in this issue:
hot button issues: PELOSI
abortion: MID-LEVEL PROVIDERS / POST ABORTION SYNDROME
culture of death: CO-OPTING FAITH
in vitro fertilization: THE CHILD
nursing home injustices: FIRED FOR CARING
stem cell research legislation: MISSOURI
stem cell research / ethical: BEST PROMISE / HAIR FOLLICLES
stem cell research / unethical: OPINION / PARTHENOGENESIS / UKRAINE
united nations: DOUBLESPEAK
zinger: GROWING SPLIT IN PRO-LIFE MOVEMENT
reflection for prayer: BETHLEHEM AND THE CROSS
hot button issue
PELOSI: Rep. Nancy Pelosi is scheduled to be honored at her alma mater, Trinity College of Washington, prior to her installation as House speaker. Trinity is a Catholic institution. Pelosi, a Catholic, is pro-abortion. American Life League is asking Washington Archbishop Donald Wuerl to intervene.
(Reading: “Pelosi wants Mass to showcase faith,” American Life League, 12/19/06)
abortion
MID-LEVEL PROVIDERS: Two articles in a recent edition of The Lancet focus on the possibility that non-physicians, such as physician assistants, could with the proper level of training be able to provide abortions. Noting the declining numbers of such doctors, the journal published one study that suggests that mid-level health care providers “can provide first trimester manual vacuum aspiration abortions as safely as doctors can.”
(Reading: “Mid-level providers: a safe solution for unsafe abortion,” The Lancet, 12/2/06)
POST ABORTION SYNDROME: Miriam Grossman, M.D., author of the new book “Unprotected: A campus psychiatrist reveals how political correctness in her profession endangers every student,” told an interviewer: “We are told by Planned Parenthood and other women’s health groups that most women do fine following an abortion. I’m not denying that’s so. But if only one percent of the one million-plus girls and women getting abortions each year suffer severe emotional consequences, that’s still tens of thousands of people. I myself was unaware, prior to researching my book, of how horrifying an abortion might be under some circumstances, and how there may be long-lasting consequences. Again, not for all, but for some.”
COMMENT: While Grossman is not a pro-lifer, she is honest. There’s a lot to be said for that in today’s deceptive culture.
(Reading: “The hook-up is in,” National Review Online, 12/19/06)
culture of death
CO-OPTING FAITH: Many of those involved in the promotion of “sexual and reproductive health” recognize the importance of faith in the lives of average citizens. One such person, the Rev. Debra Haffner, suggests that “progressive and mainline” religious voices agree with her that sexuality education should be taught. Further, she argues that ten religious denominations have endorsed the concept of commitment marriages for same sex couples while 11 denominations have official policies in support of abortion.
Haffner was ordained a minister in the Unitarian Church in 2003 and was previously the CEO of SIECUS, the Sex Information and Education Council of the United States.
(Reading: “Faith matters: communicating sexual and reproductive health values,” Contraception, 1/07, pp. 1-3)
in vitro fertilization
THE CHILD: Katrina Clark’s “My father was an anonymous sperm donor” tells a story that is rarely made public.
(Reading: “My father was an anonymous sperm donor,” Washington Post, 12/15/06)
nursing home injustices
FIRED FOR CARING: Connie Rust took action that resulted in saving the life of a patient at a nursing home where she works as a nurse’s aide. As a result of her action she was fired because she “violated company policy by bringing her employer bad publicity.”
(Reading: “She puts patient over publicity and is fired as a result,” Des Moines Register, 12/6/06)
stem cell research legislation
MISSOURI: State Sen. Matt Bartle and Rep. Jim Lembke will pursue an effort to prohibit any cloning of human cells when the state legislature reconvenes in 2007. While supporters of Amendment 2 claim the question is settled, Lembke said the proposal would ban attempts to “produce a human zygote, blastocyst or embryo” by any means other than the union of a sperm and an egg.” In other words, the proposal would ban human cloning, which opponents of Amendment 2 recognized as being part of the new state constitutional amendment.
(Reading: “Ban on stem-cell method sought,” Kansas City Star, 12/19/06)
stem cell research / ethical
BEST PROMISE: Verne Hulce, executive director of the Field Neorusciences Institute in Saginaw, Michigan says that despite celebrity endorsements for human embryonic stem cell research, the best promise for medicine lies with adult stem cells.
(Reading: “Institute chief: Adult stem cells better for research,” Saginaw News, 12/16/06)
HAIR FOLLICLES: Recent experiments conducted with mice suggest the possibility that neural crest stem cells found in hair follicles may be as useful as some claim human embryonic stem cells could be.
(Reading: “Stem cells found in adult hair follicles may provide alternative to embryonic stem cells,” Medical College of Wisconsin news release, 12/11/06)
stem cell research / unethical
OPINION: Attorney Susan Crockin writes that proponents of human embryonic stem cell research must be vigilant and recognize the challenges they face including “increasing the availability of donated eggs and of embryos formed through in vitro fertilization.” She recommends “winning the ’embryo wars’ by refusing to cede the semantic battle and moral status of embryos to the religious right.”
(Reading: “Challenges of stem-cell research,” Boston Globe, 12/12/06)
PARTHENOGENESIS: Scientists at Boston Children’s Hospital have used a technique called parthenogenesis, or “virgin birth,” in which eggs are tricked into starting to develop into embryos without being fertilized by sperm. However as the Catholic Church teaches in Donum Vitae, parthenogenesis is “to be considered contrary to the moral law” since it is “in opposition to the dignity both of human procreation and of the conjugal union.”
(Reading: “Stem cell scientists create ‘virgin birth’ breakthrough in mice,” Evening Standard, 12/15/06)
UKRAINE: The BBC has video proof that newborns are being killed to harvest their stem cells. “Mothers who have birth at certain Ukrainian hospitals admitted that they delivered a live baby which was immediately whisked away by hospital staff.” The BBC report “tells of dismembered bodies and mature newborn bodies stripped of organs.”
(Reading: “Ukraine killing newborns to harvest stem cells says BBC with video evidence,” Life Site News, 12/1206)
united nations
DOUBLESPEAK: The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities forbids nations which sign on to it from denying “food and fluids” to disabled persons, but the same document does not guarantee the right to life of disabled preborn children. A Vatican official, Archbishop Celestino Migliore, said, “It is surely tragic that, wherever fetal defect is a precondition for offering or employing abortion, the same convention created to protect persons with disabilities from all discrimination in the exercise of their rights, may be used to deny the very basic right to life of disabled unborn persons.”
(Reading: “Holy See won’t sign U.N. convention on the disabled,” Life Issues, 12/14/06; “New U.N. Convention forbids withdrawal of food or fluids from disabled like Terri Schiavo,” Life Site News, 12/15/06)
zinger
GROWING SPLIT IN PRO-LIFE MOVEMENT: Columnist Ed Hanks notes that the defenders of the right to life are fortunate that fetal pain legislation did not pass, because it contains a fatal flaw that could further entrench “abortion rights” in U.S. law. He points out that the bill would have “required abortion doctors to offer pain medication for the baby before the abortion — so the baby would feel no pain.”
COMMENT: Precisely. How pro-life are those who wish to legitimize abortion in the law and make the act of killing painless for the victim?
(Reading: “A growing split in the pro-life community,” World News Daily, 12/15/06)
reflection for prayer
BETHLEHEM AND THE CROSS: “Why did Christ become a helpless baby at Bethlehem? Why did he take on a fragile human body? Precisely so he could suffer for us in order to redeem us. What does that mean for our lives as Christians? It means nothing less than the fact that suffering is a gift from God. It is the Father’s gentle caress, molding us into the image of his Son. The cross is the source of our fruitfulness, not only in our personal spiritual growth, but also in the mission to win graces for others, for all of the souls God has mysteriously entrusted to our care.”
(Reading: “Bethlehem and the Cross,” Regnum Christi, 12/16/06)