in this issue:
american life league: CONFERENCE / KEYES LUNCHEON / YOUTH FEST
abortion: ABORTION DOCS WEB SITE / SLIP-COATING A CANNULA
bishops: CORPUS CHRISTI
condom: NOT THE ANSWER
culture of death: SEXUAL MORES
human embryo: QUALITY CONTROL
organ donation: ETHICAL INCENTIVES
personhood: FRANCE
physicians: DEFEND LIFE
politics: PRO-LIFE?
sterilization: QUINACRINE
suicide: CHINA
web news: BRITAIN
zinger: PETER SINGER SPEAKS
reflection for prayer: ST. CATHERINE OF SIENA
american life league
CONFERENCE: American Life League’s Celebration of Life World Family Conference is scheduled for next week, July 10-14 in New Orleans. You still have time to register! Conference outlines and online registration information may be found online. The event features speakers such as Mark Crutcher, Joseph Scheidler and Judie Brown.
KEYES LUNCHEON: Former ambassador Alan Keyes is the keynote speaker at ALL’s conference. He will address a special luncheon on Friday, July 12, at the Hyatt Regency in New Orleans. The talk will come the day after the final edition of “Alan Keyes is Making Sense” on MSNBC. Tickets are $35, and may be purchased separately. Online registration information may be found online.
YOUTH FEST: As part of the World Family Conference, ALL’s youth divisions are holding Vita Festival, two days of pro-life music and workshops, July 12-13 in New Orleans. An evening concert on July 12 will feature Contemporary Christian artists Jennifer Knapp, Earthsuit, Christafari, and Scarecrow and Tinmen. Ticket information is available online.
abortion
ABORTION DOCS WEB SITE: Claiming to assist physicians in taking a “more active and visible role in support of universal reproductive health care,” Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health board member Richard Hausknecht, M.D., says, “Having devoted my entire professional life to reproductive health care, I believe that this organization of physicians is in a unique position to advocate reproductive freedom.” The web site is Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health. Hausknecht has his own web site, Medically Induced Abortion, dedicated to promoting medical abortion.
SLIP-COATING A CANNULA: A group of 50 healthy women, each under 54 days pregnant and older than 18 years of age, participated in a blind study after they requested surgical abortion. Researchers report 29 women were aborted using the Slip-Coat cannula, and 21 were aborted using the standard cannula. The abortion rate was uncomplicated and complete. Slip-Coat is a lubricant that becomes slippery when in contact with bodily fluids or saline. The study found that “Slip-Coat cannulae may be more helpful in women where mechanical dilation may be more difficult.”
(Reading: “Randomized trial of a Slip-Coat cannula for early abortion,” Contraception, 65 (5) 2002, pp. 369-371, paid subscribers only, articles not online)
bishops
CORPUS CHRISTI: Bishop Edmond Carmody has barred two “Catholic” candidates who support abortion from speaking at any Church-related functions in his diocese. If you wish to comment directly to him, please call, fax or e-mail: ., Diocese of Corpus Christi, P.O. Box 2620, Corpus Christi, TX 78403; phone 361-882-6191 x302; fax 361-654-1270.
(Reading: “Church guidelines bar two Catholic candidates who support abortion rights from speaking in Texas diocese,” Associated Press, 6/25/02)
condom
NOT THE ANSWER: The Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute reports the United Nations’ new study, “HIV/AIDS Awareness and Behavior,” points out that “the UN’s massive effort to supply the world with condoms in a bid to stem the spread of HIV/AIDS is failing.” The book is advertised online and is available for $5.00 per copy.
(Reading: “UN report suggests condoms are not the answer to the AIDS epidemic,” Friday Fax, 6/28/02; also see “The Flawed Condom,” a factual report on the condom)
culture of death
SEXUAL MORES: A recent study indicates that bachelors have no desire to get married, partly because “they enjoy a sexually active single life in a social climate that doesn’t push them to marry.”
(Reading: “Wedded bliss not a priority for U.S. bachelors,” Washington Times, 6/26/02, p. 1)
human embryo
QUALITY CONTROL: Researchers set out day-3 criteria for selection of best embryos in recent research study.
(Reading: “Accuracy of day 3 criteria for selecting the best embryos,” Fertility and Sterility, 6/02, pp. 1191-1195, paid subscriptions, articles not online)
organ donation
ETHICAL INCENTIVES: A commentary by six medical professionals recommends a set of guidelines for increasing organ donations. Among the recommendations are “reimbursement for funeral expenses,” donor “medal of honor” and “ensuring access to organs for previous donors.”
(Reading: “Ethical incentives — not payment — for organ donation,” New England Journal of Medicine, 6/20/02, pp. 2002-2005, paid subscription only)
personhood
FRANCE: A French high court ruled that a woman who sued her doctors because her baby died during labor was not entitled to damages because an unborn fetus does not have the legal status of a living person. Earlier the same court had ruled that a drunken driver who caused the death of a six-month old fetus could not be tried for murder.
(Reading: “Top French court rules fetus not living person,” Reuters, 6/25/02; for study materials on personhood at fertilization (conception) see Personhood.
physicians
DEFEND LIFE: In responding to a pro-abortion letter published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, pro-life physician Fritz Baumgartner writes “Every single human life, born and unborn, is a precious, fantastic miracle, infinitely more so than what the combined physical structures of the World Trade Center towers and Pentagon once were. It’s time for America — and medicine in particular — to grow up and face the truth. Violating the dignity of human life — legal or not — remains a crime against humanity. Shame on us in medicine for lacking the moral certitude to speak the truth, despite knowing the truth.”
(Reading: “Hippocrates and the dignity of human life,” American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 6/02)
politics
PRO-LIFE? Exposing the most recent rhetoric from the National Right to Life Committee’s convention, Christian columnist Jim Rudd comments that as long as NRLC persists in describing President Bush as a “staunch pro-life ally” the babies face enormous problems.
(Reading: “National Right to Life’s deception,” Covenant News, 7/1/02)
sterilization
QUINACRINE: The editor of Fertility and Sterility is requesting additional clinical trials in the United States for the infamous pellets originally tested on third world women with many disastrous results — see “Quinacrine: Chemical sterilization as population control,” “Slash and burn Buffett style” and “Genocide in a vaccine.”
(Reading: “Quinacrine sterilization: the imperative need for American clinical trials,” Fertility and Sterility, 6/02, pp. 1106-1109, paid subscriptions only, not online)
suicide
CHINA: David Reardon, Ph.D., of the Elliot Institute responds to various analyses of why the suicide rate in China among young women is so high by explaining, “Chinese women face the prospect of being pressured into abortion.” He added, “The government fertility-regulation officials might attempt to alleviate the emotional consequences of their mandates, however, by offering appropriate grief counseling programs for couples who have agreed to abortion or who have been denied birth permits.”
(Reading: “Suicide rates in China,” The Lancet, 6/29/02)
web news
BRITAIN: A new web site exposes the facts regarding “safe sex,” the morning-after abortion pill, deaths related to the pill, and other topics: The Parents Network.
zinger
PETER SINGER SPEAKS: The title of a recent speech Singer gave to animal rights activists: “When is killing OK? (Attacking animals? Unwanted dogs and cats? Unwanted or deformed fetuses?)”
(Reading: “Christianity harmful to animals, says animal rights godfather,” CNSNews, 7/1/02)
reflection for prayer
ST. CATHERINE OF SIENA: You will show that you are indeed alive when you harmonize and unite your will with God’s. This sweet will of his will give you living faith and hope set entirely on God.
If you want to give life to this holy faith, I ask you to keep two things in mind. The first is that God cannot will anything but our good. To give us that true good–because through sin we had lost it–he gave himself even to the shameful death of the cross. Graciously he humbled himself to restore that grace to us and to do away with our pride. How true it is then that God wills only our good!
The second thing to keep in mind is this: I want you to believe that truly nothing happens to us except by God’s will and permission — death or life, sickness or health, riches or poverty, even the wrongs done us by friends or relatives or anyone else. Not a leaf falls from a tree without his consent. So not only should you not fear this thing — because God gives us what we can bear, and no more — but let’s accept it with reverence, dearest sister, considering ourselves unworthy of so great a good as to put up with hardship for the Lord. The devil has been trying to terrify you by this affair you fear, so seize the arms of faith at once, believing that we will be delivered by Christ crucified. If you believe, as we’ve said, that God wants only our good, you will stay perfectly happy. Be comforted in Christ crucified, and don’t be afraid.
I’ll say no more except this: let everything you do be done in fear and love of God. Remember that one day you must die, and you do not know when. God’s eye is upon you and watches over all you do. Gentle God, give us death rather than let us offend you!
(Reading: “Our Blindness and God’s Eye,” Magnificat Press, 5/02, pp. 408-409)