in this issue:
abortion: BREAST CANCER/PLANNED PARENTHOOD LAWSUITS, MARGARET SANGER, PROPAGANDA
action items: CATHOLICS AND STEM CELLS, PHILIPPINES, PETITION
birth control: SIDE EFFECTS, DEPRESSION, PELVIC INFLAMMATORY DISEASE
ethical stem cell research: STEM CELL PROGRESS, SKIN CELLS
girl scout alternative: AMERICAN HERITAGE GIRLS
pharmaceutical firms and ethics: ELI LILLY
pharmacists: MICHIGAN HELP WANTED
public opinion: PUBLIC AGENDA ONLINE
web news: EMBRYONIC STEM CELLS CAN BECOME EMBRYOS, THOMAS MORE CENTER FOR LAW AND JUSTICE
zinger: ARE STEM CELLS BABIES?
reflection for prayer: 1 KINGS 18:21
abortion
BREAST CANCER/PLANNED PARENTHOOD LAWSUITS: Plaintiffs Agnes Bernardo, Sandra Duffy-Hawkins and Pamela Colip of California are demanding that Planned Parenthood provide women with accurate information on the evidence linking breast cancer to abortion. The Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer fully supports this action.
(Reading: “Women’s group lauds abortion-breast cancer suit against Planned Parenthood,” Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer news release, 8/17/01; links to related information available from the release)
MARGARET SANGER: Writing about “family limitation,” Sanger pointed out that her readers needed to know “if preventive means are not used and the sperm meets the ovum and development thus begins, any attempt at removing it or stopping its further growth is called abortion.”
(Reading: “Birth control or abortion?” The Birth Control Review, 12/18, p. 3)
PROPAGANDA: See why the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy promotes abortion in every conceivable manner including cartoons by viewing the September 2001 issue of Reproductive Freedom News.
action items
CATHOLICS AND STEM CELLS: Can Catholics licitly use medical treatments derived from embryonic stem cells? Visit the Children of God for Life web site to read about what you can do to bring about a definitive answer to this troubling question.
PHILIPPINES: President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has urged lawmakers in her nation to pass laws banning human cloning. She said a baby should be conceived in love and not manufactured in a cold laboratory.
(Reading: “Gloria slams cloning,” Philippine Daily Inquirer, 8/18/01; congratulations to President Macapagal-Arroyo can be sent to her through her web site.)
PETITION: Pro-life Catholics objected when Seton Hall University conferred an honorary degree on pro-abort Dolores Cross. But the school buckled under pressure from pro-abort groups and refused to retract the honor. To sign a petition alerting Cross to her anti-Catholic position and asking her to return the honorary degree, visit Conservative Petitions.
birth control
SIDE EFFECTS: A Kinsey study suggests that the birth control pill can have significant adverse effects on sexuality and mood in some women, often causing them to discontinue using the drugs.
(Reading: “Kinsey study finds adverse sexual, emotional side effects of birth control pills related to discontinuation,” Indiana University news release, 7/19/01)
DEPRESSION: A physician argues that “progestin-only implants have been associated with an increased incidence of depressive symptoms in postpartum women.”
(Reading: “Depression and hormonal contraception,” Journal of the American Medical Association, 8/8/01, pp. 671-672; “A double-blind randomised placebo controlled trial of postnatal norethisterone enanthate: the effect on postnatal depression and serum hormones,” the study referenced in the letter, was published in October, 1998 in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology)
PELVIC INFLAMMATORY DISEASE: A research study indicates that “no hormonal or barrier contraceptive method was related to a reduction in upper genital tract disease among women with clinical pelvic inflamatory disease.”
(Reading: “Hormonal and barrier contraception and risk of upper genital tract disease in the PID evaluation and clinical health (PEACH) study,” American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 7/01, pp. 122-127, abstract)
ethical stem cell research
STEM CELL PROGRESS: Eight additional citations relating current news on ethical sources for stem cell research and experimentation are provided by Republican National Coalition for Life — click on August 24, 2001.
SKIN CELLS: Canadian scientists have discovered that “stem cells located in the skin of adult mice can transform into nerve, fat and muscle cells, and cells in the human scalp appear to possess similar qualities.” This indicates, they say, a potential for using the body’s own cells to treat disease.
(Reading: “Study finds amazingly versatile adult stem cells,” Reuters, 8/13/01)
girl scout alternative
AMERICAN HERITAGE GIRLS: Visit online and learn more about this growing, Ohio-based God-centered program. The AHG is dedicated to Judeo-Christian values and patriotism.
pharmaceutical firms and ethics
ELI LILLY: A report focuses attention on the question: Can ethicists really be objective if they are on a company’s payroll? The example is Eli Lilly, which gives an annual $25,000 donation to the Hastings Center but stopped giving last year “after the center’s journal published articles critical of Lilly’s drug Prozac.”
(Reading: “And now, ethics for sale?” U. S. News and World Report, 7/30/01, pp. 18-19)
pharmacists
MICHIGAN HELP WANTED: A pro-life pharmacy manager is needed at St. Mary’s Hospital in Grand Rapids. Send resume or inquiry to the hospital’s “>human resources department.
public opinion
PUBLIC AGENDA ONLINE: This site provides the “inside source for public opinion and policy analysis” on a number of questions including abortion, the family, health care, and right to die.
web news
EMBRYONIC STEM CELLS CAN BECOME EMBRYOS: Prof. Dianne Irving’s commissioned paper (see Communique, 8/24/01, “Ask the president”) is now online.
THOMAS MORE CENTER FOR LAW AND JUSTICE: Effectively defending pro-lifers’ freedom of speech is among the many tasks this effective organization has undertaken.
zinger
ARE STEM CELLS BABIES? Obfuscation always prevails when rhetorical deception is presented as intellectual opinion. Ronald Bailey, Reason Magazine’s science correspondent, proves this in his essays on the current questions surrounding destroying an embryonic person for the sake of his stem cells. Bailey writes: “So people who oppose stem cell research must logically be committed to the notion that the only difference between your skin cell and your twin are the proteins that decorate their DNA strands.”
COMMENT: Excuse me?
(Reading: “Are stem cells babies?” Reason, 7/11/01; for the debate this essay created, see “Reason, Science and Stem Cells,” National Review, 7/20/01; “My critics are wrong,” National Review, 7/25/01; “The stubborn facts of science,” National Review, 7/30/01; and “More stubborn facts,” National Review, 8/6/01)
reflection for prayer
1 KINGS 18:21: Elijah stepped out in front of all the people. How long, he said, do you mean to hobble first on one leg, then on the other? If Yahweh is God, follow him; if Baal, follow him.