abortion
COMPARING SUCTION CURETTAGE AND MIFEPRISTONE: Researchers examined “acceptability” among 152 women who received mifepristone (RU-486) and misoprostol and 174 who underwent suction curettage. The women who received chemical abortions were “more satisfied with their method and more likely to choose the same method again than were subjects undergoing surgical abortion.” However, a careful reading of the study shows that among those women who “medically aborted,” the bleeding was heavy. This raised the dissatisfaction level. Further, the failure of the “medical” attempt to abort, resulting in a surgical abortion, caused those women to state that their next abortion would be surgical.
(Reading: “Acceptability of Suction Curettage and Mifepristone Abortion in the United States: A Prospective Comparison Study,” American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 6/00, pp.292-1299)
imposed death
MISSOURI: A case at a Catholic hospital in St. Louis where a 28-year-old man is reported to be in a persistent vegetative state has gained some attention. The question is whether or not Steven Becker should be sustained by artificially providing nutrition and hydration and giving him antibiotics. Registered nurse Nancy Valko advises that Becker’s wife is reported to have “reluctantly agreed” to the removal of certain “life support,” reminding many of the Hugh Finn case of 1998. St. Louis Archbishop Justin Rigali issued a July 3 statement, repeating the consistent teaching of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops: “We reject any omission of nutrition and hydration intended to cause a patient’s death. We hold for a presumption in favor of providing medically assisted nutrition and hydration to patients who need it, which presumption would yield in cases where such procedures have no medically reasonable hope of sustaining life or pose excessive risks or burdens. Recognizing that judgments about the benefits and burdens of medically assisted nutrition and hydration in individual cases have a subjective element and are generally best made by the patient directly involved, we also affirm a legitimate role for families’ love and guidance, health care professionals’ ethical concerns and society’s interest in preserving life and protecting the helpless.”
(Reading: update from Nancy Valko, R.N., to communique; “Archbishop Rigali Releases Statement Regarding Principles for Health Care Decisions Concerning Assisted Nutrition and Hydration and Related Issues,” Office of Communications, Archdiocese of St. Louis)
“ORDINARY” CARE: For a thoughtful exposition of the definitions involved in making, on behalf of those who are ill, life or death decisions regarding the question of artificially providing nutrition and hydration, see “Bioethical Magisterium on Normal Treatment and Ordinary Care: Medically Assisted Feeding and Hydration” by Fr. Edward J. Richard, M.S., D.Th., M.J.D.
in vitro fertilization
EMBRYO TRANSFER I: Researchers find that the technique of transferring embryos (ET) to the mother for possible implantation is as successful as the technique used by a particular provider. The provider’s importance in the task of ET has not been studied in the past, but researchers claim that, if specific standards for pregnancy rates per ET were established, providers who did not meet the standards could “receive remedial instruction and supervision of a limited number of transfers.”
(Reading: “Pregnancy Rates After Embryo Transfer Depend on the Provider at Embryo Transfer,” Fertility and Sterility, 7/00, pp.80-86, paid subscription only)
EMBRYO TRANSFER II: Researchers find that waiting until the embryo is six days old (blastocyst) helps in achieving implantation once the embryonic baby is transferred to the mother’s womb. “Embryos that fail to hatch by day 6 may have a lower implantation potential.”
(Reading: “Transfer of Nonassisted Hatched and Hatching Human Blastocysts After In Vitro Fertilization,” Fertility and Sterility, 7/00, pp.163-165, paid subscription only)
EUGENICS: Researchers commenting on “preimplantation genetic diagnosis” explain that the “technique to avoid the establishment of genetically abnormal pregnancies” is growing in popularity.
(Reading: “Obstetric Outcomes in 102 Pregnancies After Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis,” American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 6/00, pp.1629-1632)
organ donation
BRAIN DEATH: The AMA’s Council on Scientific Affairs has issued a report stemming from a Health Care Financing Administration role “requiring that hospitals ‘designate’ a health care professional to initiate the organ donation discussion with the families of patients who are brain dead.” The council found that physicians need more training on the matter of having such discussions with the families of those who are dying.
(Reading: “Defining Physicians’ Roles in Increasing Organ Donations,” AMA News, 7/10-17/00, p. 39; HCFA’s Q-and-A material on death)
personhood
IRELAND: The Catholic bishops of Ireland are reported to favor a pro-life constitutional amendment. Bishop Laurence Ryan of Kildare and Leighlin said: “We believe that what is required is a constitutional amendment that would protect the right to life of the unborn child, while recognizing that an expectant mother who is ill must receive such medical treatment as is necessary, even when that treatment, as a side-effect, puts her unborn child at risk.”
COMMENT: We pray that the bishops of Ireland are not really in favor of a flawed constitutional amendment. Exceptions negate the full truth that every person is of equal value because he or she is created by God.
(Reading: Catholic World News, 7/6/00)
politics
GORE AND THE BEGINNING OF LIFE: Meet the Press moderator Tim Russert asked Vice President Gore point-blank, several times, “When does life begin?” Gore never gave him a straight answer, offering instead comments such as, “the Roe vs. Wade decision proposes an answer to that question … which is, in my view, a common sense approach that there is a developmental process during which the burden kind of shifts over time…. I will protect a woman’s right to choose.
(Reading: Meet the Press, 7/16/00)
population control
FAMILY PLANET: The web site and the effort funded by the David and Lucille Packard Foundation exposes a collaboration focused on population control among organizations such as CARE, Planned Parenthood, National Audubon Society and Save the Children. According to the site, Save the Children provides family planning information “within the context of its international health programs” and has done so for more than 15 years.
(Reading: Family Planet)
quinacrine
CANCER RISK: Researchers have identified a slight increase in the risk of cancer among women exposed to intrauterine quinacrine sterilization.
(Reading: “Cancer Risk Among Women Sterilized with Transcervical Quinacrine in Chile: An Update Through 1996, “Fertility and Sterility, 7/00, pp.169-171, paid subscription only)
selective reduction
FISCAL SAVINGS: Researchers point out that, by using multifetal pregnancy reduction (abortion), pregnancies (babies) were reduced and the decrease in live births “was associated with significant fiscal savings.” “Multiple gestations” (more than one baby) can produce a negative “obstetric outcome” (delivery).
(Reading: “Multifetal Pregnancy Reduction: Perinatal and Fiscal Outcomes,” American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 6/00, pp.1575-1580)
stem cells
BRITAIN: Joining Germany and Japan (communique, 7/7/00), British scientists will take advantage of American pro-death law, circumventing British law which bans human cloning and import stem cells from the USA.
(Reading: SPUC News Digest, 7/7/00)
FAKE SCIENCE: Researchers examine the state of the debate regarding human stem cells and define, among other things, the pluripotent stem cell using the terminology correctly applied to totipotent stem cells. They conclude their commentary by suggesting “if proper safeguards are established to prevent the possibility of this benefit [potential therapeutic advances] from unduly influencing the decision to terminate a pregnancy or dispose of an embryo, then the proper respect can be shown to the fetus and embryo. If such a situation can be assured, the federal government should adjust policy to fund the derivation of embryonic stem cells from IVF-created ‘excess’ embryos.”
COMMENT: How can proper respect be shown to the human person if he or she is murdered, but the motive is not unduly influenced by an alleged good that could be done if the murder victim’s body were harvested of organs or cells?
(Reading: “The Human Pluripotent Stem Cell: Impact on Medicine and Society,” Fertility and Sterility, 74:1:1-7, paid subscription only)
PARKINSON’S DISEASE: Peninsula Parkinson’s Support Group of Sunnyvale, California, has distributed a misleading, scientifically erroneous position paper explaining why the destruction of the embryonic baby for the acquisition of her stem cells is acceptable. Father Joseph Howard, Jr., director of the American Bioethics Advisory Commission, has analyzed the position. He writes, in part: “It is … critical to note that obtaining stem cells from a human embryo necessitates removal of the Inner Cell Mass which destroys a human embryo every time without exception. It is not possible to be pro-life and simultaneously support such destruction of human lives.”
(Reading: Peninsula Parkinson’s Support Groups Summer 2000 newsletter, p. 3; 7/12/00 letter from Fr. Joseph Howard, Jr., to Mr. Sid Levin; for background on the ethical position in opposition to destruction embryo research see Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research: Are Official Positions Based on Scientific Fraud?)
you
CPCs AS MEDICAL CENTERS: NIFLA (National Institute for Family and Life Advocates) is launching a comprehensive plan for providing CPCs with ultrasound equipment and training. For details, contact Tom Glessner at NIFLA.
PANDORA’S PILLBOX 2: “Closing the lid on contraception” is the theme of the September 29-October 1 Chicago conference. For details contact the “>GIFT Foundation, or visit the GIFT Foundation web site.
POST-ABORTION HEALING: Ramah International has a full calendar of speaking engagements for its founder, Sydna Masse.
reflection for prayer
Bernard of Clairvaux, abbott (1090-1153), once wrote, “The act of contemplation is like sleep in the arms of God, but the soul returns fired with a most vehement love of God, inflamed with zeal for righteousness, and filled with extreme fervor to all spiritual desires and duties.” (Canticles 4, 9, 4)
COMPARING SUCTION CURETTAGE AND MIFEPRISTONE: Researchers examined “acceptability” among 152 women who received mifepristone (RU-486) and misoprostol and 174 who underwent suction curettage. The women who received chemical abortions were “more satisfied with their method and more likely to choose the same method again than were subjects undergoing surgical abortion.” However, a careful reading of the study shows that among those women who “medically aborted,” the bleeding was heavy. This raised the dissatisfaction level. Further, the failure of the “medical” attempt to abort, resulting in a surgical abortion, caused those women to state that their next abortion would be surgical.
(Reading: “Acceptability of Suction Curettage and Mifepristone Abortion in the United States: A Prospective Comparison Study,” American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 6/00, pp.292-1299)
imposed death
MISSOURI: A case at a Catholic hospital in St. Louis where a 28-year-old man is reported to be in a persistent vegetative state has gained some attention. The question is whether or not Steven Becker should be sustained by artificially providing nutrition and hydration and giving him antibiotics. Registered nurse Nancy Valko advises that Becker’s wife is reported to have “reluctantly agreed” to the removal of certain “life support,” reminding many of the Hugh Finn case of 1998. St. Louis Archbishop Justin Rigali issued a July 3 statement, repeating the consistent teaching of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops: “We reject any omission of nutrition and hydration intended to cause a patient’s death. We hold for a presumption in favor of providing medically assisted nutrition and hydration to patients who need it, which presumption would yield in cases where such procedures have no medically reasonable hope of sustaining life or pose excessive risks or burdens. Recognizing that judgments about the benefits and burdens of medically assisted nutrition and hydration in individual cases have a subjective element and are generally best made by the patient directly involved, we also affirm a legitimate role for families’ love and guidance, health care professionals’ ethical concerns and society’s interest in preserving life and protecting the helpless.”
(Reading: update from Nancy Valko, R.N., to communique; “Archbishop Rigali Releases Statement Regarding Principles for Health Care Decisions Concerning Assisted Nutrition and Hydration and Related Issues,” Office of Communications, Archdiocese of St. Louis)
“ORDINARY” CARE: For a thoughtful exposition of the definitions involved in making, on behalf of those who are ill, life or death decisions regarding the question of artificially providing nutrition and hydration, see “Bioethical Magisterium on Normal Treatment and Ordinary Care: Medically Assisted Feeding and Hydration” by Fr. Edward J. Richard, M.S., D.Th., M.J.D.
in vitro fertilization
EMBRYO TRANSFER I: Researchers find that the technique of transferring embryos (ET) to the mother for possible implantation is as successful as the technique used by a particular provider. The provider’s importance in the task of ET has not been studied in the past, but researchers claim that, if specific standards for pregnancy rates per ET were established, providers who did not meet the standards could “receive remedial instruction and supervision of a limited number of transfers.”
(Reading: “Pregnancy Rates After Embryo Transfer Depend on the Provider at Embryo Transfer,” Fertility and Sterility, 7/00, pp.80-86, paid subscription only)
EMBRYO TRANSFER II: Researchers find that waiting until the embryo is six days old (blastocyst) helps in achieving implantation once the embryonic baby is transferred to the mother’s womb. “Embryos that fail to hatch by day 6 may have a lower implantation potential.”
(Reading: “Transfer of Nonassisted Hatched and Hatching Human Blastocysts After In Vitro Fertilization,” Fertility and Sterility, 7/00, pp.163-165, paid subscription only)
EUGENICS: Researchers commenting on “preimplantation genetic diagnosis” explain that the “technique to avoid the establishment of genetically abnormal pregnancies” is growing in popularity.
(Reading: “Obstetric Outcomes in 102 Pregnancies After Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis,” American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 6/00, pp.1629-1632)
organ donation
BRAIN DEATH: The AMA’s Council on Scientific Affairs has issued a report stemming from a Health Care Financing Administration role “requiring that hospitals ‘designate’ a health care professional to initiate the organ donation discussion with the families of patients who are brain dead.” The council found that physicians need more training on the matter of having such discussions with the families of those who are dying.
(Reading: “Defining Physicians’ Roles in Increasing Organ Donations,” AMA News, 7/10-17/00, p. 39; HCFA’s Q-and-A material on death)
personhood
IRELAND: The Catholic bishops of Ireland are reported to favor a pro-life constitutional amendment. Bishop Laurence Ryan of Kildare and Leighlin said: “We believe that what is required is a constitutional amendment that would protect the right to life of the unborn child, while recognizing that an expectant mother who is ill must receive such medical treatment as is necessary, even when that treatment, as a side-effect, puts her unborn child at risk.”
COMMENT: We pray that the bishops of Ireland are not really in favor of a flawed constitutional amendment. Exceptions negate the full truth that every person is of equal value because he or she is created by God.
(Reading: Catholic World News, 7/6/00)
politics
GORE AND THE BEGINNING OF LIFE: Meet the Press moderator Tim Russert asked Vice President Gore point-blank, several times, “When does life begin?” Gore never gave him a straight answer, offering instead comments such as, “the Roe vs. Wade decision proposes an answer to that question … which is, in my view, a common sense approach that there is a developmental process during which the burden kind of shifts over time…. I will protect a woman’s right to choose.
(Reading: Meet the Press, 7/16/00)
population control
FAMILY PLANET: The web site and the effort funded by the David and Lucille Packard Foundation exposes a collaboration focused on population control among organizations such as CARE, Planned Parenthood, National Audubon Society and Save the Children. According to the site, Save the Children provides family planning information “within the context of its international health programs” and has done so for more than 15 years.
(Reading: Family Planet)
quinacrine
CANCER RISK: Researchers have identified a slight increase in the risk of cancer among women exposed to intrauterine quinacrine sterilization.
(Reading: “Cancer Risk Among Women Sterilized with Transcervical Quinacrine in Chile: An Update Through 1996, “Fertility and Sterility, 7/00, pp.169-171, paid subscription only)
selective reduction
FISCAL SAVINGS: Researchers point out that, by using multifetal pregnancy reduction (abortion), pregnancies (babies) were reduced and the decrease in live births “was associated with significant fiscal savings.” “Multiple gestations” (more than one baby) can produce a negative “obstetric outcome” (delivery).
(Reading: “Multifetal Pregnancy Reduction: Perinatal and Fiscal Outcomes,” American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 6/00, pp.1575-1580)
stem cells
BRITAIN: Joining Germany and Japan (communique, 7/7/00), British scientists will take advantage of American pro-death law, circumventing British law which bans human cloning and import stem cells from the USA.
(Reading: SPUC News Digest, 7/7/00)
FAKE SCIENCE: Researchers examine the state of the debate regarding human stem cells and define, among other things, the pluripotent stem cell using the terminology correctly applied to totipotent stem cells. They conclude their commentary by suggesting “if proper safeguards are established to prevent the possibility of this benefit [potential therapeutic advances] from unduly influencing the decision to terminate a pregnancy or dispose of an embryo, then the proper respect can be shown to the fetus and embryo. If such a situation can be assured, the federal government should adjust policy to fund the derivation of embryonic stem cells from IVF-created ‘excess’ embryos.”
COMMENT: How can proper respect be shown to the human person if he or she is murdered, but the motive is not unduly influenced by an alleged good that could be done if the murder victim’s body were harvested of organs or cells?
(Reading: “The Human Pluripotent Stem Cell: Impact on Medicine and Society,” Fertility and Sterility, 74:1:1-7, paid subscription only)
PARKINSON’S DISEASE: Peninsula Parkinson’s Support Group of Sunnyvale, California, has distributed a misleading, scientifically erroneous position paper explaining why the destruction of the embryonic baby for the acquisition of her stem cells is acceptable. Father Joseph Howard, Jr., director of the American Bioethics Advisory Commission, has analyzed the position. He writes, in part: “It is … critical to note that obtaining stem cells from a human embryo necessitates removal of the Inner Cell Mass which destroys a human embryo every time without exception. It is not possible to be pro-life and simultaneously support such destruction of human lives.”
(Reading: Peninsula Parkinson’s Support Groups Summer 2000 newsletter, p. 3; 7/12/00 letter from Fr. Joseph Howard, Jr., to Mr. Sid Levin; for background on the ethical position in opposition to destruction embryo research see Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research: Are Official Positions Based on Scientific Fraud?)
you
CPCs AS MEDICAL CENTERS: NIFLA (National Institute for Family and Life Advocates) is launching a comprehensive plan for providing CPCs with ultrasound equipment and training. For details, contact Tom Glessner at NIFLA.
PANDORA’S PILLBOX 2: “Closing the lid on contraception” is the theme of the September 29-October 1 Chicago conference. For details contact the “>GIFT Foundation, or visit the GIFT Foundation web site.
POST-ABORTION HEALING: Ramah International has a full calendar of speaking engagements for its founder, Sydna Masse.
reflection for prayer
Bernard of Clairvaux, abbott (1090-1153), once wrote, “The act of contemplation is like sleep in the arms of God, but the soul returns fired with a most vehement love of God, inflamed with zeal for righteousness, and filled with extreme fervor to all spiritual desires and duties.” (Canticles 4, 9, 4)