in this issue:
hot button issues: PETITION / RU-486 / T-SHIRT DAY
abortion: ALTERNATIVES / COLOMBIA / MICHIGAN / POST-ABORTION
euthanasia: CALIFORNIA / NORTH CAROLINA / STARVATION / ZERO TOLERANCE
human cloning: FACTS / HWANG
morning-after abortion pill: RAPE
personhood: RIGHT TO LIFE ACT
politics: JUDAS
stem cell research / ethical: UTERINE LINING STEM CELLS
wisdom: BISHOP ROBERT VASA
reflection for prayer: OUR ACTIONS
hot button issues
PETITION: American Life League is leading a major petition effort designed to cut all tax funding directed to Planned Parenthood. In its most recent fiscal year, Planned Parenthood received more than $265 million from federal, state and local government sources. Petitions may be signed online.
RU-486: In her commentary this week, ALL’s Judie Brown reflects on the recent announcement that two more mothers have died following RU-486 abortions.
(Reading: “Why is it hard to understand? RU-486 is simply wrong,” American Life League, 3/23/06)
T-SHIRT DAY: American Life League is sponsoring National Pro-life T-shirt Day for the fourth year. On April 25, ALL is asking pro-life students to wear a pro-life message to class. All are invited to participate, but public schools are especially invited. The official shirt of ALL’s National Pro-life T-shirt Day is available online for $5 plus shipping and handling. Other details are available at www.NationalProLifeTshirtDay.comwww.NationalProLifeTshirtDay.com.
abortion
ALTERNATIVES: Minot, North Dakota is home to Saint Gianna’s Maternity Home, a unique residence for expectant mothers.
COLOMBIA: Colombia’s Cardinal Pedro Rubiano has launched a worldwide prayer campaign to overcome the evil efforts of many to bring abortion into Latin America. The organization publicizing this effort is Alianza Latinoamericana para la Familia.
ACTION: Please join them in prayer.
(Reading: “Cardinal pleads for worldwide prayers to protect Colombia from abortion,” LifeSiteNews, 3/20/06)
MICHIGAN: The Thomas More Law Center will defend Michigan’s Pro-Life Constitutional Amendment. Chief counsel Richard Thompson said, “The success of this petition drive is vitally important if we are to insure that Michigan becomes a pro-life state after Roe v. Wade is overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. That’s why all pro-lifers should support it. This Amendment would clear the ground of all issues dealing with interpretation of previous state precedent and statutes.”
COMMENT: So why isn’t Michigan Right to Life supporting this principled approach to ending abortion?
(Reading: “Thomas More Law Center agrees to defend Michigan’s pro-life Constitutional amendment,” Thomas More Law Center news release, 3/6/06)
POST-ABORTION: Rachel’s Vineyard publishes an excellent newsletter, Vine and Branches. You can subscribe by ?subject=VineAndBranches”>e-mail.
euthanasia
CALIFORNIA: A majority of Californians, 70% according to the Angus Reid poll, think an incurably ill patient should have the right to obtain medication that would painlessly end his or her life. The same poll reveals that 75% agreed in 1999, suggesting that fewer people today favor assisted suicide. A second poll, done by Fairbank, Maslin and Maullin, found that 64% of California Latinos oppose physician assisted suicide.
(Reading: “Californians support right to die for some patients,” Angus Reid Global Scan, 3/18/06; “Polls show once public understands the issue: doctor assisted suicide fails,” LifeSiteNews, 3/14/06)
NORTH CAROLINA: Pro-life activists are concerned about the North Carolina Medical Society recommendations concerning Physician Order for Life Sustaining Treatment (POST) forms. The first state to have such forms was Oregon, and physicians in North Carolina have been promoting them for some time as part of a recipe for assuring a patient a “good death.” But as LifeTree leaders point out, “POST’s stated objective of expressing by medical orders a ‘covenant’ relationship between a patient and his physician simply does not ring true. Since the form is currently being introduced in nursing homes and assisted living facilities in North Carolina there is little likelihood that the physician who signs the form will have had a long tern relationship with the patient.”
(Reading: LifeTree alert, 3/19/06, subscribe by “>e-mail)
STARVATION: When it comes to denying nutrition and hydration, “A large percentage of internists would be unwilling to adhere to some of patients’ wishes to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining treatment.” The same article contradicts itself by reporting, “A majority of respondents (51%) were willing to withhold or withdraw treatment in all 32 scenarios.” These results are reported based on a survey of 1000 internists.
(Reading: “Physicians’ decisions to withhold and withdraw life-sustaining treatment,” Archives of Internal Medicine, 3/13/06)
ZERO TOLERANCE: An excellent editorial on the subject of physician assisted suicide states, “I think modern ‘society’ has become too varied and complex to achieve any sort of widespread consensus on the matter of doctors deliberately shortening the lives of patients. It will remain divisive. Neither do I believe there can ever be any other ‘effective controls’ than a total ban.”
(Reading: “Zero tolerance the only answer to question of physician assisted suicide,” The Medical Post, 3/14/06)
human cloning
FACTS: A new article contains all the background information needed to effectively expose the current spate of deceptive words being used to support the twisted science. Scroll down to the bottom of the first page to start bibliography review.
(Reading: “Framing the debates on human cloning and human embryonic stem cells: Pluripotent vs. Totipotent,” Life Issues, 7/23/05)
HWANG: Seoul National University “decided to sack the disgraced cloning scientist Hwang Woo-suk without benefits. Four other faculty members involved in the fabrication of Hwang’s ostensibly groundbreaking research results will be suspended.”
(Reading: “Hwang sacked as probe exonerates team members,” Chosun Ilbo, 3/20/06)
morning-after abortion pill
RAPE: Concerned Women for America’s Jan Larue writes, “The truth is that rape rarely results in pregnancy. But even if it does, the law should not permit the most innocent victim, an unborn child, to suffer by forfeiting his or her life because of the rapist’s criminal act.”
(Reading: “No ‘morning-after-pill’ for rapists,” Concerned Women for America, 3/15/06)
personhood
RIGHT TO LIFE ACT: This bill (HR 552) states, “The terms ‘human person’ and ‘human being’ include each and every member of the species homo sapiens at all stages of life, including, but not limited to, the moment of fertilization, cloning, or other moment at which an individual member of the human species comes into being.” See www.RightToLifeAct.org for details.
COMMENT: Is your member of Congress a co-sponsor? If not, ask!
politics
JUDAS: Fifty-five “Catholic” members of Congress issued a pro-abortion statement entitled “Catholic statement of principles.” Father Thomas Euteneuer of Human Life International responded: “One the eve of Ash Wednesday, the day that marks the beginning of the Lenten Season, ‘Catholic’ House Democrats choose to play the role of Judas in a passion play that ends with the crucifixion of the unborn child.”
(Reading: “House Democrats release historic Catholic Statement of Principles,” Rep. Rosa DeLauro news release, 2/28/06; “55 ‘Catholic’ Democrats out themselves as pro-abortion,” LifeSiteNews, 3/1/06)
stem cell research / ethical
UTERINE LINING STEM CELLS: Japanese researchers have harvested stem cells from human menstrual blood, and believe these stem cells could potentially be a source of specialized heart cells which might be used to treat failing or damaged hearts.
(Reading: “Uterine lining stem cells ‘act like heart cells,'” Reuters, 3/14/06)
wisdom
BISHOP ROBERT VASA: In our “compromising age” we are loath to name something too strongly. If we do, we are accused of harshness, judgmentalism, perhaps arrogance, certainly intolerance and possibly pharisaism. While it is always necessary to speak the truth with love, the Church also believes and teaches that it is also necessary to speak the truth with strength. It is necessary to defend truth and not be too quick to rationalize, justify or excuse misleading teachings or teachers. There is a point at which passive “tolerance” allows misleading teachings to be spread and propagated, thus confusing or even misleading the faithful about the truths of the Church. There is a very strong word, which still exists in our Church, which most of us are too “gentle” to use. The word is “heresy.” We perhaps think that heresy is a thing of the past. We think perhaps of the Arian heresy or the Pelagian heresy or the Manichaen heresy. We might even maintain that there are no longer any heretics because that conjures up images of inquisitions and burnings at the stake. I do not, in any way, seek to validate or justify any kind of “vigilante” theology, but we do need strong words to combat erroneous and fallacious teaching.”
(Reading: “Christ is reassuring and humble, as well as powerful, mighty,” Catholic Sentinel, 2/17/06)
reflection for prayer
OUR ACTIONS: “If anyone wants to become my follower, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24). Jesus took up the cross first and ascended Calvary. He asks us to do the same with all those we live with and are examples for. They need to see this authenticity and sincerity of life in us. Beyond our words, our actions speak much more loudly and eloquently.
(Reading: “Being an authentic Christian,” Regnum Christi, 3/14/06)