in this issue:
abortion: 4D ULTRASOUND
birth control pill: HEALTH RISK
bush: BETRAYING PRO-LIFE CAUSE
culture of death: 1965 ACOG BULLETIN / WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION
euthanasia: MASSACHSETTS
personhood: HUMAN BEING AS INDIVIDUAL
schiavo: GOV. BUSH
stem cell breakthrough: SINGAPORE
web news: FAMILY MOVIES
wisdom: POPE BENEDICT XVI
reflection for prayer: POPE JOHN PAUL II
abortion
4D ULTRASOUND: Stuart Campbell’s 4D fetal images re-ignited the abortion debate in Britain, but his hope that abortion would be curtailed after the 20th week because of the 4D images’ impact was not realized. The British Medical Association voted to maintain the current limit of 24 weeks. Campbell is not a pro-life advocate.
(Reading: “Time is of the essence,” Sunday Herald, 7/3/05)
birth control pill
HEALTH RISK: A new study suggests that women who take low-dose birth control pills are at greater risk for heart attack and stroke. One cardiologist noted that “even young women who begin using oral contraceptives should be screened for heart disease risk.”
(Reading: “Low dose birth control pill raises heart attack risk, especially in some women,” Women’s Health News, 7/11/05)
bush
BETRAYING PRO-LIFE CAUSE: Commentator Chuck Baldwin once wrote that President Bush betrayed the pro-life effort by approving funding for AIDS programs in Africa that would go, at least in part, to pro-abortion organizations. Now, President Bush is asking for funding of $1.7 billion, a recommendation that won Bush praise from Bill Gates, UNICEF and the World Health Organization, all proponents of abortion.
(Reading: “Bush boosts Africa aid,” Washington Post, 6/30/05; “Bush betrays pro-life cause again,” NewsWithViews.com, 5/2/03)
culture of death
1965 ACOG BULLETIN: American Life League now has copies of the actual medical bulletin issued by the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology in which an erroneous definition of “conception” appears: “CONCEPTION is the implantation of a fertilized ovum. This definition has been selected deliberately because union of sperm and ovum cannot be detected clinically unless implantation occurs.”
COMMENT: No, the deliberate decision was based on a decision to not tell women in 1965 that the newly introduced birth control pill could abort their children prior to implantation.
(Reading: “Terms used in reference to the fetus,” ACOG Terminology Bulletin, 9/65)
(Background: “Birth control pills: Contraceptive or abortifacient?” American Life League)
WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION: Two abortion drugs (mifepristone and misoprostol) are now on the WHO’s list of “essential medicines.” The list, designed to guide medical care in developing countries, is composed of medications that “satisfy the priority healthcare needs of the population.”
COMMENT: Abortion is not health care. But apparently, ideology trumps true medicine.
(Reading: “WHO puts abortifacients on essential drug list,” British Medical Journal, 7/9/05)
euthanasia
MASSACHUSETTS: Massachusetts General Hospital wanted to remove Barbara Howe, who suffered from ALS, from a ventilator in order to hasten her death, arguing that continuing the ventilator was “inhumane.” Howe died June 8, while still on the ventilator, before the hospital could enforce the court ordered-removal of the machine, which had been scheduled for June 30.
(Reading: “Woman dies at MGH after battle over care; Daughter fought for life support,” Boston Globe, 6/8/05; “Hospital, family agree to withdraw life support,” Boston Globe, 3/12/05)
personhood
HUMAN BEING AS INDIVIDUAL: L?Osservatore Romano: “If different stances are already emerging on the matter of individuality, the dispute on the classification of the embryo as a ‘person’ who is not yet conscious and who has not even developed a nervous system is in even starker contrast. The qualities that constitute a human person refer to faculties that are transcendent in comparison with the biological world; through and spirituality cannot be exclusively explained through biological structures. We cannot dissect the soul, nor can we deny that from the moment of conception a vital principle is present, a bodily form that presides over the development of the entire organism…. the generation of the human being is a unitary event in which the spiritual dimension takes shape in simultaneous unity with the physical.”
(Reading: “Keeping the gift of life in its proper context,” L’Osservatore Romano, p. 8, 6/15/05)
schiavo
GOV. BUSH: In a recent statement, Gov. Jeb Bush announced an end to the inquiry into the manner in which Terri Schiavo died, deferring to the report by State Attorney Bernie McCabe, who said there was no evidence that criminal activity was involved.
COMMENT: So it is not a crime to intentionally kill an incapacitated person who was not dying.
(Reading: “Gov. Bush ends Schiavo death inquiry,” Associated Press, 7/8/05)
(Background: “Terri’s Fight,” Terri Schindler-Schiavo Foundation)
stem cell breakthrough
SINGAPORE: Scientists have found that the outer lining of the umbilical cord not only has stem cells that are easily accessible, but also possess both epithelial and mesenchymal cells, which can produce almost any cell in the human body.
(Reading: “Singapore biotech firm discovers new source of stem cells,” CellResearch Corporation news release, 7/11/05)
web news
FAMILY MOVIES: Reviews of films from a Christian perspective are available from Movie Ministry.
wisdom
POPE BENEDICT XVI: Having a clear faith, based on the creed of the church, is often labeled today as a fundamentalism. … Whereas relativism, which is letting oneself be tossed and “swept along by every wind of teaching,” looks like the only attitude acceptable to today’s standards.
We are moving toward a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as for certain and which has as its highest goal one’s own ego and one’s own desires.
(Reading: “Quotes by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger,” San Diego Union-Tribune, 4/20/05)
reflection for prayer
POPE JOHN PAUL II: As bishops, you have to teach that freedom of conscience is never freedom from the truth but always and only freedom in the truth.”
(Reading: “Consciences must be formed to discern the objective moral law,” L’Osservatore Romano, 7/1/98)