in this issue:
hot button issues: HPV VACCINE / NATIONAL PRO-LIFE T-SHIRT DAY / PETITION / WHERE ARE THEY?
abortion: UTAH
catholic bishops: KENTUCKY
euthanasia: HAWAII / ITALY
locked-in syndrome: HOPE
personhood: VIRGINIA
stem cell research / ethical: QUESTIONS
reflection for prayer: THOMAS A KEMPIS
hot button issues
HPV VACCINE: Texas Gov. Rick Perry has signed an executive order requiring girls to receive the HPV vaccine. The HPV virus is transmitted sexually. According to American Life League’s David Bereit, “Gov. Perry has turned his back on the pro-life and pro-family people who elected him and is now playing into the agenda of Planned Parenthood, a group which regularly opposes parents’ rights and which praised his action.”
(Reading: “Texas governor betrays families with vaccination orders,” American Life League news release, 2/7/07; “Gardasil HPV vaccine: Get the facts,” Children of God for Life, 2/5/07)
NATIONAL PRO-LIFE T-SHIRT DAY: The annual event is set for April 24. American Life League encourages everyone, especially students, to wear pro-life apparel on this day to show the nation just how many of us are pro-life. The official shirt of ALL’s National Pro-life T-shirt Day is available online. Additional information is available at www.NationalProLifeTshirtDay.com.
PETITION: American Life League is asking Catholics to sign a petition that will be delivered to U.S. bishops in June. The petition asks the bishops to address the scandal created by pro-abortion Catholic political figures and to enforce the Church law which says those “who obstinately persist in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to communion.”
WHERE ARE THEY? Nathanael Blake of ALL’s Celebrate Life magazine staff looks at efforts to encourage more testing of preborn babies for Down syndrome, testing that is likely to lead to an increased number of abortions.
(Reading: “The beauty of Down syndrome,” American Life League, 2/7/07)
abortion
UTAH: The state legislature is currently working on a bill that backers claim will to ban all abortion, but which in fact permits abortion in cases of rape, incest and perceived threat to the life of the mother.
(Reading: “Utah’s effort to ban abortion may never make it to the Supreme Court,” Associated Press, 2/6/07)
catholic bishops
KENTUCKY: In an open letter to Covington Bishop Roger Foys, Northern Kentucky Right to Life listed a series of grievances, including the charge that Foys forbade the publication of an ad in the diocesan paper. The diocese refused comment to a local newspaper.
(Reading: “Diocese, abortion foes at odds,” Cincinnati Post, 2/1/07)
euthanasia
HAWAII: The legislature is poised to discuss physician assisted suicide in the context of a bill, HB 675, that would “allow competent, terminally ill adults” to obtain a lethal dose of medication.
(Reading: “House panel to mull ‘Death with Dignity,'” Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 1/31/07; “HB 675: Relating to death with dignity,” Hawaii State Legislature, 2/6/07)
ITALY: Dr. Mario Riccio, who helped pro-euthanasia activist Piergiorgio Welby die, has been cleared of all charges by his local medical association.
(Reading: “Doctor who pulled the plug on right-to-die campaigner is cleared,” DPA German Press Agency, 2/1/07)
locked-in syndrome
HOPE: A current report examines one family’s struggle to defend a loved one experiencing locked-in syndrome, and the medical advances that hold promise.
(Reading: “Trapped in your own body,” ABC News, 1/31/07)
personhood
VIRGINIA: House Bill 2797 lost during a recorded vote this past Monday. However the bill addresses the basic principle of personhood very succinctly:
Whereas the Constitution of Virginia provides in Article 1, section 1, that all men are by nature equally free and independent and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety; now, therefore
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:
1. That life begins at the moment of fertilization and the right to enjoyment of life guaranteed by Article, section 1 of the Constitution of Virginia is vested in each born and preborn human being from the moment of fertilization.
(Reading: “Bill to guarantee rights at time of fertilization dies,” Associated Press, 2/5/07)
stem cell research / ethical
QUESTIONS: Mark O’Rourke, M.D., responds to the basic questions concerning the humanity of the embryo.
(Reading: “Questions on stem cells,” The [Columbia, S.C.] State, 1/31/07)
reflection for prayer
THOMAS A KEMPIS: Let me find grace in your sight, I beg, Lord, for your grace is enough for me, even though I obtain none of the things which nature desires. If I am tempted and afflicted with many tribulations, I will fear no evils while your grace is with me. This is my strength. This will give me counsel and help. This is more powerful than all my enemies and wiser than all the wise. This is the mistress of truth, the teacher of discipline, the light of the heart, the consoler in anguish, the banisher of sorrow, the expeller of fear, the nourisher of devotion, the producer of tears. What am I without grace, but dead wood, a useless branch, fit only to be cast away?
Let your grace, therefore, go before me and follow me, O Lord, and make me always intent upon good works, through Jesus Christ, your son.
(Reading: “The imitation of Christ,” Book III, Chapter 55)