in this issue:
hot button issues: AD SERIES / PETITION / T-SHIRT DAY
abortion: CLASSROOM REFERRAL / EFFICACY
birth control: RU-486 AS A PILL?
boycott: FORD MOTOR COMPANY
euthanasia: PALLIATIVE SEDATION
hero: SEMINARIAN MIKE BARTHOLOMEW
medical research: HAPPY TO BE A GUINEA PIG
organ transplant: SUBSEQUENT PREGNANCY
personhood: RIGHT TO LIFE ACT
politics: MICHIGAN
stem cell research / ethical: ADULT MICE / LUNG / SOMATIC ADULT STEM CELLS
terri schiavo: IS SHE THANKING MICHAEL?
wisdom: POPE BENEDICT XVI
reflection for prayer: NOBODY’S PERFECT
hot button issues
AD SERIES: “Every day, Planned Parenthood undermines American values, and it does so with our tax money,” said American Life League president Judie Brown. “Frankly, we’re fed up. That’s why we’re beginning a new advertising campaign to educate Americans about what this organization does with our hard-earned dollars.”
(Reading: “American Life League launches new ad campaign,” American Life League news release, 3/27/06)
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.
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
CLASSROOM REFERRAL: British nurses are now dispensing birth control to school children and referring girls for secret abortions in schools across the nation. This is part of a national initiative adopted by the British government.
(Reading: “UK government to provide abortion nurses in all primary and secondary schools,” LifeSiteNews, 3/27/06)
EFFICACY: Research shows it is less expensive and “more effective” to abort a baby using dilation and evacuation than using misoprostol for early induction of labor for second trimester abortion.
(Reading: “Cost-effectiveness of dilation and evacuation versus the induction of labor for second-trimester pregnancy termination,” American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 3/06, pp. 768-773)
birth control
RU-486 AS A PILL? Drug trials have begun in Britain on a new pill that uses a lower dose of mifepristone (RU-486) than what is required to abort a baby. It is claimed that the new pill contains no female hormones and that the woman using this pill would not have a period.
(Reading: “A contraceptive pill that can beat cancer,” The Times [London], 3/28/06)
boycott
FORD MOTOR COMPANY: The American Family Association has launched a boycott against Ford.
(Reading: “Ford ‘proves’ commitment to homosexual agenda,” American Family Association, 3/06)
euthanasia
PALLIATIVE SEDATION: Letters to the editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association indicate support among doctors for the idea of using “palliative sedation” when treating a patient who is not responding to normal pain control. Referring to an earlier article, the argument is also made that in some cases, even though the patient is not “moribund,” palliative sedation can be justified, particularly when a patient is to be starved by cessation of tube feeding.
COMMENT: Palliative sedation results in death.
(Reading: “Dying patients and palliative sedation,” Journal of the American Medical Association, 3/15/06, pp. 1249-1251)
hero
SEMINARIAN MIKE BARTHOLOMEW: He overcame the odds. Born prematurely in 1980 with hydrocephalus, Bartholomew is a walking miracle.
(Reading: “Seminarian walks off with medal,” Long Island Catholic, 3/1/06)
medical research
HAPPY TO BE A GUINEA PIG: The federal government’s Office for Human Research Protection recently cleared a Cleveland hospital of all wrongdoing, even though a patient in a research program died from an apparent overdose of methionine. The woman was part of a study on Alzheimer’s. Many medical students are volunteering to be part of such studies, and the outcomes vary.
(Reading: “Guinea pig gang,” Cleveland Scene Weekly, 3/22/06)
organ transplant
SUBSEQUENT PREGNANCY: British research indicates that women who have a “solid-organ transplant” and then become pregnant are more likely to experience miscarriage, therapeutic termination, stillbirth, ectopic pregnancy, preterm birth, low birth weight birth and neonatal death. To counter these sad facts, “many physicians prescribe long-acting forms of contraception” including the abortive IUD.
(Reading: “Pregnancy in recipients of solid organs — effects on mother and child,” New England Journal of Medicine, 3/23/06, pp. 1281-1293)
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
MICHIGAN: U.S. Senate candidate Jerry Zandstra has lost the endorsement of Right to Life of Michigan because he supports a citizens’ petition drive to ban all abortions, and reportedly criticized the organization for failing to back it. The right to life group calls the petition “deeply flawed.” Zandstra responds, “I am pro-life and strongly support a constitutional amendment to ban abortion.”
(Reading: “Zandstra comments on Right to Life of Michigan rescinding its endorsement,” Jerry Zandstra news release, 3/29/06)
stem cell research / ethical
ADULT MICE: German researchers have isolated stem cells from the testicles of adult mice, and claim these stem cells have similar properties to those contained in human embryonic stem cells.
(Reading: “Alternative to embryonic stem cells found,” The Scotsman, 3/25/06)
LUNG: The discovery of stem cells in the lung, which is a first, could provide significant clues about the initial stages of lung cancer, and perhaps pave the way to either forestalling the disease or treating it more effectively. Currently lung cancer causes the highest number of cancer deaths in the United States each year.
(Reading: “First lung stem cells discovered,” Technology Review, 3-4/06)
SOMATIC ADULT STEM CELLS: A recent controlled clinical trial found that phase two fractures can be repaired using a process combining the cells with allograft has shown initially promising results.
(Reading: “Stem cells repair traumatic injury in phase 2 trial,” Medscape, 3/23/06)
terri schiavo
IS SHE THANKING MICHAEL? Michael Schiavo told NBC’s Matt Lauer, “She’s up there praising me right now… and saying thank you.”
(Reading: “‘It’s my turn to talk,’ says Michael Schiavo,” NBC News, 3/24/06)
wisdom
POPE BENEDICT XVI: “Children truly are the family’s greatest treasure and most precious good. Consequently, everyone must be helped to become aware of the intrinsic evil of the crime of abortion. In attacking human life in its very first stages, it is also an aggression against society itself. Politicians and legislators, therefore, as servants of the common good, are duty bound to defend the fundamental right to life, the fruit of God’s love.”
(Reading: “Address of his holiness Benedict XVI at a meeting on family and life issues in Latin America,” Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 12/3/05)
reflection for prayer
NOBODY’S PERFECT: Quoting St. Francis DeSales, “One has to suffer, in patience, the setbacks to our perfection, doing whatever we can to make progress in good spirit. We hope with patience, and instead of getting frustrated at having done so little in the past, we try diligently to do more in the future.”
(Reading: “In Conversation with Christ,” Vol. 2, p 173)