abortion
COMPLICATIONS? According to researchers who observed women who had abortions during the first trimester, there is no reason to suspect that these mothers “experience psychological problems or regret their abortion two years post-abortion, but some do.” The caveats in the text of the study lead to some suspicions about the accuracy of these findings. For example, researchers claim that the national rate of clinical depression is the same as that of women who have had abortions. But for 19 percent of the women, negative emotions did increase and their satisfaction with the abortion decreased. Further, of 1043 eligible women, 882 agreed to participate in this study, and over time only 442 remained for the full two years of follow up.
QUESTION: Where did the 440 who did not choose to continue participation go? What of their emotional state?
(Reading: “Psychological Responses of Women After First-trimester Abortion,” Archives of General Psychiatry, 8/00, pp. 777-784)
FEDERAL FUNDING: A scan of the Health Care Financing Administration web site reveals that Medicare funds are used to pay for aborting children according to certain specific guidelines. Sally K. Richardson, director of the Center for Medicaid and State Operations, writes, “the revised Hyde Amendment provides for funding for abortions if the pregnancy is the result of an act of rape or incest. As discussed in my December 28, 1993 letter, all abortions covered by the Hyde Amendment, including those abortions related to rape or incest, are medically necessary services and are required to be provided by states participating in the Medicaid program.” Under the payment schedules, on the web site, we found “reproductive procedures” including D&C and therapeutic abortion.”
COMMENT: Follow the rules and it appears any child could be killed with federal dollars, as long as the “reason” complies.
(Reading: Richardson letter; Health Care Financing Administration list of covered services)
bioethics
HIGH SCHOOL CURRICULUM? Georgetown University presents a curriculum for high school students including rationing of health care based on funds available versus age of patient (commonly known as utilitarianism) and anencephalic babies as organ donors.
COMMENT: The program is surely not based on Catholic magisterial teaching.
(Reading: High School Bioethics, Georgetown University)
birth control
NONOXYNOL 9: A popular lubricant/disinfectant used in most “contraceptive creams, gels, suppositories, foams, films and sponges” is suspected of making women more vulnerable to the AIDS virus.
(Reading: “AIDS Study Prompts New Look at Prevention,” Washington Post, 8/14/00, A03; for more information on this compound see “Spermicides“)
brain death
WHEN DEAD IS NOT I: Scientists are now claiming that patients diagnosed as “brain dead” may feel pain. Will a certification of death really matter when the health care providers can see that the patient they are pronouncing as dead is not “clinically dead”? Some argue that if an anesthetic is given first real death is of less concern.
(Reading: “Brain Death Debate May Deter Organ Donors,” Guardian, 8/21/00; “Transplants: Are the Donors Really Dead?” Christian Medical Fellowship)
WHEN DEAD IS NOT II: Sensory modality assessment and rehabilitation technique (SMART), which took ten years to develop, is “the brainchild of occupational therapists in the brain injury unit” of the Royal Hospital in Britain. A 1996 study showed that SMART techniques found that 43 percent of patients diagnosed with persistent vegetative state (PVS: labeling human persons as vegetables is dehumanizing) were in fact NOT in that condition. For information, see SMART; to review the 1996 British Medical Journal article revealing misdiagnosis findings, see “Misdiagnosis of the Vegetative State: Retrospective Study in a Rehabilitation Unit,” BMJ, 7/6/96, pp. 13-16)
gay rights
MASSACHUSETTS: A state probate court has ruled that “two mommies” can appear on a birth certificate. This is a first, and addresses Boston lesbian couple Mary Jane Knoll and Christine Fill. Knoll’s egg was fertilized with an anonymous donor’s sperm through in vitro fertilization and the embryonic child was borne in Fill’s womb.
(Reading: “Probate Judge Rules It Is Lawful for Two Women to Be the Only Ones Listed on Original Document, American Lawyer Media, 8/11/00; “Co-Mom Birth Certificate a First,” Yahoo News, 8/11/00)
imposed death (euthanasia)
FUTILITY: In California, the law facilitates the use of advance directives and allows physicians to refuse to provide futile end-of-life care. Determining medical futility at Mercy Catholic Healthcare System facilities is accomplished according to a set of guidelines, including: “If the IIRB (Institutional Interdisciplinary Review Board) agrees with the determination of medical inappropriateness, intrainstitutional system transfers of the care of the patient to another physician to provide palliative care are allowed. However, intrainstitutional system transfers to another physician to provide the intervention that has been judged by the IIRB to be medically inappropriate will not be allowed.”
COMMENT: Since no mention is made of whether or not nutrition and hydration are exempt, an exemption designed to comply with Pope John Paul II’s 1998 statement on the matter, one might well conclude that these guidelines are suspect. One might further wonder if the word “futile” is a totally subjective word designed to save dollars.
(Reading: “Calif. Law Facilitates Advance Directives,” AMA News, 8/14/00; “Time for a Formalized Medical Futility Policy,” Health Progress, 7-8/00)
KEVORKIAN AWARD: The Gleitzman Foundation’s Citizen Activist Award for Humanitarianism has been given to Al Gore and to Dr. C. Everett Koop. And now it has been given to Jack Kevorkian, who could not receive it in person and was replaced by the widow of Thomas Youk, the man whose death was seen on national television. Kevorkian is currently serving time in prison for his killing of Youk.
(Reading: “Kevorkian Update,” Timelines, The Hemlock Society USA, Summer 2000)
OPIOID USE NOT DEADLY: The staff of St. Christopher’s Hospice in Britain reports that “appropriate use of opioids for symptom control does not shorten life and there is little if any need to invoke DDE” (doctrine of double effect). In fact, they write that DDE “is used as a cover for euthanasia.”
(Reading: “Opioid Use in Last Week of Life and Implications for End-of-life Decision-making,” The Lancet, 7/29/00, pp. 398-399)
organ “donation”
ETHICAL (?) STRATEGIES: Physicians discuss the options of splitting the liver, taking organs from donors as old as 89 and pursuing other strategies to make a greater number of organs available to those in need. Though ethical concerns appear in some areas, the questions relating to payment for organs and the taking of organs (non-vital) from “living” patients remain open to debate, according to writers. And they argue, “in countries where the law allows the procurement of organs from brain-dead donors, the split-liver technique can eliminate the need for obtaining a graft from a living related donor when a child requires liver transplant.” Commenting on the discussion in a companion editorial, Normal Levinsky, M.D., observes, “We must avoid a slippery slope on which the benefits to the transplant recipients and to the institutions that care for them come to outweigh the risks to the donors.”
COMMENT: No one is opposing “brain death” as being a false pronouncement of death.
(Reading: “Strategies for Making More Organs Available for Transplantation,” New England Journal of Medicine, 8/10/00, pp. 404-410; “Organ Donations by Unrelated Donors,” New England Journal of Medicine, 8/10/00, pp. 430-432, requires paid subscription for complete access)
school-based clinics
REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH SERVICES: A new study, reported by the National Center for Maternal and Child Health reports that nearly 85 percent of 386 school-based clinics provide “at least one reproductive health service on site.” Such services include pregnancy testing, contraceptives, contraceptive counseling, and diagnosis and treatment of STDs. The study says 70 percent of the clinics prohibit dispensing or prescribing contraceptives.
(Reading: “Study Examines Family Planning Services at School-Based Health Centers“)
you
BUMPER STICKERS and VIDEOS: visit John Paul II Catholic Videos.
HEALTH INSURANCE: Learn how one Catholic diocese cleaned up its health insurance coverage: Success.
ZIMMERMAN GEMS: Father Anthony Zimmerman, S.V.D., has written prolifically on pro-life matters for years. His entire set of writings, including a new book, is now online.
reflection for prayer
If only mortals would learn how great it is to possess divine grace, how beautiful, how noble, how precious. How many riches it hides within itself, how many joys and delights. Without doubt they would devote all their care and concern to winning for themselves pains and afflictions. All men throughout the world would seek trouble, infirmities and torments, instead of good fortune, in order to attain the unfathomable treasure of grace. This is the reward and the final gain of patience. No one would complain about his cross or about troubles that may happen to him, if he would come to know the scales on which they are weighed when they are distributed to men.
-St. Rose of Lima, 1586-1617
COMPLICATIONS? According to researchers who observed women who had abortions during the first trimester, there is no reason to suspect that these mothers “experience psychological problems or regret their abortion two years post-abortion, but some do.” The caveats in the text of the study lead to some suspicions about the accuracy of these findings. For example, researchers claim that the national rate of clinical depression is the same as that of women who have had abortions. But for 19 percent of the women, negative emotions did increase and their satisfaction with the abortion decreased. Further, of 1043 eligible women, 882 agreed to participate in this study, and over time only 442 remained for the full two years of follow up.
QUESTION: Where did the 440 who did not choose to continue participation go? What of their emotional state?
(Reading: “Psychological Responses of Women After First-trimester Abortion,” Archives of General Psychiatry, 8/00, pp. 777-784)
FEDERAL FUNDING: A scan of the Health Care Financing Administration web site reveals that Medicare funds are used to pay for aborting children according to certain specific guidelines. Sally K. Richardson, director of the Center for Medicaid and State Operations, writes, “the revised Hyde Amendment provides for funding for abortions if the pregnancy is the result of an act of rape or incest. As discussed in my December 28, 1993 letter, all abortions covered by the Hyde Amendment, including those abortions related to rape or incest, are medically necessary services and are required to be provided by states participating in the Medicaid program.” Under the payment schedules, on the web site, we found “reproductive procedures” including D&C and therapeutic abortion.”
COMMENT: Follow the rules and it appears any child could be killed with federal dollars, as long as the “reason” complies.
(Reading: Richardson letter; Health Care Financing Administration list of covered services)
bioethics
HIGH SCHOOL CURRICULUM? Georgetown University presents a curriculum for high school students including rationing of health care based on funds available versus age of patient (commonly known as utilitarianism) and anencephalic babies as organ donors.
COMMENT: The program is surely not based on Catholic magisterial teaching.
(Reading: High School Bioethics, Georgetown University)
birth control
NONOXYNOL 9: A popular lubricant/disinfectant used in most “contraceptive creams, gels, suppositories, foams, films and sponges” is suspected of making women more vulnerable to the AIDS virus.
(Reading: “AIDS Study Prompts New Look at Prevention,” Washington Post, 8/14/00, A03; for more information on this compound see “Spermicides“)
brain death
WHEN DEAD IS NOT I: Scientists are now claiming that patients diagnosed as “brain dead” may feel pain. Will a certification of death really matter when the health care providers can see that the patient they are pronouncing as dead is not “clinically dead”? Some argue that if an anesthetic is given first real death is of less concern.
(Reading: “Brain Death Debate May Deter Organ Donors,” Guardian, 8/21/00; “Transplants: Are the Donors Really Dead?” Christian Medical Fellowship)
WHEN DEAD IS NOT II: Sensory modality assessment and rehabilitation technique (SMART), which took ten years to develop, is “the brainchild of occupational therapists in the brain injury unit” of the Royal Hospital in Britain. A 1996 study showed that SMART techniques found that 43 percent of patients diagnosed with persistent vegetative state (PVS: labeling human persons as vegetables is dehumanizing) were in fact NOT in that condition. For information, see SMART; to review the 1996 British Medical Journal article revealing misdiagnosis findings, see “Misdiagnosis of the Vegetative State: Retrospective Study in a Rehabilitation Unit,” BMJ, 7/6/96, pp. 13-16)
gay rights
MASSACHUSETTS: A state probate court has ruled that “two mommies” can appear on a birth certificate. This is a first, and addresses Boston lesbian couple Mary Jane Knoll and Christine Fill. Knoll’s egg was fertilized with an anonymous donor’s sperm through in vitro fertilization and the embryonic child was borne in Fill’s womb.
(Reading: “Probate Judge Rules It Is Lawful for Two Women to Be the Only Ones Listed on Original Document, American Lawyer Media, 8/11/00; “Co-Mom Birth Certificate a First,” Yahoo News, 8/11/00)
imposed death (euthanasia)
FUTILITY: In California, the law facilitates the use of advance directives and allows physicians to refuse to provide futile end-of-life care. Determining medical futility at Mercy Catholic Healthcare System facilities is accomplished according to a set of guidelines, including: “If the IIRB (Institutional Interdisciplinary Review Board) agrees with the determination of medical inappropriateness, intrainstitutional system transfers of the care of the patient to another physician to provide palliative care are allowed. However, intrainstitutional system transfers to another physician to provide the intervention that has been judged by the IIRB to be medically inappropriate will not be allowed.”
COMMENT: Since no mention is made of whether or not nutrition and hydration are exempt, an exemption designed to comply with Pope John Paul II’s 1998 statement on the matter, one might well conclude that these guidelines are suspect. One might further wonder if the word “futile” is a totally subjective word designed to save dollars.
(Reading: “Calif. Law Facilitates Advance Directives,” AMA News, 8/14/00; “Time for a Formalized Medical Futility Policy,” Health Progress, 7-8/00)
KEVORKIAN AWARD: The Gleitzman Foundation’s Citizen Activist Award for Humanitarianism has been given to Al Gore and to Dr. C. Everett Koop. And now it has been given to Jack Kevorkian, who could not receive it in person and was replaced by the widow of Thomas Youk, the man whose death was seen on national television. Kevorkian is currently serving time in prison for his killing of Youk.
(Reading: “Kevorkian Update,” Timelines, The Hemlock Society USA, Summer 2000)
OPIOID USE NOT DEADLY: The staff of St. Christopher’s Hospice in Britain reports that “appropriate use of opioids for symptom control does not shorten life and there is little if any need to invoke DDE” (doctrine of double effect). In fact, they write that DDE “is used as a cover for euthanasia.”
(Reading: “Opioid Use in Last Week of Life and Implications for End-of-life Decision-making,” The Lancet, 7/29/00, pp. 398-399)
organ “donation”
ETHICAL (?) STRATEGIES: Physicians discuss the options of splitting the liver, taking organs from donors as old as 89 and pursuing other strategies to make a greater number of organs available to those in need. Though ethical concerns appear in some areas, the questions relating to payment for organs and the taking of organs (non-vital) from “living” patients remain open to debate, according to writers. And they argue, “in countries where the law allows the procurement of organs from brain-dead donors, the split-liver technique can eliminate the need for obtaining a graft from a living related donor when a child requires liver transplant.” Commenting on the discussion in a companion editorial, Normal Levinsky, M.D., observes, “We must avoid a slippery slope on which the benefits to the transplant recipients and to the institutions that care for them come to outweigh the risks to the donors.”
COMMENT: No one is opposing “brain death” as being a false pronouncement of death.
(Reading: “Strategies for Making More Organs Available for Transplantation,” New England Journal of Medicine, 8/10/00, pp. 404-410; “Organ Donations by Unrelated Donors,” New England Journal of Medicine, 8/10/00, pp. 430-432, requires paid subscription for complete access)
school-based clinics
REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH SERVICES: A new study, reported by the National Center for Maternal and Child Health reports that nearly 85 percent of 386 school-based clinics provide “at least one reproductive health service on site.” Such services include pregnancy testing, contraceptives, contraceptive counseling, and diagnosis and treatment of STDs. The study says 70 percent of the clinics prohibit dispensing or prescribing contraceptives.
(Reading: “Study Examines Family Planning Services at School-Based Health Centers“)
you
BUMPER STICKERS and VIDEOS: visit John Paul II Catholic Videos.
HEALTH INSURANCE: Learn how one Catholic diocese cleaned up its health insurance coverage: Success.
ZIMMERMAN GEMS: Father Anthony Zimmerman, S.V.D., has written prolifically on pro-life matters for years. His entire set of writings, including a new book, is now online.
reflection for prayer
If only mortals would learn how great it is to possess divine grace, how beautiful, how noble, how precious. How many riches it hides within itself, how many joys and delights. Without doubt they would devote all their care and concern to winning for themselves pains and afflictions. All men throughout the world would seek trouble, infirmities and torments, instead of good fortune, in order to attain the unfathomable treasure of grace. This is the reward and the final gain of patience. No one would complain about his cross or about troubles that may happen to him, if he would come to know the scales on which they are weighed when they are distributed to men.
-St. Rose of Lima, 1586-1617