in this issue:
hot button issues: ALL’S NATIONAL PRO-LIFE T-SHIRT DAY / CELEBRATE LIFE
adolescents: NEW CURRICULUM
birth control pills: NEWEST PRODUCTS
blogs: MARK PICKUP
euthanasia: ARIZONA / IRELAND
infanticide: INCREMENTAL
marriage: REALLY DEAD?
physicians: END-OF-LIFE CARE
politics: REMINDER
stem cell research: FOLLOW THE MONEY / GOVERNMENT REPORT
vaccine: CANADA / DECEPTIVE WASHINGTON POST REPORT
reflection for prayer: 2 CORINTHIANS 4:8-10
hot button issues
ALL’S 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 NationalProLifeTshirtDay.com.
CELEBRATE LIFE: The current issue of American Life League’s magazine features an article on Dr. James Sherley, a scientist who is dedicated to spreading the truth about stem cell research. He has paid a price for his opposition to immoral experimentation.
(Reading: “James Sherley: A scientist dedicated to truth,” Celebrate Life, 1-2/07, pp. 20-23)
adolescents
NEW CURRICULUM: “Theology for the Body for Teens: Discovering God’s Plan for Love and Life” is now available from Ascension Press.
birth control pills
NEWEST PRODUCTS: Seasonique, a 91-day treatment cycle method, can cause abortion. Loestrin 24 Fe is a 28-day birth control pill that can cause abortion. YAZ is a combination birth control pill that claims to be the only 24/4 pill. While the pill description does not include irritation of the uterine wall there is no evidence to prove that the pill will not, at least on occasion, abort.
blogs
MARK PICKUP: With so many blogs, where does one start? We recommend that Mark Pickup’s uplifting comments on Human Life Matters be on your short list.
euthanasia
ARIZONA: A new bill introduced in the state legislature would allow terminally ill patients to take their own lives by using prescribed medications.
(Reading: “Bill would allow physician-assisted suicides,” Business Journal of Phoenix, 1/16/07)
IRELAND: The Times of London reports that doctors and nurses in Irish hospitals are intentionally going too slowly in their efforts to resuscitate some terminally ill patients, thus resulting in death of those patients. The process is called “slow codes.”
(Reading: “Doctors ‘only pretend’ to do resuscitation,” The Times, 1/14/07)
infanticide
INCREMENTAL: In a startling commentary, Colleen Clements writes about the indirect killing of newborn infants whose lives are deemed unworthy. She writes, “we will come up with new words to describe such killings, words that will make us complacent and buffer us from reality; words like ‘deliberate intervention’ rather than ‘direct killing by physicians of disabled babies.'”
(Reading: “Incremental infanticide: Who is it good for?” Medical Post, 1/8/07)
marriage
REALLY DEAD? Michael Medved exposes the deceit in a recent report claiming that for the first time in history, the majority of women in the United States are living without a husband.
(Reading: “Journalistic malpractice in ‘marriage is dead’ report,” Townhall.com, 1/18/07)
physicians
END-OF-LIFE CARE: For the first time in the history of the medical profession, ten different physician groups have collaborated on developing a subspecialty in the areas of palliative and end-of-life care.
(Reading: “Board sponsor certification in end-of-life care,” American Medical News, 1/22/07)
politics
REMINDER: Bishop Michael Sheridan of Colorado Springs notes in a pastoral letter, “any Catholic politicians who advocate for abortion, for illicit stem cell research or for any form of euthanasia ipso facto place themselves outside full communion with the Church and so jeopardize their salvation.”
(Reading: “A pastoral letter to the Catholic faithful of the Diocese of Colorado Springs on the duties of Catholic politicians and voters,” Diocese of Colorado Springs, 5/10/04)
stem cell research
FOLLOW THE MONEY: If you had questions about why the biotechnology companies are so anxious to see federal and state governments dole out big dollars, read the reports about Advanced Cell Technology
(Reading: “Advanced Cell gets money to track stem cell maturation,” Bloomberg News, 1/17/07; “Analysis: Stem cell buzz may help industry,” United Press International, 1/17/07)
GOVERNMENT REPORT: A new report by the U.S. government’s domestic policy council “admits that embryos are human beings; the only differences between embryos and other human beings, says the report, are accidental differences in levels of development.”
(Reading: “‘Embryos are humans,’ says U.S. government report on stem cell research,” Life Site News, 1/10/07)
vaccines
CANADA: Canadian Physicians for Life has successfully lobbied the Alberta health ministry for access to an ethical alternative to the current tainted childhood vaccines. The alternative, Pentacel, protects against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio and Haemophilus B.
(Reading: “Canadian physicians win pro-life victory over aborted fetal vaccines,” Children of God for Life, 1/15/07)
DECEPTIVE WASHINGTON POST REPORT: In the article, among other errors, the impression is given that chicken pox is not a mild disease but rather something to be feared. Debi Vinnedge of Children of God for Life, in her letter to the editor, sets the record straight by quoting Merck, the manufacturer of the tainted disease, as stating that varicella (chicken pox) is “generally a benign, self-limiting disease.”
(Reading: “A shot of urgency in Maryland’s vaccine debate,” Washington Post, 1/9/07; “Chicken pox or Chicken Little?” Children of God for Life, 1/9/07)
reflection for prayer
2 CORINTHIANS 4:8-10: We are in difficulties on all sides but never cornered; we see no answer to our problems, but never despair; we have been persecuted, but never deserted; knocked down, but never killed; always, wherever we may be, we carry with us in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus, too, may always be seen in our body.