Saturday, July 21, 2012

Lifeissues Newsletter #585

Lifeissues.net: clear thinking about crucial issues

Dear Friends For Life,

Words and Word Games:

Harvest Embryos - this is a feel good word. "Bring in the crops." "The end of a fruitful growing season." It falls pleasantly on our ears completely masking the reality of what is being done.

Destroy Embryos - Ah, this is better. But, we destroy things, like a broken chair.We don't kill a chair. So, to use this word, subtly dehumanizes these "things," thus, easing our conscience.

Kill Embryos - This is explicitly, exactly what is done.We only kill humans, so this abruptly identifies "the embryo" as a living human. The most accurate and pro-life wording here is "to kill a five day old living human embryo."

"Selective Reduction" - Sounds good: but we kill Twins and Triplets". This particular wording refers to the abortion of one or more babies in a multiple pregnancy. If a woman is pregnant with twins, triplets or more, usually through in vitro fertilization, and decides she only wants one or two she sometimes has the others killed in selective abortion. Which ones does the doctor eliminate? He eliminates the ones nearest the his needle. Where are the treaties and laws that protect the lives of unborn children.

Finally a word we can understand - PROHIBITED. Europe has prohibited Euthanasia. The Parliament Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has adopted a resolution setting the principle that, "euthanasia, in the sense of the intentional killing by act or omission of a dependent human being for his or her alleged benefit, must always be prohibited." This is the first time in the past decade that euthanasia has been so clearly rejected by a European political institution and is a major victory for the protection of life and dignity. It comes a year after the European court asserted that there was no right to euthanasia or assisted suicide under the European Convention.

And the Word Games continue....

God Bless,
Jerry Novotny, OMI

(The Difference is LIFE) "To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves, is sinful and tyrannical." - Thomas Jefferson

*---*(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!)

****************************************
Lifeissues.net Newsletter #585
July 22, 2012

****************************************

(TABLE OF CONTENTS):

1. India: Target-Driven Sterilization Harming Women
2. When Doctors Give Warning
3. Dutch Doctors Use "Deep Sedation" to Hide Assisted Suicides
4. Alcohol And Birth Control Use In Teens May Result In High Blood Pressure
5. Dozens of IVF babies are being aborted because they have Down's syndrome
6. The Economic Effect of Abortion: Billions and Billions Lost
7. Homosexuality: Church must preach what God says not what people want to hear
8. HIV/AIDS: South African bishop backs Pope against condoms in AIDS crisis
9. ABORTION: 'I don't enjoy alien parasites': Slate's anti-child readers bare their narcissism for all to see
10. A Muslim and a Christian team up to challenge the hotel industry on pornography.
11. Dehydrate dementia patients to death to save money: British Medical Journal editorial
12. Daily Mail readers enthusiastically support abortion of IVF babies with Down syndrome


****************************************
(FAMILY): "New Australian video defending marriage" -  As the battle over same-sex marriage continues, more and more useful expositions of the central arguments are appearing. This video was produced by a new Australian lobby group, "What Is Marriage"? It poses the obvious question: "what doesn't, and never has needed legislation, is love. Understandably so. Why should the Government regulate our love lives?"

****************************************

ITEM #1: India: Target-Driven Sterilization Harming Women

The Indian government announced on July 11, 2012, at the London Summit for Family Planning that it has brought about "a paradigm shift" in its approach and will emphasize promotion and provision of contraceptives for birth spacing. The Indian government announced that its new strategy focuses on "making contraceptives available at the doorstep through 860,000 community health workers," providing services for inserting intrauterine devices (IUDs) on fixed days in public health facilities, and improving post-natal services for IUDs, especially in those public health facilities that have large numbers of women coming to give birth.

****************************************

ITEM #2: When Doctors Give Warning

Comment: American medical ethics has been deteriorating on many fronts for decades. I have seen this as a nurse. Patients who are terminally ill, chronically or critically ill, or even just very elderly are increasingly seen as potential drains on the health care and economic systems. And "living wills"/advance directives that were originally portrayed as legal documents to protect patients' rights are now more often seen as agreements to end care and treatment for even "quality of life" reasons. Tragically but to the delight of euthanasia supporters, procedures such as terminal sedation are unlikely to encounter much in the way of legal or ethical challenges as both the public and health care providers are increasingly accepting of induced death described as a "comfort measure." -Nancy Valko, RN

****************************************

ITEM #3: Dutch Doctors Use "Deep Sedation" to Hide Assisted Suicides

The Lancet has just published an article purporting to show that euthanasia rates have not increased in the Netherlands since legalisation in 2002. This news will probably be seized upon by enthusiasts for decriminalisation in the UK and elsewhere but the figures are not at all what they seem at first sight and the press release sent out by the journal is selective and misleading in its reporting of the facts.

****************************************

ITEM #4: Alcohol And Birth Control Use In Teens May Result In High Blood Pressure

Male adolescents who consume alcohol and teenage girls who are on the pill are more likely to have high blood pressure in later life, according to results from a large pregnancy follow-up study in Australia.

****************************************

ITEM #5: Dozens of IVF babies are being aborted because they have Down's syndrome

Often the women will have spent years trying to become pregnant and may have spent thousands on private fertility clinics in the hope of conceiving. Last night, anti-abortion campaigners said the statistics on IVF terminations showed that some women treat babies like 'designer goods' - paying a fortune to conceive but then aborting them when they turn out not to be perfect. Down's syndrome is a genetic condition caused by the presence of an extra chromosome in each cell.

****************************************

ITEM #6: The Economic Effect of Abortion: Billions and Billions Lost

As we all know, there are so many effects that abortion has on a society and the whole world. What seems to be overlooked is how abortion can hurt the economy. People make the mistake that abortion is solely a moral issue, and therefore cannot be related to the effects of the economy. In the United States, there is a national debt nearing $16 trillion, which has surpassed the nation's annual GDP. In other words, the federal government is spending beyond its means. Since abortion was legalized in 1973 by Roe v. Wade, over 50 million babies have died, with over 3,000 killed on a daily basis.

****************************************

ITEM #7 Church must preach what God says not what people want to hear

In North America today, the Christian Church is challenged in the most extreme way in this regard by the issue of homosexuality.

****************************************

ITEM #8: South African bishop backs Pope against condoms in AIDS crisis

HIV/AIDS: According to Kumalo, the condom push is a result of arrogance by the international community. "They come with readymade solutions. They don't ask."

****************************************

ITEM #9: 'I don't enjoy alien parasites': Slate's anti-child readers bare their narcissism for all to see

ABORTION: The magazine gives us a glimpse of the mindset of the sexual narcissists who frequent its pages.

****************************************

ITEM #10: A Muslim and a Christian team up to challenge the hotel industry on pornography

Recently, I joined Shaykh Hamza Yusuf, one of our nation's most brilliant public intellectuals and a leading scholar and teacher of the Islamic tradition, in a letter to the chief executive officers of America's largest hotel chains asking them to stop offering pornography in their hotel rooms. We wrote as a Muslim and a Christian, but we appealed to the executives "not on the basis of truths revealed in our scriptures but on the basis of a commitment that should be shared by all people of reason and goodwill: a commitment to human dignity and the common good." We noted that "as teachers and as parents, we seek a society in which young people are encouraged to respect others and themselves - treating no one as an impersonal object or thing."

****************************************

ITEM #11: Dehydrate dementia patients to death to save money: British Medical Journal editorial

The courts should not interfere with doctors who want to dehydrate to death incapacitated patients who are a drain on scarce financial resources, according to an editorial in this week's edition of the prestigious British Medical Journal.

****************************************

ITEM #12: Daily Mail readers enthusiastically support abortion of IVF babies with Down syndrome

The responses are in my view frighteningly indicative of a growing intolerance of disability in our society and do not bode well for the future.



*****************************


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 at jerry@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)

------------------------------

Get a weekly dose of clear thinking: subscribe to our free Lifeissues newsletter! Sign up at www.LifeIssues.net. Pass this free service to your friends and various groups.

------------------------------

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"]

------------------------------

Websites by Editor:

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

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

HIV/AIDS Site: http://capcha.org

OMI Japan/Korea Site: http://omijapankorea.net/