in this issue:
abortion: DEPRESSION and UNINTENDED PREGNANCY / NO EXCEPTIONS
activism: NORFOLK
bush watch: EISENBERG
condoms: PREVENTING HERPES
disabilities: PROTECTING THE VULNERABLE
health care: ARCHIVE — PAIN CONTROL
imposed death (euthanasia): JERUSALEM / POLL
politics: ILLINOIS / MASSACHUSETTS / NEW JERSEY
zinger: KILL A CAT, GO TO JAIL
reflection for prayer: LONGFELLOW
abortion
DEPRESSION and UNINTENDED PREGNANCY: David C. Reardon of the Elliot Institute has completed an examination of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, involving 12,686 American youth between the ages of 14-21. He finds that women who abort a first pregnancy are at greater risk of subsequent long-term clinical depression compared to women who carry an unintended first pregnancy to term.
(Reading: “Depression and unintended pregnancy in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth: a cohort study,” British Medical Journal, 1/19/02)
NO EXCEPTIONS: Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, recently elected head of the pro-life committee for the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops, said, “Abortion is an absolute evil about which no exceptions are permitted.”
(Reading: “Religion today,” Associated Press, 1/17/02)
activism
NORFOLK: The Jones Institute will stop producing human embryos specifically for stem cell research. News accounts of the decision cited public protests led by American Life League and other groups (see Communique, 1/4/02).
(Reading: “Center shifts stem cell approach,” Washington Post, 1/18/02; “Center stops creating embryos for stem cells,” CNN, 1/17/02)
bush watch
EISENBERG: Columnist Chuck Baldwin writes, “President Bush never promised, or even hinted, that he would do anything to end legal abortion — and he has not… To add insult to injury, the Bush administration is urging the Republican National Committee to appoint a radical pro-abortion activist to become the party’s chief fundraiser.” That man is Lewis Eisenberg.
(Reading: “Unborn babies have few friends in Washington,” Food for Thought from the Chuck Wagon, 1/18/02; Eisenberg details can be reviewed at “Special alert,” Republican National Coalition for Life, 1/17/02)
condoms
PREVENTING HERPES: Researchers have found that while condoms reduce women’s risk of herpes infection, they may not protect men. The study was weighted toward women, and researchers state “the estimates are less reliable for men.”
(Reading: “Effect of condoms on reducing transmission of herpes simplex virus type 2 from men to women,” Journal of the American Medical Association, 6/27/01, abstract)
disabilities
PROTECTING THE VULNERABLE: Alex Schadenberg of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition has written a commentary on the Latimer Case for LifeSite News. Robert Latimer killed his daughter Tracy in 1993. She had severe cerebral palsy. He was sentenced to ten years in prison when found guilty of second-degree murder.
health care
ARCHIVE — PAIN CONTROL: Dr. Aaron Filler of UCLA is developing an anesthetic “equivalent to a smart bomb” that is projected to “deliver a direct blow to the nerves that cause pain.” A technical review of axonal transport, the biological routing molecule to which anesthetics can be attached, can be reviewed at Axonal Transport.
(Reading: “Pulling pain up by the roots,” Discover, 3/01; “A step forward in killing pain,” BBC News, 11/9/00)
imposed death (euthanasia)
JERUSALEM: A committee of experts has proposed “the needless suffering of the terminally ill could end through the use of legally binding ‘living wills,’ ethics committees, respirators with timers that turn themselves off, and a computerized database in which individuals could restate their end-of-life decisions every five years.” The committee states, “active euthanasia would be forbidden.”
(Reading: “Panel draws up guidelines for ending suffering of terminally ill,” Jerusalem Post, 1/18/02; for background on why the “living will is frequently called a death warrant, see “Should I sign a living will?”)
POLL: Harris poll results, with 1,000 adults surveyed, indicate that 60% if Americans think that citizens have a constitutional right to physician-assisted suicide. Six in 10 favor the Oregon law that legalized the act.
(Reading: “US Adults favor doctor-assisted suicide: survey,” Reuters Health, 1/11/02)
politics
ILLINOIS: Pro-lifers are excited that a true pro-life heroine, Jill Stanek, the labor and delivery nurse who exposed the practice of infanticide (a/k/a “live-birth” abortions) at Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn, Ill., is campaigning for a seat in the Illinois state assembly. She is opposing a pro-abortion incumbent, Rep. Renee Kosel, who serves on the Christ Hospital board. For information, contact Citizens for Jill Stanek, P.O. Box 927, New Lenox, IL 60451.
MASSACHUSETTS: Cardinal Bernard Law congratulated pro-abortion Boston Mayor Thomas Menino on the occasion of Menino’s inauguration to a third term in office.
(Reading: “Cardinal Law blesses Menino’s third term,” The Pilot, 1/11/02)
NEW JERSEY: At the last minute, pro-abortion Gov. James E. McGreevey cancelled his first official “town hall” at Seton Hall University. Thanks go to Father Peter West of Priests for Life and loyal readers of Communique.
(Reading: “Abortion uproar scuttles McGreevey’s ‘town-hall,'” [Newark] Star Ledger, 1/19/02)
zinger
KILL A CAT, GO TO JAIL: In Syracuse, N.Y., Onondaga County Judge Anthony Aloi sentenced Walter Dowling to nine months in the county jail. A second man received a six month sentence. The charge: torturing and killing a cat.
(Reading: “2 get prison time for killing a cat,” Associated Press, 1/9/02; the Michigan Daily reported on a similar case on 2/23/00, “Man could get time for killing cat with hammer“)
reflection for prayer
LONGFELLOW:
LONGFELLOW:
Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.
Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.
Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each tomorrow
Finds us father than today.
(Reading: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “A Psalm of Life”)