23 Yr. Old Lauren Richardson Being Starved to Death in Delaware

From the DefendLife blog:

Lauren Richardson, a 23-year old non-dying citizen of Delaware, is in grave danger of being dehydrated and starved to death by order of the state, against the wishes of her father.

Read the rest of the sad and shocking entry here.

This is so reminiscent of the Terri Schiavo tragedy. If there's anything you can do to help Lauren and her family (besides prayer), please do so asap.

De-Coding the Term “Pro-Life”

Rudyard Kipling declared that, “Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.”

In a timely posting, blogger Joe Healy of DefendLife.org adds clarity to the term “pro-life.”

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To Be or Not to Be Pro-Life?

With the ongoing election cycles, legislative sessions, and judicial nominations, many people are using the term "pro-life" to describe themselves and others. But have you stopped to think about what this term really means? I certainly hope so, for "what does the soul yearn for more ardently than the truth?" (St. Augustine); but if not, I will provide a brief reflection on what it means to be "pro-life."

It is clear that human personhood begins at conception. Philosophers and theologians have taught this for hundreds of years. Boethius wrote at the beginning of the 6th Century, "Person is an individual substance of rational nature. As individual it is material, since matter supplies the principle of individuation. The soul is not person, only the composite is. Man alone is among the material beings person, he alone having a rational nature. He is the highest of the material beings, endowed with particular dignity and rights." The human is the only material being to be a person; other persons are purely spiritual: angels and the Trinitarian God.

Modern science confirms that human life begins at the moment of conception. It is at this point that a new human creature exists, with its own unique human genetic code. If left alone to develop according to his or her nature, this new human creature will advance through all of the stages of prenatal development, infancy, childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and old age. This creature will be the same person throughout all of his or her phases of life and even beyond natural death into everlasting life.

At the moment of the conception of a human person the entire fabric of the universe is changed forever, as a new immortal soul is created by God and mysteriously united with a new human body. It happened when you were conceived, it happened when I was conceived, and it happened when each of the 50,000,000+ aborted Americans were conceived.

Now, back to the main point of this article. What does it mean to be "pro-life"? In a nutshell, it means that we acknowledge the truth that a human being is always a human person; that the human person has an inherent right to life throughout his or her entire life cycle; and that society has a moral obligation to protect the life of that person. It is really that simple. Anyone who claims to be pro-life but who denies any part of this definition is not being intellectually honest (and is arguably not pro-life). Who was it who said, "Whatever you do to the least of my brethren, you do to me?" (Mt 25:40).

Here are some common examples of people claiming to be pro-life, but who are in actuality deceiving themselves and others:

1. "I am personally pro-life, but I cannot impose my morality on others." This statement denies the fact that a human person has an inherent right to life and that society has a moral obligation to protect the life of that person. We impose our morality on others when we have laws against murder, child pornography, stealing, and so on. This is the main purpose of government - to ensure the security of its citizens. Since the unborn are people, it is the duty of the government to protect them. Any law that allows the killing of unborn people is inherently unjust. To refuse to protect the unborn from abortion is to be anti-life.

2. "Abortion should be illegal, except in the case of rape or incest (or whatever other exception someone wants to throw in)." This position denies the entire definition of what it means to be pro-life. The person who is conceived in rape or incest is still a human person and must be protected from an untimely, unnatural death. Personhood does not depend upon the moral fortitude of one's parents, so the fact that one's father committed a crime (rape, incest) against one's mother does not make the resultant person any less human. The person conceived in rape or incest still has an inherent right to life (just ask Rebecca Kiessling, Jenni Maas , or any of the other outspoken people who were conceived in rape or incest and given a chance at life!). To be for abortion exceptions is to be anti-life.

3. "Human embryonic stem cell research (ESCR) is justified because it will lead to life-saving cures." This position treats the human embryo as less than a person, when in fact it is a human person. It also subjects the human embryo to a radical utilitarianism where its life is regarded as less deserving of protection than another human life, when the only differences between the two are stage of development and physical location. Since stages of development and physical locations do not determine personhood, the human embryo must always be regarded as a person and not be subjected to life-ending experimentation. While we must always value the quality of life of the sick we must never use an illicit means to achieve those ends. To be pro-ESCR is to be anti-life.

4. "Euthanasia (or "mercy killing") is sometimes the best solution for the person who is sick, his or her family, and/or society in general." The person holding this position seeks to alter the definition of person to exclude those who are sick, elderly, or disabled. It is never right to take an innocent human life, not even if that person is in terrible pain and begging you to do so. It is up to us to let the natural processes take their course, while at the same time seeking healing and medical attention as appropriate. To deny someone food and water in order to hasten death is a gross offence against the human person. To allow for euthanasia is to be anti-life.

5. "I know that my candidate is not 100% pro-life, but he or she has the best chance of beating the 100% anti-life candidate in the general election, so I'm going to support him or her rather than the 100% pro-life candidate who is still in the running." This is a tempting position to take, but it is very wrong. Because of the faulty logic behind this position, abortion is still legal today. If the entire pro-life community would stand up for only truly pro-life candidates, the entire political landscape in America would change radically for the better in six years or less. We would have a 100% pro-life president, a large majority of pro-life Senators and Representatives in Congress, a large majority of pro-life legislators in our state and county governments, and pro-life governors and executives throughout America. With all of those pro-life leaders in place, our judiciary would become full of pro-life judges. Abortion-on-demand in America would end. If you don't think this is possible, look at what happened in Croatia, where the number of abortions decreased by 90% between 1989 and 2005. To be pro-life except when "political expediency" requires you to support the more anti-life of two candidates is to be anti-life.

To apply these principles to the current presidential race, it is obvious that all of the Democrat candidates are anti-life. They all favor keeping abortion, euthanasia, ESCR, and human cloning legal.

That leaves only the Republicans as pro-life possibilities:

Rudy Giuliani is anti-life, as he is in favor of keeping abortion, euthanasia, and ESCR legal;

Mitt Romney is anti-life, as he is in favor of legal abortion for those conceived in rape or incest, he is in favor of destroying at least some human embryos for research, and he does not oppose euthanasia;

John McCain is anti-life, as he is in favor of legal abortion for those conceived in rape or incest and favors the legal destruction of human embryos for ESCR;

Mike Huckabee is seemingly pro-life;

Ron Paul is seemingly pro-life;

Alan Keyes is seemingly pro-life.

Are you pro-life?

Further reading: Human Personhood Begins at Conception by Dr. Peter Kreeft.

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Catholic Bishops of Canada Permit Killing of Elderly in Their Own Catholic Hospitals?

The Catholic Register, “Canada’s Catholic News Service,” reported on Friday, 16 November 2007 that Alex Schadenberg, executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, challenged the Catholic Civil Rights League (CCRL) to “confront Catholic hospitals where he alleged patients are increasingly being denied food and fluids by doctors.”

Perhaps I’m missing the obvious here but aside from being shocked to hear such an accusation, isn’t there a clear-cut responsibility of Catholic Bishops to ensure that Catholic hospitals are not killing their patients in blatant defiance of Catholic teaching? Why should Alex Schadenberg have to call on the CCRL to confront Catholic hospitals on this grave injustice? Shouldn’t he be screaming bloody murder to the Catholic Bishops?

I’m sorry but I’m confused. Why hasn’t this matter come before the Bishops? It’s one thing for them to wiggle every which-way to avoid dealing with the Amnesty International scandal which might appear to them remote and indefinite but it’s an entirely different matter when Catholic hospitals under their supervision and in their own dioceses are killing the elderly through dehydration, like the awful travesty committed against Terri Schiavo! Why wasn’t this an item on the agenda of the recent Plenary Assembly?

Has everyone in Canada lost their sense of outrage at the killing of the most vulnerable and innocent? Where are the news headlines?

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Politics, cutting costs threaten sanctity of life

TORONTO - A pro-life advocate, Alex Schadenberg, has warned that one of the Catholic faith’s foremost goals, to preserve life, is under threat from the political and medical fronts in Canada.

Giving a keynote address at the Catholic Civil Rights League (CCRL) annual general meeting on Nov. 8, Schadenberg, executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition (EPC), said the sanctity of life is increasingly being sacrificed for political gains and cutting medical care costs.

Schadenberg was answering questions on whether it is morally wrong to deny food and fluids to a patient in a vegetative state where the food would only sustain the status of the patient but will not improve their condition.

He said Catholic teachings consider any patient with life in them, no matter how minimal, as worthy of all the comfort that can be provided and nobody, other than God, has a right to deprive them of food and fluids.

“Denying them is killing them through dehydration like in the Terri Schiavo case and that is not allowed in our Catholic faith,” he said.

“Unfortunately, this very principle is under threat because the minority Conservative government will not be able to block any bill seeking to legalize all forms of euthanasia because all the opposition parties are pro-euthanasia.”

On the medical front, he challenged the CCRL to confront Catholic hospitals where he alleged patients are increasingly being denied food and fluids by doctors.

“We would hope that in Catholic hospitals where this practice exists, it will be eliminated,” he said.

Schadenberg explained that there is a difference between someone whose system is completely shutting down and has hours or a few days to live and someone who may have lost certain bodily functions but is still very much alive, as was the case with Schiavo, the American woman in a vegetative state whose family battled in the courts to keep her on life-support despite efforts of her husband to pull the plug. The husband eventually won out.

“A person in a permanent vegetative state is a person with fundamental human dignity and must, therefore, receive ordinary and proportionate care which includes, in principle, the administration of water and food, even by artificial means,” he said.

CCRL’s executive director, Joanne McGarry, would not specifically say whether the league would confront administrators at Catholic hospitals but she appealed to CCRL members and all Catholics in general to discourage the practice.

“We have always encouraged members who are employed in medical professions to share their concerns with us about anti-life pressures in their workplaces. More precise involvement on this question would have to be determined on a case-by-case basis,” said McGarry.

She said overall, the challenge for the league and for Catholics is to stand up for “our own rights” in a social climate where it seems to be assumed that those with no religion have an automatic right to prevail over believers.

McGarry added that the league’s general mandate is the “defence of church teaching in the public square.”

Meanwhile, the entire CCRL leadership was retained at the meeting. Phil Horgan remains president, Bill French is vice president and John Sidle is treasurer. Michael Connell, former education director of the league, has joined the board as a director.

[Source]

Pro-Life News Bytes September 27, 2007

Reports are coming out of Massachusetts that a 22-year old woman died on September 13, 2007, from hemorrhaging caused by an abortion obtained at Women Health Center in the Cape Cod town of Hyannis. The abortionist responsible for the death is reportedly Rapin Osathanondh, who made headlines in 2001 for threatening to murder five hospital nurses in a fit of rage over misplaced paperwork.

Abortion Death Reported in Massachusetts

"After 34 years of abortion on demand through all nine months of pregnancy, it is time to rethink pro-life strategy," said Law Center attorney Robert Muise, who has criticized the pro-life movement's "lethargy."

Pro-Life Movement Urged to Agree on a Unified Strategy
Vote Life, Canada! says Amen to the Thomas More Law Center’s analysis and advocates that Canada also break out of its apathy.

John Pacheco, candidate for Ottawa West Nepean, posts on his election site a link to a YouTube video. It tells one parent’s heartbreaking story of her 14-year-old daughter’s serious side effects to Gardasil, which are now threatening her physical and mental health.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnTvAneWBZs

Vote Life, Canada! looked into the controversy surrounding the Gardasil vaccine and issued this report and a follow-up post.

Scott Klusendorf of Life Training Institute continues his series of posts on Francis Beckwith’s new pro-life apologetic “Defending Life.”

Beckwith #7: Problems with Thomson's 'Equal Reasonableness' [SK]

He also notes that National Review has just published its own take on “Defending Life.”

An "election guide" by Toronto Catholic Charities published on the website of the Archdiocese of Toronto directs Catholic voters in the upcoming October 10 election to see as their "primary concerns" government funding of programs, affordable housing, and poverty. Conspicuously absent from list are abortion and euthanasia.

Top Election Concerns for Toronto Catholic Charities: Gov't Funding, Affordable Housing, Poverty

Whatever happened to the hope that Archbishop Collins was supposed to bring to the Archdiocese of Toronto? Catholic Bishops are letting Canada down at every turn and seem content to let the Unborn perish.

After a bill to legalize assisted suicide in California failed again in the state legislature, euthanasia advocates are creating a new assisted suicide counseling service. Their goal is to provide help and information for people who want to commit suicide in a less direct manner that gets around state law.

California Group Will Do Assisted Suicide Counseling After Bill Failed

Father Frank Pavone and the National Pro-Life Religious Council respond.

Propaganda from pro-euthanasia study: "Those who received physician-assisted dying … appeared to enjoy comparative social, economic, educational, professional and other privileges."

Euthanasia Critics Challenge Pro-Euthanasia Study Research Methods

National Black Pro-Life Union is joining all pro-life groups in celebration at the announced closure of Alternatives, an abortion clinic in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The facility was closed by the Health Department in June after an inspection revealed filthy conditions that included blood-stained carpets and rusty surgical instruments.

Former Miss Atlantic City Comments on Closing of Filthy New Jersey Abortion Mill

The latest evidence of UNFPA's involvement in the promotion of abortion comes in the annual report of the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR), a non-profit pro-abortion law firm located in New York which is active in trying to change abortion laws around the world. According to the Center's most recent annual report, UNFPA was one of their largest financial contributors last year, donating as much as $50,000.

UN Population Fund Still Denies but in Fact Very Much Does Fund Abortion Advocacy

More on the UNFPA from Vote Life, Canada! here.

A Republican presidential candidate is promoting legislation designed to deter women from choosing to have their unborn child killed in the womb.

Brownback's ultrasound bill seeks to better inform women seeking abortion

Mark Crutcher of Life Dynamics has a new posting on his blog.

The Scam of Moral Irrelevance

Yesterday’s NewsBytes reported that one of Alveda King’s talks was cancelled. Today we discover the reason was that it was too moral—and we all know morals are something the public schools are not allowed to teach, right?

Alveda King Canceled by Des Moines Principal -- Talk Was Too "Moral"

School officials respond.

Cellular phone company Verizon Wireless and top pro-abortion group NARAL have been feuding over the ability of the organization to use its system to send out text messages to its membership with alerts and updates. Verizon initially refused to allow NARAL to use its network but higher officials reversed the decision.

VERIZON WIRELESS WILL ALLOW PRO-ABORTION GROUP'S TEXT MSGS AFTER FEUD

Idaho Chooses Life is after the Bishop to stop a scandal involving a high profile nun.

Christian Newswire/ -- "We issue a public call for Idaho's Catholic Bishop, Mike Driscoll, to intervene quickly and forcefully in the brewing scandal involving Sister Helen Prejean," Sister Prejean is scheduled to be the keynote speaker at an event to raise money for the Idaho ACLU on Friday, September 28th.

ICL Urges Bishop Driscoll to Intervene

The Arizona Supreme Court let stand a state appeals court ruling making Maricopa County officials take pregnant inmates for abortions.

Arizona Supreme Court Rules County Must Take Inmates for Abortions

The leading Northern Ireland pro-life group Precious Life has taken out newspaper ads across the region asking pro-life people to contact the members of the Legislative Assembly and urge them to oppose abortion. The campaign urges pro-life advocates to sign petitions and distribute more.

Northern Ireland Pro-Life Group Lobbies MLAs to Oppose Abortion

A new poll finds that black pro-life voters are more likely to support Republican candidates than African-American voters overall, but that they still tend to vote for Democrats. The survey also found that blacks and Hispanics are more likely to oppose abortion and embryonic stem cell research than white Americans.

Poll Shows Black Pro-Life Voters Still Largely Support Pro-Abortion Candidates

Vatican Answers Moral Question Of Artificial Nutrition And Hydration For Patients Like Terri Schindler Schiavo

The Vatican issued an official response today concerning what is termed “Artificial Alimentation.” These further guidelines are greatly welcomed, although I see nothing new in their substance, over and above the statements previously made by Pope John Paul II.

It is hoped this statement will prove valuable to and be heeded by health care providers in order to prevent similar deaths to those of Terri Schiavo.

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Responses Concerning Artificial Alimentation

VATICAN CITY, SEP 14, 2007 (VIS) - Made public today was a response from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to certain questions raised by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops concerning artificial nutrition and hydration. The replies were approved by the Holy Father during an audience granted to Cardinal William Joseph Levada, prefect of the congregation. The text of the responses has been published in its Latin original and in English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Polish and Portuguese.

"First question: Is the administration of food and water (whether by natural or artificial means) to a patient in a 'vegetative state' morally obligatory except when they cannot be assimilated by the patient's body or cannot be administered to the patient without causing significant physical discomfort?

"Response: Yes. The administration of food and water even by artificial means is, in principle, an ordinary and proportionate means of preserving life. It is therefore obligatory to the extent to which, and for as long as, it is shown to accomplish its proper finality, which is the hydration and nourishment of the patient. In this way suffering and death by starvation and dehydration are prevented.

"Second question: When nutrition and hydration are being supplied by artificial means to a patient in a 'permanent vegetative state,' may they be discontinued when competent physicians judge with moral certainty that the patient will never recover consciousness?

"Response: No. A patient in a 'permanent vegetative state' is a person with fundamental human dignity and must, therefore, receive ordinary and proportionate care which includes, in principle, the administration of water and food even by artificial means."

An English-language note accompanying the responses indicates that: "When stating that the administration of food and water is morally obligatory 'in principle,' the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith does not exclude the possibility that, in very remote places or in situations of extreme poverty, the artificial provision of food and water may be physically impossible, and then 'ad impossibilia nemo tenetur.' However, the obligation to offer the minimal treatments that are available remains in place, as well as that of obtaining, if possible, the means necessary for an adequate support of life. Nor is the possibility excluded that, due to emerging complications, a patient may be unable to assimilate food and liquids, so that their provision becomes altogether useless. Finally, the possibility is not absolutely excluded that, in some rare cases, artificial nourishment and hydration may be excessively burdensome for the patient or may cause significant physical discomfort, for example resulting from complications in the use of the means employed.

"These exceptional cases, however, take nothing away from the general ethical criterion, according to which the provision of water and food, even by artificial means, always represents a 'natural means' for preserving life, and is not a 'therapeutic treatment.' Its use should therefore be considered 'ordinary and proportionate,' even when the 'vegetative state' is prolonged."

Euthanasia Won't Stop With The Dying Says Mark Pickup

Mark Pickup takes a short but studied look at the history of abortion law in Canada, making observations urgently needed for any discussion of the escalating call in Canada for euthanasia.

Euthanasia won't stop with the dying, says Mark.

If physician-assisted suicide was adopted in Canada, we know from experience that it will not be reserved for only the terminally ill, regardless of safeguards that are put in place. Euthanasia and assisted suicide will extend from the terminally ill to the chronically ill, to the handicapped, then the disabled.

....snip

As with abortion before it, euthanasia and assisted suicide will ride into public consciousness on the distorted and sterile idea of a freedom to choose death for ourselves or another.

But true freedom rests on the inviolability of every person as a child of God. All rights come from God. It is God - and not ourselves - who grants us freedom, dignity and all rights of personhood. If it were legislatures or courts that granted these freedoms, then legislatures and courts could easily take them away with the stroke of a pen or majority vote.

....snip

In 2000, then-Prime Minister Jean Chrétien made the ridiculous claim that "We have had social peace on the question of abortion."

He was wrong. There has not been social peace on the matter of abortion since the 1969 bill passed. Abortion continues to tatter and rip at the social fabric of Canada. Euthanasia and assisted suicide will intensify the social conflict because the victims are clearly visible and they will haunt and taunt the conscience of the nation.

A very relevant piece for Canadians at this juncture in time. Read the full column here.

Canada's most up to date resource site on euthanasia related issues is located here. Why not sign on to their mailing list [after you sign on to ours, of course].