in this issue:
hot button issues: NATIONAL PRO-LIFE T-SHIRT DAY / PLANNED PARENTHOOD
abortion: RISKS
euthanasia: ADVANCE CARE PLANNING
in vitro fertilization: RISKS
morning-after abortion pill: NEW YORK
organ transplant: DOMINO THEORY
personhood: RIGHT TO LIFE ACT
schiavo: POLITICS
reflection for prayer: MY LEPROSY
commentary: DOMINO THEORY
hot button issues
NATIONAL PRO-LIFE T-SHIRT DAY: American Life League is sponsoring this event for the fourth year. On April 25, ALL is asking pro-life students to wear a pro-life message to class. All are invited to participate, but public schools are especially invited. The official shirt of ALL’s National Pro-life T-shirt Day is available online for $5 plus shipping and handling. Other details are available at NationalProLifeTshirtDay.com.
PLANNED PARENTHOOD: In commenting on a “condom art workshop” for teenagers sponsored by a Planned Parenthood affiliate in Michigan, ALL’s Jim Sedlak noted, “Planned Parenthood is only setting our children up to fail by assuming that they cannot control themselves and so they must have a condom ready at all times. I say let’s give our young people a little more credit than that.”
ACTION: Please sign the petition to cut the organization’s $265 million in annual government funding.
(Reading: “Planned Parenthood’s condom art contest,” American Life League news release, 2/14/06)
abortion
RISKS: Pro-abortion scientist David Fergusson tracked 500 women and found that “women who have had abortions, even when previous indicators are taken into account, have a much higher than average experience of serious psychological disturbances.”
(Reading: “Pro-abortion scientist finds abortion causes, rather than prevents, serious mental disorders,” Life Site News, 2/13/06)
euthanasia
ADVANCE CARE PLANNING: Researchers find that when discussing end of life care and patient goals with patients (38) and their surrogates, 78% agreed to a treatment plan and, given five choices, “21% chose the most intensive treatment plan and 6% chose comfort care only.” What is of interest is that discussions included the description of providing tube feeding as “treatment” and no follow up was done to determine “effects on patient outcomes.”
COMMENT: Establishing criteria for patient outcomes should never suggest the possibility of providing early death under the guise of palliative care. Palliative care, as defined in general terms by JAMA, is “care that focuses on providing comfort rather than life prolonging measures.” Why are the two mutually exclusive?
(Reading: “Meeting palliative care needs in post-acute care settings,” Journal of the American Medical Association, 2/8/06)
in vitro fertilization
RISKS: A British report states, “It is feared that babies born after screening to ‘weed out’ embryos with genetic defects could suffer long-term effects.” Research suggests that the preimplantation genetic diagnosis procedure is “not yet fully understood.”
(Reading: “Watchdog warns of risks in IVF embryo testing,” The Telegraph, 1/29/06)
morning-after abortion pill
NEW YORK: The New York legislature is considering a bill that would provide the pill “over the counter” to women of all ages. While Gov. George Pataki is reported to have vetoed the bill last year due to a concern about giving the chemical to younger teens, reports indicate that the revised bill is a “good faith effort” and that the governor is willing to discuss it.
COMMENT: So much for making efforts to expose truth! Politicians refrain from such “minor” concerns.
(Reading: “Legislators revise contraception bill,” Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, 2/10/06)
organ transplant
DOMINO THEORY: When two seriously ill infants in Ohio became newsworthy because of a third baby, whose parents chose to donate his heart and lungs, the news media touted the “good news” about the two babies who lived because of transplants, but said little about the “donor.” American Life League asked a medical ethicist, Father Joseph Howard, and a transplant surgeon, David Hargroder, to explain what might be ethical and unethical about “domino transplant surgery.” Please note their analysis at the end of this issue of Communique.
(Reading: “Domino’ heart transplant patients doing well,” Columbus Children’s Hospital news release, 2/13/06; “Two infants get transplants in rare procedure at Columbus hospital,” WTOL-TV, 2/3/06)
personhood
RIGHT TO LIFE ACT: This bill (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.” See Right to Life Act for details.
COMMENT: Is your member of Congress a co-sponsor? If not, ask!
schiavo
POLITICS: Allegedly pro-life Senator Mel Martinez told a reporter that it was “a mistake” for Congress to get involved in efforts to save Terri Schiavo from death by starvation.
(Reading: “Republican Senator Mel Martinez says he was mistaken on Schiavo debate,” Associated Press, 2/12/06)
reflection for prayer
MY LEPROSY: Like the leper in Mark 1:40-45, I too am in need of healing. He came humbly as a beggar, having no way of repaying Jesus for such a great act of kindness. But his humility was founded on faith. Confident in the scriptural passage, “Do not reject a suppliant in distress, or turn your face away from the poor” (Sirach 4:4), he insisted reverently. He had no doubt that Jesus could cure him, that Jesus would take interest in an insignificant and anonymous leper. He was asking Our Lord for a miracle; and he knew Jesus would grant it. He also knew that he did not deserve or merit such a gesture of mercy. Even if Jesus refused his plea, he was ready to accept it.
Lord Jesus, you are so merciful to me! Thank you for loving me so much. How anxiously you wait to fill me with your love, to heal me from the leprosy of my sins. Allow me to be embraced by your healing love, confident that each time I kneel before you to beg your forgiveness, you will be moved with pity to touch me and make me clean. Amen.
(Reading: “The encounter with Jesus changed the leper’s life forever,” Regnum Christi, 2/12/06)
commentary
DOMINO TRANSPLANT: From Fr. Joseph C. Howard, Jr., and David Hargroder, M.D., transplant surgeon:
The term domino transplant derives its name from the familiar visual image of dominoes lined up in a row. The act of tipping over the first domino affects the next one in line and the next, until all of the dominoes have tumbled over. In the case of the infants in Ohio, the heart and lungs were taken from an infant that had been declared brain dead (Infant A) and were transplanted into an infant with bad lungs, but a perfectly good heart (Infant B). This is done primarily for technical reasons, in that the operation has a better outcome if both the heart and lungs are transplanted together as one unit. The heart and lungs of Infant B are removed to make room for the heart and lungs from Infant A. If the second recipient (Infant C), with a bad heart but normal lungs was not available to received the healthy heart from Infant B (now the donor), that heart would have simply been discarded.
It is not uncommon to hear about a sibling donating one of his/her kidneys to another sibling. This is called a Living Related Kidney Transplant. Living kidney donors are fairly common since the kidney is a paired organ and a donor can survive with only one kidney. What makes the domino transplant so special to the transplant community is the fact that the heart donor is actually a living donor rather than a “brain dead cadaver donor.”
In reality, of course, every heart beating donor is a living donor. The concept of brain death has been popularized over the past few decades as a means to reduce the utilization of extraordinary life support as well as to allow for the cultural acceptance of organ transplantation. Certainly we would not expect a civil society to accept the direct killing of one individual to save another, yet this is exactly what occurs when the administration of Cardioplegia (Potassium Chloride) is used to stop the heart from beating so that organs may be taken and given to recipient(s). Clearly, in the case of the Ohio transplants, this hastens the death of the one who is dying (Infant A) but not yet dead!
Many today will argue for utilitarianism: why let all 3 infants die when 2 can be saved. But the correct moral answer is that it is never morally permissible to intentionally hasten or cause the death of one who is dying but not yet dead regardless of how many can be saved! Why? Because it is always wrong and in violation of the fifth commandment to directly and intentionally cause the death of an innocent human person no matter how many other lives can be saved.