in this issue:
american life league events: WORLD FAMILY CONFRENCE / YOUTH FESTIVAL
abortion: FETAL PAIN / INSURANCE SUIT / MILITARY ORDERED TO PAY / STATISTICS
adolescents: TEEN BIRTH RATES
brain death: REALLY DEAD?
bush watch: JUSTICE TO APPEAL
cloning humans: NO!
eugenics: EXPERTS DEBATE
euthanasia: FLORIDA / NETHERLANDS
morning-after abortion pill: NARAL
rhetoric: WOMENS’ BODIES — SPOILS OF BATTLE
vaccines: ACTIVISTS
web news: PRO LIFE TV ADS / TEACHING HUMANAE VITAE
zinger: ANTI-CLONERS ARE ABORTION BOMBERS
reflection for prayer: JOB 12:13
american life league events
WORLD FAMILY CONFERENCE: American Life League’s Celebration of Life World Family Conference is scheduled for July 10-14 in New Orleans. Conference outlines and online registration information may be found online. The event features speakers such as Alan Keyes, Mark Crutcher, Joseph Scheidler and Judie Brown.
YOUTH FESTIVAL: As part of the World Family Conference, ALL’s youth divisions are holding Vita Festival, two days of pro-life music and workshops, July 12-13 in New Orleans. An evening concert on July 12 will feature Contemporary Christian artists Jennifer Knapp, Earthsuit, Christafari, and Scarecrow and Tinmen. Ticket information is available online.
abortion
FETAL PAIN: The Harvard Law Review has published an interesting analysis entitled “The science, law and politics of fetal pain legislation.” The article is not online, but is located in the May 2002 issue, pages 2010-2033. Learn about the pro-life movement’s “hidden agenda” to endow the fetus with personhood!
INSURANCE SUIT: A Maryland couple is suing their health insurance provider for failing to pay for the induced abortion of a child diagnosed with anencephaly. After the abortion, Andrea Klercke said she named her daughter Kamilla and had her baptized because “I wanted to give my daughter the dignity she deserved.”
COMMENT: Where is dignity when a child is intentionally killed by abortion?
(Reading: “Couple fighting for insurance help in ending pregnancy,” Frederick [Maryland] News-Post, 6/3/02)
MILITARY ORDERED TO PAY: A federal judge decided that the military could not object on moral grounds to paying for the abortion of a child who was diagnosed in utero as having anencephaly.
(Reading: “US military must pay for abortion,” Associated Press, 6/1/02)
STATISTICS: The Alan Guttmacher Institute provides a statistical analysis of abortion by state, family planning clinics by state and Planned Parenthood facilities by state. As one pro-life activist observed, even in the most pro-life states, one in ten preborn children die by acts of surgical abortion.
adolescents
TEEN BIRTH RATES: UNICEF is reporting that the United States has the highest teen birth rate in “rich nations.” Approximately half of all adolescent pregnancies in the developed world end in abortion, according to the report detailing the facts for teens between the ages of 15 and 19. The report, according to a feminist news service, acknowledges that “increased [sex] education and availability of contraception [sic] would contribute to reducing the rate of pregnancy.
COMMENT: No mention is made of abortion-causing chemicals deceptively described as contraceptives.
(Reading: “Report finds teen birth rates highest in US,” Feminist Majority Foundation news release, 5/31/02)
brain death
REALLY DEAD? A physician writes that electroencephalographic recording is discouraged in the UK and this adds to the confusion of what it really means to pronounce a patient brain dead. He writes, “To be fair to people asked to register as potential organ donors, the Department of Health’s [UK] promotional literature should make it clear that there is continuing controversy about the diagnosis of what might be termed neurological death — the terms brain death and brain-stem death having been officially abandoned in this context — and specific consent before the crucial apnea test should be made mandatory in light of its potential to exacerbate the brain damage or even to prove fatal.”
A second letter states “I call on the community of transplant surgeons to study more extensively the processes about death and to exercise the necessary precision and clarity when dealing with issues pertaining to the fact of death, especially brain death.”
(Reading: “Waking the dead,” The Lancet, 5/25/02, p. 1862)
bush watch
JUSTICE TO APPEAL: Attorney General John Ashcroft will appeal a judge’s ruling that upheld the Oregon assisted suicide act. Letters of thanks to Ashcroft can be .
(Reading: “Justice to appeal assisted suicide law,” Associated Press, 5/24/02)
cloning humans
NO! An excellent op-ed by senators Sam Brownback and Mary Landrieu entitled “Embryos are not ‘resources‘” was published in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
eugenics
EXPERTS DEBATE: Neither Francis Fukuyama nor Gregory Stock is known for their solid pro-life credentials. But they do radically differ on their view of human beings as persons versus commodities. For insights into the views of both men, visit “Engineering Humans.”
euthanasia
FLORIDA: Those unfamiliar with Terri Schiavo’s plight as a nursing home patient whose spouse is working to cut off her nutrition and hydration should visit the web site her father has set up and review the occurrences over the past two years. The time line is revealing. See Terri’s Fight.
NETHERLANDS: Researchers report that one in five patients with ALS died as a result of euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide in the Netherlands. “Disability before death was significantly more severe in patients who died as a result of euthanasia than among those who died in other ways. Physician-assisted suicide appeared to occur somewhat earlier in the course of the disease than did euthanasia. And additional 48 patients (24 percent) received palliative treatment, which probably shortened their lives.”
An accompanying editorial argues that if physicians were properly trained, legalized physician-assisted suicide would be relevant in only a small number of cases.
QUESTION: Does the separation between euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide mean that one is less immoral than the other?
(Reading: “Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide among patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in the Netherlands,” New England Journal of Medicine, 5/23/02, pp. 1638-1644; “Physician-assisted death — a last resort?” New England Journal of Medicine, 5/23/02, pp. 1663-65, unavailable on line without paid subscription)
morning-after abortion pill
NARAL: The New York chapter of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League published updates including a demand that “New York City must stipulate that all hospitals receiving any city funds offer and provide rape survivors with emergency contraception [sic] on site.” They claim that without immediate access to these killer pills, the health of the sexual assault victim is jeopardized.
(Reading: “Providing comprehensive care to rape survivors,” NARAL of New York release)
rhetoric
WOMENS’ BODIES — SPOILS OF BATTLE! The article from which this phrase came can be seen on the Planned Parenthood site.
vaccines
ACTIVISTS: Pro-lifers in Illinois have started a state chapter of Children of God for Life, the national organization battling for ethical vaccines. The chapter may be contacted by . The national web site is Children of God for Life.
web news
PRO-LIFE TV ADS: See the following web site for information on pro-life television ads you can run: Virtue Media; Life Media; The Caring Foundation.
TEACHING HUMANAE VITAE: For parish activities focused on teaching Humanae Vitae see God’s Plan for Life.
zinger
ANTI-CLONERS ARE ABORTION BOMBERS! Nobel laureate Steven Weinberg, during his commencement address at Bates College, told students “Even here in America we have religious zealots who try to corrupt the teaching of biological and astronomic science in public schools, who try to ban research on therapeutic cloning, who try to prevent building astronomical observatories on the top of mountains that some people think are sacred and, who in extreme cases, bomb abortion clinics.”
(Reading: “Nobel laureate lumps abortuary lumps abortuary bombers with therapeutic cloning opponents,” LifeSite News, 5/29/02; “Bates celebrates Commencement 2002,” Bates College news release, 5/27/02)
reflection for prayer
JOB 12:13: With God is all wisdom and power; in Him are counsel and understanding.