in this issue:
hot button issues: CONSUMER REPORTS / CONTRACEPTIVE MENTALITY
abortion: LANGUAGE MATTERS / MORTALITY
bioethics: BELMONT REPORT
birth control pill: RISK
cloning humans: CRITIQUE
hollywood: PRO-EUTHANASIA MILLION DOLLAR BABY
humanae vitae: RIGHT ALL ALONG
in vitro fertilization: GENDER SELECTION
lifeline: PRIESTS FOR LIFE
morning-after abortion pill: DECEPTIONS
personhood: COSTA RICA
philosophy: REALITY AND STEM CELLS
roe v. wade: HUGH HEFNER
stem cell research: CRONYISM AND PROP 71 / KYOTO
zinger: YES, IT’S MURDER — BUT!
reflection for prayer: ARCHBISHOP FULTON J. SHEEN
hot button issues
CONSUMER REPORTS: American Life League points out the problems with a Consumer Reports review of birth control pills. A chart accompanying the review shows two of the ways the pill works, but does not mention that the pill can cause abortion by affecting the lining of the uterus so that a tiny baby will die before he can implant in the uterine wall.
(Reading: “Consumer Reports must get facts straight on birth control pills – they cause abortion,” American Life League news release, 1/5/05)
CONTRACEPTIVE MENTALITY: Judie Brown’s column in the online Washington Dispatch this week addresses a recent Washington Post article claiming that 34 million American women “need” birth control.
(Reading: “Repeat after me: Pregnancy is not a disease,” Washington Dispatch, 1/7/05)
abortion
LANGUAGE MATTERS: Arguing that “abortion” is getting bad press because it is not defined correctly, doctors say that the differences between spontaneous abortion and induced abortion are of little consequence. “These two simple categories encompass the various abortion subcategories used in common parlance – missed abortion, incomplete abortion, inevitable abortion, elective abortion, therapeutic abortion., etc.” They argue in favor of focusing on the procedures used and their commonality in treating natural abortions versus intentional abortions as a way of convincing the public that each and every procedure is needed and should not be outlawed.
(Reading: “Language mattes: legislation, medical practice and the classification of abortion,” Obstetrics and Gynecology, 105:1:201-204)
MORTALITY: Mortality after induced abortion is 3 times that of those who gave birth and 1.5 times that of women who were not pregnant, according to Nathan Hoeldtke, M.D., who also points out that a woman obtaining an induced abortion is 6 times more likely to die from suicide (intentional injury) than women who give birth, and 3 times more likely to commit suicide than the general population.
(Reading: “Mortality after induced abortion,” American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 191:6)
bioethics
BELMONT REPORT: The Department of Health and Human Services issued a statement “celebrating” the 25th anniversary of the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research’s “Belmont Report,” a document that enshrined the religion of secular bioethics into government policy. Dianne Irving, Ph.D., responded: “The National Commission’s Belmont Report (1978) identified the normative ‘ethical’ principles of ‘respect for persons’ [which rapidly deteriorated into absolute ‘autonomy,’ and where ‘persons’ were defined as only competent human beings], ‘beneficence’ [which was primarily defined as doing ‘good’ for society, a strictly utilitarian ‘ethics’], and ‘justice’ [defined in the Report pace John Rawls as ‘fairness,’ i.e., fairness in the distribution of the risks and benefits of research].
(Reading: “The elephant in the closet,” LifeIssues.Net, 11/15/04)
birth control pill
RISK: A study finds that those who are overweight and on the pill run a higher risk of becoming pregnant while on the pill.
(Reading: “Body mass index, weight, and oral contraceptive failure risk,” Obstetrics and Gynecology, 205:1:46-52)
cloning humans
CRITIQUE: Dianne Irving, Ph.D.’s analysis of a recent Family Research Council brochure on human cloning can be reviewed online.
(Reading: “FRC’s brochure on human cloning at the U.N.: Serious flaws, dangerous consequences,” LifeIssues.Net, 10/27/04)
hollywood
PRO-EUTHANASIA MILLION DOLLAR BABY: Before you see the film, read the review.
(Reading: “The Hollywood-media ‘Million Dollar Baby’ hoax,” NewsMax.Com, 12/25/04)
humanae vitae
RIGHT ALL ALONG: “The Facts of Life and Marriage: Social Science and the Vindication of Christian Moral Teaching” by W. Bradford Wilcox is available online.
(Reading: “The facts of life and marriage,” Touchstone, 1-2/05)
in vitro fertilization
GENDER SELECTION: An expert in women’s reproductive care argues that gender selection to balance a family may be ethically questionable, but gender selection to prevent a sex-linked disorder can be justified. He further recommends that “sperm sorting” be carefully studied as another method of “family balancing.”
(Reading: “Gender selection: pressure from patients and undistry should not alter our adherence to ethical guidelines,” American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 191:1543-5)
lifeline
PRIESTS FOR LIFE: Abortion is morally equal to terrorism. If you’re going to kill the innocent, what difference does it make if you use forceps or commercial airplanes?
(Reading: “Priests for Life launches 30-day, million dollar national campaign to influence the elections,” Priests for Life news release, 9/23/04)
morning-after abortion pill
DECEPTIONS: Researchers are touting the “tolerability” of levonorgestrel in adolescents based on a study that, upon examination, involved only 52 young women.
(Reading: “Tolerability of levonorgestrel emergency contraception in adolescents,” American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 191:1158-63)
personhood
COSTA RICA: In 2000, in vitro fertilization was officially banned in Costa Rica because human beings during their first days of life were being destroyed. Now “reproductive rights” attorneys are challenging the government on behalf of their clients, arguing that the law banning IVF allegedly violates womens rights. A hearing is scheduled for March.
(Reading: “Costa Rican IVF ban faces human-rights test,” Women’s E-news, 12/28/04)
philosophy
REALITY AND STEM CELLS: Paul J. Cella writes, “What Science has forgotten is that it is fundamentally an instrumental entity: it does not choose its own ends. It takes orders and carries them out; it does not formulate its own. Philosophy precedes Science, and its authority over it, adjudicated through a political process, is final; thus also, of course, politics precedes Science. In practice, this means that one need not be a trained scientist to speak to its uses, and speak against its abuses. It is absurd to exclude the non-specialist from judgments about how we ought to use this instrument, just as it is absurd to restrict the driving of automobiles only to mechanics. One need not be a railroad engineer to identify a train wreck; nor to conclude that conducting a train blindfolded is criminal negligence. Yet many of our practitioners of Science declare presumptuously that none can say anything against their wild rush, because they know not how a train works.”
(Reading: “Stem cells and philosophy,” Tech Central Station, 12/3/04)
roe v. wade
HUGH HEFNER: The founder of Playboy told Esquire magazine, “In the 1950s and ’60s there were still states that outlawed birth control, so I started funding court cases to challenge that. At the same time, I helped sponsor the lower-court cases that eventually led to Roe v. Wade. We were the amicus curiae in Roe v Wade. I was a feminist before there was such a thing as feminism. That a part of history very few people know.”
(Reading: “Philosopher king, 76, Los Angeles,” Esquire, 6/02)
stem cell research
CRONYISM AND PROP 71: Robert Klein, a millionaire who heavily funded the drive to pass the human embryonic stem cell research (a/k/a human cloning) proposition in California has just become the chairman of the committee governing the California’s new Institute for Regenerative medicine. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is among those who orchestrated the coup.
(Reading: “Stem-cell cronyism,” San Francisco Bay Guardian, 12/29/04)
KYOTO: A team of Kyoto University scientists has produced cells with characteristics and functions similar to those of embryonic stem cells by nurturing the testis stem cells of a mouse.
(Reading: “Kyoto university team develops stem cells without using embryos,” Daily Yomiuri, 12/30/04)
zinger
YES, IT’S MURDER — BUT! One Dutch doctor, who is campaigning for a change in the law that would diminish the possibility of prosecution when a doctor terminates a newborn child, said, “If the doctor and the parents decide to terminate the life of the baby, it is illegal in any country. So it is murder. This is all very problematic for a doctor. He feels like a criminal.”
(Reading: SPUC News, 12/21/04)
reflection for prayer
ARCHBISHOP FULTON J. SHEEN: As we look at Christ on the cross we see the ugliness of sin.