in this issue:
hot button issues: A FAIR HEARING / CRUSADE WALKS / RU-486 DEATHS / VACCINES
birth control patch: RISKS
culture of death: HUMAN APES
euthanasia: CULTURE OF DEATH TIMELINE
morning-after abortion pill: LOUISIANA / PHARMACISTS / PRUDES AND PREJUDICE
ru-486: FIVE DEATHS
stem cell research / human embryonic: ILLINOIS / SPERM CELLS
stem cell research / other: BREAST CANCER / MESENCHYMAL STEM CELLS
wisdom: POPE BENEDICT XVI
reflection for prayer: LOOKING AT GOD
hot button issues
A FAIR HEARING: Noting that extremist organizations such as Planned Parenthood, NARAL and “Catholics” for a Free Choice have already jumped into action and promised to fight John Roberts’ nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court, American Life League’s Judie Brown is calling on pro-lifers to demand “a fair, honest hearing” before the Senate Judiciary Committee and, eventually, the full Senate.
(Reading: “Wanted: A fair, honest Senate hearing for Supreme Court nominee John Roberts,” American Life League news release, 7/20/05)
CRUSADE WALKS: Additional video journals are now online from the three groups of college students who are participating in pro-life walks in California, the Great Lakes region and the Northeastern United States on behalf of American Life League’s Crusade for the Defense of Our Catholic Church. See how these young people are spreading the message that you can’t be Catholic and pro-abortion: Crusade for Life 2005.
RU-486 DEATHS: Danco Laboratories admits five women who’ve taken the RU-486 abortion pill since its introduction in the United States have died from bacterial infections. But the company reports “no causal relationship between these events” and the drug. Danco says it’s changing the labeling and sending doctors a letter about these cases. American Life League’s Judie Brown asked, “How many more women and preborn children must die before this lethal drug is taken off of the market?”
(Reading: “Abortion pill maker alerts doctors to five deaths,” Reuters, 7/18/05; “RU-486 continues to kill preborn children and their mothers,” American Life League news release, 7/19/05)
VACCINES: In response to a request from Children of God for Life (an American Life League associate group), the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy for Life has issued a document addressing vaccines manufactured with tissue from aborted babies. The document says doctors and parents “should use conscientious objection and oppose by all means — in writing, through various associations, mass media, etc. — the vaccines which do not yet have morally acceptable alternatives.”
(Reading: “Vatican officials condemn aborted fetal vaccines,” Children of God for Life news release, 7/18/05)
birth control patch
RISKS: It is reported that about a dozen women who used the Ortho Evra birth control patch died last year from problems related to blood clots, and dozens of others survived strokes. Documents reviewed by the Associated Press suggest the risk of blood clots for women who use the patch is three times higher than the risk faced by those who take birth control pills. But according to AP, “doctors said they would have expected some deaths and no investigation is warranted.”
(Reading: “Birth control patch linked to higher fatality rates,” Associated Press, 7/17/05)
culture of death
HUMAN APES: Johns Hopkins assembled a group of 22 philosophers, neuroscientists and others to study the question of using human neural stem cells in the brains of “primate cousins” and they approved the idea, with “strict ethical guidelines.”
(Reading: “Panel lays out rules for using stem cells in primate brains,” San Jose Mercury-News, 7/15/05)
euthanasia
CULTURE OF DEATH TIMELINE: See for yourself where the vultures began in their efforts to twist “compassion” into acts of killing.
(Reading: “Two decades to an American culture of death,” Life Tree)
morning-after abortion pill
LOUISIANA: Alliance Defense Fund is representing a Louisiana nurse who was fired because she refused to administer the abortion pills.
(Reading: “ADF comes to the defense of pro-life nurse in Louisiana,” ADF Weekly Alert, 7/12/05)
PHARMACISTS: Joel Belz analyzes the problem facing pro-life pharmacists as Americans lose “the right not to support certain behaviors.”
(Reading: “One choice fits all,” World Magazine, 7/16/05)
PRUDES AND PREJUDICE: The Lancet opines that with the passing of each day, “10,000 unintended pregnancies” occur in the United States. “Many are in vulnerable members of society with few choices and little political voice.”
COMMENT: Excuse me, but we thought we were talking about babies, not politics.
(Reading: “Emergency contraception [sic], prudes and prejudice,” The Lancet, 7/2/05)
stem cell research / human embryonic
ILLINOIS: Gov. Rod Blagojevich issued an executive order for the purpose of funding human embryonic stem cell research with $10 million in taxpayers’ money.
(Reading: “Conservative groups stunned by Blagojevich’s stem cell order,” Illinois Leader, 7/12/05)
SPERM CELLS: Copenhagen scientists claim to have generated primordial germ cells, which go on to form human sperm or egg cells, from human embryos. Father Joseph Howard, Jr., director of ALL’s Catholic Medical Ethics Advisory Committee, states, “even if it were true that this process can be achieved without harming the human embryo it would be wrong. It is non-therapeutic and thus illicit. It is a grave crime against the human embryo’s dignity.”
(Reading: “Early sperm cells develop from human stem cells,” Reuters, 6/20/05)
stem cell research / other
BREAST CANCER: Italian researchers have isolated stem cells of adult breast cancer tissue, and by propagating those in vitro have identified what are believed to be “bad” stem cells responsible for tumor growth.
(Reading: “Cancer researchers identify ‘bad’ stem cells,” 7/15/05, CORDIS News)
MESENCHYMAL STEM CELLS: California researchers have discovered certain proteins called growth factors that can influence whether some cells become fat, bone or muscle.
(Reading: “Someday scientists may turn fat cells into bone or muscle,” Knight Ridder Newspapers, 7/15/05)
wisdom
POPE BENEDICT XVI: A man of conscience is one who never acquires tolerance, well-being, success, public standing, and approval on the part of prevailing opinion, at the expense of truth.
(Reading: “Conscience and Truth,” Catholic Information Network, 2/91)
reflection for prayer
LOOKING AT GOD: The person whose life is not guided by sincerity, by a habitual disposition to face up to the truth or to the demands of his conscience — however uncomfortable or hard they may be — flatly separates himself from any possibility of communicating with God. Anyone who is afraid of looking into his conscience is afraid of looking at God. Only those who can look God in the face can really get to know Him.
(Reading: “In Conversation with God,” Vol. 3, p. 114)