in this issue:
catholic physicians: SURVEY
conscience: NORTH CAROLINA
culture of death: FOLLOW THE MONEY / RU-486 ESSENTIAL?
euthanasia: BISHOP MORLINO
human embryonic stem cell research: GUIDELINES
‘instructing’ the pope: MEDIA / PLANNED PARENTHOOD
new york, new york: CONDOMS / MORNING-AFTER ABORTION PILLS
reminder: RIGHT TO LIFE ACT OF 2005
worth repeating: POLITICS
zinger: THE BIBLE IS A HEALTH HAZARD?
reflection for prayer: JOHN 15:12
catholic physicians
SURVEY: In a new poll, 87 percent of the Catholic doctors questioned agreed they would “prescribe birth control pills to any adult patients that request them and for whom they are medically appropriate.”
COMMENT: Section 2370 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church notes that artificial contraception is “intrinsically evil.” These doctors should know the pill is also abortifacient.
(Reading: “Catholic docs don’t differ on abortion-causing birth control but do on embryonic stem cells,” LifeSiteNews.com, 4/27/05)
conscience
NORTH CAROLINA: State lawmakers are considering a bill that would acknowledge pharmacists’ right to refuse to fill prescriptions based on moral or religious objections.
(Reading: “Debate grows over N.C. pharmacists’ stance on morning-after pill,” Associated Press, 4/24/05)
culture of death
FOLLOW THE MONEY: Cybercast News Service reports billionaire activist George Soros’ Open Society Institute has been on the receiving end of government grants totaling $30 million over a five-year period. OSI’s records in turn show contributions to Catholics for a Free Choice, the Abortion Access Project and the Pro-Choice Education Project.
(Reading: “Soros foundation given $30 million by U.S. government,” Cybercast News Service, 4/25/05)
RU-486 ESSENTIAL? The World Health Organization wants to put RU-486 on a list of “essential medicines,” though it is reported the U.S. government is attempting to block the move. The WHO says adding two drugs used for medical abortion, mifepristone (RU-486) and misoprostol to the list would save 68,000 women’s lives ever year.
COMMENT: That obviously begs the question, what about the 68,000 babies who would die in these chemical abortions? RU-486 is not medicine, and abortion is not health care.
(Reading: “U.S. accused of trying to block abortion pills,” The Guardian [U.K.], 4/21/05)
euthanasia
BISHOP MORLINO: The bishop of Madison, Wisconsin says beware of living wills. Bishop Robert Morlino wrote, “to sign a living will ordering one’s own death if one were diagnosed as permanently unconscious, but not terminally ill and not close to death, is a mortal sin in other words. It is possible to create a living will that will generate more problems than it solves and contains intentions that are themselves seriously sinful.”
COMMENT: American Life League’s Loving Will is a document that allows one to set treatment standards that follow Catholic teachings.
(Reading: “Medical treatment: Make decisions based on Catholic teaching,” Madison Catholic Herald, 4/21/05)
human embryonic stem cell research
GUIDELINES: “Heightened oversight is essential to assure the public that stem cell research is being carried out in an ethical manner,” said University of Virginia professor Jonathan Moreno, who co-chaired a committee that wrote guidelines for human embryonic stem cell research.
COMMENT: The so-called ethical guidelines ignore the fact there is no ethical form of human embryonic stem cell research. The only way to get a human embryo’s stem cells is to kill a living human being.
(Reading: “US National Academies recommend rules for stem cell research,” Agence France Presse, 4/26/05)
‘instructing’ the pope
MEDIA: Pundits have spent the past two weeks offering advice about how Benedict XVI should conduct his pontificate. The Louisville Courier-Journal contributed its opinion on how he should handle pro-abortion politicians who claim to be Catholic. The paper said it was “regrettable” he once suggested that such persons were in a state of grave sin. The editorial tells the pope to stay out of politics, lest he create “an unacceptable breach of the firewall between the realm of faith and the secular, diverse state.”
(Reading: “New pope should take care in politics,” Louisville Courier-Journal, 4/25/05)
PLANNED PARENTHOOD: International Planned Parenthood is running an e-mail campaign, asking supporters to write letters to the editor “encouraging Pope Benedict XVI to reconsider his dangerously outdated stances on birth control, abortion and sexuality in order to help move the Catholic Church into the 21st century.” The message also refers to Benedict’s “backward views” and alleges that his positions “pose a terrible danger to the health of millions of women and girls around the world.”
(Reading: “Give the new pope some advice,” International Planned Parenthood Federation/Western Hemisphere Region action alert, 4/27/05)
new york, new york
CONDOMS: Mayor Michael Bloomberg is launching a free condom distribution program in an effort to stop the spread of AIDS. A city spokesman said, “We need to cover this city in latex,” suggesting that condoms be made available wherever alcoholic beverages are sold.
(Reading: “Condom plan set to unroll,” New York Post, 4/25/05)
MORNING-AFTER ABORTION PILLS: Mayor Bloomberg is getting kudos from the local chapter of NARAL for promising to launch a $1 million morning-after pill awareness campaign.
(Reading: “Abortion rights group lauds mayor on morning-after pill,” New York Times, 4/22/05)
reminder
RIGHT TO LIFE ACT OF 2005: This bill (go to Library of Congress and search for HR 552) states, “The terms ‘human person’ and ‘human being’ include each and every member of the species homo sapiens at all stages of life, including, but not limited to, the moment of fertilization, cloning, or other moment at which an individual member of the human species comes into being.”
COMMENT: Is your member of Congress a co-sponsor? He or she should be. Ask!
worth repeating
POLITICS: Columnist David Brooks observes the in-fighting in the U.S. Senate over confirmation of judicial nominees, filibuster rules and so-called nuclear options, and notes: “Harry Blackmun and his colleagues suppressed that democratic abortion debate the nation needs to have. The poisons have been building ever since. You can complain about the incivility of politics, but you can’t stop the escalation of conflict in the middle. You have to kill it at the root. Unless Roe v. Wade is overturned, politics will never get better.”
(Reading: “Roe’s birth, and death,” New York Times, 4/21/05)
zinger
THE BIBLE IS A HEALTH HAZARD? Bibles will be removed from patient rooms at Chalmers Regional Hospital in Fredericton, New Brunswick. The hospital says the Good Book is an outside instrument that may carry disease-causing bacteria. Other reading materials, such as magazines, are not affected by the order.
(Reading: “Canadian hospital bans bedside bibles for ‘health reasons,'” Catholic World News, 4/25/05)
reflection for prayer
JOHN 15:12: Jesus said to his disciples: “This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”