in this issue:
hot button issues: CALIFORNIA / ROCK FOR LIFE
activism: CHAMPION OF THE PREBORN
amniocentesis: SAFE?
birth control: SECURITY
catholic bishops: BURKE
fake science: PRE-EMBRYO / SPERM CELLS?
in vitro fertilization: EMBRYO DISPOSAL
miracle: SHE’S 14!
special intention: PRAYERS NEEDED
reflection for prayer: IN CONVERSATION WITH GOD
hot button issues
CALIFORNIA: The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to review a California case that ordered Catholic Charities to comply with a state law requiring prescription drug programs to cover birth control. The San Francisco Chronicle reports Catholic Charities has been covering birth control while the case was on appeal, a practice which American Life League called on California’s bishops to cease immediately.
(Reading: “High court declines religious dispute over contraceptives,” San Francisco Chronicle, 10/5/04; “California Catholic bishops have moral responsibility to cancel contraceptive benefits,” American Life League news release, 10/5/04)
ROCK FOR LIFE: The Vote for Change concert series has featured a collection of pro-abortion musical acts. But Rock for Life’s Erik Whittington notes there is one “change” these artists are ignoring — the need to change the Culture of Death into a Culture of Life. Rock for Life will bring the pro-life message to concertgoers outside the MCI Center in Washington, D.C., on Monday, Oct.11.
(Reading: “Rock for Life protests MoveOn.org’s Vote for Change final tour stop,” American Life League news release, 10/7/04)
activism
CHAMPION OF THE PREBORN: Newhouse News Service tells the story of Marion Hite, a 98-year-old Portland, Ore., resident who has maintained a regular presence outside a local abortion facility for 25 years. “They’re killing babies,” he says. “The Lord said what we do to the least of his brethren we do to him. Those babies are human beings created by God, and one of the commandments is that we should not kill. And we are killing those babies.”
(Reading: “Nonagenarian abortion protester maintains lonely vigil,” Newhouse News Service, 10/4/04)
amniocentesis
SAFE? Researchers who examined the results of 68,119 amniocenteses find that there is a procedure-related rate of excess pregnancy loss of 0.33 percent. Injury that is “attributed to mid trimester amniocentesis is rare, very rarely proved, and not perfectly prevented with concurrent ultrasound guidance. However direct fetal trauma may occur more frequently than is reported because of both failure to diagnose and failure to produce sequelae consistently.”
(Reading: “Diagnostic mid trimester amniocentesis: how safe?” American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 8/04, pp. 608-616)
birth control
SECURITY: Proponents of worldwide availability of all birth control methods claim that “family planning services and supplies belong on the ‘essential’ list for national and international security. … Family planning helps assure the human capital and effective social systems that are necessary for enduring strength.” Further, “A report by Population Action International presents evidence that a country with a so-called ‘youth bulge’ (a high proportion of the population between the ages of 15-29) and a rapid rate of urban population growth may be more likely to experience violent conflict. Improving access to reproductive health and family planning programs, thus, not only benefits individuals and families, but also makes an important contribution to reducing violence.”
COMMENT: Such statements would be comedic if the writers weren’t so serious about eliminating the children of the world prior to birth.
(Reading: “A prescription for real security,” Contraception, 70(2004) 179-181,)
catholic bishops
BURKE: In a pastoral letter, Archbishop Raymond Burke of St. Louis writes, “In considering ‘the sum total of social conditions,’ there is, however, a certain order of priority, which must be followed. Conditions upon which other conditions depend must receive our first consideration. The first consideration must be given to the protection of human life itself, without which it makes no sense to consider other social conditions.”
(Reading: “On our civic responsibility for the common good,” Archdiocese of St. Louis, 10/1/04)
fake science
PRE-EMBRYO: Promotion of human embryonic stem cell research, the morning after pill, and in vitro fertilization has created a revival in the use of the false term “pre-embryo” among those who deny that a human being begins at conception/fertilization/cloning. Professor Claudia Navarini of the Regina Apostolorum Pontifical University in Rome explained that the fake term, “pre-embryo,” was “coined in 1979 by [frog] embryologist Clifford Grobstein” who “admitted he wanted to reduce the status of the early human embryo.”
(Reading: “Doublespeak: false term ‘pre-embryo’ re-emerges,” Zenit, 9/21/04)
(Background: Dianne Irving, Ph.D., has written extensively on this and other fake scientific terms)
SPERM CELLS? Scientists are claiming that they can create “sperm-and-egg-like cells” from human embryonic stem cells.
COMMENT: For those who do not believe in fairy-tale science, the fact is “the experiment described in the article is actual ‘therapeutic’ cloning resulting in a single-cell human organism — a human being, a human embryo, reproduced via nuclear transfer,” according to Dianne Irving, Ph.D. Further, she points out that the very title of the article is erroneous and misleading. “The headline reflects the same deception being attempted by Irving Weissman in California’s Stem Cell Research Initiative. Weissman tries to argue that nuclear transfer for purposes of research is not cloning — it is just ‘stem cell research’ since only a ‘cell’ is initially produced. He fails to mention, however, that it is a single-cell human ORGANISM — a human being. What Weissman — like the researchers described in the article — are really doing is human cloning for purposes of research, and then killing the human embryo to derive stem cells from it.”
(Reading: “Sperm and eggs from embryonic stem cells?” The Hindu Times, 9/16/04)
in vitro fertilization
EMBRYO DISPOSAL: Some 217 in vitro fertilization clinics responded to a questionnaire designed to gather information regarding how “extra” embryos are handled. Researchers found that 97 percent were willing to create and then freeze extra embryos; 59% were willing to explicitly avoid creating extra embryos; 60% would dispose of embryos prior to freezing; 54% would do so after freezing; 60% would donate then to research and 19% would provide extra embryos for embryologist training.
(Reading: “Embryo disposal practices in IVF clinics in the U.S.,” Politics and Life Sciences, 8/9/04)
miracle
SHE’S 14! A premature baby who was born with a birth weight of 280 grams (six tenths of a pound) is now 14 years of age, plays the violin, and ranks in the 83rd percentile on her high school exams.
(Reading: “A girl with a birth weight of 280 g, now 14 years old,” New England Journal of Medicine, 8/19/04, pp. 836-837)
special intention
PRAYERS NEEDED: A couple has written American Life League, telling us of their preborn daughter who has been diagnosed with anencephaly, a condition in which the brain and skull do not form properly. There is no treatment and no cure. The parents say with God’s grace, they will carry the child to term and spend as much time with her as possible. They’re simply asking for prayers for their daughter, and all other children with this condition.
reflection for prayer
IN CONVERSATION WITH GOD: The great Christian revolution has been to convert pain into fruitful suffering and to turn a bad think into something good. We have deprived the devil of this weapon; and with it we can conquer eternity.
(Reading: In conversation with God, Vol. 4, p. 126)