abortion
BABY BODY PARTS: The U.S. Congress is slated to hold hearings on the subject in the Senate, while in the state of Wisconsin a bill has been introduced that will eliminate “the selling of any organ, tissue, blood or body part of any aborted baby.” The bill number is LRB 4118. Contact Representative Sheryl Albers for a copy of the bill or the Pro-Life Wisconsin state office: 262-786-2229.
(Reading: Pro Life Wisconsin news release, 2/17/00)
BABY BODY PARTS II: At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, researchers are using the remains of children killed by late term abortions. Such actions are being effectively protested by the Pro-Life Action League of Wisconsin. To get involved or to acquire information and interviews, “>e-mail or call 608-255-2733.
THREE WELL-KEPT SECRETS: The webzine Boundless published an article pointing out the disastrous consequences of abortion rarely recognized in the media.
hollywood
APPEALING TO PRODUCERS: A web site has been established to provide concerned citizens with the opportunity to sign on to an appeal seeking less violence and sexual explicitness in film making. The appeal has the support of former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford among others. The effort is the focus of an article in “Light,” the magazine of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission.
(Reading: “An Appeal to Hollywood,” Light, Winter 2000, pp. 4-6)
human cloning
POTENTIAL FOR ABUSE: Australian Professor Peter McCullagh has prepared remarks dealing with the problems created by “consequentialist” ethical positions. In other words, do the ends justify the means?
imposed death
HONG KONG: The Hong Kong Medical Council has approved “guidelines on passive euthanasia,” saying “the guidelines are necessary to ensure transparency when deciding whether to withdraw life support for terminally ill or brain-dead patients.” Critics argue that public comment was not sought.
(Reading: “Hong Kong Debates Where to Draw the Line With Passive Euthanasia,” The Lancet, 2/19/00, p. 633)
NETHERLANDS: Researchers studying 649 cases of physician-assisted suicide over a two-year period have found that “there may be clinical problems with the performance of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide.” At times physicians are providing the lethal doses directly because the patients are unable to do so or because the initial attempt at death failed.
(Reading: “Clinical Problems with the Performance of Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide in the Netherlands,” New England Journal of Medicine, 2/24/00, pp. 551-556)
OREGON I: Researchers in Oregon have studied the opinions of physicians relating to the Oregon Death with Dignity Act. The data, collected from surveys answered by 2,649 physicians from a possible 4,053 indicate that in Oregon five percent of responding physicians had actually been asked to assist in a suicide and one of every six requests is met with a prescription. And of that number, one of every ten actually results in a suicide.
(Reading: “Physicians’ Experiences with the Oregon Death with Dignity Act,” New England Journal of Medicine, 2/24/00, pp. 557-563)
OREGON II: Two physicians examined information on 33 patients who had received prescriptions for lethal drugs during the two years since the legalization of physician assisted suicide in Oregon, and found among other things that 26 died after taking the lethal injections, five died of the disease causing the request for the lethal medications, and two were alive in January, 2000. The writers conclude that patients request such assistance based on “loss of autonomy and a determination to control the way in which they die.”
(Reading: “Legalized Physician-Assisted Suicide in Oregon – The Second Year,” New England Journal of Medicine, 2/24/00, pp. 598-604)
PHYSICIANS GOAL: Commenting on the findings in the Netherlands study (see above), Yale Professor of Medicine Sherwin Nuland, M.D., recommends “Physicians who believe that it is a person’s right to choose death when suffering cannot otherwise be relieved must turn to their consciences in deciding whether to provide help in such a situation. Once the decision to intervene has been made, the goal should be to ensure that death is as merciful and serene as possible.”
QUESTION: Death of the physical body or the immortal soul?
(Reading: “Physician-Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia in Practice,” New England Journal of Medicine, 342:8:583-4)
VIRGINIA: The Virginia Supreme Court has ruled that Governor James Gilmore does not have to pay fines levied against him in the case of Hugh Finn. The fines were the result of legal action taken by the wife of the late Mr. Finn, who was starved to death in a Manassas, Virginia, nursing home in 1998 when feeding tubes were removed at Mrs. Finn’s request. Mrs. Finn’s attorney said, “They’ve set an awfully high standard that seems to allow government officials to file frivolous lawsuits and not be penalized.”
COMMENT: What is “frivolous” about attempting to protect the life of a vulnerable human being?
(Reading: “Gilmore Free of Fines From Feeding-Tube Case,” [Fredericksburg, Va.] Free Lance-Star, 3/4/00, p. C1)
politics
REPUBLICAN CONVENTION RESOLUTIONS: For recommended texts dealing with pro-life principle, consult the Republican National Coalition for Life web site.
pope john paul ii
NO COMPROMISE: During his address at the Commemoration of the Fifth Anniversary of the Gospel of Life gathering in Vatican city, Pope John Paul II reiterated the teaching of the Catholic Church in these words: “No effort should be spared to eliminate legalized crime or at least to limit the damage caused by these laws, but with the vivid awareness of the radical duty to respect every human being’s right to life from conception until natural death, including the life of the lowliest and the least gifted.”
(Reading: “Holy Father’s Address,” 2/14/00)
stem cell research
AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY: Arguing that the acquisition of human embryonic stem cells (requiring the destruction of the embryonic baby) “holds extraordinary promise in the overall effort to eradicate cancer,” the American Cancer Society endorsed the recently promulgated guidelines of the National Institutes for Health.
(Reading: Stem Cell Research, news release from the American Cancer Society)
reflection for prayer
Where did I find you, that I came to know you? You were not within my memory before I learned of you. Where, then, did I find you before I came to know you, if not within yourself, far above me? We come to you and go from you, but no place is involved in this process. In every place, O Truth, you are present to those who seek your help, and at one and the same time you answer all, though they seek your counsel on different matters.
You respond clearly, but not everyone hears clearly. All ask what they wish, but do not always hear the answer they wish. Your best servant is he who is intent not so much on hearing his petition answered, as rather on willing whatever he hears from you.
-From the Confessions of Saint Augustine