Does this woman have a sick, near religious devotion to abortion or what? She can’t even bring herself to renounce the barbaric practice of partially delivering babies in order to suck their brains out or proceeding with the killing after they accidentally “slip out”. It’s no wonder Planned Parenthood hopes to raise and spend $1 million to get her elected to her fourth term (note: the pro-life Susan B. Anthony’s List is planning on contributing the same amount to Boxer’s challenger, Carly Fiorina, in the general election).
You know, after all its hype of embryonic stem cell research over the years, I can’t help but think that the MSM is a little frustrated that they have not been able to report on any actual benefits from these cells. Meanwhile the success of adult stem cells is getting harder for them to ignore. The headline: Adult stem cell research far ahead of embryonic. Umm…a little late to the party there, folks, but thanks for finally taking notice:
For all the emotional debate that began about a decade ago on allowing the use of embryonic stem cells, it’s adult stem cells that are in human testing today. An extensive review of stem cell projects and interviews with two dozen experts reveal a wide range of potential treatments.
Adult stem cells are being studied in people who suffer from multiple sclerosis, heart attacks and diabetes. Some early results suggest stem cells can help some patients avoid leg amputation. Recently, researchers reported that they restored vision to patients whose eyes were damaged by chemicals.
Apart from these efforts, transplants of adult stem cells have become a standard lifesaving therapy for perhaps hundreds of thousands of people with leukemia, lymphoma and other blood diseases.
“That’s really one of the great success stories of stem cell biology that gives us all hope,” says Dr. David Scadden of Harvard, who notes stem cells are also used to grow skin grafts.
“If we can recreate that success in other tissues, what can we possibly imagine for other people?”
Read more and see my archive for a lengthy list of ASCR therapeutic successes.
The world’s first authorized test in people of a treatment derived from human embryonic stem cells has been cleared to begin by the Food and Drug Administration.
The trial will test cells developed by Geron Corporation and the University of California, Irvine in patients with new spinal cord injuries.
The F.D.A. had initially cleared the clinical trial in January, 2009, in what was viewed at the time as a research milestone.
But before the study could begin, the agency then put a so-called hold on the trial after cysts were discovered in some mice injected with the cells. Geron had to do another mouse study and develop better ways to check the purity of its cells.
On Friday, the company announced in a press release that the F.D.A. had lifted the hold. Geron shares rose in morning trading.
Research milestone? HA! How’s this for a research milestone: Spinal cord injuries – especially complete injuries – are not reversible. There is, quite literally, “no hope” – no common therapy or drug that will ever improve your mobility or function over time. I know this from personal experience. I have been paralyzed for 11 years since I received a spinal cord injury in a car accident my junior year of high school. That is why it is simply amazing that, for a few years now, adult stem cells have been successfully used in early human trials to restore some feeling and movement in long term spinal cord injury patients (see here, here, here, here, here and here). All, as Wesley Smith points out, without the fanfare of the MSM.
Whatever happens with this new trial – if it ever happens (Geron has been promising this trial for years now) – will not change the fact that human embryonic stem cell research is unethical, period. I’d sure love to be able to walk again, but I would never accept the harvesting of another human life, no matter how small, for my own comfort.
Click here for more on why I oppose embryonic stem cell research.
It’s probably not a stretch to say that most people in our pill crazy society don’t know exactly how any one of their prescription drugs work. Here is a short version of the documentary 28 Days on the Pill highlighting how many people are uninformed about how hormonal contraceptives work:
Not only does the pill not totally prevent pregnancy, but it can have some harmful, even deadly, side-effects on the woman as well, including an increased risk of breast cancer.
Next Monday, HBO will air the documentary 12th and Delaware about an abortion clinic and pregnancy care center located directly across the street from each other in Fort Pierce, Florida:
The film has already been shown at the Sundance and some other film festivals earlier this year. Anne Lotierzo, director of the Pregnancy Care Center featured in the film, was able to see it and, not surprisingly, she’s not exactly pleased with the way things turned out. In a few videos here, she talks to Fr. Tom Euteneuer about how the filmmakers were…less than honest about their intentions for documenting the CPC and how they were unfairly portrayed in some parts. One review in the Hollywood Reporter says that the film is relatively objective, but ads that, “[t]here’s little doubt here that the filmmakers’ sympathies lie with defenders of abortion rights.”
I know I certainly do not have very high expectations for a truly “fair and balanced” documentary. Nevertheless, I suppose I am glad to see that there is still some public interest in both sides of the abortion debate. When over 1 MILLION unborn children killed in the U.S. every year, the last thing we need is for the issue of abortion to slip into obscurity.
HANNIBAL, Mo. (AP) — Army Capt. David Cooper was in Afghanistan when his daughter was born in Missouri. But thanks to technology, he was able to not only witness the birth but help coach his wife through labor.
David and his wife Laurie used Skype and, though they had some trouble connecting throughout the day, it worked perfectly for two hours before Charlotte Rose was born.
Laurie says she and hospital staff were able to see the sun come up in Afghanistan as the baby was being born just after dusk in Missouri.
Is that not the best advertisement for Skype or what? As military divorce rates rise due to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, hopefully something like this can help to (at least somewhat) ease the stress on both the active-duty service members and their spouses.
Jill Stanek’s most recent weekend question was that ever-popular pro-choice, knee-jerk reaction to pro-life opposition: “So…Are pro-lifers going to adopt all the unwanted babies?” One of Jill’s followers on Facebook had several great responses. This one was my favorite:
Unwanted describes not the child but an attitude of some adults toward the child. The real problem isn’t unwanted children, but unwanting adults.
This is the selfishness that fuels the culture of death Men and women “unwanting” of the other if it means they must completely give of themselves, and it’s not just about the “unwanted” unborn children or the sick and the elderly who are a “burden” on society. Think of the marriages and other relationships that fail or fall apart because of clashing egos, for example. True love calls for total self donation. It means wanting the good of the other, even at the cost of the self. This is the meaning of the body. This is what it means to be human:
“Man…cannot fully find himself except through a sincere gift of himself” Gaudium et Spes, 24
Therefore, in all things, let us learn how to daily die to ourselves, trust in the Lord and become true gifts of self to one another, especially the weak and most vulnerable members of our society.
The family is a community of persons and the smallest social unit. As such it is an institution fundamental to the life of every society. (JP II, Letter to Families, 17)
Today is the feast of Sts. Joachim and Anne, wonderful patrons for all families!
Parents of Mary, pray for all parents that they may provide the loving home and faithful teaching that you provided your daughter. Amen
This is only one of a seven part series of videos contrasting NFP and contraception. All the videos were directed, written, acted, and edited by Catholic seminarians at the Institute for Priestly Formation in Omaha. You can see the other six videos here.
The major difference between NFP and contraception, quite obviously, is that infertile intercourse is an act of God, whereas, through contraception, the couple, takes the powers of life into their own hands with the intent of thwarting God’s creative designs. But this does not mean that natural family planning is just a Church approved method of birth control. The Church maintains that the practice of NFP must always be undertaken with a “procreative attitude” and should really only be used to avoid pregnancy for serious reasons:
The right and lawful ordering of birth demands, first of all, that spouses fully recognize and value the true blessings of family life and that they acquire complete mastery over themselves and their emotions (HV, 21)
This is to combat the culture of death that the “contraceptive mentality” has spawned while at the same time allowing couples the freedom to effectively and responsibly space out births in a way that cooperates with God’s creative designs.
It must also be said that, by “NFP”, we’re not talking about your grandma’s old “rhythm method” and that the modern method of charting a woman’s cycle is not just for the purpose of avoiding pregnancy, but also helps identify and effectively treat many female medical problems relating to PMS, infertility and achieving pregnancy, ovarian problems, frequent miscarriage, endometriosis, postpartum depression etc… In many ways, NFP has become much bigger than itself, expanding into a whole area of medicine dedicated to monitoring and maintaining a woman’s reproductive and gynecological health.
