No surprise: NARAL endorses Obama

NARAL endorses Obama - POLITICO.com: “The difference between President Obama and Mitt Romney on choice is clear and stark,” group president Nancy Keenan said in a statement.

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Stem Cell Suicide Switch

Stem Cell Suicide Switch | The Scientist: Unlike any other known human cell type, human embryonic stem cells are primed to immediately throw themselves on the sword if they experience any DNA damage. Human embryonic stem cells form the early embryo and eventually give rise to every cell type in the body. Because of this, a rapid self-destruct mechanism activated by DNA damage may prevent potentially dangerous mutations from spreading through the developing organism, the authors concluded.

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Inside Congressional caucus briefing on how to blunt pro-life gains in black community

Inside Congressional caucus briefing on how to blunt pro-life gains in black community | Jill Stanek: This recent conclave illustrates the success that African American pro-life efforts are having.

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Michael J. Fox: Embryonic Stem Cells Likely Won't Cure Him

Michael J. Fox Admits Embryonic Stem Cells Likely Won't Cure Him | LifeNews.com: With embryonic stem cells nowhere nearer to yielding any beneficial results for patients, Fox is admitting embryonic stem cell research isn’t all he claimed it was cracked up to be. In a new interview with ABC News, he told Diane Sawyer there have been have been “problems along the way,” to a supposed therapy for Parkinson’s from embryonic stem cells and said new drug therapies are showing real promise and are “closer today” to providing a cure.

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Abortion or a baby born with disability: What choice would you make?

Abortion or a baby born with disability: What choice would you make? | Mail Online: It’s the news every mother-to-be dreads: that their baby faces a life of terrible disability. But would YOU make the same choice as Sara?

Editor: Sadly, this mother and father didn't hear any positive messages about their child's condition (spina bifida), or learn of any resources available to help, such as they could have found at BeNotAfraid.net. 

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Why Did We Ever Start Calling Patients “Vegetables?”

LifeNews: The term “vegetative state” became popular at the “birth” of bioethics (1978 Belmont Report). It is traced to the “delayed personhood” arguments used at the beginning of life issues: first the vegetative soul is present, then later the sensitive soul is added, and finally (about 3-4 months) the rational soul is added. Then and only then is there a human being with a rational soul to be respected. St. Thomas (following Aristotle), as well as many religions today still follow that odd and scientifically/philosophically false dictum.

What bioethics did was also reverse this dictum to end of life issues — and this was taught in a major seminar at a Georgetown bioethics conference early on (about 1990). Those of us in the seminar on “euthanasia” were taught that — just as there is a series of souls at the beginning of life — at the end of life the reverse happens (supposedly adapted from St. Thomas): in the dying patient, first the rational soul leaves the body, then the sensitive soul leaves the body, and finally the only thing left there in the patient is the vegetative soul — and thus there is no “person” really present! Of course, that would also mean that with euthanasia, physician assisted suicide (PAS), and organ transplantation, the use of such “vegetables” in human research, etc., would be “ethical.”

Biola University clarifies stance on human sexuality

WORLDmag.com | Biola University clarifies stance on human sexuality | Angela Lu: Biola students are required to sign a contract affirming their agreement with the university’s belief that “sexual relationships are designed by God to be expressed solely within a marriage between husband and wife.” The new statement goes into more detail, looking at God’s design for marriage, offering help for those struggling with issues of sexuality, and encouraging discussion on campus.

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‘The Amateur,’ gets it all wrong about Obama and the Born Alive bill

New Obama biography, ‘The Amateur,’ gets it all wrong about Obama and the Born Alive bill | LifeSiteNews.com: Edward Klein’s unauthorized biography of Barack Obama, The Amateur, was released this week. Klein devoted a chapter of his book, albeit only three pages, to Obama’s opposition as state senator to the Illinois Born Alive Infant Protection Act, but he got it pretty much all wrong. You can read some of the chapter here.

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The Essentials: What is Man?

The Essential: Man | Challies Dot Com: "Genesis 1 teaches us that man is the one creature made male and female, from the earth, in the image of God, with dominion over the rest of creation."

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Pregnancy discrimination or issue of morals?

Teacher fired for being unwed and pregnant can sue religious school, court rules: A three-judge panel of the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta ruled that Jarretta Hamilton's lawsuit against Southland Christian School in St. Cloud, Fla., should proceed to a trial. At issue in the suit is whether the school engaged in pregnancy discrimination in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. School officials maintained that Ms. Hamilton was fired for violating the moral values of the Christian school.

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Action needed!

National Right to Life: Did you know that in our nation's capital, it is perfectly legal to subject unborn children to terribly painful deaths, even during the sixth and seventh months of pregnancy -- or even later? In the District of Columbia, abortion is now legal at any point in pregnancy, for any reason, as long as someone is willing to pay the abortionist for the gruesome "service."

This appalling situation will be explored by the U.S. House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on the Constitution on May 17, 2012, in a public hearing on the District of Columbia Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act (H.R. 3803). If your representative is already a cosponsor of the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, thank him or her. If not, urge the lawmaker to become a cosponsor.

Hong Kong crackdowns on Chinese families looking to get around one-child policy

World News: Hong Kong crackdowns on Chinese families looking to get around one-child policy - thestar.com: In China, having a second child involves a difficult choice: crossing borders to give birth or have the child in China and be heavily fined and potentially lose your job for violating the country’s strict one-child policy. In the past, the chief destination for mainland mothers looking to give birth overseas has been Hong Kong. Over the last few years, the mood has hardened against mainland mothers.

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"Religious People Should Support Abortion"

Member of Obama’s Faith-Based Council Believes That Religious People Should Support Abortion: Harry Knox, a member of President Obama’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, stirred things up with his recent Huffington Post piece, “Why Religious People Should Support the Rights of Women in Reproductive Decisions.” He actually came up with six reasons.

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Grand Rapids Mayor apologizes for calling Planned Parenthood opponents 'forces of darkness'

Grand Rapids Mayor George Heartwell apologizes for calling Planned Parenthood opponents 'forces of darkness' | MLive.com: First Ward Commissioner Dave Shaffer said the so-called "forces of darkness" really "are our biggest allies in actually helping solve the social problems we have.”

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Wait No More: One Family's Amazing Adoption Journey

A little boy needed a home. An infant girl needed a mother's love. A toddler was trapped in the insecurity of foster care. A tiny girl had no family.

Kelly and John Rosati never expected to adopt four such children through the US foster care system, but God's plan turned out to be more extraordinary than they could have dreamed.

Wait No More follows them on their journey through the child welfare system. The picture it paints is not always pretty and may discourage anyone who harbors romantic ideas of what it might be like to rescue a child. Readers are challenged by the desperate needs of children and the realities of how hard it can be for an abandoned or abused child to assimilate into the fold of a loving family. Nevertheless, Kelly and John -- along with Daniel, Anna, Joshua, and Hope -- heartily agree that adoption is beautiful.

At times, the authors seem to offer "too much information" and risk emotionally exhausting readers, but it's heartening to learn the book was written with all the Rosati kids' approval, even though they are still quite young and it meant they would first have to learn some of the hard details of the story of their adoptions. "They made it clear that if our family's story would help other kids and families, they were okay with it."

The Rosati's clearly want to promote adoption through the foster care system, but don't mind disabusing us of the myths and warning of the perils. They're using the book to advance the work of Focus on the Family's Wait No More program, which works to connect Christian families with "legal orphans trapped in foster care."

Did you know there are over 114,000 children in the US waiting for families to adopt them? Meanwhile, there are more than 300,000 churches. "If only one family in every other church would adopt a waiting child, we could eliminate the list of waiting children." A poignant and stirring challenge, indeed.

Acknowledgment: Tyndale House Publishers provided me with a complimentary copy of this book.

Does the Bible prohibit abortion? Abortion in the Bible and Church history

Does the Bible prohibit abortion? Abortion in the Bible and Church history • ChristianAnswers.Net: There is a small but influential circle of prochoice advocates who claim to base their beliefs on the Bible. They maintain that "nowhere does the Bible prohibit abortion." Yet the Bible clearly prohibits the killing of innocent people (Exodus 20:13). All that is necessary to prove a biblical prohibition of abortion is to demonstrate that the Bible considers the unborn to be human beings.

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Women and babies 'put at risk by aggressive IVF'

Women and babies 'put at risk by aggressive IVF' - Telegraph: There is increasing evidence that the standard method of IVF used in Britain, which involves stimulating the ovaries with high doses of drugs to produce large numbers of eggs for harvesting, was damaging to women's health and caused chromosomal abnormalities to resulting embryos.

Related:
The £25m IVF doctor: Clinic’s profits fuel criticism of the ‘human life industry’

Birth-Defect Risk Seen in Assisted Conception

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Bone grown from human embryonic stem cells

Bone grown from human embryonic stem cells: The study, published in the early online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences during the week of May 14th, is the first example of using bone cell progenitors derived from human embryonic stem cells to grow compact bone tissue in quantities large enough to repair centimeter-sized defects. When implanted in mice and studied over time, the implanted bone tissue supported blood vessel ingrowth, and continued development of normal bone structure, without demonstrating any incidence of tumor growth.

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Chen Guangcheng still in diplomatic limbo, phones Congressional hearing

‘I’m not a hero’: Chen Guangcheng, still in diplomatic limbo, phones Congressional hearing | LifeSiteNews.com: As Chinese forced-abortion opponent Chen Guanchcheng awaits a passport to freedom that some fear may never come, his supporters are pleading for continued media attention as the affair threatens to be swept under the diplomatic rug between the U.S. and China.

The extensive international media coverage of Chen’s plight was highlighted as a key factor in his safety at a Congressional hearing Tuesday. The hearing also highlighted how such coverage was critical for the woman who helped Chen escape, who said she believes beatings or worse were in store at the hands of officials who kidnapped her, had it not been for such exposure.

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The sky is falling on abortion ‘rights’

The sky is falling on abortion ‘rights’ | LifeSiteNews.com: "Change public opinion, and you’ll change public policy." This has been the mantra of the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform and its affiliates for years. And with the youth activated like it never has been before, that is swiftly becoming a reality.

I realize that it is dangerous to look across the border to our Southern neighbors when making comparisons, because Canadians pride themselves on being, first and foremost, not Americans. But when we see Canadian youth rising up to take on Canada’s perceived abortion consensus, a quick look to the United States tells us just how effective that will be.

While American commentators such as David Frum have urged Republicans to give up on the abortion fight and let it sink into irrelevance, his advice doesn’t reflect the current reality. Each year seems to bring more pro-life legislation than the last, and pro-“choice” activists are beginning to notice, with one Planned Parenthood director noting worriedly that “the sky is falling on Roe v. Wade.”

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Pro-Choice Extremist Convicted for Threatening Pro-Lifers

Pro-Choice Extremist Convicted for Threatening... | Gather: Theodore Shulman was sentenced this week for "51 months in jail and a fine of $250,000". This sentence was a part of a plea deal that removed charges for "possession of cyanide and two other deadly substances at the time of his arrest."

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Would-Be Grandparents Nudge Daughters to Egg-Freezing Clinic

Would-Be Grandparents Nudge Daughters to Egg-Freezing Clinic - NYTimes.com: At the Colorado Center for Reproductive Medicine, a popular destination for women hoping to preserve their fertility by freezing their eggs, Dr. William Schoolcraft, the founder and medical director, has started to notice something different: more of the women are arriving with company. The gray-haired entourages, it turns out, are the parents, tagging along to lend support — emotional and often financial — as their daughters turn to the fledgling field of egg freezing to improve their chances of having children later on, when they are ready to start a family.

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Personhood Amendments Would Not Successfully Ban Abortions

Personhood Amendments Would Not Successfully Ban Abortions | LifeNews.com: "The view that a 'personhood' law or a 'personhood' amendment to a state constitution would outlaw abortion is widespread among the public. Furthermore, pro-abortion proponents, and even a trial court judge, claim that legally defining the word 'person' to include every human being from the moment of conception would also outlaw or restrict embryonic stem cell research, in vitro fertilization, birth control, and treatment necessary to save a pregnant woman’s life. However, the legal recognition of personhood for a zygote, embryo, or fetus would not outlaw abortion, or anything else, just like legal recognition for an adult does not outlaw the death penalty.

"The Constitution does not provide an unconditional right to life to any person. Moreover, the Constitution does not even mention a right to life. Consequently, it is important to examine the ways in which life is protected by the Constitution.

". . . Ultimately, the justices of both the liberal wing and conservative wing of the Supreme Court would have to abandon the constitutional principles and the approaches to constitutional interpretation they have employed their entire careers in order to prohibit abortion, or anything else, solely on the basis of personhood."

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Geneticist claims PGD ‘a tremendous blessing and a wonderful thing’

Geneticist claims that weeding out embryos with severe genetic abnormalities is ‘a tremendous blessing and a wonderful thing’ | NRL News Today: Shane McKee introduces himself as a doctor in genetic medicine. He goes on to say, "I regard the technological advances that we’ve made over the past ten to fifteen years as being a tremendous blessing and a wonderful thing that we can bring to bear to try and help individuals and families either affected with, or at risk of, severe genetic disorders to live and reproduce as normally as possible."

Analysis: Dr McKee is talking about the technique called pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) where human embryos are produced by in vitro fertilisation and then examined for chromosomal or other genetic abnormalities in a laboratory. Those judged to be abnormal are then discarded and only normal embryos are placed back in the uterus. He regards this as a ‘tremendous blessing and a wonderful thing.’ Many embryos with genetic abnormalities do not survive pregnancy of course but many also do as people with a range of disabilities. Some of these are severe resulting in death during childhood but many others live on into adulthood.

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Should Parents Be Able To Sue For 'Wrongful Birth'?

Should Parents Be Able To Sue For 'Wrongful Birth'? : Shots - Health Blog : NPR: In most states, parents can sue for negligence or if doctors fail to provide information about the condition of a fetus. But more than a half-dozen states have adopted laws that ban those lawsuits, and several others have been debating the idea this year.

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