering from Down's syndrome. After hospital staff accidentally aborted the non-Down's baby, the 38-year-old woman returned to abort the other. The hospital claimed the twins swapped places in the womb between the ultrasound and the abortion. Leading Christian Democrat Luca Volonte decried the abortion as "infanticide arising from a contempt for human life," and Senator Paolo Binetti said: "What happened in this hospital was not a medical abortion but an abortion done for the purposes of eugenics. The time has come to re-examine the abortion law."Full Article at LifeSite: http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/aug/07082709.html
Item #8. RU486 Poses Risk To Women Using It
Rob Ward, the Victorian Chief-of-Staff at the Australian Christian Lobby (ACL), warned about the 'terrible' consequences of RU 486, an abortion drug, as another hospital was given permission to use it by the health authority.Full Article at Christian Today: http://au.christiantoday.com/article/ru486-poses-risk-to-women-using-it/3188.htm
Item #9. Chinese Parents Take Family Planning Officials To Court Over Forced Abortion
A Chinese couple had filed a lawsuit against family planning officials over a forced abortion that has left the couple unable to have children. The suit hasn't been successful so far and it points to the problems associated with the population control policies in China that allow families just one child.View entire text at LifeNews.com: http://www.lifenews.com/int416.html
Item #10. Desperation Spurs Poor Pakistanis To Sell Kidneys
Mehtab Ashraf knows the risks. Her neighbour died, her cousin's husband died, her husband and cousin are sick. But she has five children to raise. So, like hundreds of others in this farming village, Ashraf plans to sell her only possession of value: a kidney.Here, everyone knows someone who has sold a kidney, often for less than $1,700. The village appears as if an epidemic has struck – many young men and women have long purple scars across their sides. And even though most people, including Ashraf's husband, say they regret their decisions, she said she has no choice.
View entire text at chicagotribune.com: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-kidneys_barkeraug26,1,7444018.story?ctrack=1&cset=true
Item #11. "Personalized" Embryonic Stem Cells For Sale
A company offers to generate and store stem cells from leftover IVF embryos.View entire text at Technology Review: http://www.technologyreview.com/Biotech/19320/
Item #12. Vatican Newspaper Calls Abortion Assassination
Commenting on the recent report of the abortion of twins in Italy one of whom was suspected to have Down's syndrome, the semi-official Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano observed: "Two girls have died, assassinated as a consequence of selective abortion."The case sparked ire after it was reported that doctors were seeking to abort the unborn child with Down's syndrome and mistakenly aborted the other twin. After hearing of the error the mother had her remaining unborn child killed as well. The children were three months beyond conception when they were aborted.
It is a matter, said the Vatican newspaper, of "eugenics is imposing its law"; of "the culture of perfection that imposes the exclusion of all that does not appear beautiful, glowing, positive, captivating."
"A radical decision has brought about another abortion, that of the little sister that still had life," reported L'Osservatore Romano. "It is an illegitimate decision, even though it is authorized by the law, as here in Italy.'Source: (LifeSiteNews.com) August 29, 2007
Get Involved:
- Inform yourself on crucial issues at Lifeissues.net: 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".
- Supportive Missionary For Human Life: "Journey for Life into the Heart of Asia" is a project, which appeals for donations to help finance travel expenses for talks to developing countries in Asia. Strong focus is placed on reaching Asian Catholic Major Seminaries, Schools and Family related groups. A series of 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.netContact Assistant Editor: Mr. Marlon Castillo Ramirez; Author of Book: "The Sights and Soul of Life"; E-Mail: mcr4lifeissues@gmail.com
Websites by Editor:
English LifeIssues Site: http://www.lifeissues.net,
Japanese LifeIssues Site: http://www.japan-lifeissues.net,
OMI Site: http://www.omijapankorea.net/index.html.11. Lifesitenews.Com - Wednesday September 12, 2007
The First International Symposium On Euthanasia And Assisted Suicide
Toronto, November 30 to December 1, 2007 – 17 leading world experts on these issues of rapidly increasing importance: http://76.163.116.193/Symposium.htm12. National Right To Life (US) – Today's News & Views – September 13, 2007
Stepping on "Various Traditional Social Taboos"
"The greatest fear the public has when it comes to organ donation is their loved one will not receive aggressive treatment and will wind up having their death hastened because of the zeal people have to get organs," said Arthur Caplan, a University of Pennsylvania bioethicist. "You create a tremendous fear on the part of the public whenever any crossing of that line takes place." – Washington Post, September 13, 2007
The headline on the front-page story in today's Washington Post is "New Zeal in Organ Procurement Raises Fears." The 1,697-word-long story, written by Rob Stein, raises the profoundly disturbing possibility that ever-more aggressive teams searching for organs are cutting a number of ethical corners.
Stein's account is very evenhanded. "Even the critics agree that most organ-donation advocates are acutely sensitive to ethical concerns, help save many lives and enable families to find solace in their losses," he writes. "But they worry that disturbing lapses may be increasingly common."
He uses one example of a "disturbing lapse" to start the story--that of Ramon Navarro. Last July prosecutors in California charged a surgeon "with trying to hasten Navarro's death, marking the first time a surgeon has faced criminal charges in a transplant case." (The surgeon's attorney denied that his client did anything to hasten Navarro's death.)
While a much more aggressive campaign to secure organs "has increased the number of organ donations," Stein writes, "some doctors and nurses say the shift has been accompanied by a discomfiting rise in both subtle and overt pressure."
I think it's fair to conclude from Stein's very thoughtful article that two factors have brought the question of improper pressure to, if not a boil, at least to a simmer. They go hand in hand.
The first is a federal campaign known as the Breakthrough Collaborative, launched by the Department of Health and Human Services, which is "designed to boost the number of organs retrieved by the nation's 58 organ-procurement organizations, or OPOs," Stein writes. "These private, nonprofit government-authorized entities deploy nurses, social workers and other specialists to identify potential donors, obtain consent from families, and work with doctors and nurses to recover as many organs as possible."
The other factor (which is not discussed until deep into the story) is the push by organ donor advocates for a highly controversial practice known as "donation after cardiac death" (DCD.) As Stein explained in a related article written for the Post last March, "Under the procedure, surgeons are removing organs within minutes after the heart stops beating and doctors declare a patient dead. Since the 1970s, most organs have been removed only after doctors declared a patient brain dead."
With respect to the behavior of OPOs, critics point to a number of questionable practices by some organ procurement teams, according to Stein's account this morning. They include (1) pressing doctors to "declare a patient brain-dead before the appropriate tests had been done"; routinely "comb[ing] through patients' records looking for potential donors"; and (3) when interacting with loved ones, some OPO representatives are "either initially letting families assume they are part of the hospital staff or being vague, saying only that they are 'end-of-life' or 'grief' counselors."
The practice of DCD presents its own problems. "The person is not dead yet," Jerry A. Menikoff, an associate professor of law, ethics and medicine at the University of Kansas, told Stein for Stein's March story. "They are going to be dead, but we should be honest and say that we're starting to remove the organs a few minutes before they meet the legal definition of death."
How long doctors wait after the heart stops beating to pronounce the patient dead varies widely--from five minutes at some hospitals to "three minutes, others two," Stein writes. "In Denver, surgeons at Children's Hospital wait 75 seconds before starting to remove hearts from infants, to maximize the chances that the organs will be useable."
Stein quotes Gail A. Van Norman, an anesthesiologist and bioethicist at the University of Washington in Seattle, who says, "A lot of us are not particularly happy about cutting that line particularly close."
Others are less troubled. "It's an example of pushing the envelope to get more organs," Stuart J. Youngner, a bioethicist at Case Western Reserve University, told Stein. "Whenever we do that, we tend to step on various traditional social taboos."
Please send your comments to Dave Andrusko at daveandrusko@hotmail.com.
13. Special Details Planned Parenthood Abortion Mill Deception, Concealing Rape – September 10, 2007
Simply Amazing – Fox News Special Details Planned Parenthood Abortion Mill Deception, Concealing Rape etc. – by John-Henry Westen
September 10, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – No write-up can adequately describe this Fox News segment from "Hannity's America". It accurately depicts Planned Parenthood as money hungry abortion peddlers. It follows the controversy of the largest abortion mill opening in Aurora, Illinois after having constructed the premises under false pretences. The video plays audio recordings of Planned Parenthood employees caught on tape covering up statutory rape.
See this video and send it to your friends: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18IKmx6wsYk
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14. UNFPA Funding Cut For Sixth Year; Bush Withholds $34 Million – September 12, 2007
UNFPA Funding Cut For Sixth Year; Bush Withholds $34 Million – by Colin MasonThe population controllers at the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) will have to pinch pennies for another year. This week, for the sixth year in a row, President Bush has invoked the Kemp-Kasten Amendment and withheld $34 million in U.S. funding from the group. We at PRI applaud this decision.
The groundwork for this decision was laid by PRI, which sent teams of investigators to China, Peru, Vietnam, and Pakistan between 1998 and 2002 to look into U.N. Population Fund activities there. What they found was that the UNFPA was deeply involved in programs of forced abortion and coercive sterilization (read about what they found here). We presented our evidence both to the U.S. Congress and to two presidential administrations. The evidence, which included video and audio testimony from victims of these abuses, left no doubt that the UNFPA was violating the rights of women, not to mention the Kemp-Kasten Amendment itself.
Here are some of the things our investigators found:
- Chinese family planning officials told our investigators that there was "no distinction" between the work that they were doing in a given area of China and the UNFPA's work there.
- The UNFPA itself speaks of coercive sterilizations in Peru in an internal report published in 2000, calling them "family planning decisions made external to the person." (The UNFPA later denied that this report existed.)
- In 2000, the UNFPA smuggled abortion devices into Pakistan under the guise of reproductive health kits labeled "for safe delivery." Refugee women were pressured into accepting abortions.
Reacting to our findings, President Bush in 2001 decided to slash $34 million from the UNFPA budget, money that would have contributed directly to their forced family-planning accounts.
Over the years, the UNFPA has attempted over the years to cover-up these abuses, even going so far as to issue dummy reports full of misleading statements, but to no avail. Bush has been steadfast in enforcing the Kemp-Kasten Amendment, and no U.S. population funds have gone to the UNFPA since 2001. To date, the organization has lost a total of $200 million in funding.
We at PRI would like to publicly thank President Bush for his decision, which has subjected him to heavy criticism from the media and from family-planning groups. We are proud that our work here at PRI has helped to protect women around the world from anti-life bullying by the UN population controllers.
Population Research Institute
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Media Contact: Colin Mason; E-Mail: colin@pop.org; (540) 622-5240, ext. 209
(c) 2007 Population Research Institute. Permission to reprint granted. Redistribute widely. Credit required.
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The pro-life Population Research Institute is dedicated to ending human rights abuses committed in the name of "family planning," and to ending counter-productive social and economic paradigms premised on the myth of "overpopulation." Find us at www.pop.org.
PRI, PO Box 1559, Front Royal, VA 22630 USA Phone: 540-622-524015.
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