in this issue:
hot button issues: PETITION / WORK AT ALL
abortion: COLOMBIA / SAFETY / SELF-INFLICTED
abstinence: CONFERENCE
birth control pill: RISKS
condoms: VATICAN
culture of death: IMMORTALITY?
euthanasia: PERSISTENT VEGETATIVE STATE / TREATMENT PREFERENCES
pharmacists: PRESSURE
politics: SANTORUM, SPECTER AND STEM CELLS
personhood: RIGHT TO LIFE ACT
stem cell research / ethical: GENETIC KIDNEY DISEASE / HUMAN BONE MARROW
vaccines: CATHOLIC MEDICAL ASSOCIATION
zinger: SAVE THE ANIMALS
reflection for prayer: HUMILITY
hot button issues
PETITION: Thousands are joining American Life League’s petition effort designed to cut all tax funding directed to Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood received more than $265 million from federal, state and local government sources in its most recently reported fiscal year. Please sign the petition online at www.StopPlannedParenthoodTaxFunding.com and forward the link to others.
WORK AT ALL: American Life League currently has job openings for an editorial associate and a network administrator. Details are posted online.
abortion
COLOMBIA: The country’s highest court has overturned an earlier decision and voted 5-3 to permit abortion in cases of rape or incest, noting that the nation’s previous ban on abortion was “irrational.” The archbishop of Bogota, Cardinal Pedro Rubiano Saenz, responded by telling reporters, “All those who commit the crime, the sin of abortion, will be excommunicated immediately.”
(Reading: “Colombian court legalizes abortion; beachhead for activists in Latin America,” LifeSite News, 5/15/06)
SAFETY: Dr. John Willke answers the pro-abortion contention that abortion is safer than childbirth: “This is pure nonsense and has no basis in fact.”
(Reading: “Abortion vs. childbirth: Which is safer?” Connector, 4/06)
SELF-INFLICTED: Charges against Tammy Skinner were dropped when a judge determined that what she did was not illegal. Skinner shot herself in the abdomen, killing her preborn child in the ninth month of pregnancy. The judge determined that Virginia law, which refers to killing “the fetus of another,” did not apply in such an instance. Skinner, who received a 30-day suspended jail sentence for filing a false police report, had first said someone else was responsible for the shooting.
(Reading: “Abortion charge dismissed against pregnant woman who shot herself,” Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, 5/9/06)
abstinence
CONFERENCE: The Abstinence Clearinghouse is holding its annual leadership conference June 6-9 in Kansas City. Grant writing, donor development and up-to-date medical facts are the major issues to be covered. Details and registration information are available online.
(Reading: “Entertain the possibilities,” Abstinence Clearinghouse)
birth control pill
RISKS: A recent study indicates that alterations in coenzyme Q10 and alpha-tocopherol levels during the menstrual cycle in pill users suggest that further study is required to determine why serum levels of lipid-soluble antioxidants are lower in pill users.
(Reading: “Effects of menstrual cycle and oral contraceptive use on serum levels of lipid-soluble antioxidants,” Obstetrics and Gynecology, (2006) 194:35-38)
condoms
VATICAN: Reacting to media reports that the Vatican was going to issue a statement of some kind regarding condom use and AIDS, Msgr. Michel Schooyans, a consultor to the Pontifical Council for the Family, said the report is the result of “media intoxication.” Said Msgr. Schooyans, “There is, to my knowledge, no reason to believe that a particular study, involving the preparation of a document on the subject, is in preparation.”
(Reading: “No new statement on condoms likely, Vatican expert says,” Catholic World News, 5/18/06)
culture of death
IMMORTALITY? Oncologist P.B. Desai said, “Science is moving at such a fast pace that scientists have proven that they can create headless mice through removal of genes in the embryo that control development of the head. But the body would have the capacity to keep the organs functional for use as transplants … Embryonic stem cells, which holds promise of cure of any organ, is but a slow move towards immortality.”
(Reading: “Scientists again propose creation of headless human clones as organ farms,” LifeSite News, 11/2/04)
euthanasia
PERSISTENT VEGETATIVE STATE: Dr. Lawrence Cranberg writes: “What we have seen in the intense public discussion of the Terri Schindler Schiavo case is use of the term PVS as a blunt instrument of partisan argument in the highest political and judicial circles, where its spurious air of scientific authority shapes and confuses debate and has an underground influence that is hostile to the survival of a so-called PVS patient. PVS is a stranger to the world of scientific medicine. It has infiltrated there only in recent decades, probably more in response to shifting public attitudes toward euthanasia than to improve the quality of the medical-scientific vocabulary, or to the practice of modern medicine. The sooner it is banished, the sooner we shall engage in public discussion of the treatment of seriously disabled patients in proper scientific language, with traditional decorum, regard for the dignity and humanity of patients, without the heat and rancor of popular debate, and with genuine respect for the Hippocratic tradition …”
(Reading: unpublished letter to the editor of the British Medical Journal)
TREATMENT PREFERENCES: A review of studies dealing with surrogates who make health care decisions for others reveals that “surrogates in the studies predicted patients’ treatment preferences with 68% accuracy. Surprisingly they did even worse after discussing treatment preferences with the patient.”
(Reading: “Can surrogates really know patients’ wishes?” Medical Ethics Advisor, 5/06)
pharmacists
PRESSURE: The latest from the medical establishment is this comment: “A fundamental function of ‘justice as fairness’ is to protect individuals in the marketplace from arbitrary discrimination based on unjustifiable prejudice. The retail pharmacist presented with a legitimate prescription is in very much the same position as a realtor who must abide by the fair housing laws that prohibit racial discrimination in the housing market.”
COMMENT: The real “unjustifiable prejudice” is against the preborn child who dies because the professionals refuse to acknowledge that he exists.
(Reading: “Refusals by pharmacists to dispense emergency contraception,” Obstetrics and Gynecology, 5/1/06, pp. 1148-1151)
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
SANTORUM, SPECTER AND STEM CELLS: Senators Rick Santorum and Arlen Specter (both R-Pa.) have introduced a bill described as compromise human embryonic stem cell research legislation. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports the bill provides “for federal funding of research that would involve creating an altered human embryo — one that could yield precious stem cells but not implant in a uterus.”
COMMENT: Santorum and Specter have now been joined at the hip. So much for principle.
(Reading: “Santorum and Specter join on stem cell bill,” Philadelphia Inquirer, 5/7/06)
stem cell research / ethical
GENETIC KIDNEY DISEASE: Bone marrow derived stem cells have been used to regenerate damaged renal cells in a mouse model, showing promise for treating the problem of kidney failure in humans.
(Reading: “Stem cells might treat genetic kidney disease,” HealthDay News, 4/28/06)
HUMAN BONE MARROW: Type-1 diabetes treatment using human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells shows promise.
(Reading: “Human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells transfected with human insulin genes can secrete insulin stably,” Annals of Clinical and Laboratory Science, Spring 2006)
vaccines
CATHOLIC MEDICAL ASSOCIATION: The organization is calling on pharmaceutical companies that manufacture rubella and Hepatitis A vaccines “to produce versions of these vaccines which do not depend on cell lines from aborted fetuses.” The association says the industry has the knowledge and ability to do it, but must be pressured into providing ethical alternatives.
(Reading: “Catholic doctors call for vaccines not derived from aborted fetuses,” Catholic News Agency, 5/17/06)
zinger
SAVE THE ANIMALS! German researchers have announced that stem cell testing could replace animal testing, leading animal welfare activists to say “they are happy when animals’ lives can be saved, regardless of the number.”
COMMENT: If only these people were as dedicated to saving the lives of preborn children.
(Reading: “Stem cells may replace animal testing,” United Press International, 5/8/06)
reflection for prayer
HUMILITY: “To desire to share in the kingdom — of our spouse Jesus Christ — and to enjoy it, and yet not be willing to have any part in his dishonors and trials, is ridiculous.”
(Reading: St. Teresa of Avila)