Saturday, December 4, 2010

Lifeissues Newsletter #503

Lifeissues.net: clear thinking about crucial issues

 


For clear thinking about crucial issues, visit LifeIssues.net

Dear Friends for Life,

Reprogrammed Skin Cells are successful. Dr. Derrick Rossi, of Children's Hospital in Boston and Harvard Stem Cell Institute reported in the journal Stem Cell, that they have made significant progress in creating stem cells from human skin without using human embryos. Such new cells will probably have the ability to morph into any type of cell in the recipient's body without the need to use anti-rejection drugs.

Abortion increases breast cancer. Researchers in Iran have shown that women who have an abortion have a 193% increased risk for breast cancer. In contrast, women who carry their first pregnancy to term have a lower risk than those who have not become pregnant. They also show that having a first pregnancy at older ages increases breast cancer risk by over 300%, this having sobering implications for women who have used birth control to delay their first pregnancy. We note that Komen for the Cure gave 7.5 million dollars to Planned Parenthood abortion businesses in 2009, as it continues to deny any link.

God Bless,
Jerry Novotny, OMI

(A Thought) "True, eros tends to rise "in ecstasy" towards the Divine, to lead us beyond ourselves; yet for this very reason it calls for a path of ascent, renunciation, purification and healing." - Pope Benedict XVI

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Lifeissues.net Newsletter #503
December 5, 2010

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(TABLE OF CONTENTS):

1. Indonesian women stand up to sexual violence
2. Women's group lifts veil on prisoners' misery

3.
Why Aren't Women Being Told?
4.
Direct Conversion May Make ESC Research Obsolete
5.
Pro-abort Human Rights sets sights on Argentina
6.
Korean Church moves against death penalty
7.
Ella Abortion Drug Available as Contraceptive Pill
8. Organ Wagons To Make House Calls

9.
Drug firms have to stop paying doctors
10.
Down syndrome screening is genocide
11.
Mistakes kill 15,000 aged patients per month
12.
Ethically Thin: Shape of Progressive Bioethics


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(Focus on Asia): "Burmese regime continues brutal campaign against ethnic civilians" - Until the regime ends its attacks on ethnic civilians, stops its policies of forced labour, rape and torture, declares a nationwide ceasefire and enters into meaningful dialogue with the democracy movement and the ethnic nationalities, international pressure must be maintained.

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ITEM #1: Indonesian women stand up to sexual violence

The campaign highlights the increasing number of sexual abuse cases over the last 12 years in Indonesia. From 1998 to 2010, there have been 295,836 cases of violence against women, 91,311 of which were sexual violence. Komnas Perempuan's record shows rape, women trafficking and sexual mistreatment as the leading instances of sexual abuse against women. "Women who fight for human rights, who have physical disability, who live with HIV/AIDS and migrant workers are prone to sexual violence," said Maesaroh. The Muslim activist said perpetrators often include family members, close relatives and boyfriends, although employers, neighbors, colleagues and strangers are also to blame for the violence.

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ITEM #2: Women's group lifts veil on prisoners' misery

Female political prisoners in the Philippines are subjected to routine sexual humiliation, abuse and violence, women's and rights groups say. Detainees are "frequently considered sex subjects of the police, military or people in authority."

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ITEM #3: Abortion Linked to Preterm Birth, But Why Aren't Women Being Told?

In a paper published in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in 2009, a Canadian research team examined data from 37 studies and found that having a prior abortion increased the risk of subsequent preterm birth by 35 percent, while having more than one prior abortion increased the risk by 93 percent. (Preterm birth is defined as a birth that takes place before 37 weeks gestation.) As the evidence linking abortion and preterm birth continues to pile up, women and their loved ones are not being told of the risks.

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ITEM #4: Direct Conversion May Make Embryonic Stem Cell Research Obsolete

The process of "direct conversion" involves changing one kind of specialized stem cell into another kind - and it eliminates the need for controversial embryonic stem cells, which some scientists promote because they can change into most any kind of cells.

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ITEM #5: Flush with $100 million in cash, pro-abort Human Rights Watch sets sights on Argentina

Flush with a recent $100 million donation from leftist billionaire George Soros, the abortion lobby Human Rights Watch (HRW) is setting its sights on Argentina, where it hopes to pressure the government to remove "obstacles" to abortion and sterilization, and allow the distribution of contraceptives to children as young as 13 years of age, without parental approval.

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ITEM #6: Korean Church moves against death penalty

An official Catholic organization has joined a Seoul street campaign seeking the legal abolition of capital punishment in South Korea. The Korean bishops' Subcommittee for the Abolition of Capital Punishment co-organized the Nov. 30 event with Amnesty International and other human rights groups to mark International Day of "Cities for Life, Cities against the Death Penalty."

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ITEM #7: Ella Abortion Drug Now Available, Called Contraceptive Pill

Pharmacists For Life International, in a statement to LifeNews.com, confirms the abortifacient nature of the Ella drug. PFLI calls Ella a "chemical cousin analog of mifepristone," the abortion drug more commonly known by its experimental name, RU 486. "Ulipristal acetate, according to its own developers, can kill embryos," it confirms. The organization said it "vehemently denounces and condemns the FDA for this inappropriate use of its drug regulatory power to destroy life rather than approve and regulate medicines which actually are life-saving and preserve health."

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ITEM #8: Organ Wagons To Make House Calls

Comment: Note that the first article only mentions people at home while the second talks about these "wagons" going to the scenes of accidents. Personally, I would never get on a state organ donation registry or check off organ donation on my driver's license. In my opinion, there is already way too much pushing on organ donation especially non-heartbeating organ donation. Brain death determination has long been problematic and would take too much time in these organ wagon retrievals anyway. How far is too far? We already have some people like Kevorkian who think organ donation should be allowed with assisted suicide! -Nancy Valko, RN

Related article: Emergency Organ Harvest Unit Trial To Begin Today

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ITEM #9: Drug firms have to stop paying doctors

The real problem of pharmaceutical industry gifts and payment to doctors is not secrecy, but influence. Doctors who take money or gifts from a pharmaceutical company are more likely to prescribe that company's drugs, write favorable journal articles about the drugs, give lectures recommending the drugs and suggest adding the drugs to a hospital formulary. That influence does not disappear when the payments are disclosed. To fix that problem, the payments must be eliminated.

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ITEM #10: Down syndrome screening is genocide, says New Zealand group

The level of harm involving the matters raised is very serious, being the selective abortion of unborn children diagnosed with Down syndrome and the reduction in number of their births, as a distinct group of people.

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ITEM #11: Mistakes kill 15,000 aged patients per month: study

The new numbers, which total about 180,000 deaths a year, were presented in a report by the Office of Inspector General at the Health and Human Services Department. They support findings of a landmark Institute of Medicine report in 2000 that said up to 98,000 Americans died every year because of medical errors.

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ITEM #12: Ethically Thin, Science Unltd.: The Shape of Progressive Bioethics

Here, I comment more generally, and I offer three worries that reveal what is, at bottom, a lack of philosophical precision and political virtue.


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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 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)

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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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