in this issue:
hot button issues: PRO-LIFE MEMORIAL DAY / WORDS
abortion: JAIL TIME
euthanasia: ASSISTED SUICIDE / BRITAIN / DEATH WITH DIGNITY? / HARRY POTTER
morning-after pill: EARLY ABORTION AND UNETHICAL ARGUMENTS / EARLY ABORTION PROBABLE
politics: STRATEGIES
population control: CHINA / EXPOSED
stem cell research / tactics: MISSOURI
stem cell research / unethical: MAN-BEAST
zinger: ENGLAND
reminders: 40 DAYS FOR LIFE / LIFE CHAIN / SAVING THOSE DAMNED CATHOLICS / ULTRASOUND VIDEO
reflection for prayer: DISCIPLINE
hot button issues
PRO-LIFE MEMORIAL DAY: Each year, the Supreme Court begins a new session on the first Monday in October. Each year, American Life League pauses on that day to remember the millions of preborn victims of abortion. This year, ALL’s Pro-life Memorial Day is October 1. The official Pro-life Memorial Day T-shirt, available exclusively from ALL, features an image of the U.S. Supreme Court building and the words “tomb of the unborn.”
TO ORDER: The Pro-life Memorial Day 2007 shirt is available from American Life League for $6.95 plus shipping and handling. Call 866-LET-LIVE toll-free, or purchase online.
WORDS: Anita Crane, editor of ALL’s Celebrate Life magazine, looks at the way many media outlets spin the news by refusing to use the term “pro-life” and by making references to “abortion rights.”
Reading: “The perils and pitfalls of abortion rhetoric,” American Life League, 9/6/07
abortion
JAIL TIME: Matt Abbott has written an excellent response to Anna Quindlen’s gobbledygook about pro-lifers and the crime of abortion.
Reading: “The abortion-seeking woman: Perpetrator or victim?” Catholic Online, 8/30/07
euthanasia
ASSISTED SUICIDE: Nancy Valko writes, “The ultimate irony of the push to spread legalized assisted suicide … is that at the same time we naturally see suicide as a tragedy to be prevented, we are pressed to accept that suicide is a compassionate choice for the terminally ill and even others.”
Reading: “Whatever happened to common sense at the end of life?” Voices, 2007
BRITAIN: A neonatologist who injected a large dose of a muscle relaxant into babies moments before their deaths has been found fit to continue practicing. The doctor was originally charged with hastening the deaths of these babies whose life support had been discontinued with the full knowledge of their parents.
Reading: “GMC clears hospital doctor who hastened babies’ deaths,” The Guardian, 7/12/07
DEATH WITH DIGNITY? Dr. William J. Dennis has written a masterful analysis of the truth behind the phrase “death with dignity.” As he points out, “I treat people by being a physician, not a veterinarian. I give and expect to be given human treatment, not humane treatment.”
Reading: “What is death with dignity?” Ethics and Medics, 7/07
HARRY POTTER: The British pro-life group Care Not Killing analyzes the latest Harry Potter book, which incorporates “assisted dying” into its pages and provides insight into areas of critical concern for pro-lifers.
Reading: “Deadly hallows,” Care Not Killing, 8/19/07
morning-after pill
EARLY ABORTION AND UNETHICAL ARGUMENTS: Writing in Contraception, doctors point out that it is disingenuous for supporters of the morning-after pill to equate the pill’s mode of action with natural losses of embryos prior to implantation.
Reading: “The empirical and ethical questions of induced versus natural losses of preimplantation embryos,” Contraception, 9/07, p. 256
EARLY ABORTION PROBABLE: Xuefeng Gao and his fellow researchers have shown that the mode of action of gestrinone, used for emergency contraception, probably inhibits implantation.
Reading: “Mechanism of emergency contraception with gestrinone: A preliminary investigation,” Contraception, 9/07, pp. 221-227
politics
STRATEGIES: David Reardon, PhD is publishing a series of arguments that can be used by politicians to effectively define their pro-life positions without giving in to pressure. To learn about this valuable service, simply add your name to his e-mail list.
population control
CHINA: Delegates to a United Nations conference on climate change heard a representative of China say that the country’s one-child policy has helped in the fight against global warming by avoiding 300 million births.
Reading: “China says one-child policy helps protect climate,” Reuters, 8/30/07
EXPOSED: Mark Steyn wrote a biting commentary on the promoters of environmentalism: “The ecochondriacs mean it: This’d be a pretty nice planet if we didn’t live here.”
Reading: “No man’s land,” Western Standard, 6/18/07
stem cell research / tactics
MISSOURI: In the ongoing effort to expose the hypocrisy of the state’s Amendment 2, Colleen Carroll Campbell writes, “the amendment banned reproductive cloning while making the cloning and destruction of human embryos for research a constitutional right.”
Reading: “The word game is up; time for a true cloning ban,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 8/30/08
stem cell research / unethical
MAN-BEAST: The British government is poised to give scientists permission to create combined human/animal embryos in order to further human embryonic stem cell research. British media reports scientists are “at ease” with the concept.
Reading: “Human-animal embryo study wins approval,” The Guardian, 9/4/07
zinger
ENGLAND: A Benedictine monk who became a parish priest attended a Greenpeace festival, where he gave attendees a chance to go to a “green confession,” meaning that they could confess sins against the environment such as failing to recycle or consuming things they purportedly should not have consumed.
Reading: “Priest offers festival-goers the chance to confess their green sins,” The Times of London, 8/30/07
reminders
40 DAYS FOR LIFE: Grassroots pro-lifers in more than 80 communities will participate in the first-ever national 40 Days for Life campaign this fall. The project is based on an event that began in Bryan/College Station, Texas in 2004 and has spread to a half dozen other communities in the three years since. It combines prayer and fasting, round-the-clock vigils outside abortion facilities and community outreach.
LIFE CHAIN: Mark your calendars now and check online for a Life Chain in your area. The annual event is scheduled for October 7.
SAVING THOSE DAMNED CATHOLICS: Of Judie Brown’s latest book, Fr. Tom Euteneuer of Human Life International writes, “Judie Brown has never been one to sit back and let the devil have his way. Her great new work, Saving Those Damned Catholics, tells it like it is. I thank Judie for her forthright analysis of the state of the Church. She is not just telling us what is wrong – she is giving us our marching orders.”
TO ORDER: “Saving Those Damned Catholics” is available from ALL in hardcover or paperback. Call 866-LET-LIVE or purchase online.
ULTRASOUND VIDEO: “Baby Steps: Live from the womb, 16 stages of pre-birth development,” is an amazing new video from American Life League that many in the pregnancy center movement say is certain to save lives. The video features dramatic 4-D ultrasound images of preborn babies from 8 to 34 weeks development.
TO ORDER: The “Baby Steps” DVD is available from ALL for $9.95 plus shipping and handling. Call 866-LET-LIVE toll-free, or purchase online.
reflection for prayer
DISCIPLINE: It is no accident that the words “disciple” and “discipline” are nearly identical. Their relationship in Christian faith and life, however, has fallen somewhat out of favor in the past generation, as certain prescribed Church rules and regulations have been reduced and relaxed. These rules were often referred to as “disciplines.” We are mistaken, however, to think that it no longer takes discipline to follow Christ.
Reading: “Discipline,” J.S. Paluch Co., 8/26/07