As Pro-Life people, we can often become frustrated thinking about how many lives are taken through abortion, cloning, stem cell research, and physician-assisted suicide. Each month, we hear about new ways the Culture of Death slips into our society. However, we must realize that we are able to make a difference, primarily by educating our friends and family and by voting our conscience. Pro-Lifers must make our votes count to support legislators who defend innocent human life at all stages of all development. Please encourage others to do the same!
Please read this issue of the Pro-Life Update carefully to understand some of the challenges we now face and how you--an educated Pro-Lifer--can help advance the Culture of Life. Please share this information with your family, friends and church congregations. Make copies. Spread the news. Assisted Suicide Policy in Oregon Still Debated
Oregon is the only state in the country that allows physician-assisted suicide. Federal attorneys have been arguing that Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act conflicts with federal drug law: Drugs that are regulated are supposed to be used only for “legitimate medical purposes,” i.e., to relieve pain or provide comfort care, not to medicate or sedate someone to death. According to the Bush administration, drugs are not to be administered to assist suicide: “The attorney general recently issued an interpretive rule clarifying that assisting suicide is not a legitimate medical purpose under the CSA [Controlled Substances Act].”
In May, a three-member panel of an appeals court ruled that Attorney General John Ashcroft exceeded his authority when he ordered the federal government to prosecute Oregon doctors who use federally regulated drugs for lethal prescriptions. Oregon then sued. The U.S. Department of Justice has asked for an 11-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to review this ruling.
General Ashcroft hopes that this larger group of judges will reverse the May ruling. “There might be more balance on the full court,” stated Gayle Atteberry, executive director of Oregon Right to Life. “I was pleased that [Ashcroft] appealed and did not allow the matter to stand.”
Regardless of who prevails in the 9th Circuit Court, the case will likely end up in the Supreme Court. If Ashcroft succeeds, then doctors who assist with suicide in Oregon will risk losing their federal license to dispense medication.
Therapeutic Cloning Research License Given in England
In January 2001, cloning human embryos for therapeutic purposes was made legal in the United Kingdom by an amendment to the Human Embryology Act. In August of this year, the University of New Castle was granted the first license to perform therapeutic cloning by The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority.
In therapeutic cloning, human embryos are created strictly to be destroyed. These embryos are destroyed when the stem cells are culled. Scientists and researchers have claimed that therapeutic cloning will lead to cures from diseases, such as diabetes. However, therapeutic cloning is unethical, because removing stem cells from an embryo kills that embryo. Furthermore, there are NO published studies in any of the science or medical literature to date of any diseases--either in animal or human trials--being cured or successfully treated with embryonic stem cell therapies.
This research in England will occur at the International Centre for Life in Newcastle and will call upon experts from the Institute of Human Genetics at Newcastle and the Newcastle Fertility Centre. They claim that at least five years is needed before patients could possibly receive stem cell treatments from their work. In the meantime, hundreds of thousands of embryonic humans will be sacrificed.
Adult stem cells can be taken from many different sources (skin, bone marrow, nasal cavity, umbilical cord blood, etc.) and used in the same manner as embryonic stem cells would be. Yet no human life is sacrificed with adult stem cell therapies. Scientists have already successfully used adult stem cells to treat patients with various serious health issues, such as defective immune systems, liver disease, heart tissue damage, stroke, anemia, Parkinson’s disease, paralysis, diabetes, and more.
Over 19 Million Missing Voters for this Year’s Election
Wall Street Journal reporter James Taranto speaks of the “Roe Effect”, or the missing generation of voters. Larry Eastland, discussing the “Roe Effect” in The American Standard, has calculated that those who were aborted from 1973-1986 (all who could legally vote today) will result in 19,100,600 missing voters in this year’s election. Abortion advocates have literally aborted their next two generations of voters.
“Like an avalanche that picks up speed, mass and power as it thunders down a mountain,” he writes, “the number of missing voters from abortion changes the landscape of politics.”
This “Roe Effect”, combined with the fact that young women generally espouse the views of their mothers, makes for a more socially conservative population. A story run in London’s The Guardian recently discussed a study on the question of teenagers and abortion. According to this study, young women tend to do what their mothers would do in a similar situation.
This year, as you step into the voting booth, think of all the missing voters and make your vote count by electing strong Pro-Life leaders and doing your part to promote the Culture of Life.
