Women 'missing out on pregnancy care'

BBC News - Women 'missing out on pregnancy care': Hundreds of thousands of women and their babies are being put at risk because they are not getting access to good antenatal care in England and Wales.

Editor: So much for nationalized health care.

Study highlights dangers of IVF treatment overseas

Study highlights dangers of IVF treatment overseas - Health News, Health & Families - The Independent: A global survey of fertility treatment covering more than 100 countries has revealed wide variations in international laws governing IVF which are fuelling the growth of 'fertility tourism.'

Christianity Versus Transhumanism

Christianity Versus Transhumanism | Beyond The Beyond: AN OPEN LETTER TO CHRISTIAN LEADERS ON BIOTECHNOLOGY AND THE FUTURE OF MAN: Time is running out to influence debate on transhumanism. If Christians are to help shape contemporary culture—particularly in a setting in which I fear the posthuman message will prove attractive, if not seductive—then they must offer an alternative and compelling vision; a counter theological discourse so to speak.

Political thriller: To Die For

Matt Harper, Assistant Pastor of Truth Baptist Church in South Windsor, CT, writes: "The teen drama club from our church has produced a play entitled 'To Die For,' a political thriller highlighting the evils of abortion and the value of life. As the suspenseful plot unfolds, it touches your heart, informs your mind, and motivates your will to stand for life and fight for the unborn.

"We will be presenting the drama December 3 & 4 at 7:00 pm at Truth Baptist Church in South Windsor. Our prayer is that God will use the message of the play to show Himself strong in this generation by changing people’s hearts with this message of the truth." Call (860) 906-6784 for more info.

Senate Defeats Motion OKing Vote on Bill Allowing Abortions at Military Hospitals

Senate Defeats Motion OKing Vote on Bill Allowing Abortions at Military Hospitals: The Senate has defeated a motion to stop a Republican-led filibuster against the bill that funds the Defense Department. The filibuster came in response to several issues including concerns about language that would essentially turn military base hospitals into abortion clinics.

LIFE DIGEST: Summary of recent pro-life events

Baptist Press - LIFE DIGEST: Planned Parenthood's abortion total rises; La. revokes abortion clinic license - News with a Christian Perspective

Congressman Ryan Latest to Call For Truce on Social Issues

Congressman Paul Ryan Latest to Call For Truce on Pro-Life, Social Issues: Congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin became the latest potential presidential candidate and Republican with a national profile to call for a 'truce' on social issues. He joins Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels and Mississippi Gov. Hailey Barbour, who called for Republicans to back down on pro-life issues.

Ryan, the top Republican on the Budget Committee who has a strongly pro-life record and is viewed as a conservative who is very knowledgeable on health care issues, talked about the place social issues have in the election. 'We will agree to disagree on those issues,' Ryan said last Monday on CNBC. 'But let's rally around the tallest pole in our tent: fiscal conservatism, economic liberty.'

Poll: Religion Key in Shaping Abortion Opinions

A new Pew poll released on Friday shows Americans continue to say their religious beliefs have been highly influential in shaping their views about social issues, including abortion. The way in which religious beliefs play a role in shaping abortion views is more strong than for other political issues. On the issue of abortion, 26% overall say religion is the most important influence on their opinion, including 45% among abortion opponents. LifeNews

Get to Know: The Medical Institute

The MEDICAL INSTITUTE provides science-based information that changes 

behavior and influences lives. One way that MI is delivering this important information is through their new DVD Tell Me NOW! This video was developed to help 3rd to 5th graders and their parents start a life-long conversation about sexual health. 

Letter Opposes Repeal of Military Policies on Homosexuals and Abortion

Letter Urges Senate to Oppose Repeal of Military Policies on Homosexuals and Abortion: The Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, strongly opposed to using our military to advance radical social policies, sent a letter Sept. 16 to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) urging him and his colleagues to oppose any vote to advance the Defense Authorization bill unless provisions to repeal the policies on homosexuals and abortion are removed.

Michigan County Panel Votes to Nix Employee Abortion Coverage

Michigan County Panel Votes to Nix Employee Abortion Coverage: Members of a county panel in Michigan have voted unanimously to remove abortion coverage from county employees' health insurance, according to local news reports.
The Grand Rapids Press reported that Kent County's Legislative and Human Resources Committee agreed in a 9-0 vote to seek an end to the benefit in future employee contracts, and to request voluntary surrender of the benefit by the 13 labor unions in the county.

Social conservatives warn Republicans not to abandon social issues

Social conservatives warn Republicans not to abandon social issues - Abby Phillip - POLITICO.com: Leaders of the religious right are warning Republicans not to abandon social issues in a document that is expected to be an outline of the party’s governing agenda if it regains control of Congress. Some have compared the document, being drafted by the GOP’s congressional leadership, to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s groundbreaking 1994 “Contract With America.” But religious conservatives are worried that their bread-and-butter social issues — opposition to abortion and gay marriage, and support for religious liberty — will be left behind on the Republicans’ path to power, an effort to draw support from social moderates.

Democrats, Republicans Spar Over Ethics of Embryonic Stem Cell Research

FOXNews.com - Democrats, Republicans Spar Over Ethics of Embryonic Stem Cell Research: Senate Democrats argued a moral imperative to allow federal funding of embryonic stem-cell research, in a hearing Thursday that comes a week after an appeals court temporarily lifted a judge's ban on federal funding of it. But Mississippi Republican Sen. Roger Wicker said the research using fetal tissue for stem cell research raises "profound moral and ethical challenges."

Best novel about cloning now a movie

BioEdge: Best novel about cloning now a movie: The beautiful novel Never Let Me Go has become a reasonably good film, according to critics. Booker Prize winner Kazuo Ishiguro (author of Remains of the Day) wrote his novel about children raised in a classic English boarding school in 2005 to much acclaim. The reader gradually learns that they are clones destined to serve as organ donors.

MO lawmakers answer the question of when life begins

Mo. lawmakers answer the question of when life begins | NewsOK.com: Pythagorean Greeks, early Christian church fathers, Talmudic rabbis, Sunni and Shia scholars, Hindu Brahmin and modern bioethicists have grappled with the fundamental, ultimately unknowable, mystery: At what point in our biological development are we infused with a soul? At what point do we become human?

Missouri lawmakers have declared their answer. By withholding both his signature and his veto, Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon signaled that he agreed and recently allowed the legislative answer to become state law. ''The life of each human being begins at conception," according to Senate Bill 793, which adds new regulations to the state's 24-hour informed consent law for abortions. "Abortion will terminate the life of a separate, unique, living human being."

The Tragedy of American Compassion

Amazon.com: The Tragedy of American Compassion (9781433501104): Marvin Olasky, Amy L. Sherman: Books: This is a richly documented, controversial history of the welfare state as seen from a conservative political perspective. The system is generous with money but stingy on human involvement, argues Olasky: compassion means tough love in which those who give must demand self-help from those who receive. But Olasky adds a proviso that the giver too must be personally involved. He holds up the example of 19th-century charity workers, whose religious beliefs made them compassionate and willing to deal intimately with the poor, rather than dispensing money to them through government agencies.

Editor: A must read. Thanks for the reminder!

The Biblical Principles of Change

Change is the mode of life God intends for believers. If growth is our goal, how do we attain it? Access these helpful class notes, audio, and video files by Wayne Johnston from Valley Bible Church in Lancaster, CA.

Hearing ear and seeing eye: God's marvelous creation

Anatomist Dr. David Menton takes you on a journey into the marvelous intricacies of the human ear, which has the clear stamp of the Creator and leaves skeptics speechless. Download this video free for one week from Answers in Genesis.

Undifferentiated Ethics: Why Stem Cells from Adult Skin Are as Morally Fraught as Embryonic Stem Cells

Undifferentiated Ethics: Why Stem Cells from Adult Skin Are as Morally Fraught as Embryonic Stem Cells: Scientific American: When researchers first demonstrated in 2007 that human skin cells could be reprogrammed to behave like stem cells that can fully differentiate into other cells, scientists and politicians alike rejoiced. All the potential of embryonic stem cells might be harnessed with the new techniques—without the political and moral controversy associated with destroying a fertilized egg.

That optimism, however, may be misplaced; these transformed cells, known as induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells), actually present equally troubling ethical quandaries, according to bioethicists who met at the International Society for Stem Cell Research annual meeting in June. Many of the ethical challenges posed by embryonic stem cells remain.

Scientists have already reported progress in growing precursor cells for eggs and sperm from both iPS and embryonic stem cell lines. To make sure the gametes work normally, for instance, researchers will need to grow embryos and then destroy them, a morally contentious practice with prohibitions and policies differing around the world. Sperm and egg from skin cells eventually might be used for reproductive purposes, enabling parenthood at any age using tissue from either the living or dead. In fertility clinics, iPS cells could enable prospective parents to choose embryos for desired traits more easily than they can with conventional assisted-reproduction technologies. The possibilities raise a radical question about the moral status of human cells.

Preparing Your Daughter for Every Woman's Battle

Amazon.com: Preparing Your Daughter for Every Woman's Battle: Creative Conversations about Sexual and Emotional Integrity eBook: Shannon Ethridge: Kindle Store: Recognizing how awkward it can be to confront the topic of sex, author Shannon Ethridge guides you and your daughter through enjoyable yet memorable discussions about sexuality, purity, and dating – leading to a deeper understanding of and appreciation for God’s standards. Preparing Your Daughter for Every Woman’s Battle provides creative tools that will give you the courage and confidence to talk openly and honestly with your daughter–and instill values that will lead her to a lifetime of sexual and emotional integrity.

NIH Expedites Grants for Human Embryo Destroying Research

NIH Expedites Grants for Human Embryo Destroying Research: "The National Institute of Health is expediting the grant process for outside researchers in human embryonic stem-cell research, after the D.C. Court of Appeals gave them an emergency stay until September 20 on a judge’s order halting their work. Sally Rockey, the NIH's Deputy Director for Extramural Research, circulated an email recommending that NIH institute councils should fast-track grants for hESC research.

Do parents make the best parents?

Contraception made possible the separation between sex and reproduction. Why not separate reproduction from parenthood? Why should artificial reproduction be privileged over natural reproduction, the authors of an article in Studies in Ethics, Law, and Technology ask. It is inconsistent to demand that the welfare of the child be a criterion for assisted reproduction, but not for natural reproduction.

"What we should not promote and respect are accidental parenting unaccompanied by critical reflection of its exercise, the ostentatious display of reproductive capacities, unquestioned bad parenting, or blind conformity to the pro-reproductive culture," they claim. This reasoning leads them to float some radical possibilities for the future of parenting; Compulsory contraception, regardless of personal convictions; Confiscating children after they are born from incompetent parents; Compulsory parenting education.

Struggle over 'ownership' of baby split gay parents

Another instalment in the Amazing Adventures of Reproductive Technology. Baby E was born in Melbourne in 2008. His mother and her partner were lesbians. To conceive the boy, they held a "baby summit" with a friendly gay couple who agreed to donate sperm on alternate months until a baby was conceived. After the birth, the friendly relationship broke down. The men wanted to share the child's life but the women banned them. The men sued and the case ended up before the Australian Family Court. The judge decided all four had parental rights. Sunday Morning Herald

Psalm 139, as rendered by James Vasquez

Psalm 139: My inmost being while in the womb,
You knit together and each day,
Ordained for me within your book,
You wrote in full display.

Hymn: Song of Life

Song of Life: With skillful and with hidden hand

Thou workest in the womb,
And there, in dark and tiny space,
Makest unseen life to bloom.
Fashioned fearfully and wonderf’ly,
Thy knowledge to display,
Thine image bearer grows in night
Which is to Thee as day.