in this issue:
hot button issues: FDA COMMITTEE
abortion: CORRECT SCIENCE / KEEPING IT LEGAL
bioethics: CHANGING MORALITY
living will: AARP
partial birth abortion: DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE / MICHIGAN
planned parenthood: WHAT?
separation of church and state: DECONSTRUCTION
terri schiavo: FLORIDA POLL
zinger: CUOMO SPEAKS
reflection for prayer: ARCHBISHOP FULTON J. SHEEN
hot button issues
FDA COMMITTEE: ALL’s Judie Brown testified before an FDA panel on December 16, opposing over-the-counter status for the deadly morning after pill. Later that day, the panel approved status. The FDA will make a final decision in February.
abortion
CORRECT SCIENCE: During the decision-making process, what is a mother considering abortion to do if she has never seen or heard the scientific facts about pregnancy, and thus does not even realize that she is with child? Professor Dianne Irving answers this problem, presenting the truth and how a morally correct decisions should be made in “The woman and the physician facing abortion: The role of correct science in the formation of conscience and the moral decision making process.” The article is posted on the University Faculty for Life web site.
KEEPING IT LEGAL: Felicia Stewart, M.D., and colleagues write, “Access to safe, legal abortion is critical for women’s equality and right to physical autonomy.? Legal abortion is also essential for social equity and justice.”
(Reading: “Keeping abortion legal: a look beyond Roe v. Wade,” Contraception, 68 (2003) 307-308)
(Background: Stewart is also a leading proponent of chemical abortion. For more information on her, see her biography)
bioethics
CHANGING MORALITY: In 2001, Wesley J. Smith wrote a concise article on how those with enormous sums of money are able to fund what is popularly known as the Culture of Death. In the wake of an FDA Committee approving the morning-after abortion pill for over-the-counter status, and Florida courts supporting the killing of the disabled, it is certainly time to give the article a second look.
(Reading: “Philanthropy’s brave new world – Will those who give decide who should live?” Philanthropy Roundtable, 1/01)
living will
AARP: Using the case of Terri Schiavo, misrepresenting the facts in her case, and tying it all together with the usual rhetorical problems, AARP encourages its supporters to sign Living Wills.
COMMENT: There is space at the end of the article for you to make a comment to them. Please do so.
(Reading: “A matter of life and death: Schiavo case spurs Americans to weigh Living Wills,” AARP Bulletin, 12/9/03)
partial birth abortion
DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE: Scott Stimson of the U.S. Department of Justice is looking for an expert witness concerning the lack of medical indications for a partial birth abortion. If you can make a recommendation, send it to .
MICHIGAN: Pro-lifers are set to petition the legislature to override Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s veto of the recently passed partial birth abortion bill, known as the Legal Birth Definition Act (S. 395).
(Reading: “President’s message: Saving lives, protecting women,” Right to Life of Michigan, 12/03; “Governor’s veto of abortion bill sets up possible override attempt,” CNSNews, 10/14/03)
(Background: S. 395, Michigan legislature, 2003)
planned parenthood
WHAT? Danielle Tierney of Planned Parenthood, South Austin, Texas, said, “To the people like Chris Danze I would say if abortion is something you deeply oppose or you have a problem with, then you should do everything you can to support Planned Parenthood.”
COMMENT: Huh?
(Reading: “Planned Parenthood opposition takes out newspaper ad,” Austin News 8, 12/10/03)
(Background: Boycott Planned Parenthood)
separation of church and state
DECONSTRUCTING THE ARGUMENT: Columnist Hal Lindsay reminds us what it really means to our founding fathers to put God at the center of this nation’s founding documents and her laws.
(Reading: “The savaging of American’s foundation,” World Net Daily, 12/11/03)
terri schiavo
FLORIDA POLL: A survey indicates that Floridians support the “right to die.” Of 800 people surveyed, a news report claims that an overwhelming number (65%) support denying food and water to Terri Schiavo, thus disagreeing with Gov. Jeb Bush.
(Reading: “Florida Voters: public backs right to die, poll says,” Miami Herald, 12/7/03)
zinger
CUOMO SPEAKS: If Mario Cuomo ruled the world, Saddam Hussein would be spared the death penalty. He told WVOX radio’s William O’Shaughnessy: “Either you believe in taking the life of someone who is a killer and who by every human instinct and propensity deserves to lose his life because he took so many lives…either you share that instinct or you don’t. I don’t believe in that.” The ex-governor went on, “There would be no exception to the rule whether the person was a Saddam Hussein or an Adolf Hitler.”
COMMENT: This is the “Catholic” politician who supports murder by abortion!
(Reading: “Page six,” New York Post, 12/16/03)
reflection for prayer
ARCHBISHOP FULTON J. SHEEN: Christian love bears evil, but it does not tolerate it. It does penance for the sins of others, but it is not broad-minded about sin. The cry for tolerance never induces it to quench its hatred of the evil philosophies that have entered into contest with the truth. It forgives the sinner, and it hates the sin; it is merciful to the person, it is unmerciful to the error in his mind. The sinner it will always takes back into the bosom of the Mystical Body; but his lie will never be taken into the treasury of Her Wisdom. Real love involves real hatred: whoever has lost the power of moral indignation and the urge to drive the buyers and sellers from the temples has also lost a living, fervent love of Truth.
Charity, then, is not a mild philosophy of ‘live and let live,’ it is not a species of sloppy sentiment. Charity is the infusion of a Divine Spirit of Love,?which makes us love the beautiful and hate the morally ugly.
(Reading: “Lift up your heart,” Fulton J.Sheen, pp 237-238)