Saturday, February 19, 2011

Lifeissues Newsletter #513

Lifeissues.net: clear thinking about crucial issues

Dear Friends For Life,

Belgium shows signs that Euthanasia Deaths are not being rreported. A recent study in the British Medical Journal reports that nearly half of all euthanasia deaths in the Flanders region of Belgium were not reported, i.e. were done without the request or consent of the patient. This suggests that the Belgium Euthanasia Program is basically out of control.

In Canada, the Bishops are finally coming around." In September 1968, in its "Winnipeg Statement," the Catholic bishops in Canada openly disagreed with the new encyclical, "Humanae Vitae." Many believed that, at least partly because of this, abortion then sharply increased and the number of Catholics practicing their faith also dropped sharply in Canada. Now, we have a pastoral letter from the current bishops entitled "Liberating Potential," which invites all believing Catholics "to discover or to rediscover the message of the encyclical 'Humanae Vitae.'" It states "abortion, sterilization, and contraception are in opposition to the Creator's intention at the heart of sexual intercourse preventing, if God so desires, the creation of a unique soul for the unique body that spouses help to form" I guess our only comment is "Well, well, well."

God Bless, 
Jerry Novotny, OMI

(A Thought) "Laughter and love are everywhere. The cathedrals, built in the ages that loved God, are full of blasphemous grotesques. The mother laughs continually at the child, the lover laughs continually at the lover, the wife at the husband, the friend at the friend." - G.K. Chesterton
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For clear thinking about crucial issues, visit LifeIssues.net
(Due to volume of spam received, do not reply to this message but instead send all emails to jerry@shirt.ocn.ne.jp. Thank you!)


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Lifeissues.net Newsletter #513
February 20, 2011

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(TABLE OF CONTENTS):

1. "Making sense of the ND Prolife Bill HB 1450?"
2. Homosexual "Marriage" is Harmful, Must be Opposed
3. Living in Misery With Abortion
4. De-fund the predatory Planned Parenthood
5. Who Needs Marriage?
6. Infanticide Must Be Combated - Carefully
7. Controversial Document Guides UN Youth Conference
8. Abortion, Religion, and Science
9. Abortion's dangerous euphemisms
10. Pastoral Letter to Young People on Chastity
11. Doctors harvest organs from euthanased patients
12. UK Waking Up to Impact of Divorce on Children


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(Focus on Asia): "In Tokyo, A Crackdown On Sexual Images Of Minors" - In a manga comic book that is well known here, "My Wife Is an Elementary School Student," a 24-year-old teacher marries a 12-year-old girl as part of a top-secret social experiment. There is no depiction of actual sex. But the teacher's steamy fantasies fill the comic's pages in graphic detail, including a little naked girl with sexually suggestive props.

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ITEM #1: "Making sense of the North Dakota Prolife Bill HB 1450?"

There was a rather odd and confusing article on a prolife bill in North Dakota this week. The article reports that the bill would criminalize the killing of the unborn "from conception". The bill itself states that "a human being" is formally defined as "an individual member of the species homo sapiens at every stage of development"; the term "person" is formally defined as including "all human beings". Nowhere in the bill is the term "conception" used. Therefore, the definition of "human being" in the bill would potentially cover all human beings. The term "conception" used in the article reporting on the bill would not. So what's with the term "conception" used in the article?

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ITEM #2: 10 Reasons Why Homosexual "Marriage" is Harmful and Must be Opposed

Calling something marriage does not make it marriage. Marriage has always been a covenant between a man and a woman which is by its nature ordered toward the procreation and education of children and the unity and wellbeing of the spouses. The promoters of same-sex "marriage" propose something entirely different.

Also read: Answering the Top 10 Arguments Used to Push Homosexuality

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ITEM #3: Living in Misery With Abortion

She was "small, bubbly and joyful. She had a radiant smile," with a "sweet" face. And yet, she wept. She was a nun, in full habit, standing outside a Planned Parenthood clinic that Abby Johnson was running in Texas. And then a "client" left the clinic, a woman who had just had an abortion. The religious sister, as Johnson writes, "fell to her knees and wept with such grief, such genuine personal pain, that I couldn't help but think to myself, She feels something far deeper than I ever will. She is honestly pained.

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ITEM #4: De-fund the predatory Planned Parenthood

Abortion activists first attacked the videos as "doctored," then claimed they had already taken steps to rectify problems at the targeted clinics, then fired a worker after the tapes had been released and finally denied any systemic failures while patting Planned Parenthood on the back for ordering new re-training measures for their employees this week. Those who dismiss the scandal as an anomaly are in denial or abjectly ignorant.

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ITEM #5: Who Needs Marriage?

Declining marriage rates lead to declining fertility rates. And many Western nations, not to mention Japan and China, will be dealing with an economically unsustainable situation by mid century. They will have half the number of able-bodied workers and twice as many people over 65 not earning money. Who is going to pay for government debt, pensions and healthcare?

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ITEM #6: Infanticide Must Be Combated - Carefully

The question thus becomes, how best to combat Singer-style anti-humanism. As I mentioned earlier, it can't be with Hitler. That trope will merely bounce off people's foreheads. Rather, the answer lies in Martin Luther King liberalism - pounding on the invidiously discriminatory nature of Singer-style utilitarian measurements of human life and defending a robust acceptance of human exceptionalism as the necessary predicate for universal human rights. Indeed, accepting Peter Singer's thesis is, by definition, a rejection of the U.N.'s Universal Declaration of Human Rights: "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights."

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ITEM #7 Controversial Document Guides Plans for UN Youth Conference

This agenda, laid out in the World Program of Action for Youth (WPAY), promotes youth autonomy and grants them new "rights".  One UN legal expert called the document a "Cairo for youth," since it calls on states to assign high priority to providing sexual and reproductive health services, sexual education outside the purview of the parents, and curriculum reforms to eradicate the perpetuation of "traditional female roles."

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ITEM #8: Abortion, Religion, and Science

Does life really begin on the say-so of a single person - even the mother? Does her position or mental state change what a fetus is or is not? That kind of elastic calculation grinds against reason. Even our intuitive reaction to motherhood agrees. As Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, who is an ob-gyn, once explained, "people ask an expectant mother how her baby is doing. They do not ask how her fetus is doing, or her blob of tissue, or her parasite."

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ITEM #9: Abortion's dangerous euphemisms

"This case is about a doctor who killed babies and endangered women," the report begins. "He regularly and illegally delivered live, viable, babies in the third trimester of pregnancy  -  and then murdered these newborns by severing their spinal cords with scissors. The medical practice by which he carried out this business was a filthy fraud in which he overdosed his patients with dangerous drugs, spread venereal disease among them with infected instruments, perforated their wombs and bowels  -  and, on at least two occasions, caused their deaths. Over the years, many people came to know that something was going on here. But no one put a stop to it."

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ITEM #10: Pastoral Letter to Young People on Chastity

Living a life of chastity is an ongoing journey which requires both guidance and encouragement. In order to help young Catholics on this challenging journey, the Episcopal Commission for Doctrine of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops would like to show its solidarity with them by providing some words of direction and support.

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ITEM #11: Belgian doctors harvest high quality organs from euthanased patients

A group of Belgian doctors are harvesting "high quality" organs from patients who have been euthanased. This is not a secret project, but one which they described openly at a conference organised by the Belgian Royal Medical Academy in December.

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ITEM #12: UK Waking Up to Impact of Divorce on Children

“Too many couples break up without understanding the consequences for their families,” Duncan Smith told The Daily Telegraph in December. “We should encourage people to face up to reality and make proper arrangements that ensure the best outcome for their children,” he said.


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YOU CAN CHANGE SOCIETY:

1. BE INFORMED: "My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge." Hosea 4:6. Visit Lifeissues.net Website for insights into current Life Issues www.lifeissues.net. Access to all prior Newsletters is located in the Archives on main page.

2. PRAY DAILY: for the courage to be God's presence in society and to strongly support those who are deemed "unworthy of life". "If My people who are called by My Name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I  hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land." 2 Chronicles 7:14

3. BECOME INVOLVED: Several years ago Fr. Jerry created a project entitled, "Journey for Life into the Heart of Asia". The project appeals for donations to help finance plane travel for lectures and seminars to developing countries in Asia. Strong focus is centered on reaching Asian Catholic Major Seminaries, Universities, Parishes, Hospitals and Family/Pro Life related groups. The lectures place emphasis on "The Asian Family at Crossroads: Life Issues, Trends and Challenges".

For information about no-cost Pro Life Talks to your group in Asia: contact Fr. Jerry atjerry@shirt.ocn.ne.jp

To become a supportive Missionary participant for this Asian project, kindly send your donations to:

** Fr. Jerry Novotny, OMI 

** LifeIssues.net, Editor

** Akebono-cho 1-15-9

** Kochi City, Japan, 780-8072

(or transfer donation directly to ProLife bank account: Jerome Novotny, Shikoku Bank, Asakura Branch, No. 102-1-0080824)

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Contact EDITOR:

Jerry Novotny, OMI

Akebono-cho 1-15-9

Kochi City, Japan, 780-8072 

[tel/fax: 088-843-0406] 

[email: jerry@shirt.ocn.ne.jp]

["Due to volume of spam received, we're asking you not to reply to this message but instead send all correspondence to jerry@shirt.ocn.ne.jp. Thank you! Editor"]

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Websites by Editor:

English LifeIssues Site: http://www.lifeissues.net,

Japanese LifeIssues Site: http://www.japan-lifeissues.net,

OMI Site: http://www.omijapankorea.net/index.html

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