The New Normal

ChelseaIVF, Reproductive Technology, Sperm DonationLeave a Comment

This week NBC premiered its new fall sitcom, The New Normal, promoting egg donation, IVF and surrogacy. Here’s a trailer:

While everyone’s hearts bleed for infertile and gay couples, what about the children created using this technology with anonymous sperm and eggs who are upset about having half their identity deliberately withheld from them?

I write over at Catholic Lane: Sorry, Cryo-Kids, This is The New Normal. “Get Over It.”

Also recommended: The link between rented wombs and gay marriage. Porn is not the only industry commodifying women.

Amazing ParOlympians!

ChelseaPro LifeLeave a Comment

Every four years the Olympic games captures the attention of the world as it showcases the pinnacle of athletic achievement. Two weeks after the Olympics are the lesser known Paralympics, an event that is great for its showcase of the pinnacle of human achievement. Let’s face it, every athlete has to train hard. Add some physical disability to that regimen, however, and you’re talking about whole new level of strength and determination.

archer.pngJust ask Matt Stutzman. Archery may not normally be considered the most physically demanding of all sports, but this guy does it without arms — and this year he won the silver medal for team USA. He also holds the world record for the longest accurate archery shot ever.

Or how about American paraplegic swimmer Mallory Weggeman? Being able to excel in swimming is hard enough, just imagine trying to do it while relying solely on the strength of your arms. Even most Paralympic swimmers have some help from their lower body. This year Weggeman took home Gold in the 50m. freestyle, swimming it in 31.13 seconds.

The Paralympics are often lost in the wake of the Olympic spectacle, but they’ve been slowly gaining popularity. With 4,200 Paralympians from 164 nations and 2.7 million spectators, this year’s Paralympic Games, which concluded on Sunday, was the biggest ever.

If that’s not enough good news for you, this year Paralympic veteran Oscar Pistorious made history as the first double amputee to run in the Olympics. I was grateful to see NBC actually give Pistorious a lot of coverage for his historic Olympic debut, but it turns out he’s not the first or only Olympic athlete with a disability.

The first was German-born U.S. gymnast George Eyser who competed in the 1904 St. Louis games with a wooden left leg. He won gold in three events — including in the vault and the 25-ft. rope climb — as well as two silvers and a bronze. Olivér Halassy, a Hungarian water-polo player, competed in three Olympic Games from 1928 through 1936 with an amputated foot.

The Paralympic Games was created for disabled athletes in 1948, but that hasn’t stopped athletes with disabilities from competing in the Olympics.

In the 1984 Games in Los Angeles, Jeff Float, a partially deaf swimmer, competed in the 4×200-m relay with the U.S. team. According to his bio, after helping extend his team’s lead in the third leg of the race that they went on to win, the roar of the home crowd was so loud, that he was able to hear it for the first time.

neroli.pngAlso in the 1984 games was New Zealand archer Neroli Fairhall, the first paraplegic Olympian. Following in Neroli’s footsteps (so to speak) was Italian archer Paola Fantato. A gold medalist in five Paralympic games, Fantato also competed in the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.

Marla Runyan, who is legally blind, competed in the 1,500 m during the 2000 and 2004 Olympics after dominating the track-and-field events at the 1992 and 1996 Paralympics, winning gold in the 100 m and long jump. And then there was South African long-distance swimmer Natalie du Toit, who lost her leg in a car accident at age 17, placed 16th in the 10-km swim in 2008 in the Beijing Olympics.

This year three athletes with disabilities competed in the Olympic games. Besides Oscar Pistorious there was Im Dong Hyun from South Korea and Natalia Partyka from Poland.

An Olympic gold medalist in Sydney and Beijing, archer Im Dong Hyun is legally blind. This year he took home bronze with his team and set a new world record. Born without a right hand and forearm, Natalia Partyka competed in both the 2008 Olympics and Paralympics, and did so again this year. She has yet to medal in the Olympics, but took home gold and bronze at this year’s Paralympics.

No doubt these athletes, few as they may be, along with the rising popularity of the Paralympic Games themselves are why Sir Philip Craven, President of the International Paralympic Committee, suggested in May that the Paralympics and the Olympics could merge into one event at some point in the future. Some Paralympic athletes have voiced concern that the disability sporting events would be overshadowed by such a merger (as if they aren’t already?), but it sounds like a great idea to me. Athletes with disabilities are really just athletes, period and they certainly deserve to be able to compete with and be recognized right alongside the rest of the world’s best.

The Paralympic games and their growing popularity among spectators are a ray of light in a world in which discrimination against individuals with disabilities remains high. Not only is abortion now standard procedure for unborn children diagnosed with various diseases and disabilities, but we are developing a very pro-suicide culture here in the West for the seriously ill and severely disabled. Here’s hoping the popularity of these games continues to rise and these athletes inspire people around the world to realize that life with a disability is not as awful as it seems.

Miracle Pearl is Shaming Her Would Be Assassins With Every Heartbeat

ChelseaAbortion, Prenatal Genetic Testing1 Comment

A few days ago I talked about God’s use of the weak to shame the strong. One of the examples I gave involved babies who survived abortion attempts, showing their would-be assassins who really has control over life and death. In a similar way, little Pearl Joy Brown is also doing just that.

Marybeth Hicks writes:

Ruth and Eric Brown didn’t expect anything to be wrong.

At 20 weeks pregnant, Ruth had no indications her baby was anything but perfect.

So they were completely unprepared for what they learned at a routine obstetrical ultrasound: Their third child, daughter Pearl Joy, was profoundly underdeveloped.

Pearl was diagnosed in utero with alobar holoprosencephaly (HPE), a neural disease in which the brain and facial features do not form completely. Usually, babies with HPE do not survive a full-term pregnancy. Or if they do, usually they die within hours or days of birth.

Usually.

Pearl Joy Brown is unusual. Some would say remarkable.

At 5 weeks old, Pearl is defying all odds and every medical assessment that treated her, from birth, as a person trying to die.

From the day she was born, her parents received medical support in the form of hospice care, on the assumption that their role would be to help their daughter pass away peacefully and without pain.

Pearl had other plans. And she isn’t just surviving, she is thriving.

But before she was born, a doctor told Pearl’s parents that she would be “incompatible with life” and advised them to kill her in the womb. When they refused, he refused to provide them with further medical care and referred them elsewhere. And now here she is:

pearl.jpg

Her father says:

“I see the humanity of an unborn baby more clearly than I ever did,” her father says. “And because of Pearl, I have fallen in love with humanity once again. For years I was cynical, but even in the worst of this, I see people connecting, responding, and walking with us.

“I don’t know how long we have with Pearl, but I believe one day she’ll be made whole. Now I’m not even sure of what that means.”

Ask any expecting parents what they hope for their unborn child and almost all of them will tell you, “as long as she is healthy, that’s all that matters.” Unfortunately, sometimes it doesn’t work out that way, but that doesn’t make her life less valuable, or your life with her less joyful. Be not afraid.

Find out more about this precious little ‘weakling’ who is bringing joy to everyone around her — and shaming her would-be assassins in the process — at PearlJoyBrown.wordpress.com

The Weak Who Shame the Strong

ChelseaAbortion, Disabled, Religion4 Comments

In his first letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul explains how, when God calls people, he does not base his decision on human criteria – wisdom, power, nobility – but often chooses uneducated, unimportant and even despised people in the world’s eye to convert the wise, the strong and the “important”.

Consider your own calling, brothers and sisters. Not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. Rather, God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong, and God chose the lowly and despised of the world, those who count for nothing, to reduce to nothing those who are something, so that no human being might boast before God. It is due to him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, as well as righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Whoever boasts, should boast in the Lord.” (1 Corinth. 1:26-31)

Obviously Jesus Christ himself is the supreme example of what St. Paul is talking about here. As a newborn baby in Bethlehem he was greeted by kings and adored by shepherds and at his presentation in the Temple, this 40-day-old infant who was, by all appearances, nothing more than a “carpenter’s son” is recognized by two prophets as the Savior of the world. An infant Savior! The paradox of our Lord and Savior’s humble human origins also makes me think of Christ crucified and the foolishness and weakness of God that is wiser and stronger than men (1 Corinth. 1:23-25).

The Apostles and many of the first Christians also demonstrate God’s desire to use the lowly of the world to carry out his will and he has not stopped using those who are weak by the world’s standards to reveal his glory and shame the proud and the strong to this day. There are many modern day examples of this. The following came to my mind when I heard the above reading from St. Paul at Mass last Saturday.

garvan byrneTo the “wise and learned” of the world, life with a disability or terminal illness is not worth living. When a child is prenatally diagnosed with various diseases parents are pressured to abort and assisted suicide is promoted as a way to escape pain and suffering. Enter Garvan Byrne. Terminally ill and handicapped from birth, young Garvan endured intense pain as he faced certain death at the tender age of twelve. Throughout all of the trauma, however, he remained hopeful and optimistic, finding peace and meaning in life that most healthy, able-bodied adults have never seen.

In 1985, just a two months before he died, eleven year old Garvan recorded an interview with Mother Francis Dominica, the founder of one of the hospices he often visited. It has been uploaded to YouTube in three parts. If you can, do yourself a favor and set aside about 20 minutes to watch all three, you will not regret it.

I don’t think it matters how handicapped you are or how sick. You always succeed in something. God gave us each a gift. –Garvan Byrne March 20, 1973 – April 16, 1985

Abortion is the ultimate war against the weak and here I think of abortion survivors like Gianna Jessen and Melissa Ohden. How in their cases God used an infant, the very weakest among us, to show their would-be assassins who really has power over life and death. Not only that, but now both of them are very outspoken, internationally known pro-life speakers – Gianna with her “gift of Cerebral Palsy” on top of everything – and have challenged many who see nothing wrong with the stronger dominating the weaker and deciding who lives and who dies.

“I didn’t survive so I could make everyone comfortable. I survived so I could stir things up a bit. And I have a great time doing it.” –Gianna Jessen

In 2008 Jessen addressed Queen’s Hall, Parliament House in Victoria, Australia on the eve of the debate to decriminalize abortion in Victoria. It is one of the best pro-life speeches you’ll ever see. Watch it. That same year, she also used her powerful voice and story to highlight then candidate Obama’s disturbing defense of doctors killing babies just like her who survived abortion attempts. This year Ohden has lent her voice to a similar campaign. There ain’t nothin’ weak about these two women anymore!

“Whoever boasts, should boast in the Lord.” These words of St. Paul tell all of us to recognize our own weakness, the limits of our human nature, and have recourse to God, apart from Whom we can do nothing (John 15:5). We may not be physically poor in health, wealth or knowledge, but we can always allow ourselves to be poor in spirit, detached from our own ego, so that the power of Christ may more easily dwell within us, strengthening us to carry out his will.

“‘God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong’ (1 Cor 1:27). Therefore the true minister of Christ is conscious of his own weakness and labours in humility. He tries to discover what is well pleasing to God (cf. Eph 5:10) and bound as it were in the Spirit (cf. Acts 20:22), he is guided in all things by the will of him who wishes all men to be saved. He is able to discover and carry out that will in the course of his daily routine by humbly placing himself at the service of all those who are entrusted to his care by God in the office that has been committed to him and the variety of events that make up his life.” (Presbyterorum ordinis, 15).

7 RNC Convention Quick Takes

Chelsea2012 Election, Humor, Politics, video4 Comments

Here are a few of the thoughts/reactions to the Republican National Convention that I shared via Facebook and Twitter this week.

1. Not surprisingly, Rick Santorum did the best job of addressing the sanctity of all human life:
bella-s.jpg

Four and a half years ago I stood over a hospital isolette staring at the tiny hands of our newborn daughter who we hoped was perfectly healthy. But Bella’s hands were just a little different – and I knew different wasn’t good news.

The doctors later told us Bella was incompatible with life and to prepare to let go. They said, even if she did survive, her disabilities would be so severe that Bella would not have a life worth living.

We didn’t let go and today Bella is full of life and she has made our lives and countless others much more worth living.

I thank God that America still has one party that reaches out their hands in love to lift up all of God’s children – born and unborn – and says that each of us has dignity and all of us have the right to live the American Dream.

And without you America is not keeping faith with that dream.

Beautiful. Thank you, Rick.

2. ryan-convention-web.jpg
Yes, I made this one myself. It’s not quite as witty as some of the other ones in the meme, but I’m kinda proud of it. 🙂

3. A man after my own rock n roll heart: “my playlist starts with AC/DC and ends with Zeppelin.” Oh, Paul Ryan. I don’t care what else you said tonight. You had me at Zeppelin. You had me at Zeppelin.

4. Suggested presidential convention drinking games:

RNC: “you didn’t build that”
DNC: “war on women” (just wait)

5. ‘This week: “Mitt helped my dying 14-year old son write a will.” Next week: “Obama forced other people to subsidize my birth control.”‘ #sandrafluke -Retweeted from Kevin Eder.

6. Clint, I love you, man, but you absolutely broke my heart with Million Dollar Baby. Why? #GOP2012

7. Wow. Now I know why so many people were hoping Rubio would get the veep nod. Seriously. Never heard the guy speak before tonight. None of the speeches this week were bad, but they were nothing like this one. I’m not one to ever be impressed by or get sentimental over political speeches. Ever. But, when he was speaking I just couldn’t help thinking, “man, this guy is what the Republican party has been missing for the last 24 years: the next Great Communicator.” In content and delivery this was, hands down, the best speech of the entire convention, followed closely by Condi.

I’m not saying it made me feel overly blessed or patriotic. I just appreciated it for an incredibly well delivered speech. I can’t feel my legs, but I think a thrill might have gone up one of them at some point.

Bonus: I did not watch any of the post speech cable news commentary and critiques. Mostly because I’m not interested at all in what any of those people think anymore. I’m not the major political junkie that I once was, listening to conservative talk radio all day, reading political blogs and watching endless hours of cable news shows. I’m over that.

However, as disillusioned and fed up as I have become with politicians and pundits on both sides in recent years, I am still interested government and politics. I still think it’s important, especially when it comes to protecting the dignity of the human person, and I still enjoy a good conversation about it. So I did watch some political commentary this week.
ryan-convention-web.jpg
One of my new favorite YouTube channels broadcasted live for about a 30 minutes to an hour every day from the convention. Most of them are pretty far to the left on social issues – especially, you’ll see if you watch the videos, Meg, who might actually break me out of my YouTube shell to address some of the things she said (skip to about the 28:30/35 ish mark) about Planned Parenthood and her question about why women would feel comfortable in a party that is “supposedly” waging a “war on women.” I’m not surprised, but still disappointed that she could not find more than one woman at the convention who would stop to talk to her about those things.

So even though I do not agree with them on most of the issues and felt my palm hitting my face more than a few times during Meg’s commentary, I did enjoy it. I appreciate what SourceFed is doing to try to get younger people interested discussing the important issues of our times. And, for the most part, they actually manage to stay fairly balanced in their regular daily news coverage (which also includes human interest pieces and lighter content about science, gaming, movies, etc…) – except on gay marriage.

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So that’s what I thought. Head on over to Conversion Diary for more Quick Takes and leave a comment below with your own Convention thoughts!

Watch the 2012 Paralympics Live!

ChelseaDisabled, video1 Comment

Sick of 24 hr. hurricane coverage and the Republican National Convention (already)? Still having withdrawals from the ending of the 2012 summer Olympics? Well, the Paralympic Games started today. You can watch the opening ceremony and parade of nations live online right now:

But, who says you can’t be just as active and athletic with a disability? Meet the 2012 Paralympians.

Several, if not all, of the games will be shown live on this channel as well. Given the extremely negative attitudes that continue in the world towards life with a disability and the people who have them (especially those in the womb), it would be really nice if these games were broadcast on television for more to see. Maybe someday. Life with a disability is not as awful as you think!

You Wanna Say That to My Face?

ChelseaAbortion, Disabled, Eugenics2 Comments

tomyface.jpg

This poster is brilliant and echoes something I’ve said on this blog many times:

All abortion is equally abhorrent and offensive to humanity. It targets one segment of society, the unborn, and deems it worthy of life only at the behest of another segment. “Eugenic” abortion, however, goes one step further and takes a class of born citizens, the sick and disabled, and says to us, “your life is not worth living, you are a burden to yourself and society and you, and others like you, are better off dead.”

That’s a fact, Jack, whether you think that’s what you’re saying or not. Advocating for abortion for unborn children with various diseases and disabilities in order to “spare them a life of suffering” suggests that one must be perfect in mind and body in order to have a fulfilling life, which sends a message to those of us poor fools living with disabilities outside the womb that you do not think that our lives are worth living.

Here’s another fact that I’ve pointed out here many times before: according to a recent study, disabled children have the same range of happiness and unhappiness as all children…but their parents scored their children’s quality of life much lower than the children themselves.

By killing unborn children with disabilities, you might think that you are sparing someone a miserable life, but what you’re really doing is projecting onto them your own fear of hardship and suffering. Everyone has the right to pursue happiness, including children with disabilities, and the reality is that most of them will enjoy their lives immensely…if they’re given the opportunity.

Cute Angry Baby Blogging

ChelseaCute Baby Blogging, Humor, video1 Comment

Well, this seems like a good way to ease back into blogging after taking an unannounced week off. Happy Monday, everyone!

R.I.P. Coco Kitty

ChelseaDeath, Personal2 Comments

One of those little black balls of fluff is a newborn Coco Kitty in May of 1993(with sweet, sweet momma Cassie Cat):

kitties-2.jpg

Loot at the precious!:

coco-2.jpg

And here she is all grown up just a few short months ago:

coco.jpg

After 19 years, it’s hard to believe that she’s really gone. Though stuffed full of boxes, shelves and power tools, the garage feels eerily empty now. I keep hoping this was all just a bad dream and soon I’ll wake up, open the garage door and there she will be with her quacky-sounding meow begging for food and chin scratches.

I knew it was going to be hard, but, damn. Nothing could have prepared me for that. And though I’m still heartbroken, I am also relieved. After a major grief-stricken meltdown, God finally brought me to a place where I was ready to say goodbye and let her go. And go she did, sometime last night under my car. She was born in our house and she died in our house. That’s as it should be, I think.

She was a good old girl. I will miss her terribly.

Now, let’s just hope God gives me a few more years, at least, before I have to go through this again with one of the dogs. They’re getting up there.

But now ask the beasts to teach you, and the birds of the air to tell you; Or the reptiles on earth to instruct you, and the fish of the sea to inform you. Which of all these does not know that the hand of God has done this? In his hand is the soul of every living thing, and the life breath of all mankind. (Job 12:7-10)

I should note that in my almost 30 years, this was the first time I’ve ever had to really face death. I was never with or near any of our other animals that died. Same goes for the few family members and friends I have lost. As I said, it has been a bitter lesson in detachment and shown me how very much more I need to grow in faith and trust in God.

“Be not afraid.” It sounds like such a simple command, and yet…

God give me hope and trust in you!

Scared to Death of Death

ChelseaAging, Death4 Comments

kitty.jpg
Kindly requesting your prayers, gentle readers. It’s looking more and more like my precious Coco kitty is at the end of her life – and I am NOT ready to deal with this (I know, who is, right?). It’s hard to tell how close she is. She’s still eating and walking around, but she’s definitely more subdued than normal, she’s getting skinnier and she appears to have developed a nasty looking eye infection that I’m hesitant to bring her into the vet for right now as it might just cause her added stress and trauma. The thing is, she’s 19 years old and I’m not sure even the vet would say that it would be beneficial to bring her in to be tested or treated for anything at this point. In fact that’s exactly what our old vet told us when Coco’s mother was skin and bones at 18. (I should note that I’ve been trying to keep her eyes cleaned out and I’ve ordered some over-the-counter eye drops in an attempt to at least do something.) I hate this.

I’ve talked a good game here in the past, but, when actually confronted with it, the truth is I’m scared to death of death. Really scared. I want so desperately to be able to be with her and comfort her in her final days/hours/moments, but at the same time I’m afraid to go out and even look at her (she’s an outside/garage kitty) and I am positively terrified at the thought of having to actually bring her in and have her put down (I don’t want to kill my cat!). I hate this.

As heartbroken as I am over my poor, old, dear cat, I know it’s nothing compared to mess I’m going to be when this pup leaves me. He’s thirteen this year:

crashy.jpg

(Or, you know, when an actual human member of my family gets sick and dies.)

Thinking about death and losing my beloved pets has opened my eyes like nothing else to just how attached I am to people and things in this world and how little trust I really have in God. So lately I have been concentrating on really trying to practice and take to heart the Total Consecration to the Blessed Virgin Mary that I’ve made and renewed over the last 14 years, whereby one gives oneself entirely to Mary in order to belong entirely to Jesus through her. According to St. Louis Marie De Montfort, this:

requires us to give:
(1) Our body with its senses and members;
(2) Our soul with its faculties;
(3) Our present material possessions and all we shall acquire in the future;
(4) Our interior and spiritual possessions, that is, our merits, virtues and good actions of the past, the present and the future. (True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, n. 120)

There is a pledge we make as members of the Legion of Mary that covers this perfectly and I have found myself repeating it many times throughout the day lately: “I am all Thine, my Queen and my Mother and all that I have is Thine.” All that I have, including my dearly beloved animals.

Now, I am going to attempt to go out and sit with my poor cat for a while (though these days she stays under the car for the most part while I’m out there with her). Did I mention that I hate this?

God give me strength and trust in you!