abortion
CLINICIANS FOR CHOICE (CFC): The April 2000 CFC newsletter reports that “midlevel clinicians have same abortion complication rates as physicians.” The “midlevel” group includes nurse practitioners, midwives and physician assistants. CFC’s mailing address is the same as that of the National Abortion Federation, which is working to make “access to abortion” easier for women across the nation. See the NAF “Access Initiative.”
(Reading: “Clinicians for Choice,” 4/00)
CONTRACEPTIVE FAILURE: A recent anecdotal report in JAMA confirms the suspicion that women who are abortion-minded will rely on abortion if family planning fails. As the story of Ms. B relates, she had been using the pill since having an earlier abortion, had not taken it in two months and again became pregnant, then visited a clinic “to plan the [second] abortion.” The physician “discussed her options, but she said abortion was the only option she wanted. We also talked about future contraception choices, and she was interested in depot-medroxyprogestoerone acetate injection, as she does not feel she will be compliant enough with oral contraceptives. I also explained the option of emergency contraception if she has unprotected sexual intercourse again.”
(Reading: “A 26-Year-Old Woman Seeking an Abortion, One Year Later,” Journal of the American Medical Association, 5/24-31/00, p. 2700)
activism
SURVIVORS: A “new breed of advocates for life” is how The Survivors (young Americans who survived abortion) describe themselves. Visit them online.
assisted suicide
TREND: Researchers studying the question of who should be involved in the decision and execution of that decision when a patient decides it is time to die write, “Although physician involvement is necessary, we argue that it is not sufficient to ensure that patients requesting assisted suicide receive the best care. Assisted suicide requires physician involvement, but physicians’ limited competence in performing the full range of tasks, the competencies of other professions, and the possibility that other professions could expand their authority in this area suggest that physician-assisted suicide is a far too narrow construct of the task. The willingness of other professionals–including nurses, social workers and clergy–to participate and even take the lead in assisting suicides is critical to meet society’s interest that assisted suicide should be humane, effective and confined to appropriate cases.”
(Reading: “Should Assisted Suicide Be Only Physician Assisted?” Annals of Internal Medicine, 3/21/00, pp. 482-487; NOTE: current issues are not online)
chemical (medical) abortion
MISOPROSTOL: The following web pages give information about the chemical, modes of action, and uses of misoprostol (also known as Cytotec):
chlamydia
CERVICAL CANCER LINK: Researchers in Finland report “infection with Chlamydia trachomatis increases the risk of invasive cervical cancer.” Pentti Koskela, Ph.D., “identified 182 cases of cervical cancer from multinational data-bases. Twenty-six percent of cases had prior infection with C. trachomatis.” The Centers for Disease Control monitors chlamydia as part of the National Infertility Prevention Program and has noted a steady increase in cases of C. trachomatis.
(Reading: “Researchers Link Chlamydia to Cervical Cancer,” HEM/ONC Today, 4/00; “Chlamydia Prevalence Monitoring Project,” Centers for Disease Control, 1998)
healthcare
CHRISTUS MEDICUS: This foundation is “focused on the sanctity of life and health care research, policy analysis and public education.” Phone 248-594-8664; e-mail “>Mike O’Dea.
human embryo
FROZEN AT JOHNS HOPKINS: Parents of cryopreserved (frozen) embryonic babies recently received a letter from Johns Hopkins ART Laboratories, where their babies were being stored. The letter contained a “Frozen Embryo Disposition Agreement” and said, in part, “Please note that the ART program is undertaking new research studies to test for inherited diseases or abnormal chromosomes in cells from embryos. It is hoped that this research will soon lead to tests that could be used to select for unaffected embryos before implantation and reduce the need for pregnancy termination. Embryos from IVF procedures are needed to complete this study and one option on the Frozen Embryo Disposition Agreement is to donate your embryos for this specific purpose. Brief descriptions of the research projects are also included with this mailing. Test results from these procedures will not be available to patients.”
COMMENT: Are parents being cajoled into accepting the eugenic concept that the imperfect are better off dead, and the further concept that if an embryonic baby is unwanted by you, someone else should be able to kill him for the greater good?
(Reading: 9/30/00 letter from Johns Hopkins provided by R. Martin Palmer, Esq.)
motherhood
VALUE! Shannon McGinley writes, “Eledman Financial Services, Inc., recently compiled data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics and other sources to determine what a mother’s salary would be in today’s marketplace. If Mom received a paycheck for all her labor, the study concluded that she would be worth $508,700 a year. Show me the money!” Shannon is the mother of two little boys and a former American Life League field director.
(Reading: 5/24/00 letter to Judie Brown from Shannon McGinley)
newborn infants
CARING FOR SERIOUSLY ILL: South Carolina physician Richard Gross, who has been involved in counseling parents of severely ill newborns, particularly those suffering from spina bifida, says parents have told him that if they had been better informed, they “would never have agreed to the surgery.” And based on this experience, he writes, “In many cases, children with severe disabilities will require expensive medical and social support into adult life, perhaps after the death of their parents. Are we as a society willing to provide this support? It is also interesting to me that ethicists seldom consider the plight of such infants in developing countries, where financial considerations essentially mandate nontreatment of all such newborns.” And regarding physicians who pursue aggressive treatment of such newborns, he writes that they “bear a direct obligation for their lifelong care and nurture.”
(Reading: “Treatment Decisions for Seriously Ill Newborns,” Journal of the American Medical Association, 5/3/00, p. 2237)
pharmaceutical companies
DRUG TRIALS: A recent overview analyzing “academic-industry drug trials” suggests that they “have been tainted by the profit incentive,” quotes Dr. Curt Furburg. “Companies can play hardball, and many investigators can’t play hardball back. You send the paper to the company for comments, and that’s the danger. Can you handle the changes the company wants? Will you give in a little, a little more, then capitulate? It’s tricky for those who need money for more studies.” Furburg, the article notes, refused to put his name on a particular study because the sponsor was “attempting to wield undue influence on the nature of the final paper.”
(Reading: “Uneasy Alliance: Clinical Investigators and the Pharmaceutical Industry,” New England Journal of Medicine, 5/18/00, pp. 1539-1544; requires paid subscription)
pharmacists
CONSCIENCE CLAUSE: An updated Conscience Laws web site provides analyses of ethical decision making and recent legislative efforts to protect pharmacists.
politics
BUCHANAN: In a personal letter to Judie Brown, Patrick J. Buchanan affirms his commitment in these words: “When I am nominated by the Reform Party, I intend to attach to that party platform a declaration of my solemn commitment to life and the American family that will be more forthright and specific than anything the Republican Party will produce.”
(Reading: 5/9/00 letter to Judie Brown from Patrick J. Buchanan)
MORALITY: Reporting on the recent announcement of New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and his personal marital difficulties, a New York Times writer opines, “Americans … may simply be drawing the line between public and private behavior that the media no longer draws for them.”
(Reading: “Who’s Left (or Right) to Cast the First Stone?” New York Times, 5/14/00, p. 3)
PERSONHOOD: A term which refers to the inherent nature of a human being from the first moment of his/her existence (at conception, which takes place at fertilization, or fission, etc.) regardless of the process used, and regardless of the child’s ability to exercise particular physical, mental or spiritual activities at any particular time.
PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFULS AND PERSONHOOD:
- Patrick J. Buchanan: “Educate the American people to the scientific truth that life begins at conception.”
- George W. Bush: “Pro-life with exceptions for rape, incest and life of the mother.”
- Albert Gore: “As vice-president and a member of Congress, Al Gore has worked hard to protect a woman’s right to choose.”
- Howard Phillips: “I will work to prevent all abortions, with no exceptions.”
stem cell research
MICHAEL J. FOX: In announcing the formation of the new Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, Fox described the human embryonic child who is destroyed during the process of robbing him of his stem cells as “tissue and cells that are going to be thrown away.”
COMMENTARY by Dianne Irving, Ph.D.:Saying “this is tissue and cells that are going to be thrown away” is like what the Nazis said: “These prisoners are going to die anyway; we might as well get some good out of it.”
If the law recognizes complicity when the driver of a getaway car is also convicted of bank robbery, and if the law recognizes the complicity of a bank that launders drug money, then why is it such a stretch of the imagination to understand that the use of human embryonic stem cells in destructive research is complicity in the killing of an innocent human being? Or are we witnessing the legacy of NIH’s Varmus, who defines the early living human embryo as “just cells”?
(Reading: “Michael J. Fox Launches Parkinson’s Foundation,” Fox News, 5/23/00; Michael J. Fox Foundation, commentary from Gobbledygook #19 by Dianne Irving, Ph.D., 5/24/00)
reflection for prayer
O faithful soul, prepare thy heart for this thy Spouse, that He may vouchsafe to come to thee, and dwell in thee!
For so he saith: “If any man love me he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and we will make our abode with him” (John 14:23).
Make room then for Christ within thee and deny entrance to all others. When thou hast Christ thou art rich and He is sufficient for thee; He will provide for thee, and will be thy faithful procurator in all things, so that thou needst not trust to men.
For men quickly change and presently fail: but Christ remains forever, and stands by us firmly to the end.
-The Imitation of Christ (II:1:2)
CLINICIANS FOR CHOICE (CFC): The April 2000 CFC newsletter reports that “midlevel clinicians have same abortion complication rates as physicians.” The “midlevel” group includes nurse practitioners, midwives and physician assistants. CFC’s mailing address is the same as that of the National Abortion Federation, which is working to make “access to abortion” easier for women across the nation. See the NAF “Access Initiative.”
(Reading: “Clinicians for Choice,” 4/00)
CONTRACEPTIVE FAILURE: A recent anecdotal report in JAMA confirms the suspicion that women who are abortion-minded will rely on abortion if family planning fails. As the story of Ms. B relates, she had been using the pill since having an earlier abortion, had not taken it in two months and again became pregnant, then visited a clinic “to plan the [second] abortion.” The physician “discussed her options, but she said abortion was the only option she wanted. We also talked about future contraception choices, and she was interested in depot-medroxyprogestoerone acetate injection, as she does not feel she will be compliant enough with oral contraceptives. I also explained the option of emergency contraception if she has unprotected sexual intercourse again.”
(Reading: “A 26-Year-Old Woman Seeking an Abortion, One Year Later,” Journal of the American Medical Association, 5/24-31/00, p. 2700)
activism
SURVIVORS: A “new breed of advocates for life” is how The Survivors (young Americans who survived abortion) describe themselves. Visit them online.
assisted suicide
TREND: Researchers studying the question of who should be involved in the decision and execution of that decision when a patient decides it is time to die write, “Although physician involvement is necessary, we argue that it is not sufficient to ensure that patients requesting assisted suicide receive the best care. Assisted suicide requires physician involvement, but physicians’ limited competence in performing the full range of tasks, the competencies of other professions, and the possibility that other professions could expand their authority in this area suggest that physician-assisted suicide is a far too narrow construct of the task. The willingness of other professionals–including nurses, social workers and clergy–to participate and even take the lead in assisting suicides is critical to meet society’s interest that assisted suicide should be humane, effective and confined to appropriate cases.”
(Reading: “Should Assisted Suicide Be Only Physician Assisted?” Annals of Internal Medicine, 3/21/00, pp. 482-487; NOTE: current issues are not online)
chemical (medical) abortion
MISOPROSTOL: The following web pages give information about the chemical, modes of action, and uses of misoprostol (also known as Cytotec):
chlamydia
CERVICAL CANCER LINK: Researchers in Finland report “infection with Chlamydia trachomatis increases the risk of invasive cervical cancer.” Pentti Koskela, Ph.D., “identified 182 cases of cervical cancer from multinational data-bases. Twenty-six percent of cases had prior infection with C. trachomatis.” The Centers for Disease Control monitors chlamydia as part of the National Infertility Prevention Program and has noted a steady increase in cases of C. trachomatis.
(Reading: “Researchers Link Chlamydia to Cervical Cancer,” HEM/ONC Today, 4/00; “Chlamydia Prevalence Monitoring Project,” Centers for Disease Control, 1998)
healthcare
CHRISTUS MEDICUS: This foundation is “focused on the sanctity of life and health care research, policy analysis and public education.” Phone 248-594-8664; e-mail “>Mike O’Dea.
human embryo
FROZEN AT JOHNS HOPKINS: Parents of cryopreserved (frozen) embryonic babies recently received a letter from Johns Hopkins ART Laboratories, where their babies were being stored. The letter contained a “Frozen Embryo Disposition Agreement” and said, in part, “Please note that the ART program is undertaking new research studies to test for inherited diseases or abnormal chromosomes in cells from embryos. It is hoped that this research will soon lead to tests that could be used to select for unaffected embryos before implantation and reduce the need for pregnancy termination. Embryos from IVF procedures are needed to complete this study and one option on the Frozen Embryo Disposition Agreement is to donate your embryos for this specific purpose. Brief descriptions of the research projects are also included with this mailing. Test results from these procedures will not be available to patients.”
COMMENT: Are parents being cajoled into accepting the eugenic concept that the imperfect are better off dead, and the further concept that if an embryonic baby is unwanted by you, someone else should be able to kill him for the greater good?
(Reading: 9/30/00 letter from Johns Hopkins provided by R. Martin Palmer, Esq.)
motherhood
VALUE! Shannon McGinley writes, “Eledman Financial Services, Inc., recently compiled data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics and other sources to determine what a mother’s salary would be in today’s marketplace. If Mom received a paycheck for all her labor, the study concluded that she would be worth $508,700 a year. Show me the money!” Shannon is the mother of two little boys and a former American Life League field director.
(Reading: 5/24/00 letter to Judie Brown from Shannon McGinley)
newborn infants
CARING FOR SERIOUSLY ILL: South Carolina physician Richard Gross, who has been involved in counseling parents of severely ill newborns, particularly those suffering from spina bifida, says parents have told him that if they had been better informed, they “would never have agreed to the surgery.” And based on this experience, he writes, “In many cases, children with severe disabilities will require expensive medical and social support into adult life, perhaps after the death of their parents. Are we as a society willing to provide this support? It is also interesting to me that ethicists seldom consider the plight of such infants in developing countries, where financial considerations essentially mandate nontreatment of all such newborns.” And regarding physicians who pursue aggressive treatment of such newborns, he writes that they “bear a direct obligation for their lifelong care and nurture.”
(Reading: “Treatment Decisions for Seriously Ill Newborns,” Journal of the American Medical Association, 5/3/00, p. 2237)
pharmaceutical companies
DRUG TRIALS: A recent overview analyzing “academic-industry drug trials” suggests that they “have been tainted by the profit incentive,” quotes Dr. Curt Furburg. “Companies can play hardball, and many investigators can’t play hardball back. You send the paper to the company for comments, and that’s the danger. Can you handle the changes the company wants? Will you give in a little, a little more, then capitulate? It’s tricky for those who need money for more studies.” Furburg, the article notes, refused to put his name on a particular study because the sponsor was “attempting to wield undue influence on the nature of the final paper.”
(Reading: “Uneasy Alliance: Clinical Investigators and the Pharmaceutical Industry,” New England Journal of Medicine, 5/18/00, pp. 1539-1544; requires paid subscription)
pharmacists
CONSCIENCE CLAUSE: An updated Conscience Laws web site provides analyses of ethical decision making and recent legislative efforts to protect pharmacists.
politics
BUCHANAN: In a personal letter to Judie Brown, Patrick J. Buchanan affirms his commitment in these words: “When I am nominated by the Reform Party, I intend to attach to that party platform a declaration of my solemn commitment to life and the American family that will be more forthright and specific than anything the Republican Party will produce.”
(Reading: 5/9/00 letter to Judie Brown from Patrick J. Buchanan)
MORALITY: Reporting on the recent announcement of New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and his personal marital difficulties, a New York Times writer opines, “Americans … may simply be drawing the line between public and private behavior that the media no longer draws for them.”
(Reading: “Who’s Left (or Right) to Cast the First Stone?” New York Times, 5/14/00, p. 3)
PERSONHOOD: A term which refers to the inherent nature of a human being from the first moment of his/her existence (at conception, which takes place at fertilization, or fission, etc.) regardless of the process used, and regardless of the child’s ability to exercise particular physical, mental or spiritual activities at any particular time.
PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFULS AND PERSONHOOD:
- Patrick J. Buchanan: “Educate the American people to the scientific truth that life begins at conception.”
- George W. Bush: “Pro-life with exceptions for rape, incest and life of the mother.”
- Albert Gore: “As vice-president and a member of Congress, Al Gore has worked hard to protect a woman’s right to choose.”
- Howard Phillips: “I will work to prevent all abortions, with no exceptions.”
stem cell research
MICHAEL J. FOX: In announcing the formation of the new Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, Fox described the human embryonic child who is destroyed during the process of robbing him of his stem cells as “tissue and cells that are going to be thrown away.”
COMMENTARY by Dianne Irving, Ph.D.:
Saying “this is tissue and cells that are going to be thrown away” is like what the Nazis said: “These prisoners are going to die anyway; we might as well get some good out of it.”
If the law recognizes complicity when the driver of a getaway car is also convicted of bank robbery, and if the law recognizes the complicity of a bank that launders drug money, then why is it such a stretch of the imagination to understand that the use of human embryonic stem cells in destructive research is complicity in the killing of an innocent human being? Or are we witnessing the legacy of NIH’s Varmus, who defines the early living human embryo as “just cells”?
(Reading: “Michael J. Fox Launches Parkinson’s Foundation,” Fox News, 5/23/00; Michael J. Fox Foundation, commentary from Gobbledygook #19 by Dianne Irving, Ph.D., 5/24/00)
reflection for prayer
O faithful soul, prepare thy heart for this thy Spouse, that He may vouchsafe to come to thee, and dwell in thee!
For so he saith: “If any man love me he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and we will make our abode with him” (John 14:23).
Make room then for Christ within thee and deny entrance to all others. When thou hast Christ thou art rich and He is sufficient for thee; He will provide for thee, and will be thy faithful procurator in all things, so that thou needst not trust to men.
For men quickly change and presently fail: but Christ remains forever, and stands by us firmly to the end.
-The Imitation of Christ (II:1:2)