in this issue:
abortion: RESIDENT TRAINING
birth control: BONE MINERAL DENSITY / IMPLANON / TESTOSTERONE IMPLANT
cloning: MOUSE VS. MAN
congress: PLANNED PARENTHOOD FUNDING
physicians: PRO-LIFE RESOLUTION
politics: POPE JOHN PAUL II
ru-486: CONTRACEPTIVE?
stem cell research: FEDERAL GRANTS
zinger: “NEUTRAL”
reflection for prayer: 1 TIMOTHY 4:1
abortion
RESIDENT TRAINING: A program designed by the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts and the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Baystate Medical Center has found that such collaboration increases residents’ “clinical competence” in abortion-related practices.
(Reading: “Enhancing resident raining in abortion and contraception through hospital-community partnership,” American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 9/03, pp. 644-646)
birth control
BONE MINERAL DENSITY: A three-year prospective study involving female birth control pill users between the ages of 18 and 39 found no appreciable difference in bone mineral density, but the authors point out that “bone accrual peaks in the early 20s” and “effects of OCs (oral contraceptives [sic]) on bone may differ for women who are actively gaining bone as opposed to women who have completed bone mass acquisition.” They recommend studies on teens using the pill; a group that their study did not include.
(Reading: “Longitudinal changes in bone density in relation to oral contraceptive use,” Contraception, 68 (2003) 177-182)
IMPLANON: Australian ABC reporter Elizabeth Jackson states that an investigation by Australian medical insurance company reveals that at least 44 women are in the courts claiming “unwanted pregnancies” resulting from Implanon being inserted incorrectly.
(Reading: “Contraceptive Implanon may be withdrawn from market,” ABC Online, 9/30/03)
TESTOSTERONE IMPLANT: Australian trials are underway on a male contraceptive regimen consisting of the implant and an injection of progestin. According to the Wall Street Journal, Conrad, a Virginia-based program funded by the U.S. Government, sponsored the study.
(Reading: “Australian researchers report breakthrough on male contraceptive,” Health AFP, 10/5/03)
(Background: “Hormonal contraception for men,” School Science)
cloning
MOUSE VS. MAN? Research done on cloning mice was extrapolated to humans, and the comment is made: “Nuclear transfer is unlikely to be much more efficient in human than in mouse. 100 human oocytes would be required to generate customized ntES cells for a single individual. A crucial difference is that, although 100 mouse oocytes can be obtained from a few superovulated females at a cost of $20, human oocytes must be harvested from superovulated volunteers, who are reimbursed for their participation. Add to this the complexity of the clinical procedure, and the cost of a human oocyte is $1,000 to $2,000 in the US. Thus, to generate a set of customized ntEScell lines for an individual, the budget for the human oocyte material alone would be $100,000 to 200,000. This is a prohibitively high sum that will impede the widespread application of technology in its present form.”
(Reading: “Therapeutic cloning in the mouse,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Science)
congress
PLANNED PARENTHOOD FUNDING: Research shows that funds from Title XIX of the Social Security Act provide more revenue to Planned Parenthood and its allies than Title X! While Title X funds to Planned Parenthood increased by about 25 percent during the period from 1997 to 2001, Medicaid funds to Planned Parenthood increased by about 79% during the same period. An article exposing this recent funding boost to the culture of death can be seen in the October issue of STOPP International’s Ryan Report. To receive your copy, and subscribe, e-mail.
(Action: Contact and ask him to stop granting Medicaid waivers expanding contraceptive coverage)
(Reading: “Medicaid surpasses Title X as largest federal funding for Planned Parenthood,” Ryan Report)
physicians
PRO-LIFE RESOLUTION: The American Association of Physicians and Surgeons has passed a resolution that states: “Be it resolved the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons supports the right to life of human beings from the moment of conception to natural death.”
(Reading: “Doctors pass pro-life resolution,” WorldNetDaily, 10/4/03)
politics
POPE JOHN PAUL II: “There is a tendency to see intellectual relativism as the necessary corollary of democratic forms of political life. In such a view, truth is determined by the majority and varies in accordance with passing cultural and political trends. From this point of view, those who are convinced that certain truths are absolute and immutable are considered unreasonable and unreliable.”
(Reading: “Democracy must be based on moral norms,” Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, 2/23/00)
ru-486
CONTRACEPTIVE? Researchers claim that a single does of mifepristone (the generic name of RU-486) could be used once a month as a “contraceptive.” However, the researchers report that the endometrium (uterine lining) is disrupted and that implantation therefore cannot occur. They describe mifepristone use in these cases as “a novel method of contraception.”
(Reading: “A single dose of mifepristone (200 mg) in the immediate preovulatory phase offers contraceptive potential without cycle disruption,” Contraception, 68 (2003) 203-209)
stem cell research
FEDERAL GRANTS: The National Institute of General Medical Sciences has announced a series of grants totaling more than $6.3 million to “help researchers understand the extraordinary complexities of human biology.” It is said that the human embryonic stem cells must be limited to existing stem cell lines registered with the federal government. Concerns have been voiced as to how the research can practically be limited to those lines, and whether this expansion in research will pave the way for acceptance of much more unethical embryonic stem cell research.
(Reading: “NIGMS center grants to explore stem cell biology,” Medical News Service, 9/29/03)
zinger
“NEUTRAL”: The Vatican’s “Lexicon on Ambiguous and Colloquial Terms about Family Life and Ethical Questions” has come under attack from editors of the medical journal Contraception, who claim the Vatican is re-defining “neutral concepts such as ‘reproductive health services.'”
COMMENT: There is nothing neutral about a phrase that disguises abortion as a health service!
(Reading: “The war on words: sensible compromise or slow suicide?” Contraception, 68 (2003) 157-58)
reflection for prayer
1 TIMOTHY 4:1: The Spirit has explicitly said that during the last times there will be some who will desert the faith and choose to listen to deceitful spirits and doctrines that come from the devils; and the cause of this is the lies told by hypocrites whose consciences are branded as though with a red-hot iron.