abortion
AFRICA: The Christian View site points out inconsistencies between the pro-abortion arguments presented on June 6, during the parliamentary hearings on the implementation of the “Choice of Termination of Pregnancy Act” and actual facts.
COMPLICATIONS: Researchers in Finland have found that “women who abort are approximately four times more likely to die in the following year than women who carry their pregnancies to term,” reports Post-Abortion Review editor David Reardon, Ph.D.
(Reading: “Abortion Nearly Four Times Deadlier than Childbirth,” Post-Abortion Review)
abortion pill
RU-486 and the FDA: Susan Allen, MD, has become permanent director of the FDA’s Reproductive and Urologic Drug Products Division. She “is presumably recused from the mifepristone review as a result of her prior experience with the product (CEO of Advanced Health Technologies, which is now Danco; the Population Council’s distributor for mifepristone).
(Reading: “RU-486 Action Date Is Sept. 30; Allen Named Reproductive Division Director,” The Pink Sheet, 6/12/00, p.14; For information on the extent of the Population Council’s role in promoting this and other “medical abortion” techniques, see Early Pregnancy Termination with Mifepristone and Misoprostol)
bioethics
FEDERAL ETHICS (!?): Canadian citizens have learned from the news media that their government funded “left-wing lobby so it can probe right-wing group.” Among those groups probed was American Life League, Inc.
COMMENT: Professor Dianne Irving opines, “What is happening in Canada is what has already been happening here in the United States since 1979. It’s called ‘federal ethics.’ 1979 was the year that bioethics was ‘born,’ according to federal and academic documents, and especially as documented in the book by one of bioethics’ founders, Albert Jonsen (“The Birth of Bioethics,” Oxford University Press, 1998). That was the year that the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research issued [its] Belmont Report, in which for the first time the three bioethics principles of autonomy, justice and beneficence were defined (mostly in utilitarian terms) by that 11-member commission. [The commission was formed] by congressional mandate of the National Research Act of 1974. Jonsen, one of those commissioners, stated in his book that the members of the commission and their staff ‘were of a liberal bent’! Yep, bioethics is federal ethics–a normative, non-neutral academic theory of ethics created by an 11-member federal commission appointed by the then-secretary of DHEW by mandate of the U. S. Congress, [a theory] which has been shoved down the throats of our citizens for 30 years now.”
(Reading: “Believe It or Not: Feds Fund Left-wing Lobby so It Can Probe Right-wing Group,” Calgary Herald, 6/17/00; also see a comprehensive comparison between true natural law ethics and fake bioethics, “Which medical ethics for the 21st century?“)
euthanasia
CANADA: Robert Latimer, who was sentenced for taking the life of his daughter Tracy, appeared in the Canadian Supreme Court with his attorneys to argue that he should not serve the sentence imposed on him. His daughter suffered from cerebral palsy and was retarded; Latimer argued that he did it to “end her suffering.” He is asking for a constitutional exemption that would have him serve two years of a life sentence–one year on his ranch–as originally imposed by the 1998 jury that convicted him, rather than the mandatory minimum ten years that was later imposed.
(Reading: “Latimer’s Attorney and Disability Rights Advocates Address High Court,” Inclusion Daily Express, 6/14/00)
PAIN I: “The reason physicians do such a poor job in managing pain has nothing to do with drug laws or with any other legislation passed by the federal or state governments. The real culprit is the lack of sufficient education about this subject in medical schools and postgraduate training programs,” comments Steven A. King, MD, MS.
PAIN II: In the same segment of JAMA, Joanne Lynn, M.D., writes, “In the wake of two U.S. Supreme Court decisions on the matter, physicians can and should provide their patients with all the pain medication they need to stay comfortable. If this ultimately requires a dose that may accelerate death, that dose would be legally condoned, provided that the physician intended to alleviate pain and suffering, not to kill the patient. Physicians also may prescribe potentially lethal drugs, risking the patient’s suicide by overdose, so long as the medication is appropriate treatment and the physician did not intend its use in suicide. This was legal in Oregon prior to the physician-assisted suicide law, and will remain legal in Oregon and everywhere else in the United States, even with the PRPA (Pain Relief Promotion Act).”
(Reading: Letters: “Legislation and End-of-life Care,” Journal of the American Medical Association [JAMA], 6/14/00, pp. 2933-2935)
female condom
MICROBICIDE: Described as the “invisible condom,” Canadian scientists have undertaken initial trials on a microbicide gel for women that allegedly creates a “physical barrier to HIV and other sexually transmitted pathogens and then kills them.”
(Reading: “New Female ‘Condom’ to Be Trialled,” British Medical Journal, 2000:320:1626)
health care
DIAGNOSTIC ERROR: Editorial comment in The Lancet points out that the U. S. Department of Veterans Affairs recently reported that in Virginia, “investigators documented 3,000 mistakes and 700 deaths from medical errors over 19 months up to December, 1998.”
(Reading: “When Primum Non Nocere Fails,” The Lancet, 6/10/00, p. 2007; “Diagnostic Errors in Three Medical Eras: A Necropsy Study,” The Lancet, 6/10/00, pp. 2027-2031)
politics
BUCHANAN: Pointing out that “I am and remain proudly pro-life,” Patrick J. Buchanan accepted the resignation of Dr. Lenora Fulani as co-chair of Buchanan Reform 2000 on June 20.
(Reading: Letters from Fulani to Buchanan and from Buchanan to Fulani, Buchanan web site)
polls
CONFLICTED ETHICS? A Los Angeles Times poll shows that while Americans have developed a “more nuanced view” of abortion, two-thirds say that, “regardless of their own feelings on the subject, the highly personal decision to obtain an abortion should be left to a woman and her doctor.” 2,071 Americans were surveyed from June 8 through June 13.
COMMENT: Personal codes of morality were referred to in the article as part of the reason for discrepancies among those who favor a right to choose and claim to be opposed to abortion. Whatever happened to the natural law? Whatever happened to the crime of murder? PERSONHOOD has not happened.
(Reading: “Americans Narrowing Support for Abortion,” L.A. Times, 6/18/00)
stem cell research
GERMANY TO IMPORT U.S. EMBRYONIC STEM CELLS: German scientists will be importing human embryo stem cells from the United States. While it is illegal in Germany to intentionally destroy embryonic babies in order to acquire stem cells, importing the stem cells is not illegal. “Despite a vocal U.S. lobby defending the rights of unborn babies, U.S. researchers are free to use ‘left over’ embryos from in vitro fertilization (IVF) programs. Germany’s embryo protection law says all created embryos should be implanted,” reports Reuters.
(Reading: “German Scientists Plan to Import U.S. Embryo Cells,” Reuters, 6/20/00; for detailed arguments and expository articles on stem cell research, go to American Life League and search the topic.
reflection for prayer
Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things which you created. You were with me, but I was not with you. Created things kept me from you; yet if they had not been in you they would not have been at all. You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness. You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you; now I hunger and thirst for more. You touched me, and I burned for your peace.
-Saint Augustine, quote in Liturgy of the Hours, Vol. 3, page 273
AFRICA: The Christian View site points out inconsistencies between the pro-abortion arguments presented on June 6, during the parliamentary hearings on the implementation of the “Choice of Termination of Pregnancy Act” and actual facts.
COMPLICATIONS: Researchers in Finland have found that “women who abort are approximately four times more likely to die in the following year than women who carry their pregnancies to term,” reports Post-Abortion Review editor David Reardon, Ph.D.
(Reading: “Abortion Nearly Four Times Deadlier than Childbirth,” Post-Abortion Review)
abortion pill
RU-486 and the FDA: Susan Allen, MD, has become permanent director of the FDA’s Reproductive and Urologic Drug Products Division. She “is presumably recused from the mifepristone review as a result of her prior experience with the product (CEO of Advanced Health Technologies, which is now Danco; the Population Council’s distributor for mifepristone).
(Reading: “RU-486 Action Date Is Sept. 30; Allen Named Reproductive Division Director,” The Pink Sheet, 6/12/00, p.14; For information on the extent of the Population Council’s role in promoting this and other “medical abortion” techniques, see Early Pregnancy Termination with Mifepristone and Misoprostol)
bioethics
FEDERAL ETHICS (!?): Canadian citizens have learned from the news media that their government funded “left-wing lobby so it can probe right-wing group.” Among those groups probed was American Life League, Inc.
COMMENT: Professor Dianne Irving opines, “What is happening in Canada is what has already been happening here in the United States since 1979. It’s called ‘federal ethics.’ 1979 was the year that bioethics was ‘born,’ according to federal and academic documents, and especially as documented in the book by one of bioethics’ founders, Albert Jonsen (“The Birth of Bioethics,” Oxford University Press, 1998). That was the year that the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research issued [its] Belmont Report, in which for the first time the three bioethics principles of autonomy, justice and beneficence were defined (mostly in utilitarian terms) by that 11-member commission. [The commission was formed] by congressional mandate of the National Research Act of 1974. Jonsen, one of those commissioners, stated in his book that the members of the commission and their staff ‘were of a liberal bent’! Yep, bioethics is federal ethics–a normative, non-neutral academic theory of ethics created by an 11-member federal commission appointed by the then-secretary of DHEW by mandate of the U. S. Congress, [a theory] which has been shoved down the throats of our citizens for 30 years now.”
(Reading: “Believe It or Not: Feds Fund Left-wing Lobby so It Can Probe Right-wing Group,” Calgary Herald, 6/17/00; also see a comprehensive comparison between true natural law ethics and fake bioethics, “Which medical ethics for the 21st century?“)
euthanasia
CANADA: Robert Latimer, who was sentenced for taking the life of his daughter Tracy, appeared in the Canadian Supreme Court with his attorneys to argue that he should not serve the sentence imposed on him. His daughter suffered from cerebral palsy and was retarded; Latimer argued that he did it to “end her suffering.” He is asking for a constitutional exemption that would have him serve two years of a life sentence–one year on his ranch–as originally imposed by the 1998 jury that convicted him, rather than the mandatory minimum ten years that was later imposed.
(Reading: “Latimer’s Attorney and Disability Rights Advocates Address High Court,” Inclusion Daily Express, 6/14/00)
PAIN I: “The reason physicians do such a poor job in managing pain has nothing to do with drug laws or with any other legislation passed by the federal or state governments. The real culprit is the lack of sufficient education about this subject in medical schools and postgraduate training programs,” comments Steven A. King, MD, MS.
PAIN II: In the same segment of JAMA, Joanne Lynn, M.D., writes, “In the wake of two U.S. Supreme Court decisions on the matter, physicians can and should provide their patients with all the pain medication they need to stay comfortable. If this ultimately requires a dose that may accelerate death, that dose would be legally condoned, provided that the physician intended to alleviate pain and suffering, not to kill the patient. Physicians also may prescribe potentially lethal drugs, risking the patient’s suicide by overdose, so long as the medication is appropriate treatment and the physician did not intend its use in suicide. This was legal in Oregon prior to the physician-assisted suicide law, and will remain legal in Oregon and everywhere else in the United States, even with the PRPA (Pain Relief Promotion Act).”
(Reading: Letters: “Legislation and End-of-life Care,” Journal of the American Medical Association [JAMA], 6/14/00, pp. 2933-2935)
female condom
MICROBICIDE: Described as the “invisible condom,” Canadian scientists have undertaken initial trials on a microbicide gel for women that allegedly creates a “physical barrier to HIV and other sexually transmitted pathogens and then kills them.”
(Reading: “New Female ‘Condom’ to Be Trialled,” British Medical Journal, 2000:320:1626)
health care
DIAGNOSTIC ERROR: Editorial comment in The Lancet points out that the U. S. Department of Veterans Affairs recently reported that in Virginia, “investigators documented 3,000 mistakes and 700 deaths from medical errors over 19 months up to December, 1998.”
(Reading: “When Primum Non Nocere Fails,” The Lancet, 6/10/00, p. 2007; “Diagnostic Errors in Three Medical Eras: A Necropsy Study,” The Lancet, 6/10/00, pp. 2027-2031)
politics
BUCHANAN: Pointing out that “I am and remain proudly pro-life,” Patrick J. Buchanan accepted the resignation of Dr. Lenora Fulani as co-chair of Buchanan Reform 2000 on June 20.
(Reading: Letters from Fulani to Buchanan and from Buchanan to Fulani, Buchanan web site)
polls
CONFLICTED ETHICS? A Los Angeles Times poll shows that while Americans have developed a “more nuanced view” of abortion, two-thirds say that, “regardless of their own feelings on the subject, the highly personal decision to obtain an abortion should be left to a woman and her doctor.” 2,071 Americans were surveyed from June 8 through June 13.
COMMENT: Personal codes of morality were referred to in the article as part of the reason for discrepancies among those who favor a right to choose and claim to be opposed to abortion. Whatever happened to the natural law? Whatever happened to the crime of murder? PERSONHOOD has not happened.
(Reading: “Americans Narrowing Support for Abortion,” L.A. Times, 6/18/00)
stem cell research
GERMANY TO IMPORT U.S. EMBRYONIC STEM CELLS: German scientists will be importing human embryo stem cells from the United States. While it is illegal in Germany to intentionally destroy embryonic babies in order to acquire stem cells, importing the stem cells is not illegal. “Despite a vocal U.S. lobby defending the rights of unborn babies, U.S. researchers are free to use ‘left over’ embryos from in vitro fertilization (IVF) programs. Germany’s embryo protection law says all created embryos should be implanted,” reports Reuters.
(Reading: “German Scientists Plan to Import U.S. Embryo Cells,” Reuters, 6/20/00; for detailed arguments and expository articles on stem cell research, go to American Life League and search the topic.
reflection for prayer
Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things which you created. You were with me, but I was not with you. Created things kept me from you; yet if they had not been in you they would not have been at all. You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness. You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you; now I hunger and thirst for more. You touched me, and I burned for your peace.
-Saint Augustine, quote in Liturgy of the Hours, Vol. 3, page 273