Roe for Brownback

Chelsea2008 Election, Abortion, PoliticsLeave a Comment

The now pro-life (and Catholic) Norma McCorvey, aka ‘Jane Roe’ of Roe v. Wade, has announced her endorsement of Sen. Sam Brownback for President of the United States:

“I know the hurts of countless women who have been lied to and manipulated by the abortion industry in this country. Our nation needs a President of strength, courage, and moral fortitude – one who will lead our society on a path that respects human life and human dignity. Senator Sam Brownback’s love for all Americans at every stage of development is unquestioned, and his le adership of the pro-life movement if unrivaled. Sam Brownback is the right person, in the right place, at the right time for our nation as we seek to embrace a culture of life.”

With other endorsements from Fr. Frank Pavone and Terri Schiavo’s brother, Bobby Schindler, I don’t think we have to look any further for an acceptable pro-life candidate.

Pro-Woman, Pro-Child, Pro-Life

ChelseaAbortion, WomenLeave a Comment

Here’s an article about the pro-life movement’s “shift to focus on health issues,” namely the health of the mother. Pro-lifers have always been concerned about the life and health of the mother, especially considering the damage that abortion does to a woman emotionally and psychologically and yes, even physically.

Sadly, many women opt for abortion because they feel that they have no other choice. JivinJehoshaphat links to a woman who says just that:

I know I do not have another option…I would love to [have the child], but there is no way I could afford it and I cannot bring a baby into the world knowing I cannot properly support it.

In the immortal words of Spider-Man 3, “you always have a choice” to do the right thing. But a woman cannot make the right choice if she is not first given the right information and the other possible options that lay in front of her. That is why, in recent years, we have been taking an active role in our concern for women by pushing for more and better informed consent laws. The latest buzz has been about making ultrasounds available in abortion clinics.

Women deserve better than abortion and in order to reduce abortion numbers, special attention must be given to helping a woman make the best decision for herself and her unborn child.

Does Giuliani’s Position Make Sense?

ChelseaAbortion, Politics, Right to LifeLeave a Comment

Rudy GiulianiMichael Gerson tackles this question today in the Washington Post.

In early debates and statements, he has set out his views on this topic with all the order and symmetry of a freeway pileup. His argument comes down to this: “I hate abortion,” which is “morally wrong.” But “people ultimately have to make that choice. If a woman chooses that, that’s her choice, not mine. That’s her morality, not mine.”…

But the question naturally arises: Why does Giuliani “hate” abortion? No one feels moral outrage about an appendectomy. Clearly he is implying his support for the Catholic belief that an innocent life is being taken. And here the problems begin.

How can the violation of a fundamental human right be viewed as a private matter? Not everything that is viewed as immoral should be illegal; there are no compelling public reasons to restrict adultery, for example, or to outlaw sodomy. But when morality demands respect for the rights of a human being, those protections become a matter of social justice, not just personal or religious preference.

American history has tested these arguments. In debating the Missouri Compromise, Sen. Stephen Douglas said of slavery: “I am now speaking of rights under the Constitution and not of moral or religious rights. I do not discuss the morals of the people of Missouri, but let them settle that matter for themselves.” Abraham Lincoln differed: If faith and conscience tell us that enslaved Americans are men and brothers, then slavery must eventually be ended. Passing the 13th Amendment was not “imposing” our moral views on slaveholders; it was upholding the meaning of law and justice…

A number of pro-choice positions can be held consistently. It is possible to believe that human worth develops gradually and that the early fetus is merely a clump of cells. It is possible to accept professor Peter Singer’s teaching that human worth arrives only with self-conscious rationality, opening up disturbing new possibilities of infanticide.

But Giuliani has chosen an option that is not an option — a belief that unborn life deserves our sympathy but does not deserve rights or justice. This view is likely to dog him in the primary process, not only because it is pro-choice but because it is incoherent.

No, Giuliani’s position doesn’t make sense. Either unborn children are human beings entitled to life and protection under the law or they aren’t. In Giuliani’s opinion, they are human beings, but only if someone personally believes that they are, otherwise they’re out of luck.

Creepy Science

ChelseaAbortion, Embryo ScreeningLeave a Comment

From Fred Reed at the Washington Times:

In England, it now seems, a baby can be aborted for not being pretty enough. Maybe this was inevitable as genetic screening and techniques such as ultrasound advanced.
The London Daily Telegraph Web site reports that the Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has licensed a fertility clinic to screen embryos for a genetic defect that causes a severe squint.
A squint? The aborting of babies with undesired characteristics is hardly new. In China, where people have a strong preference for boys, so many female babies have been aborted that a serious imbalance between the sexes exists. Babies with fatal conditions have been aborted. We now seem to have invented cosmetic abortion.
The man to whom the license was granted, professor Gedis Grudzinskas, was asked whether he would screen babies for hair color. He replied that hair color “can be a cause of bullying, which can lead to suicide. With the agreement of the HFEA, I would do it.”
As medical genetics advances, it will become possible to predict more and more characteristics of an unborn child — hair color, height, likelihood of obesity, perhaps intelligence. Presumably, it will then be possible to try again and again until you get your ideal baby

*snip*

Mr. Grudzinskas further said that “he would seek to screen for any genetic factor at all that would cause a family severe distress.”
Here is another step into a curious future. First, screening tried to eliminate babies who had some inevitably fatal disorder, like cystic fibrosis. Then Mr. Grudzinskas gets a license to screen for a condition that would be unpleasant, specifically an ugly squint. Now he wants to screen for anything that might make mommy and daddy unhappy. Maybe the child screens to be healthy and in fact brilliant, but maybe daddy can’t stand nerds, or the DNA says the child might be overweight.
This makes abortion begin to sound like a branch of psychotherapy, and child-bearing like shopping.
“Creepy” isn’t a scientific term, but maybe it fits.

Creepy indeed!

Stem Cells Treat Incontinence!

ChelseaAdult Stem Cell Research, MiscellaneousLeave a Comment

What else can they find to treat with stem cells??

Science Daily — Women with stress urinary incontinence (SUI) treated using muscle-derived stem cell injections to strengthen their sphincter muscles experience long-term improvements in their condition, according to a study led by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto. The study, which followed patients for more than one year, suggests that the approach is safe, improves patients’ quality of life and may be an effective treatment for SUI…

In the study, Dr. Carr and colleagues took biopsies of skeletal muscle tissue from eight female patients and isolated and expanded the stem cells from the tissue in culture. In an outpatient setting, the patients then received injections of the muscle-derived stem cells into the area surrounding the urethra. Each patient received an equal dose of stem cell injections using three different injection techniques — a transurethral injection with either an 8-mm or 10-mm needle or a periurethral injection.

Five of the eight women who participated in the study reported improvement in bladder control and quality of life with no serious short- or long-term adverse effects one year after the initial treatment. These improvements were associated with both the 10-mm needle injections and the periurethral injections, which allowed the investigators to deliver the stem cells close to the damaged sphincter muscle. The 8-mm needle was not able to deliver the muscle stem cells deep enough into the tissue to reach the sphincter.

A multi-center study in Canada and a study in the United States are currently underway and will allow researchers to determine the optimal dose of muscle stem cells needed to effectively treat SUI.

Women with SUI involuntarily leak urine during activities that put pressure on the bladder, such as running, coughing, sneezing or laughing. Stress incontinence is caused by childbirth, menopause or pelvic surgery and is most often diagnosed in women during middle-age.

No Greater Love

ChelseaAbortionLeave a Comment

Reflection: How many of us women, pregnant and faced with a life threatening illness, would give up our own lives in order to become a mother to our son, if only for six months.

One mother from Scotland has done just that. Anna Radosz has passed away six months after giving birth to her son, Oscar. While she was pregnant, Anna learned that the malignant melanoma that she fought the year before returned and her best chance for survival would be to abort her unborn child in order to undergo the proper treatments. To Oscar’s benefit his mother refused to end his life, even if it meant saving her own. To a local newspaper she said:

I’ll move heaven and earth to get more time with my precious baby. I could have a year, maybe six months or even less, but I’ll do anything to live to be a mother to my baby

It’s a tragic end, to be sure, but it is a great example for all pregnant women in difficult situations. No matter how bad the situation is one must never cooperate with evil even to bring about something good. Children, though they may come from tragic circumstances, are great gifts from God and should be nurtured and treasured as such. Sometimes that means putting our own needs aside in order to preserve the life of someone more vulnerable. It’s hard to do, but if we entrust ourselves to the will of the Heavenly Father, He will give us the strength that we need.

No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends (Jn. 15:13)

Stem Cells Treating Spinal Cord Injury!!

ChelseaAdult Stem Cell Research5 Comments

Here is a story that hits close to home for me. A Michigan woman, paralyzed from the waist down after a car accident, has been traveling to Russia for adult stem cell therapy that is helping her regain feeling and movement:

The stem cells are drawn from Rummelt’s own blood and separated in a special machine. Then they are injected into her spinal fluid. Three trips and six injections later Rummelt can use her hip-flexers to crawl. A considerable feat, after not being able to move the lower half of her body for years.

“I had no feeling, no sensation, if my leg fell I had no idea at all,” said Rummelt. With therapy Rummelt grows stronger everyday she can even stand. And she can actually feel pain in her foot, five years post injury.

The video is amazing!

It is disappointing that this story is not found anywhere else. Any treatment that gives feeling and movement back to a patient with a complete spinal cord injury 5 years later is truly a medical breakthrough. This simply does not happen. There are currently no treatments, therapies or medications that help “improve” complete SCIs. When a friend of mine gives talks on the subject she compares the spinal cord to a telephone wire. Through it the brain communicates to the rest of the body and vice versa. A spinal cord injury would be like taking scizzors and cutting that telephone wire. Once the spinal cord is damaged enough in a certain spot the communication is cut off completely never to be returned again. Never, until now, that is – and it’s happening with ADULT stem cells!!! This should be shouted from the rooftops!

H/T: JivinJehoshaphat

Read about NeuroVita Clinic where this treatment is being done.

Brownback’s Response

ChelseaAbortion, PoliticsLeave a Comment

On my previous post I wanted to add text of Sen. Brownback’s response to the abortion/rape victim question last night but never found it. I must not have searched very well because Catholic Fire was able to find it (and many others, I’m sure):

That would be a very difficult situation….But the basic question remains: Is the child in the womb a person? Is it a viable life? And if it is a person, it’s entitled to respect…. It’s a terrible situation, where there’s a rape involved or incest. But it nonetheless remains that this is a child that we’re talking about doing this to — of ending the life of this child.

I love it.

*I’ve got to fine tune my googling skills.

Was There a Winner Last Night?

ChelseaPolitics, Right to LifeLeave a Comment

Unfortunately I did sit through last night’s Republican presidential debate on Fox News and if there was a winner I sure couldn’t tell. I hate to say it, but I was pretty uninspired by most of the answers on all issues. I loved Sam Brownback’s answer when he was asked what he would say to a rape victim who found herself pregnant and the reference to Mike Huckabee’s statement that Giuliani “hating” abortion while respecting a woman’s right to choose is like hating slavery, but understanding that some people feel differently (yes, Rudy, the analogy is accurate). The only other answer I really enjoyed was Huckabee(?)’s call for the fair tax plan. I am all for that one!! Otherwise nothing really got me excited about voting next year. AHH! Maybe I’m just in a cranky mood but at this point I’m not looking forward to 2008 at all. There are some very good pro-life candidates on the board, I just wish there was more support behind them. Hopefully that will come in due time. In the meantime, I will continue do my best to encourage support for candidates who will fight for the rights of every U.S. citizen, including the unborn. Why is this important? Mark Pickup answers:

Universal human rights, like the Right to Life, are just that: Universal. They apply to everyone, not just some. The Right to Life is the first and highest human right. With out it guaranteed, all other rights become arbitrary and uncertain.

Do it for the Children

ChelseaAdult Stem Cell Research, Embryonic Stem Cell ResearchLeave a Comment

The American College of Pediatrics calls for support of adult stem cell research and an end to embryonic stem cell research. This is my favorite quote from the news release from a fellow from the ACP:

Not only does embryonic research require taking the life of human embryos, it also prolongs needless suffering by delaying the development of more promising adult stem cell treatments and cures

Oh no, she did NOT just say that!! ESC research prolongs suffering? She must be grossly misinformed because I’ve always been told that research on days old embryos is our only hope of relieving needless suffering. Someone needs to get her the latest media story about stem cell research quick so that she can get her facts straight!

Thank you, ACP, for your support for only ethical (not to mention effective) medical science!