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Communique – Jul. 28, 2000

abortion

COMPLICATION: An Iowa teen who allegedly murdered 21-month-old Joel Vasquez while babysitting for him has legal counsel who will argue that her abortion two days earlier “triggered emotions similar to postpartum depression.”

(Reading: “Abortion Trauma Blamed in Toddler’s Death,” Des Moines Register, 7/8/00)

PARTIAL BIRTH STRATEGY: When asked how the NCCB would respond to Stenberg v. Carhart and the apparent requirement that a “health of the mother” exception be added to the already flawed bill, Helen Alvare is quoted as saying, “Whether we would support a bill with a health exception, it’s really too early to tell. It goes to the heart of the question: What is moral incremental legislation? If a bill like that would end public unrest over abortion, then it’s not an appropriate incremental step, because it doesn’t help achieve the ultimate goal: respect for all unborn life.”

(Reading: “Remapping Strategy on Abortion Battleground,” Bergen Record, 7/2/00)

adolescents

MOTHERHOOD? Researchers studied 584 female high school students regarding their attitudes toward motherhood. “The investigators conclude that pregnancy prevention programs need to address adolescents’ ‘unrealistic positive illusions’ about teenage parenthood, in addition to teaching them about contraceptive use.”

(Reading: “Is Teenage Motherhood a Good Idea?” Family Planning Perspectives, 6/00, pp.102-103; commentary on an article from Journal of Adolescent Health, Vol. 26 No. 7, pp. 205-212)

birth control pill

ISCHEMIC STROKE: Researchers examined studies published between 1960 through November 1999 and identified 804 potentially relevant references, with 73 specifically investigating risk of ischemic stroke with OC use. They conclude the risk of ischemic stroke is increased in current OC users, even with newer low-estrogen preparations. However, the absolute increase in stroke risk is expected to be small since incidence is very low in this population (women of reproductive age). The meta-analysis is complete with stated doubts and “unknowns.”

(Reading: “Ischemic Stroke Risk with Oral Contraceptives,” Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), 7/5/00, pp.72-78)

chemical (medical) abortion

MORNING-AFTER ABORTION: Researchers assessing whether advance provision of emergency contraception increases its use studied the reactions and behavior of 213 females between the ages of 16 and 24, with a mean age of 19. “About half (52%) the participants reported having been pregnant and 19% had children. Over one third of participants (38%) reported having had one or more elective abortions.” When EC is readily on hand, researchers found that patterns of OC use are “potentially negative and need to be explored in relation to observed benefits of advance provision of emergency contraception.”

(Reading: “Emergency Contraception: Advanced Provision in a Young, High-Risk Clinic Population,” Obstetrics and Gynecology, 7/00, pp. 1-7, subscription required)

health care

DEALING WITH GREIF: One physician comments that “The 20th century saw a plethora of books, articles and monographs on the subjects of grief, death and dying, and suffering, but none of these has provided greater insight than the biblical book of Job.”

(Reading: “Before Kubler-Ross, Lessons About Grief from the Book of Job,” Obstetrics and Gynecology, 7/00, pp.151-152, subscription required)

imposed death

DEMENTIA PATIENTS TERMINAL? Some suggest that Alzheimer’s disease (irreversible dementia) is a terminal illness. These include Morrison and Siu who wrote for the July 5 Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) about patients over 70, suffering from advanced dementia, and either hip fracture or pneumonia. “Given the limited life expectancy of patients with end-stage dementia following these illnesses and the burdens associated with their treatment, increased attention should be focused on efforts to enhance comfort in this patient population.”

COMMENT FROM NANCY VALKO, R.N.: “Since December there have been articles in JAMA and NEJM saying that feeding tubes do not even prolong life when used in patients who have severe dementia such as Alzheimer’s. Now we are told that surgery, antibiotics, etc. are also futile and harmful but, of course, medications like morphine around the clock are automatically beneficial.”

(Reading: “Hospital Care of Patients with Dementia,” JAMA, 7/5/00, pp.87-89; “Survival in End-stage Dementia Following Acute Illness,” JAMA, 7/5/00, pp.47-52; 7/5/00 email from “>Nancy Valko, R.N.)

personhood

BELIEF OR FACT? During a recent appearance on Fox’s Hannity and Colmes, Father Frank Pavone, director of Priests for Life, was asked about the problem of the law codifying one set of beliefs versus another. He said: “Well, I’m glad you bring this up because people have the right to believe whatever they want about when life begins or if the baby has a soul. But there are some people who don’t believe that the newborn is really a person. Maybe somebody doesn’t believe that you and I are people. The point is this: that the law does not require us to impose or to remove any beliefs. The law is supposed to protect us despite people’s beliefs.”

COMMENT: And of course, the scientific fact is that a human being exists at conception. The legal protection of all human beings as persons is not a matter of anyone’s religious belief. It is a matter of respect for the dignity of the human being as a person.

(Reading: Hannity and Colmes, Fox News Channel, 6/28/00; Priests for Life)

IS PERSONHOOD PASSE? Professor Dianne Irving comments, “The question as to when a human BEING begins is a strictly scientific question, and the answer is ‘at fertilization,’ which normally takes place in the woman’s fallopian tubes (not in the woman’s uterus). The question as to when a human PERSON begins is a philosophical question. If human embryos are not ‘persons’ because they cannot exercise ‘rational attributes’ (self-consciousness, willing, choosing, autonomy, relating to the world around him/her) or ‘sentience’ (the ability to feel pain and pleasure), then the following list of adult human beings are NOT also human persons, and therefore do not have the same rights and protections as ‘persons’ (as Peter Singer, Tris Englehardt, Tom Beauchamp, Norman Fost, John Robertson, R.M. Hare, Jonathon Glover, and most bioethicists remind us): Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s patients, the mentally ill, the mentally retarded, drug addicts, alcoholics, the comatose, paraplegics, the disabled, all adult human beings with nerve diseases or damage (including Christopher Reeve), etc. Do you fit into any of these non-person categories?

(Reading: Dianne Irving, Ph.D., “When Do Human Beings Begin?“)

RU-486: Columnist George Marlin writes that eugenicists “expect this pill [RU-486] to place the transmission of human life into ethically neutral terrain. By chemically emptying the womb of growing life, they hope to limit the abortion debate to biological propositions. “What they fail to grasp is that regardless of the technique that induces abortion, the moral gravity of the action does not change. The human embryo is not a biological by-product. Hence, even a government-approved abortion pill cannot be viewed as equivalent to taking Ex-Lax.”

(Reading: “Time for the Abortion Pill? No, It Devalues Human Life,” New York Daily News, 7/5/00)

pharmacists

CONSCIENCE: Approximately 500 voters were polled in New Jersey and Oregon, the majority of whom agree that “pharmacists should not be permitted to refuse to dispense medications-including emergency contraception-because of their own religious or moral opposition.” Those polled said “the most compelling reason to reject [conscience clause] legislation is pharmacists’ responsibility to provide all medications that have been legally prescribed for an individual.”

(Reading: “Should Conscience Be Their Guide?” Family Planning Perspectives, 5-6/00, p.102; poll was conducted by Peter D. Hart Research Associates for Reproductive Health Technologies, a project of PATH)

politics

IRS RULES FOR NON-PROFITS: A recent IRS memo outlines the care charities (502(c)3 groups) should take and points out that “the political campaign prohibition of section 501(c)3 may be violated even though the organization had a non-partisan motivation for intervening in a campaign.”)

premature birth

ELBW (ESTIMATED LOW BIRTH WEIGHT) BABIES: Eight mothers of premature infants wrote to JAMA to point out that parents should have the right to make choices about the medical treatment of their children, emphasizing that parental decision-making in such cases involves “their rights as parents to decline a lifetime of arduous medical procedures and disability for a suffering infant.” Responding, authors of the study in question point out that “counseling for parents facing complex decisions about neonatal intensive care” is necessary.

(Reading: “Informed Decisions for Extremely Low-Birth-Weight Infants,” Journal of the American Medical Association, 283:24:3201-3202)

reproductive health

TECHNICAL DEFINITION: Britain’s Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child (SPUC) reports “according to the technical definitions prepared for the International Conference on Population and Development, Cairo, 1994, derived from the World Health Organization, ‘reproductive health’ entails access to ‘methods of fertility regulation.’ ‘Fertility regulation’ in turn is defined as ‘Delaying childbearing, using contraception, seeking treatment for infertility, interrupting unwanted pregnancies and breastfeeding.’ The term ‘interrupting pregnancies’ is simply a euphemism for abortion on demand.”

(Reading: SPUC Information Office updates, 7/6/00)

you

UNDERSTANDING “STEALTH” EUTHANASIA: A St. Louis conference exposing the facts about the “right to die” movement is scheduled for September 9. Wesley Smith and Eugene F. Diamond, M.D., are among the presenters. For details, email “>Nancy Valko, R.N.

reflection for prayer

Is not the life of man upon earth a trial? Who would want troubles and difficulties? You command us to endure them, not to love them. No person loves what he endures, though he may love the act of enduring. For even if he is happy to endure his own burden, he would still prefer that the burden not exist. I long for prosperity in times of adversity, and I fear adversity when times are good. Yet what middle ground is there between these two extremes where the life of man would be other than trial? Pity the prosperity of this world, pity it once and again, for it corrupts joy and brings the fear of adversity. Pity the adversity of this world, pity it again, then a third time; for it fills men with a longing for prosperity, and because adversity itself is hard for them to bear and can even break their endurance. Is not the life of man upon earth a trial, a continuous trial? All my hope lies only in your great mercy.

-From the Confessions of Augustine (354-430 A.D.)

COMPLICATION: An Iowa teen who allegedly murdered 21-month-old Joel Vasquez while babysitting for him has legal counsel who will argue that her abortion two days earlier “triggered emotions similar to postpartum depression.”

(Reading: “Abortion Trauma Blamed in Toddler’s Death,” Des Moines Register, 7/8/00)

PARTIAL BIRTH STRATEGY: When asked how the NCCB would respond to Stenberg v. Carhart and the apparent requirement that a “health of the mother” exception be added to the already flawed bill, Helen Alvare is quoted as saying, “Whether we would support a bill with a health exception, it’s really too early to tell. It goes to the heart of the question: What is moral incremental legislation? If a bill like that would end public unrest over abortion, then it’s not an appropriate incremental step, because it doesn’t help achieve the ultimate goal: respect for all unborn life.”

(Reading: “Remapping Strategy on Abortion Battleground,” Bergen Record, 7/2/00)

adolescents

MOTHERHOOD? Researchers studied 584 female high school students regarding their attitudes toward motherhood. “The investigators conclude that pregnancy prevention programs need to address adolescents’ ‘unrealistic positive illusions’ about teenage parenthood, in addition to teaching them about contraceptive use.”

(Reading: “Is Teenage Motherhood a Good Idea?” Family Planning Perspectives, 6/00, pp.102-103; commentary on an article from Journal of Adolescent Health, Vol. 26 No. 7, pp. 205-212)

birth control pill

ISCHEMIC STROKE: Researchers examined studies published between 1960 through November 1999 and identified 804 potentially relevant references, with 73 specifically investigating risk of ischemic stroke with OC use. They conclude the risk of ischemic stroke is increased in current OC users, even with newer low-estrogen preparations. However, the absolute increase in stroke risk is expected to be small since incidence is very low in this population (women of reproductive age). The meta-analysis is complete with stated doubts and “unknowns.”

(Reading: “Ischemic Stroke Risk with Oral Contraceptives,” Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), 7/5/00, pp.72-78)

chemical (medical) abortion

MORNING-AFTER ABORTION: Researchers assessing whether advance provision of emergency contraception increases its use studied the reactions and behavior of 213 females between the ages of 16 and 24, with a mean age of 19. “About half (52%) the participants reported having been pregnant and 19% had children. Over one third of participants (38%) reported having had one or more elective abortions.” When EC is readily on hand, researchers found that patterns of OC use are “potentially negative and need to be explored in relation to observed benefits of advance provision of emergency contraception.”

(Reading: “Emergency Contraception: Advanced Provision in a Young, High-Risk Clinic Population,” Obstetrics and Gynecology, 7/00, pp. 1-7, subscription required)

health care

DEALING WITH GREIF: One physician comments that “The 20th century saw a plethora of books, articles and monographs on the subjects of grief, death and dying, and suffering, but none of these has provided greater insight than the biblical book of Job.”

(Reading: “Before Kubler-Ross, Lessons About Grief from the Book of Job,” Obstetrics and Gynecology, 7/00, pp.151-152, subscription required)

imposed death

DEMENTIA PATIENTS TERMINAL? Some suggest that Alzheimer’s disease (irreversible dementia) is a terminal illness. These include Morrison and Siu who wrote for the July 5 Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) about patients over 70, suffering from advanced dementia, and either hip fracture or pneumonia. “Given the limited life expectancy of patients with end-stage dementia following these illnesses and the burdens associated with their treatment, increased attention should be focused on efforts to enhance comfort in this patient population.”

COMMENT FROM NANCY VALKO, R.N.: “Since December there have been articles in JAMA and NEJM saying that feeding tubes do not even prolong life when used in patients who have severe dementia such as Alzheimer’s. Now we are told that surgery, antibiotics, etc. are also futile and harmful but, of course, medications like morphine around the clock are automatically beneficial.”

(Reading: “Hospital Care of Patients with Dementia,” JAMA, 7/5/00, pp.87-89; “Survival in End-stage Dementia Following Acute Illness,” JAMA, 7/5/00, pp.47-52; 7/5/00 email from “>Nancy Valko, R.N.)

personhood

BELIEF OR FACT? During a recent appearance on Fox’s Hannity and Colmes, Father Frank Pavone, director of Priests for Life, was asked about the problem of the law codifying one set of beliefs versus another. He said: “Well, I’m glad you bring this up because people have the right to believe whatever they want about when life begins or if the baby has a soul. But there are some people who don’t believe that the newborn is really a person. Maybe somebody doesn’t believe that you and I are people. The point is this: that the law does not require us to impose or to remove any beliefs. The law is supposed to protect us despite people’s beliefs.”

COMMENT: And of course, the scientific fact is that a human being exists at conception. The legal protection of all human beings as persons is not a matter of anyone’s religious belief. It is a matter of respect for the dignity of the human being as a person.

(Reading: Hannity and Colmes, Fox News Channel, 6/28/00; Priests for Life)

IS PERSONHOOD PASSE? Professor Dianne Irving comments, “The question as to when a human BEING begins is a strictly scientific question, and the answer is ‘at fertilization,’ which normally takes place in the woman’s fallopian tubes (not in the woman’s uterus). The question as to when a human PERSON begins is a philosophical question. If human embryos are not ‘persons’ because they cannot exercise ‘rational attributes’ (self-consciousness, willing, choosing, autonomy, relating to the world around him/her) or ‘sentience’ (the ability to feel pain and pleasure), then the following list of adult human beings are NOT also human persons, and therefore do not have the same rights and protections as ‘persons’ (as Peter Singer, Tris Englehardt, Tom Beauchamp, Norman Fost, John Robertson, R.M. Hare, Jonathon Glover, and most bioethicists remind us): Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s patients, the mentally ill, the mentally retarded, drug addicts, alcoholics, the comatose, paraplegics, the disabled, all adult human beings with nerve diseases or damage (including Christopher Reeve), etc. Do you fit into any of these non-person categories?

(Reading: Dianne Irving, Ph.D., “When Do Human Beings Begin?“)

RU-486: Columnist George Marlin writes that eugenicists “expect this pill [RU-486] to place the transmission of human life into ethically neutral terrain. By chemically emptying the womb of growing life, they hope to limit the abortion debate to biological propositions. “What they fail to grasp is that regardless of the technique that induces abortion, the moral gravity of the action does not change. The human embryo is not a biological by-product. Hence, even a government-approved abortion pill cannot be viewed as equivalent to taking Ex-Lax.”

(Reading: “Time for the Abortion Pill? No, It Devalues Human Life,” New York Daily News, 7/5/00)

pharmacists

CONSCIENCE: Approximately 500 voters were polled in New Jersey and Oregon, the majority of whom agree that “pharmacists should not be permitted to refuse to dispense medications-including emergency contraception-because of their own religious or moral opposition.” Those polled said “the most compelling reason to reject [conscience clause] legislation is pharmacists’ responsibility to provide all medications that have been legally prescribed for an individual.”

(Reading: “Should Conscience Be Their Guide?” Family Planning Perspectives, 5-6/00, p.102; poll was conducted by Peter D. Hart Research Associates for Reproductive Health Technologies, a project of PATH)

politics

IRS RULES FOR NON-PROFITS: A recent IRS memo outlines the care charities (502(c)3 groups) should take and points out that “the political campaign prohibition of section 501(c)3 may be violated even though the organization had a non-partisan motivation for intervening in a campaign.”)

premature birth

ELBW (ESTIMATED LOW BIRTH WEIGHT) BABIES: Eight mothers of premature infants wrote to JAMA to point out that parents should have the right to make choices about the medical treatment of their children, emphasizing that parental decision-making in such cases involves “their rights as parents to decline a lifetime of arduous medical procedures and disability for a suffering infant.” Responding, authors of the study in question point out that “counseling for parents facing complex decisions about neonatal intensive care” is necessary.

(Reading: “Informed Decisions for Extremely Low-Birth-Weight Infants,” Journal of the American Medical Association, 283:24:3201-3202)

reproductive health

TECHNICAL DEFINITION: Britain’s Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child (SPUC) reports “according to the technical definitions prepared for the International Conference on Population and Development, Cairo, 1994, derived from the World Health Organization, ‘reproductive health’ entails access to ‘methods of fertility regulation.’ ‘Fertility regulation’ in turn is defined as ‘Delaying childbearing, using contraception, seeking treatment for infertility, interrupting unwanted pregnancies and breastfeeding.’ The term ‘interrupting pregnancies’ is simply a euphemism for abortion on demand.”

(Reading: SPUC Information Office updates, 7/6/00)

you

UNDERSTANDING “STEALTH” EUTHANASIA: A St. Louis conference exposing the facts about the “right to die” movement is scheduled for September 9. Wesley Smith and Eugene F. Diamond, M.D., are among the presenters. For details, email “>Nancy Valko, R.N.

reflection for prayer

Is not the life of man upon earth a trial? Who would want troubles and difficulties? You command us to endure them, not to love them. No person loves what he endures, though he may love the act of enduring. For even if he is happy to endure his own burden, he would still prefer that the burden not exist. I long for prosperity in times of adversity, and I fear adversity when times are good. Yet what middle ground is there between these two extremes where the life of man would be other than trial? Pity the prosperity of this world, pity it once and again, for it corrupts joy and brings the fear of adversity. Pity the adversity of this world, pity it again, then a third time; for it fills men with a longing for prosperity, and because adversity itself is hard for them to bear and can even break their endurance. Is not the life of man upon earth a trial, a continuous trial? All my hope lies only in your great mercy.

-From the Confessions of Augustine (354-430 A.D.)