Monthly Archives: February 2014

LifeNews.com Pro-Life News Report
Friday, February 28, 2014

For pro-life news updated throughout the day, visit LifeNews.com.

Current Headlines

Top Stories
• Planned Parenthood President: My Childrens’ Lives Began at Delivery, Not Conception
• Beautiful Photo of Noah, Miscarried at 12 Weeks, Shows Unborn Baby’s Humanity
• Fifth Abortion Clinic Closes in 2014 as California Biz Shuts Down
• Video: Moms of Ex-Girl Scouts Say GSUSA CEO Lying About Planned Parenthood Link

More Pro-Life News
• Declared Dead Too Soon: Man Wakes Up in Body Bag in Funeral Home
• Dad Surprises Fiancée by Marrying Her While She’s Giving Birth to Their Baby
• Mom of Newborn Baby Abandoned in Apartment Dumpster May Regain Custody
• Pro-Lifers Must Boycott Businesses Working With Planned Parenthood
• Husband and Wife Team Own More Abortion Clinics in Illinois Than Anyone Else
• Justina Pelletier’s Family Still Battling DCF Over Custody of Their Daughter
• “Pro-Choice” Advocates Fight Against Choice, Prefer Abortions of Disabled Babies
• Human Trafficking is Happening in America and Abortion is Part of the Equation
• The Language of Assisted Suicide: Deception Instead of Dignity
• Electric Stimulation Treats Severe Brain Damage for PVS Patients
• Washington Bill to Force All Insurance Plans to Cover Abortions Fails for Third Time
• Louisville Abortion Clinic Known as One of the Worst Places to Get an Abortiong
• What Could be Wrong with Womb Transplants?Environment Over People: The Sierra Club’s War on Humans
• Alaska Committee Passes Bill to Stop Taxpayer-Funded Abortions

Planned Parenthood President: My Childrens’ Lives Began at Delivery, Not Conception
Despite its status as the nation’s biggest abortion business, Planned Parenthood very rarely talks about abortion — and it almost never talks about the development of unborn children.

The abortion giant essentially admitted long ago that science was not on its side in the abortion debate, since basic biological facts of fetal development and the advent of 3-D and 4-D ultrasounds clearly depict a human being growing and developing in the womb before birth. http://www.lifenews.com/2014/02/28/planned-parenthood-president-my-childrens-lives-began-at-delivery-not-conception/

Beautiful Photo of Noah, Miscarried at 12 Weeks, Shows Unborn Baby’s Humanity
Baby Noah died from a spontaneous miscarriage on February 20th, 2014. His mother, Lara, named him Noah because it means “rest” and “peace”.

Noah was only 12 weeks and 5 days old when he died. Even though he passed away, his perfectly formed body displays the development of a new human life, the most spectacular miracle on earth. http://www.lifenews.com/2014/02/28/beautiful-photo-of-noah-miscarried-at-12-weeks-shows-unborn-babys-humanity/

Fifth Abortion Clinic Closes in 2014 as California Biz Shuts Down
Liberalization of California’s abortion laws last year could not save the Family Planning Associates abortion clinic in Montclair, California, which has closed due to a lost lease. The building is up for sale and there are currently no plans to reopen the clinic at another location.

All services are expected to halt by the end of February, but furnishings stacked behind the clinic near a large dumpster, which was loaded with medical and office equipment, more furniture, brochures, and even money bags from a local bank, indicate that the business is finished. http://www.lifenews.com/2014/02/28/fifth-abortion-clinic-closes-in-2014-as-california-biz-shuts-down/

Video: Moms of Ex-Girl Scouts Say GSUSA CEO Lying About Planned Parenthood Link
Mothers of girls who are former members of the Girl Scouts say the CEO of Girl Scouts USA is essentially lying in recent claims that the organization has no relationship with the Planned Parenthood abortion business.

As LifeNews has reported, the Girl Scouts have a longstanding relationship with Planned Parenthood and have lashed out at pro-life groups bringing that to light. http://www.lifenews.com/2014/02/28/video-moms-of-girl-scouts-say-gsusa-ceo-lying-about-planned-parenthood-link/

Declared Dead Too Soon: Man Wakes Up in Body Bag in Funeral Home
LifeNews reported earlier this month about a man who doctors pronounced clinically dead came back to life 45 minutes after his death had been called. Now it’s happened again.

Workers at a Mississippi funeral home say they found a man alive and kicking when they opened a body bag. http://www.lifenews.com/2014/02/28/declared-dead-too-soon-man-wakes-up-in-body-bag-in-funeral-home/

Dad Surprises Fiancée by Marrying Her While She’s Giving Birth to Their Baby
Talk about a shotgun wedding! One dad just couldn’t wait for his fiancé to be done birthing their child before he made her his wife. Brandi Wetzel was laboring away at a hospital in Fort Worth, Texas on Tuesday when her intended suddenly “ran to the store.”

Unbeknownst to her, James Anderson had dashed off to find a ring and to enlist the nurses’ help in staging an impromptu wedding in the maternity ward. The couple has been engaged since last August, but it seems like dad really didn’t like the idea of their second child together being born out of wedlock. http://www.lifenews.com/2014/02/28/dad-surprises-fiancee-by-marrying-her-while-shes-giving-birth-to-their-baby/

Mom of Newborn Baby Abandoned in Apartment Dumpster May Regain Custody
The mother of a newborn who was found alive abandoned in an apartment dumpster in Houston, Texas, may regain custody of the child.

As LifeNews reported, officers were called to the Windmall Lakes Reserve apartment complex at about 8:30 a.m. on a report of a newborn baby found alive in a dumpster. A man named Carlos was going through the trash when he heard a noise. At first, he thought it might be an animal, but after further searching discovered the baby in a bag. EMS crews were called the scene. http://www.lifenews.com/2014/02/28/mom-of-newborn-baby-abandoned-in-apartment-dumpster-may-regain-custody/

Pro-Lifers Must Boycott Businesses Working With Planned Parenthood
Planned Parenthood is the largest abortion provider in America, performing over 330,000 abortions every year. http://www.lifenews.com/2014/02/28/pro-lifers-must-boycott-businesses-working-with-planned-parenthood/

Husband and Wife Team Own More Abortion Clinics in Illinois Than Anyone Else
One of our supporters — a family practice doctor currently working in the Chicago area — recently sent us a cold-call mailing he had received from notorious abortionists Vinod and Vijay Goyal, a husband-and-wife team who own and operate more surgical abortion clinics than anyone else in Illinois. http://www.lifenews.com/2014/02/28/husband-and-wife-team-own-more-abortion-clinics-in-illinois-than-anyone-else/

Justina Pelletier’s Family Still Battling DCF Over Custody of Their Daughter
Justina Pelletier has been at the center of a legal battle between the Pelletier family and Boston Children’s Hospital over custody and proper medical treatment. http://www.lifenews.com/2014/02/28/justina-pelletiers-family-still-battling-dcf-over-custody-of-their-daughter/

“Pro-Choice” Advocates Fight Against Choice, Prefer Abortions of Disabled Babies
Abortion advocates like to trot out stories from women whose babies are diagnosed prenatally with life-threatening illnesses as an excuse for why late-term abortion is needed. http://www.lifenews.com/2014/02/28/pro-choice-advocates-fight-against-choice-prefer-abortions-of-disabled-babies/

Human Trafficking is Happening in America and Abortion is Part of the Equation
When you hear the term “human sex trafficking,” your thoughts probably go to some foreign land. http://www.lifenews.com/2014/02/28/human-trafficking-is-happening-in-america-and-abortion-is-part-of-the-equation/

The Language of Assisted Suicide: Deception Instead of Dignity
The battle over ideas is the battle over definitions. Whoever controls the language controls the debate. http://www.lifenews.com/2014/02/28/the-language-of-assisted-suicide-deception-instead-of-dignity/

Looking for an inspiring and motivating speaker for your pro-life event in 2014? Don’t have much to spend on a high-priced speaker costing thousands of dollars? Contact LifeNews at news@lifenews.com about having LifeNews Editor Steven Ertelt speak at your event.

Electric Stimulation Treats Severe Brain Damage for PVS Patients
It appears there may be a way to improve the condition of patients in a persistent unconscious and minimally conscious states. http://www.lifenews.com/2014/02/28/electric-stimulation-treats-severe-brain-damage-for-pvs-patients/

Washington Bill to Force All Insurance Plans to Cover Abortions Fails for Third Time
The Senate Health Care committee failed to vote on a bill with significant implications. This signals the likely death for an Abortion Insurance Mandate (HB 2148). http://www.lifenews.com/2014/02/28/washington-bill-to-force-all-insurance-plans-to-cover-abortions-fails-for-third-time/

Louisville Abortion Clinic Known as One of the Worst Places to Get an Abortion
Kentucky’s sole abortion clinic is known as one of the worst places in the country to get an abortion. http://www.lifenews.com/2014/02/28/louisville-abortion-clinic-known-as-one-of-the-worst-places-to-get-an-abortion/

What Could be Wrong with Womb Transplants?
The Catholic Church loves babies. One of God’s first instructions was to “be fertile and multiply,” and the Bible is strewn with stories of mothers who conceived despite infertility and old age. http://www.lifenews.com/2014/02/28/what-could-be-wrong-with-womb-transplants/

Alaska Committee Passes Bill to Stop Taxpayer-Funded Abortions
Victories are few and far between in the pro-family, pro-life policy world but when they do occur, we should give thanks. http://www.lifenews.com/2014/02/28/alaska-committee-passes-bill-to-stop-taxpayer-funded-abortions/

 

Posted by deaconjohn1987 in Uncategorized

June 14-20; June 28-July 4; July 12-18 July 26-August 1; August 9-15 Each day begins with Mass and then opens up to a day of faith-filled, fun and family-friendly activities… After Mass, the family spends the morning in age-specific activities all geared to teach, strengthen & share the Faith. Throughout the afternoons and into the evenings, enjoy family activities such as: Bonfire Sing-Along, Family Rosary, Family Dance Night, Family Games, Jungle Gym, Swimming, Horseback Riding, action-packed sporting tournaments that include softball, basketball, volleyball & more! Our cozy cabins sleep a family of nine comfortably. Tent & camper site also available. Entertainment Night June 14-20; June 28-July 4; July 12-18; July 26-August 1; August 9-15 There are still many cabins available in the 1st and 5th Holy Family Fests! Click here to register online Our mailing address is: Apostolate for Family Consecration 3375 County Road 36 Bloomingdale, OH 43910

Posted by deaconjohn1987 in Uncategorized

This past weekend and into this week, the Internet was abuzz with chatter about an article seriously examining the justification of infanticide. And the proposition originated in the Journal of Medical Ethics!

Political pundits and bloggers were Tweeting and writing about an article from two years ago on Slate.com which debated the points made by ethicists Alberto Giubilini and Francesca Minerva in the Journal of Medical Ethics. It’s not clear what sparked the renewed interest in the article, but it’s important to once again tackle this issue and respond to the disturbing propositions threatening innocent life.

HLI Fellow Dr. Denise Hunnell wrote an article responding to the ethicists’ claims back in 2012 when the story first broke. HLI reprinted the article this week on our Truth and Charity Forum, and I wanted to share it with you in our newsletter. God bless.

Sincerely yours in Christ,
Father Shenan J. Boquet
President, Human Life International

P.S. Please consider making a donation today to support HLI’s life-saving mission. It’s only with your generous support that our pro-life missionaries are able to defend Life, Faith and Family around the world.

After Birth Abortion: A Modest Proposal? 

by Denise Hunnell, M.D. 

Let us consider two excerpts, and see if we can determine which comes from the realm of fiction, and which comes from the field of modern ethics. The first:

That the remaining hundred thousand may, at a year old, be offered in the sale to the persons of quality and fortune through the kingdom; always advising the mother to let them suck plentifully in the last month, so as to render them plump and fat for a good table. A child will make two dishes at an entertainment for friends; and when the family dines alone, the fore or hind quarter will make a reasonable dish, and seasoned with a little pepper or salt will be very good boiled on the fourth day, especially in winter.

And the second:

Abortion is largely accepted even for reasons that do not have anything to do with the fetus’ health. By showing that (1) both fetuses and newborns do not have the same moral status as actual persons, (2) the fact that both are potential persons is morally irrelevant and (3) adoption is not always in the best interest of actual people, the authors argue that what we call ‘after-birth abortion’ (killing a newborn) should be permissible in all the cases where abortion is, including cases where the newborn is not disabled. (After-birth abortion: Why should the baby live? Journal of Medical Ethics, February 23, 2012)

I suppose the jargon in the latter gives it away.

When I first read the latter, an abstract from the article “After-birth abortion: Why should the baby live?” published in the Journal of Medical Ethics, I was hoping it would be the prelude of an updated version of Jonathan Swift’s eighteenth century work A Modest Proposal, from which the first excerpt is drawn,In Swift’s eerily prescient satire, the protagonist argues that the solution to poverty is to eat the children of the poor.

Alarmingly, unlike Jonathan Swift’s work, the abstract is not from a work of satire. It is ostensibly a serious presentation by ethicists Alberto Giubilini and Francesca Minerva, who argue that parents should be allowed to kill newborn infants for any reason that is currently used to justify abortion. In fact, they do not constrain their proposal to a specific time period after birth but claim that a child has no right to life until she adequately demonstrates the very nebulous and subjective characteristic of “self-awareness”.

Giubilini and Minerva are not, at least not in this article, arguing that the killed children should also be eaten. Fortunately, that detail of Swift’s solution remains fiction. Even so, the expressions of outrage over this piece have been harsh and swift. Indeed, the editor of the Journal of Medical Ethics felt compelled to release a statement defending the publication of this provocative article, although the defense was weak at best.

That an argument for killing newborns would be made should not be surprising. Similar reasoning was put forth by Michael Tooley in 1972 and by Peter Singer in 1993. Giubilini and Minerva simply extend these arguments to include killing perfectly healthy newborns that merely pose a burden or inconvenience to their mothers or to society as a whole. In addition, they argue that logic demands the option to kill disabled infants, especially those with genetic diseases like Downs syndrome, when the diagnosis is not made until after birth. Why, they ask, should a woman have every option including abortion before birth, and no options after birth?

As reprehensible as their conclusions are, Giubilini and Minerva agree with pro-lifers on two key points. First, they fully accept that the unborn and the newborn are both living human beings, accepting without argument the scientific reality that a biological human being begins at conception. Thus, they forthrightly acknowledge that both abortion and infanticide involve the taking of human life.

Second, Giubilini and Minerva agree that the event of birth is irrelevant to the moral status of both the unborn child and the newborn. In order to make their proposal more palatable, they eschew the term “infanticide” to emphasize that the lives of the newborn and the fetus carry the same moral weight. In this, they find agreement with the Catholic Church and all who recognize the full humanity of the unborn child. There is absolutely no difference in the moral standing of a child in the womb and a newborn in her mother’s arms.

If they have such essential points right, how do they end up so wrong? Their errors begin when they assign the arbitrary status of “potential person” to both the unborn and the newborn. With absolutely no justification other than their own opinion for such an assertion, they echo Peter Singer in declaring that while the unborn and newborn are living human beings, they lack the self-awareness to qualify as “actual persons.” In fact, also following Singer, the authors go so far as to claim that personhood is a characteristic that can be assigned to non-human animals that demonstrate a sense of self:

Both a fetus and a newborn certainly are human beings and potential persons, but neither is a ‘person’ in the sense of ‘subject of a moral right to life’. We take ‘person’ to mean an individual who is capable of attributing to her own existence some (at least) basic value such that being deprived of this existence represents a loss to her. This means that many non- human animals and mentally retarded human individuals are persons, but that all the individuals who are not in the condition of attributing any value to their own existence are not persons. Merely being human is not in itself a reason for ascribing someone a right to life.

Giubilini and Minerva go on to declare that when “aborting” a “potential person,” no life is really lost. A true person never existed. Therefore, one cannot destroy what never was.

What Giubilini and Minerva cannot justify is their authority to declare some human beings as “potential persons.” If they can dismiss the life and dignity of a newborn child based on the lack of an arbitrary concept of self-awareness, what is to stop others from declaring that true personhood requires a specific level of intelligence or gender or race or creed?

What Giubilini and Minerva effectively do is subjugate the life and dignity of the vulnerable to the whims of the powerful, who are allowed to determine who is and who is not a person. This is the fatal flaw of attributing human dignity based on some external evaluation. Either one accepts that every human being is worthy of life and dignity, or you are forced to adopt capricious and subjective metrics as the basis of one’s claim to rights and dignity. It takes great arrogance to presume both the wisdom to judge which human lives are worth living as well as the prescience to know whose life will be too burdensome.

The fundamental error of Giubilini and Minerva is that they fail to recognize that every human being is of inestimable worth.  The dignity of every human life is an intrinsic characteristic – it cannot be granted or denied according to some arbitrary algorithm. Further, the term “potential person” has no basis in science, although this error is not unique to Giubilini and Minerva: It is common to all those who advocate for abortion, euthanasia, embryonic stem cell research, or any other actions that relegate human lives to a disposable status.

Perhaps now those who have thus far seen room for a “compromise” in the areas of abortion and other beginning-of-life issues might recognize the urgency of reaffirming the dignity and value of every human being without exception. No one who allows that some human beings are more valuable than others can honestly be shocked and outraged by Giubilini and Minerva’s argument. These ethicists merely carry this sadly common premise to its logical conclusion, and offer a very “Modest Proposal”.

Find this article on HLI’s Truth and Charity Forum.

Posted by deaconjohn1987 in Uncategorized