in this issue:
hot button issues: NAACP
activism: FREE BECKY / PRO-LIFE WRIST BANDS
birth control pills: RISKS
catholic bishops: GRACIDA
dark side: GENETIC ENGINEERING
human embryology: GOBBLEDYGOOK
in vitro fertilization: SINGLE EMBRYO TRANSFER
politics: DEMOCRATS
stem cell research good news: BONE MARROW / CHINA / FAT / MUSCLE / NEURAL CREST / RETINAL / UMBILICAL CORD BLOOD
unicef: BELLAMY
reflection for prayer: IN CONVERSATION WITH GOD
hot button issues
NAACP: American Life League is asking if, in its search for a new director, the NAACP will seek out a candidate willing to address the number one killer of black Americans, abortion.
(Reading: “Will the NAACP be bold enough?” American Life League news release, 12/21/04)
activism
FREE BECKY: Defend Life of Maryland is seeking assistance in its effort to have Rebecca Price’s prison term commuted. Price is awaiting the birth of her daughter, Hannah, while serving a five-year term in Maryland Correctional Institution for Women. According to Defend Life, her prenatal care has been inadequate, and time is of the essence as the baby is due January 17. The group is asking pro-lifers to contact Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich to request action. Contact information is available at the Defend Life web site.
(Reading: “Free Becky Price,” Defend Life, 12/21/04; “Defend Life seeks support for pregnant prison inmate,” Catholic Review, 12/16/04)
PRO-LIFE WRIST BANDS: Selling by the thousands, these blue wrist bands represent the Blessed Mother and her love for the preborn.
birth control pills
RISKS: Researchers suggest there is a confirmed risk of stroke among women who take birth control pills. This publication comes days after the federal government’s announcement that recent studies claiming pill safety are seriously flawed.
(Reading: “Risk of ischaemic stroke in people with migraine: systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies,” British Medical Journal, 12/13/04)
catholic bishops
GRACIDA: Bishop Rene Gracida offers reasons why public figures who promote, encourage or support the crime of abortion should be denied Holy Communion. “According to the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts in that Council’s June 24, 2000 Declaration on the question, ‘Should a priest deny Communion to a Catholic who is an obstinate public sinner?’ the answer is, ‘Yes.’ The reason cited by the Pontifical Council is, ‘In effect, the reception of the body of Christ when one is publicly unworthy constitutes an objective harm to the ecclesial communion: it is a behavior that affects the rights of the Church and of all the faithful to live in accord with the exigencies of that communion.'”
(Reading: “Denying Holy Communion: A case history,” Catholic Exchange, 12/20/04)
dark side
GENETIC ENGINEERING: Tom Okarma, CEO of the Geron biotech company, said, “The value of nuclear transfer [cloning] is not for cell therapy, it’s to do molecular research to figure out how genetic disease is manifest. When you inject nuclear transfer (stem cell therapy) becomes a dead end.”
COMMENT: In the same article, human cloning proponent Irv Weissman refers to human embryonic stem cells (which are derived by killing innocent human beings) as “tools.” It’s all about money!
(Reading: “Costly cloning isn’t a cure-all,” Wired News, 12/1/04)
human embryology
GOBBLEDYGOOK: A paper from Dianne Irving, Ph.D., “What human embryo? Funniest mental gymnastics from medicine and research” is now online. An excerpt:
“The field of medicine has its own ‘gobbledygooks,’ like handing the new mother her ‘product of conception,’ or ‘pregnancy begins at implantation.’ But what I want to share with you is a related and equally amusing list of gobbledygooks from the field of science — specifically, terms that began their lives in the early abortion debates, but have since shifted into the current ones on human cloning and human embryonic stem cell research. It constitutes, in fact, The Mystery of ‘The Disappearing Human Embryo.’ And although these gobbledygooks currently lurk mostly in the halls of research labs and pages in biotech journals, physicians and other health care workers should expect them to recycle back into the daily practice of medicine at any moment now.”
(Reading: “What human embryo? Funniest mental gymnastics from medicine and research,” LifeIssues.Net, 10/14/04)
in vitro fertilization
SINGLE EMBRYO TRANSFER: An analysis of the problematic nature of researchers playing God is now posted online.
(Reading: “Blastocyst culture and transfer,” Fertility Network)
politics
DEMOCRATS: “Centrist” Tim Roemer, former member of Congress, is being touted as a possible chairman for the Democratic National Committee. Roemer has voted pro-life on a number of occasions.
(Reading: “Roemer may try for Democratic chairman,” Associated Press, 12/14/04; “Tim Roemer on abortion,” On the Issues, 2000)
stem cell research good news
BONE MARROW: Korean research suggests that bypass surgery including injection of cells taken from bone marrow into damaged areas of the brain can help restore dead brain tissue.
(Reading: “Korean scientists use bone marrow stem cells to re-grow dead brain tissue,” LifeSite news, 12/10/04; “Stem cell implant effective in treating cerebral infarction,” Korea Times, 12/9/04)
CHINA: 200,000 Chinese have donated stem cells via the China Marrow Database. Donation of bone marrow stem cells “give desperate blood cancer patients a chance at life.”
(Reading: “Donors’ stem cells save cancer victims,” China Daily, 11/27/04)
FAT: German researchers report that a girl who received a brain injury two years ago has been treated with stem cells from fat that were “exploited to grow bone in a human.” Several weeks after the surgery the girl’s skull, once seriously damaged, is smooth to the touch.
(Reading: “Stem cells from fat used to repair skull, doctors report,” Associated Press, 12/17/04)
MUSCLE: Austrian doctors report that women suffering from urinary stress incontinence are being helped through therapy using their own muscle-derived stem cells.
(Reading: “Patients own stem cells used to cure incontinence,” Radiological Society of North America news release, 12/1/04)
NEURAL CREST: Research indicates that neural crest stem cells from adults have the innate ability to differentiate into many diverse cell types and are easily accessible in the skin of adults.
(Reading: “Neural crest stem cells in skin could provide alternative to embryonic stem cell use,” John Wiley & Sons news release, 12/9/04)
RETINAL: Initial research using retinal stem cells from newborn mice to restore degenerating eyesight could prove to help human beings in the future.
(Reading: “Stem cell transplants help mice see,” 12/9/04, Reuters; “Multipotent retinal progenitors express developmental markers, differentiate into retinal neurons, and preserve light-mediated behavior,” Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science, Vol. 45 No. 11)
UMBILICAL CORD BLOOD: A recent report indicates that umbilical cord blood could save leukemia patients who cannot find bone marrow donors.
(Reading: “Cord blood works well in adults, kids,” Associated Press, 12/8/04)
unicef
BELLAMY: Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute reports that UNICEF chief Carol Bellamy, a radical feminist, is stepping down in 2005 and the selection of her replacement is creating a stir. The Lancet editorializes, “UNICEF clearly has a pivotal role to lead the world’s efforts to make children a global priority. Under Bellamy’s leadership, UNICEF is presently in a poor position to do so. Her distinctive focus has been to advocate for the rights of children. This rights-based approach to the future of children fits well with the zeitgeist of international development policy. But a preoccupation with rights ignores the fact that children will have no opportunity for development at all unless they survive. The language of rights means little to a child stillborn, an infant dying in pain from pneumonia, or a child desiccated by famine. The most fundamental right of all is the right to survive.”
(Reading: “Battle lines forming to replace radical feminist Bellamy as head of UNICEF,” Friday Fax, 12/10/04; “UNICEF leadership 2005-2015: a call for strategic change,” The Lancet, 12/3/04)
reflection for prayer
IN COVERSATION WITH GOD: Meekness sets it face against those pointless displays of violence which at bottom are signs of weakness, such as impatience, irritation, bad temper and hatred. It is opposed to all useless waste of energy in unnecessary anger, which so often originates in little things that might have been passed over in silence or with a smile, and which never has any useful results.
(Reading: “In conversation with God,” Vol. 1, p. 85)