abortion
NARAL: The National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League announced a new television ad campaign focused on reinforcing the theme “Choice for America’ [meaning abortion is part of America’s heritage] because “What’s Life Without Choice?” The purpose, according to one news report, is to help moderate pro-choicers come out of the closet. Ads are reported to be testing well.
The National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League announced a new television ad campaign focused on reinforcing the theme “Choice for America’ [meaning abortion is part of America’s heritage] because “What’s Life Without Choice?” The purpose, according to one news report, is to help moderate pro-choicers come out of the closet. Ads are reported to be testing well.
(Reading: “The New Look for Pro-Choice,” New Woman, 6/99)
activism
WISCONSIN: Police in Brookfield arrested Rev. George Wilson May 17 for videotaping activity outside an abortion mill. “It is . . . troublesome,” said Pro-Life Wisconsin State Director Mary Matuska, “that some in the pro-life community are unwilling to step forward and defend Reverend Wilson without apology.”
WISCONSIN: Police in Brookfield arrested Rev. George Wilson May 17 for videotaping activity outside an abortion mill. “It is . . . troublesome,” said Pro-Life Wisconsin State Director Mary Matuska, “that some in the pro-life community are unwilling to step forward and defend Reverend Wilson without apology.”
WISCONSIN: Police in Brookfield arrested Rev. George Wilson May 17 for videotaping activity outside an abortion mill. “It is . . . troublesome,” said Pro-Life Wisconsin State Director Mary Matuska, “that some in the pro-life community are unwilling to step forward and defend Reverend Wilson without apology.”
(Reading: “First Amendment Rights Trampled by Milwaukee Police,” Pro-Life Wisconsin news release)
(Contact: Jon Paul, Pro-Life Wisconsin, 414-796-1111.)
human embryo
CONFUSION? Lori Andrews, feminist attorney and frequent writer on “bioethics” recently wrote that she had problems with “implying that embryos were people. Income tax laws, for example, would be turned topsy-turvy; if a couple had 14 embryos frozen, they would be entitled to 14 exemptions. And more important, treating embryos as people would turn abortion (and even unsuccessful IVF) into homicide.”
CONFUSION? Lori Andrews, feminist attorney and frequent writer on “bioethics” recently wrote that she had problems with “implying that embryos were people. Income tax laws, for example, would be turned topsy-turvy; if a couple had 14 embryos frozen, they would be entitled to 14 exemptions. And more important, treating embryos as people would turn abortion (and even unsuccessful IVF) into homicide.”
CONFUSION? Lori Andrews, feminist attorney and frequent writer on “bioethics” recently wrote that she had problems with “implying that embryos were people. Income tax laws, for example, would be turned topsy-turvy; if a couple had 14 embryos frozen, they would be entitled to 14 exemptions. And more important, treating embryos as people would turn abortion (and even unsuccessful IVF) into homicide.”
COMMENT: Indeed! But the fact is that no one need imply that human embryos are people, they are! Many in the bioethics field, as well as medicine, science and politics, have implied otherwise to impose their self-centered preferences.
(Reading: “Embryonic Confusion,” The Washington Post, 5/2/99)
in vitro fertilization
ITALY: Critiquing a new Italian law that allows artificial practices of fertilizing and implanting embryonic babies [human embryos], ethicist Father Gino Concetti pointed out that such acts are immoral. He did note, however, that there might be rare occasions when such implantation is justifiable-as, for example, when a married couple “adopts” a frozen embryo to save it from destruction. “The exception should not become the rule,” he wrote.
ITALY: Critiquing a new Italian law that allows artificial practices of fertilizing and implanting embryonic babies [human embryos], ethicist Father Gino Concetti pointed out that such acts are immoral. He did note, however, that there might be rare occasions when such implantation is justifiable-as, for example, when a married couple “adopts” a frozen embryo to save it from destruction. “The exception should not become the rule,” he wrote.
ITALY: Critiquing a new Italian law that allows artificial practices of fertilizing and implanting embryonic babies [human embryos], ethicist Father Gino Concetti pointed out that such acts are immoral. He did note, however, that there might be rare occasions when such implantation is justifiable-as, for example, when a married couple “adopts” a frozen embryo to save it from destruction. “The exception should not become the rule,” he wrote.
(Reading: “Vatican Critiques Italian Law on Reproduction,” Catholic World News, 5/27/99)
SUCCESS RATE: “More than 64,000 cycles of assisted reproductive technology were attempted at 300 fertility centers in the United States during 1996, and 20,659 resulted in babies. That’s a 32 percent success rate,” reports the Chicago Tribune.
COMMENT: The word “baby” is not applied to those embryonic babies who were destroyed, frozen or used for research and experimentation!
(Reading: “When Do You Stop Trying?” Chicago Tribune, 5/5/99, pp. 1, 2, 8, Section 8)
pharmaceutical companies
AMERICAN HOME PRODUCTS: Wall Street analysts were overly optimistic when they projected earnings of 41 cents per share for American Home Products stock. According to a recent corporate announcement, the value will rise to only 34 cents. The corporation blames weak sales of products for protecting crops and livestock. However the firm is also involved in thousands of lawsuits over its recalled diet drugs and Norplant, the birth control device.
AMERICAN HOME PRODUCTS: Wall Street analysts were overly optimistic when they projected earnings of 41 cents per share for American Home Products stock. According to a recent corporate announcement, the value will rise to only 34 cents. The corporation blames weak sales of products for protecting crops and livestock. However the firm is also involved in thousands of lawsuits over its recalled diet drugs and Norplant, the birth control device.
AMERICAN HOME PRODUCTS: Wall Street analysts were overly optimistic when they projected earnings of 41 cents per share for American Home Products stock. According to a recent corporate announcement, the value will rise to only 34 cents. The corporation blames weak sales of products for protecting crops and livestock. However the firm is also involved in thousands of lawsuits over its recalled diet drugs and Norplant, the birth control device.
(Reading: “Pharmaceutical Maker Issues Warning,” Associated Press, 6/1/99; research data on the chemical Norplant can be obtained from American Life League)
violence
NEW YORK: A 19-year-old mother was convicted of starving her two-month-old son to death. She had not provided adequate breast milk to the baby, and according to her defense attorney, did not know that her surgically-reduced breasts were not producing enough milk to nourish her son.
NEW YORK: A 19-year-old mother was convicted of starving her two-month-old son to death. She had not provided adequate breast milk to the baby, and according to her defense attorney, did not know that her surgically-reduced breasts were not producing enough milk to nourish her son.
NEW YORK: A 19-year-old mother was convicted of starving her two-month-old son to death. She had not provided adequate breast milk to the baby, and according to her defense attorney, did not know that her surgically-reduced breasts were not producing enough milk to nourish her son.
(Reading: “Bronx Woman Convicted of Starving Her Breast-Fed Son,” New York Times, 5/20/99)
youth on the road
WEEKLY UPDATE: For the latest news from Rock for Life leaders Erik and Tina Whittington, who are on the road all summer spreading the pro-life word, contact Rock for Life. For regular updates on Crossroads, the university students who are walking across America for life, contact Crossroads, Inc.
WEEKLY UPDATE: For the latest news from Rock for Life leaders Erik and Tina Whittington, who are on the road all summer spreading the pro-life word, contact Rock for Life. For regular updates on Crossroads, the university students who are walking across America for life, contact Crossroads, Inc.
WEEKLY UPDATE: For the latest news from Rock for Life leaders Erik and Tina Whittington, who are on the road all summer spreading the pro-life word, contact Rock for Life. For regular updates on Crossroads, the university students who are walking across America for life, contact Crossroads, Inc.
zinger
OVERPOPULATION EXPLAINED: Steven Mumford is a long-time population control zealot and promoter of the sterilization pellet Quinacrine. In fact, he maintains supplies of the pellets in his basement. He told Associated Press that during his Army days, flying over South Korea, “you could see this migration below: household belongings in oxen carts and old pickup trucks. That’s when I recognized that overpopulation was truly a serious problem that threatened the security of all countries.”
OVERPOPULATION EXPLAINED: Steven Mumford is a long-time population control zealot and promoter of the sterilization pellet Quinacrine. In fact, he maintains supplies of the pellets in his basement. He told Associated Press that during his Army days, flying over South Korea, “you could see this migration below: household belongings in oxen carts and old pickup trucks. That’s when I recognized that overpopulation was truly a serious problem that threatened the security of all countries.”
OVERPOPULATION EXPLAINED: Steven Mumford is a long-time population control zealot and promoter of the sterilization pellet Quinacrine. In fact, he maintains supplies of the pellets in his basement. He told Associated Press that during his Army days, flying over South Korea, “you could see this migration below: household belongings in oxen carts and old pickup trucks. That’s when I recognized that overpopulation was truly a serious problem that threatened the security of all countries.”
COMMENT: And we thought that the oppressed and the hungry were being driven to seek a means of feeding their loved ones. Little did we know that if they had stopped reproducing their own kind, national security would have been totally protected!
(Reading: “Chemical Sterilization,” Associated Press, 5/31/99)
COMMUNIQUE SPECIAL FEATURE: Are medical outcomes based on feelings or principles?
In those days there was no king in Israel, and every man did as he pleased.
-Judges 17:6
Miss Manners and Jack Kevorkian in a tuxedo have replaced Hippocrates as traditional medical ethics have been replaced by modern medical etiquette. Under the new system, a doctor’s major ethical concerns are with procedural niceties. These center around questions of who has been given the legal authority to make decisions, including those that are intended to end the life of a handicapped patient.
Hippocrates would never have asked such a question, and would never have honored such a request, even if the patient made it (“I will give no deadly medicine to anyone if asked.”-Hippocratic Oath). Interestingly, Hippocrates, even in his era, did not think to put prohibition against starving and dehydrating patients to death in his famous and now disregarded oath. Why? Because food and water are ordinary care, they are not medicine, at least they didn’t used to be. The ancient Greeks knew that; modern doctors don’t.
The major arena where this medical manners controversy is taking place in America today is with the legalization of living wills or advance medical directives that authorize the removal of “artificially administered food and nutrition.” (Only those born with silver spoons in their mouths have never received artificially administered food and nutrition.) In fact, such living will statutes are convenient ways around the laws banning assisted suicide in 49 of our states that punish the act.
-Commentary by Robert G. Marshall
Member, House of Delegates
Commonwealth of Virginia
When food and water and ventilators become threats to the pro-death forces, rather than basic, humane provisions, trouble will arise. Pro-death fanatics argue that nothing should get in the way of a human being’s right to die. An example of how their “good manners” works follows:
ORLANDO, FLORIDA: Shirley Egan, age 68, shot her 42-year-old daughter Georgette Smith. The gunshot entered Smith’s spine causing nearly total paralysis (quadriplegia). Smith asked to be removed from a ventilator. A judge ruled that she had a right to end her life. The ventilator was remove and she died. Egan, who is herself in failing health, was not charged with a crime because, according to state attorney Lawson Lamar, Egan’s failing health made pursuing a murder charge “inappropriate.”
One woman is dead and the exercise of her autonomy is the only thing that mattered in the end.
A USA Today editorial writer opined:
“If prosecutors bring murder charges in this case, they turn that principle [the right to die] on its head. Such a theory of murder is like arguing that the person who exercises the wishes of another person’s living will might be responsible if the patient could have been kept alive. It stands in contrast to the decisions made by millions of conscientious Americans who authorize doctors and relatives to provide them with a dignified death.
“Prosecutors have no obligation to promote social policy, but they have enormous discretion. And in this case, it’s worth exercising. Even attempted murder could get the mother a life sentence. So why tamper with the right to die principle? The daughter died of her own volition, a choice that deserves the respect of both the law and its defenders.”
(Reading: “Quadriplegic Can End Her Life; Mother Faces Murder Charge,” Chicago Tribune, 5/19/99; “Woman Avoids Murder Charge Over Daughter,” The New York Times, 5/26/99; “Florida Murder Charge Could Violate Right-to-Die Principle,” USA Today, 5/23/99)
reflect
Its only art is to call back the souls of the dead from the very journey into death, to give strength to the weak, to heal the sick, to exorcise the possessed, to open prison cells, to free the innocent from their chains. Prayer cleanses from sin, drives away temptations, stamps out persecutions, comforts the fainthearted, gives new strength to the courageous, brings travelers safely home, calms the waves, confounds robbers, feeds the poor, overrules the rich, lifts up the fallen, supports those who are falling, sustains those who stand firm.
-Treatise on Prayer, Tertullian, AD 155
pray
Lord, I ask that my prayers may assist those most in need of your love. Amen.
NARAL: The National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League announced a new television ad campaign focused on reinforcing the theme “Choice for America’ [meaning abortion is part of America’s heritage] because “What’s Life Without Choice?” The purpose, according to one news report, is to help moderate pro-choicers come out of the closet. Ads are reported to be testing well.
The National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League announced a new television ad campaign focused on reinforcing the theme “Choice for America’ [meaning abortion is part of America’s heritage] because “What’s Life Without Choice?” The purpose, according to one news report, is to help moderate pro-choicers come out of the closet. Ads are reported to be testing well.
(Reading: “The New Look for Pro-Choice,” New Woman, 6/99)
activism
WISCONSIN: Police in Brookfield arrested Rev. George Wilson May 17 for videotaping activity outside an abortion mill. “It is . . . troublesome,” said Pro-Life Wisconsin State Director Mary Matuska, “that some in the pro-life community are unwilling to step forward and defend Reverend Wilson without apology.”
WISCONSIN: Police in Brookfield arrested Rev. George Wilson May 17 for videotaping activity outside an abortion mill. “It is . . . troublesome,” said Pro-Life Wisconsin State Director Mary Matuska, “that some in the pro-life community are unwilling to step forward and defend Reverend Wilson without apology.”
WISCONSIN: Police in Brookfield arrested Rev. George Wilson May 17 for videotaping activity outside an abortion mill. “It is . . . troublesome,” said Pro-Life Wisconsin State Director Mary Matuska, “that some in the pro-life community are unwilling to step forward and defend Reverend Wilson without apology.”
(Reading: “First Amendment Rights Trampled by Milwaukee Police,” Pro-Life Wisconsin news release)
(Contact: Jon Paul, Pro-Life Wisconsin, 414-796-1111.)
human embryo
CONFUSION? Lori Andrews, feminist attorney and frequent writer on “bioethics” recently wrote that she had problems with “implying that embryos were people. Income tax laws, for example, would be turned topsy-turvy; if a couple had 14 embryos frozen, they would be entitled to 14 exemptions. And more important, treating embryos as people would turn abortion (and even unsuccessful IVF) into homicide.”
CONFUSION? Lori Andrews, feminist attorney and frequent writer on “bioethics” recently wrote that she had problems with “implying that embryos were people. Income tax laws, for example, would be turned topsy-turvy; if a couple had 14 embryos frozen, they would be entitled to 14 exemptions. And more important, treating embryos as people would turn abortion (and even unsuccessful IVF) into homicide.”
CONFUSION? Lori Andrews, feminist attorney and frequent writer on “bioethics” recently wrote that she had problems with “implying that embryos were people. Income tax laws, for example, would be turned topsy-turvy; if a couple had 14 embryos frozen, they would be entitled to 14 exemptions. And more important, treating embryos as people would turn abortion (and even unsuccessful IVF) into homicide.”
COMMENT: Indeed! But the fact is that no one need imply that human embryos are people, they are! Many in the bioethics field, as well as medicine, science and politics, have implied otherwise to impose their self-centered preferences.
(Reading: “Embryonic Confusion,” The Washington Post, 5/2/99)
in vitro fertilization
ITALY: Critiquing a new Italian law that allows artificial practices of fertilizing and implanting embryonic babies [human embryos], ethicist Father Gino Concetti pointed out that such acts are immoral. He did note, however, that there might be rare occasions when such implantation is justifiable-as, for example, when a married couple “adopts” a frozen embryo to save it from destruction. “The exception should not become the rule,” he wrote.
ITALY: Critiquing a new Italian law that allows artificial practices of fertilizing and implanting embryonic babies [human embryos], ethicist Father Gino Concetti pointed out that such acts are immoral. He did note, however, that there might be rare occasions when such implantation is justifiable-as, for example, when a married couple “adopts” a frozen embryo to save it from destruction. “The exception should not become the rule,” he wrote.
ITALY: Critiquing a new Italian law that allows artificial practices of fertilizing and implanting embryonic babies [human embryos], ethicist Father Gino Concetti pointed out that such acts are immoral. He did note, however, that there might be rare occasions when such implantation is justifiable-as, for example, when a married couple “adopts” a frozen embryo to save it from destruction. “The exception should not become the rule,” he wrote.
(Reading: “Vatican Critiques Italian Law on Reproduction,” Catholic World News, 5/27/99)
SUCCESS RATE: “More than 64,000 cycles of assisted reproductive technology were attempted at 300 fertility centers in the United States during 1996, and 20,659 resulted in babies. That’s a 32 percent success rate,” reports the Chicago Tribune.
COMMENT: The word “baby” is not applied to those embryonic babies who were destroyed, frozen or used for research and experimentation!
(Reading: “When Do You Stop Trying?” Chicago Tribune, 5/5/99, pp. 1, 2, 8, Section 8)
pharmaceutical companies
AMERICAN HOME PRODUCTS: Wall Street analysts were overly optimistic when they projected earnings of 41 cents per share for American Home Products stock. According to a recent corporate announcement, the value will rise to only 34 cents. The corporation blames weak sales of products for protecting crops and livestock. However the firm is also involved in thousands of lawsuits over its recalled diet drugs and Norplant, the birth control device.
AMERICAN HOME PRODUCTS: Wall Street analysts were overly optimistic when they projected earnings of 41 cents per share for American Home Products stock. According to a recent corporate announcement, the value will rise to only 34 cents. The corporation blames weak sales of products for protecting crops and livestock. However the firm is also involved in thousands of lawsuits over its recalled diet drugs and Norplant, the birth control device.
AMERICAN HOME PRODUCTS: Wall Street analysts were overly optimistic when they projected earnings of 41 cents per share for American Home Products stock. According to a recent corporate announcement, the value will rise to only 34 cents. The corporation blames weak sales of products for protecting crops and livestock. However the firm is also involved in thousands of lawsuits over its recalled diet drugs and Norplant, the birth control device.
(Reading: “Pharmaceutical Maker Issues Warning,” Associated Press, 6/1/99; research data on the chemical Norplant can be obtained from American Life League)
violence
NEW YORK: A 19-year-old mother was convicted of starving her two-month-old son to death. She had not provided adequate breast milk to the baby, and according to her defense attorney, did not know that her surgically-reduced breasts were not producing enough milk to nourish her son.
NEW YORK: A 19-year-old mother was convicted of starving her two-month-old son to death. She had not provided adequate breast milk to the baby, and according to her defense attorney, did not know that her surgically-reduced breasts were not producing enough milk to nourish her son.
NEW YORK: A 19-year-old mother was convicted of starving her two-month-old son to death. She had not provided adequate breast milk to the baby, and according to her defense attorney, did not know that her surgically-reduced breasts were not producing enough milk to nourish her son.
(Reading: “Bronx Woman Convicted of Starving Her Breast-Fed Son,” New York Times, 5/20/99)
youth on the road
WEEKLY UPDATE: For the latest news from Rock for Life leaders Erik and Tina Whittington, who are on the road all summer spreading the pro-life word, contact Rock for Life. For regular updates on Crossroads, the university students who are walking across America for life, contact Crossroads, Inc.
WEEKLY UPDATE: For the latest news from Rock for Life leaders Erik and Tina Whittington, who are on the road all summer spreading the pro-life word, contact Rock for Life. For regular updates on Crossroads, the university students who are walking across America for life, contact Crossroads, Inc.
WEEKLY UPDATE: For the latest news from Rock for Life leaders Erik and Tina Whittington, who are on the road all summer spreading the pro-life word, contact Rock for Life. For regular updates on Crossroads, the university students who are walking across America for life, contact Crossroads, Inc.
zinger
OVERPOPULATION EXPLAINED: Steven Mumford is a long-time population control zealot and promoter of the sterilization pellet Quinacrine. In fact, he maintains supplies of the pellets in his basement. He told Associated Press that during his Army days, flying over South Korea, “you could see this migration below: household belongings in oxen carts and old pickup trucks. That’s when I recognized that overpopulation was truly a serious problem that threatened the security of all countries.”
OVERPOPULATION EXPLAINED: Steven Mumford is a long-time population control zealot and promoter of the sterilization pellet Quinacrine. In fact, he maintains supplies of the pellets in his basement. He told Associated Press that during his Army days, flying over South Korea, “you could see this migration below: household belongings in oxen carts and old pickup trucks. That’s when I recognized that overpopulation was truly a serious problem that threatened the security of all countries.”
OVERPOPULATION EXPLAINED: Steven Mumford is a long-time population control zealot and promoter of the sterilization pellet Quinacrine. In fact, he maintains supplies of the pellets in his basement. He told Associated Press that during his Army days, flying over South Korea, “you could see this migration below: household belongings in oxen carts and old pickup trucks. That’s when I recognized that overpopulation was truly a serious problem that threatened the security of all countries.”
COMMENT: And we thought that the oppressed and the hungry were being driven to seek a means of feeding their loved ones. Little did we know that if they had stopped reproducing their own kind, national security would have been totally protected!
(Reading: “Chemical Sterilization,” Associated Press, 5/31/99)
COMMUNIQUE SPECIAL FEATURE: Are medical outcomes based on feelings or principles?
In those days there was no king in Israel, and every man did as he pleased.
-Judges 17:6
Miss Manners and Jack Kevorkian in a tuxedo have replaced Hippocrates as traditional medical ethics have been replaced by modern medical etiquette. Under the new system, a doctor’s major ethical concerns are with procedural niceties. These center around questions of who has been given the legal authority to make decisions, including those that are intended to end the life of a handicapped patient.
Hippocrates would never have asked such a question, and would never have honored such a request, even if the patient made it (“I will give no deadly medicine to anyone if asked.”-Hippocratic Oath). Interestingly, Hippocrates, even in his era, did not think to put prohibition against starving and dehydrating patients to death in his famous and now disregarded oath. Why? Because food and water are ordinary care, they are not medicine, at least they didn’t used to be. The ancient Greeks knew that; modern doctors don’t.
The major arena where this medical manners controversy is taking place in America today is with the legalization of living wills or advance medical directives that authorize the removal of “artificially administered food and nutrition.” (Only those born with silver spoons in their mouths have never received artificially administered food and nutrition.) In fact, such living will statutes are convenient ways around the laws banning assisted suicide in 49 of our states that punish the act.
-Commentary by Robert G. Marshall
Member, House of Delegates
Commonwealth of Virginia
When food and water and ventilators become threats to the pro-death forces, rather than basic, humane provisions, trouble will arise. Pro-death fanatics argue that nothing should get in the way of a human being’s right to die. An example of how their “good manners” works follows:
ORLANDO, FLORIDA: Shirley Egan, age 68, shot her 42-year-old daughter Georgette Smith. The gunshot entered Smith’s spine causing nearly total paralysis (quadriplegia). Smith asked to be removed from a ventilator. A judge ruled that she had a right to end her life. The ventilator was remove and she died. Egan, who is herself in failing health, was not charged with a crime because, according to state attorney Lawson Lamar, Egan’s failing health made pursuing a murder charge “inappropriate.”
One woman is dead and the exercise of her autonomy is the only thing that mattered in the end.
A USA Today editorial writer opined:
“If prosecutors bring murder charges in this case, they turn that principle [the right to die] on its head. Such a theory of murder is like arguing that the person who exercises the wishes of another person’s living will might be responsible if the patient could have been kept alive. It stands in contrast to the decisions made by millions of conscientious Americans who authorize doctors and relatives to provide them with a dignified death.
“Prosecutors have no obligation to promote social policy, but they have enormous discretion. And in this case, it’s worth exercising. Even attempted murder could get the mother a life sentence. So why tamper with the right to die principle? The daughter died of her own volition, a choice that deserves the respect of both the law and its defenders.”
(Reading: “Quadriplegic Can End Her Life; Mother Faces Murder Charge,” Chicago Tribune, 5/19/99; “Woman Avoids Murder Charge Over Daughter,” The New York Times, 5/26/99; “Florida Murder Charge Could Violate Right-to-Die Principle,” USA Today, 5/23/99)
reflect
Its only art is to call back the souls of the dead from the very journey into death, to give strength to the weak, to heal the sick, to exorcise the possessed, to open prison cells, to free the innocent from their chains. Prayer cleanses from sin, drives away temptations, stamps out persecutions, comforts the fainthearted, gives new strength to the courageous, brings travelers safely home, calms the waves, confounds robbers, feeds the poor, overrules the rich, lifts up the fallen, supports those who are falling, sustains those who stand firm.
-Treatise on Prayer, Tertullian, AD 155
pray
Lord, I ask that my prayers may assist those most in need of your love. Amen.
NARAL: The National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League announced a new television ad campaign focused on reinforcing the theme “Choice for America’ [meaning abortion is part of America’s heritage] because “What’s Life Without Choice?” The purpose, according to one news report, is to help moderate pro-choicers come out of the closet. Ads are reported to be testing well.
(Reading: “The New Look for Pro-Choice,” New Woman, 6/99)
activism
WISCONSIN: Police in Brookfield arrested Rev. George Wilson May 17 for videotaping activity outside an abortion mill. “It is . . . troublesome,” said Pro-Life Wisconsin State Director Mary Matuska, “that some in the pro-life community are unwilling to step forward and defend Reverend Wilson without apology.”
WISCONSIN: Police in Brookfield arrested Rev. George Wilson May 17 for videotaping activity outside an abortion mill. “It is . . . troublesome,” said Pro-Life Wisconsin State Director Mary Matuska, “that some in the pro-life community are unwilling to step forward and defend Reverend Wilson without apology.”
WISCONSIN: Police in Brookfield arrested Rev. George Wilson May 17 for videotaping activity outside an abortion mill. “It is . . . troublesome,” said Pro-Life Wisconsin State Director Mary Matuska, “that some in the pro-life community are unwilling to step forward and defend Reverend Wilson without apology.”
(Reading: “First Amendment Rights Trampled by Milwaukee Police,” Pro-Life Wisconsin news release)
(Contact: Jon Paul, Pro-Life Wisconsin, 414-796-1111.)
human embryo
CONFUSION? Lori Andrews, feminist attorney and frequent writer on “bioethics” recently wrote that she had problems with “implying that embryos were people. Income tax laws, for example, would be turned topsy-turvy; if a couple had 14 embryos frozen, they would be entitled to 14 exemptions. And more important, treating embryos as people would turn abortion (and even unsuccessful IVF) into homicide.”
CONFUSION? Lori Andrews, feminist attorney and frequent writer on “bioethics” recently wrote that she had problems with “implying that embryos were people. Income tax laws, for example, would be turned topsy-turvy; if a couple had 14 embryos frozen, they would be entitled to 14 exemptions. And more important, treating embryos as people would turn abortion (and even unsuccessful IVF) into homicide.”
CONFUSION? Lori Andrews, feminist attorney and frequent writer on “bioethics” recently wrote that she had problems with “implying that embryos were people. Income tax laws, for example, would be turned topsy-turvy; if a couple had 14 embryos frozen, they would be entitled to 14 exemptions. And more important, treating embryos as people would turn abortion (and even unsuccessful IVF) into homicide.”
COMMENT: Indeed! But the fact is that no one need imply that human embryos are people, they are! Many in the bioethics field, as well as medicine, science and politics, have implied otherwise to impose their self-centered preferences.
(Reading: “Embryonic Confusion,” The Washington Post, 5/2/99)
in vitro fertilization
ITALY: Critiquing a new Italian law that allows artificial practices of fertilizing and implanting embryonic babies [human embryos], ethicist Father Gino Concetti pointed out that such acts are immoral. He did note, however, that there might be rare occasions when such implantation is justifiable-as, for example, when a married couple “adopts” a frozen embryo to save it from destruction. “The exception should not become the rule,” he wrote.
ITALY: Critiquing a new Italian law that allows artificial practices of fertilizing and implanting embryonic babies [human embryos], ethicist Father Gino Concetti pointed out that such acts are immoral. He did note, however, that there might be rare occasions when such implantation is justifiable-as, for example, when a married couple “adopts” a frozen embryo to save it from destruction. “The exception should not become the rule,” he wrote.
ITALY: Critiquing a new Italian law that allows artificial practices of fertilizing and implanting embryonic babies [human embryos], ethicist Father Gino Concetti pointed out that such acts are immoral. He did note, however, that there might be rare occasions when such implantation is justifiable-as, for example, when a married couple “adopts” a frozen embryo to save it from destruction. “The exception should not become the rule,” he wrote.
(Reading: “Vatican Critiques Italian Law on Reproduction,” Catholic World News, 5/27/99)
SUCCESS RATE: “More than 64,000 cycles of assisted reproductive technology were attempted at 300 fertility centers in the United States during 1996, and 20,659 resulted in babies. That’s a 32 percent success rate,” reports the Chicago Tribune.
COMMENT: The word “baby” is not applied to those embryonic babies who were destroyed, frozen or used for research and experimentation!
(Reading: “When Do You Stop Trying?” Chicago Tribune, 5/5/99, pp. 1, 2, 8, Section 8)
pharmaceutical companies
AMERICAN HOME PRODUCTS: Wall Street analysts were overly optimistic when they projected earnings of 41 cents per share for American Home Products stock. According to a recent corporate announcement, the value will rise to only 34 cents. The corporation blames weak sales of products for protecting crops and livestock. However the firm is also involved in thousands of lawsuits over its recalled diet drugs and Norplant, the birth control device.
AMERICAN HOME PRODUCTS: Wall Street analysts were overly optimistic when they projected earnings of 41 cents per share for American Home Products stock. According to a recent corporate announcement, the value will rise to only 34 cents. The corporation blames weak sales of products for protecting crops and livestock. However the firm is also involved in thousands of lawsuits over its recalled diet drugs and Norplant, the birth control device.
AMERICAN HOME PRODUCTS: Wall Street analysts were overly optimistic when they projected earnings of 41 cents per share for American Home Products stock. According to a recent corporate announcement, the value will rise to only 34 cents. The corporation blames weak sales of products for protecting crops and livestock. However the firm is also involved in thousands of lawsuits over its recalled diet drugs and Norplant, the birth control device.
(Reading: “Pharmaceutical Maker Issues Warning,” Associated Press, 6/1/99; research data on the chemical Norplant can be obtained from American Life League)
violence
NEW YORK: A 19-year-old mother was convicted of starving her two-month-old son to death. She had not provided adequate breast milk to the baby, and according to her defense attorney, did not know that her surgically-reduced breasts were not producing enough milk to nourish her son.
NEW YORK: A 19-year-old mother was convicted of starving her two-month-old son to death. She had not provided adequate breast milk to the baby, and according to her defense attorney, did not know that her surgically-reduced breasts were not producing enough milk to nourish her son.
NEW YORK: A 19-year-old mother was convicted of starving her two-month-old son to death. She had not provided adequate breast milk to the baby, and according to her defense attorney, did not know that her surgically-reduced breasts were not producing enough milk to nourish her son.
(Reading: “Bronx Woman Convicted of Starving Her Breast-Fed Son,” New York Times, 5/20/99)
youth on the road
WEEKLY UPDATE: For the latest news from Rock for Life leaders Erik and Tina Whittington, who are on the road all summer spreading the pro-life word, contact Rock for Life. For regular updates on Crossroads, the university students who are walking across America for life, contact Crossroads, Inc.
WEEKLY UPDATE: For the latest news from Rock for Life leaders Erik and Tina Whittington, who are on the road all summer spreading the pro-life word, contact Rock for Life. For regular updates on Crossroads, the university students who are walking across America for life, contact Crossroads, Inc.
WEEKLY UPDATE: For the latest news from Rock for Life leaders Erik and Tina Whittington, who are on the road all summer spreading the pro-life word, contact Rock for Life. For regular updates on Crossroads, the university students who are walking across America for life, contact Crossroads, Inc.
zinger
OVERPOPULATION EXPLAINED: Steven Mumford is a long-time population control zealot and promoter of the sterilization pellet Quinacrine. In fact, he maintains supplies of the pellets in his basement. He told Associated Press that during his Army days, flying over South Korea, “you could see this migration below: household belongings in oxen carts and old pickup trucks. That’s when I recognized that overpopulation was truly a serious problem that threatened the security of all countries.”
OVERPOPULATION EXPLAINED: Steven Mumford is a long-time population control zealot and promoter of the sterilization pellet Quinacrine. In fact, he maintains supplies of the pellets in his basement. He told Associated Press that during his Army days, flying over South Korea, “you could see this migration below: household belongings in oxen carts and old pickup trucks. That’s when I recognized that overpopulation was truly a serious problem that threatened the security of all countries.”
OVERPOPULATION EXPLAINED: Steven Mumford is a long-time population control zealot and promoter of the sterilization pellet Quinacrine. In fact, he maintains supplies of the pellets in his basement. He told Associated Press that during his Army days, flying over South Korea, “you could see this migration below: household belongings in oxen carts and old pickup trucks. That’s when I recognized that overpopulation was truly a serious problem that threatened the security of all countries.”
COMMENT: And we thought that the oppressed and the hungry were being driven to seek a means of feeding their loved ones. Little did we know that if they had stopped reproducing their own kind, national security would have been totally protected!
(Reading: “Chemical Sterilization,” Associated Press, 5/31/99)
COMMUNIQUE SPECIAL FEATURE: Are medical outcomes based on feelings or principles?
In those days there was no king in Israel, and every man did as he pleased.
-Judges 17:6
Miss Manners and Jack Kevorkian in a tuxedo have replaced Hippocrates as traditional medical ethics have been replaced by modern medical etiquette. Under the new system, a doctor’s major ethical concerns are with procedural niceties. These center around questions of who has been given the legal authority to make decisions, including those that are intended to end the life of a handicapped patient.
Hippocrates would never have asked such a question, and would never have honored such a request, even if the patient made it (“I will give no deadly medicine to anyone if asked.”-Hippocratic Oath). Interestingly, Hippocrates, even in his era, did not think to put prohibition against starving and dehydrating patients to death in his famous and now disregarded oath. Why? Because food and water are ordinary care, they are not medicine, at least they didn’t used to be. The ancient Greeks knew that; modern doctors don’t.
The major arena where this medical manners controversy is taking place in America today is with the legalization of living wills or advance medical directives that authorize the removal of “artificially administered food and nutrition.” (Only those born with silver spoons in their mouths have never received artificially administered food and nutrition.) In fact, such living will statutes are convenient ways around the laws banning assisted suicide in 49 of our states that punish the act.
-Commentary by Robert G. Marshall
Member, House of Delegates
Commonwealth of Virginia
When food and water and ventilators become threats to the pro-death forces, rather than basic, humane provisions, trouble will arise. Pro-death fanatics argue that nothing should get in the way of a human being’s right to die. An example of how their “good manners” works follows:
ORLANDO, FLORIDA: Shirley Egan, age 68, shot her 42-year-old daughter Georgette Smith. The gunshot entered Smith’s spine causing nearly total paralysis (quadriplegia). Smith asked to be removed from a ventilator. A judge ruled that she had a right to end her life. The ventilator was remove and she died. Egan, who is herself in failing health, was not charged with a crime because, according to state attorney Lawson Lamar, Egan’s failing health made pursuing a murder charge “inappropriate.”
One woman is dead and the exercise of her autonomy is the only thing that mattered in the end.
A USA Today editorial writer opined:
“If prosecutors bring murder charges in this case, they turn that principle [the right to die] on its head. Such a theory of murder is like arguing that the person who exercises the wishes of another person’s living will might be responsible if the patient could have been kept alive. It stands in contrast to the decisions made by millions of conscientious Americans who authorize doctors and relatives to provide them with a dignified death.
“Prosecutors have no obligation to promote social policy, but they have enormous discretion. And in this case, it’s worth exercising. Even attempted murder could get the mother a life sentence. So why tamper with the right to die principle? The daughter died of her own volition, a choice that deserves the respect of both the law and its defenders.”
(Reading: “Quadriplegic Can End Her Life; Mother Faces Murder Charge,” Chicago Tribune, 5/19/99; “Woman Avoids Murder Charge Over Daughter,” The New York Times, 5/26/99; “Florida Murder Charge Could Violate Right-to-Die Principle,” USA Today, 5/23/99)
reflect
Its only art is to call back the souls of the dead from the very journey into death, to give strength to the weak, to heal the sick, to exorcise the possessed, to open prison cells, to free the innocent from their chains. Prayer cleanses from sin, drives away temptations, stamps out persecutions, comforts the fainthearted, gives new strength to the courageous, brings travelers safely home, calms the waves, confounds robbers, feeds the poor, overrules the rich, lifts up the fallen, supports those who are falling, sustains those who stand firm.
-Treatise on Prayer, Tertullian, AD 155
pray
Lord, I ask that my prayers may assist those most in need of your love. Amen.