in this issue:
abortion: PRO-ABORTION PROPAGANDA / TEXAS
assistance, please: McCORVEY CASE / PROPOSITION 71
catholic bishops: CATHOLICS IMPLORE
culture of death: GENETIC CLEANSING
dark side: FRANCES KISSLING
in vitro fertilization: SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST?
morning-after abortion pill: AD CAMPAIGN PULLED
personhood: IDO
preimplantation genetic diagnosis: USEFUL?
prenatal diagnosis: TRENDS
suicide: BRITISH TEEN
web news: ABORTION QUOTES / CATHOLIC MEDICAL LETTER
reflection for prayer: POPE JOHN PAUL II
abortion
PRO-ABORTION PROPAGANDA: Physicians for Reproductive Choice notes that one of its strategic goals is “to eradicate the stigma that has become attached to abortion and abortion providers within mainstream healthcare.”
(Reading: “Eradicating the stigma of abortion,” Choice Notes, 6/04)
TEXAS: Texas has a women’s right to know law, and publishes a booklet that must be read by women who are contemplating abortion. The booklet contains a warning stipulating that induced abortion boosts the risks of breast cancer for women and cerebral palsy among future babies carried to term (page 17).
COMMENT: Does President Bush know this and has he read the booklet? If so, why not hold hearing exposing these matters?
(Reading: “A woman’s right to know,” Texas Dept. of Health, 2003)
assistance, please
McCORVEY CASE: Norma McCorvey (the “Roe” of Roe v. Wade) is petitioning the Supreme Court to reverse the case that decriminalized abortion. She needs physicians who once performed abortions, but then changed their minds and stopped doing so, as well as women who had abortions who have come to regret their decisions, to join friend of the court presentations. Anyone interested in becoming an amicus curiae is asked to contact . There is no charge or obligation.
PROPOSITION 71: California voters recently approved Proposition 71, which will fund human embryonic stem cell research and places in the California state constitution a “right” to perform human embryonic stem cell research. Anyone with ideas on designing a court challenge to this initiative is asked to contact .
catholic bishops
CATHOLICS IMPLORE: The following resolution was passed during the recent Catholic Central Union of America conference:
“As a result of the abandonment of the Hippocratic principles of medical ethics during the past thirty years, contraception, sterilization, abortion and euthanasia have become established in the practice of medicine. Unfortunately, Catholic health care institutions are not immune from these trends. Incorrect interpretations of the ‘Ethical and Religious Directives for Health Care Services’ (http://www.nccbuscc.org/bishops/directives.htm), misunderstanding of the principles of Catholic medical ethics involving ordinary and extraordinary treatment, and incorrect application of Advance Directives have opened the door to these unethical practices in Catholic Health Care institutions. Dissident theologians serving on institutional Ethics Committees and advising the Catholic Health Association have contributed to this problem.
“We, therefore, urge the bishops of the United States to review the work of Ethics Committees of Catholic Health Care institutions and to assume the responsibility of appointing loyal moral theologians and ethicists who accept the teachings of the Church’s Magisterium to serve on such committees.”
COMMENT: We hope the bishops are listening.
(Reading: “Resolutions of the 2004 Conventions of the Catholic Central Union of America and the National catholic Women’s Union,” Social Justice Review, 11/12/04, p. 188)
culture of death
GENETIC CLEANSING: Tara Schupner, a University of Kansas student who is deaf, writes that “our society is teetering on the brink of condoning genetic cleansing here at home.” In pursuit of the perfect baby, medical professionals employ many types of tests to weed out the unacceptable. Schupner quotes a Dutch physician: “A baby should be killed whenever some physical or mental defect is discovered before or after birth.”
(Reading: “Genetic engineering ‘flaws’ form of stripping right to life,” University Daily Kansan, 11/16/04)
dark side
FRANCES KISSLING: The president of the anti-church, pro-abortion Catholics for a Free Choice adds an interesting footnote to a recent article in her organization’s magazine:
“The example of the Catholic bishops is most illuminating. I would expect that if bishops really believed that abortion was murder, they would individually and collectively make far more sacrifices to ensure that abortions did not happen. While the bishops provide very little detailed information about their expenditures, it is clear that the amount of money spent on preventing abortions is very little… How can any bishop or parish priest justify spending one penny on anything discretionary rather than on helping the many women who would continue their pregnancies if they had the resources to bear and raise a child? No dinners, no business class plane tickets, no vacations, no flowers on the altar as long as one penny is needed to prevent abortions.”
(Reading: “Is there life after Roe?” Conscience, Winter 2004; “Frances Kissling responds to the Washington Times,” CFFC news release, 12/6/04)
in vitro fertilization
SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST? IVF specialist Michael Tucker touts an unusual process employed in his lab, which allows human embryos to develop for 5-7 days rather than the usual 3 days so that only those “best” embryos survive while the weaker ones die off early.
COMMENT: Prof. Dianne Irving comments: “One has to wonder how many ‘less fit’ human embryos will meet their Darwinian fate this way, and what other uses there could be for them?”
(Reading: “Blastocyst culture and transfer,” The Fertility Network)
morning-after abortion pill
AD CAMPAIGN PULLED: Schering has killed a British ad that used the phrase “immaculate contraception” to sell morning-after abortion pills. The ad, posted in London Underground trains, promoted Levonelle One Step. Britain’s Advertising Standards Authority has launched a formal investigation. More than 100 formal complaints were filed, including one from the National Association of Catholic Families.
(Reading: “‘Immaculate Contraception’ ad withdrawn,” Reuters, 12/8/04)
personhood
IDO: A special enzyme, called IDO, is produced on the human embryo’s side of the placental membrane making it possible for the preborn child to protect himself as the mother’s immune system attempts to reject the baby. This research, of course, refutes the pro-abortion argument so frequently used: “it’s my body.”
(Reading: “Abortion argument unravels,” Answers in Genesis, 11/16/04)
preimplantation genetic diagnosis
USEFUL? Arguing that public discussion should be ongoing to determine the parameters for using PGD (a test that provides information about the human embryo frequently resulting in his death due to his lack of “quality), a Lancet editorial claims that the most humane and responsible approach is to use PGD to eliminate “genetic diseases with a poor outlook.”
(Reading: “Preimplantation genetic diagnosis — for or against humanity?” The Lancet, 11/13/04)
prenatal diagnosis
TRENDS: An analysis of decision-making following diagnosis of congenital formation for the years 1974 through 1999 reveals that routine prenatal screening has increased the rate of abortions for preborn children suspected of having a genetic problem.
(Reading: “Trends in congenital malformations, 1974-1999: effect of prenatal diagnosis and elective termination,” Obstetrics and Gynecology, 11/1/04, pp. 957-964)
suicide
BRITISH TEEN: Sarah Cherry is dead. The teenager killed herself after ordering the suicide manual, “Final Exit,” from an Internet bookseller. In response the book’s author, Derek Humphry, said, “While the sad young woman in Lancashire misused the book, thousands of other terminal and hopelessly ill people have gladly used it to escape from their particular suffering. It is for the dying that the book is meant.” British activists are working to see what can be done to remove such potentially lethal material from the internet.
(Reading: “Help us stop the pedlars of death,” Lancashire Evening Post, 11/25/04; “Suicide author hits back at his critics,” Lancashire Evening Post, 11/29/04)
web news
ABORTION QUOTES: Sarah Terzo has put together a web site containing direct quotes from former abortionists, women who have had abortions, and pro-abortion statements.
CATHOLIC MEDICAL LETTER: This newsletter offers outstanding support for the teachings of Humanae Vitae.
reflection for prayer
POPE JOHN PAUL II: Man cannot live without love. He remains a being that is incomprehensible for himself, his life is senseless, if love is not revealed to him, if he does not encounter love, if he does not experience it and make it his own, if he does not participate intimately in it. … The man who wishes to understand himself thoroughly — and not just in accordance with immediate, partial, often superficial, and even illusory standards and measures of his being — he must with his unrest, uncertainty and even his weakness and sinfulness, with his life and death, draw near to Christ. He must, so to speak, enter into Him with all his own self, he must “appropriate” and assimilate the whole of the reality of the Incarnation and Redemption in order to find himself. If this profound process takes place within him, he then bears fruit not only of adoration of God but also of deep wonder at himself. How precious must man be in the eyes of the Creator, if he “gained so great a Redeemer.”
(Reading: “Redemptor hominis,” encyclical letter, 3/4/79)