March 2007 Archives

From Sydney Morning Herald

THE outlawed euthanasia manual The Peaceful Pill Handbook will soon be available for download on the internet.

Co-author and euthanasia campaigner Dr Philip Nitschke made a deal with Google Books in the US last week. He said the download version, illegal in Australia, would cost about $37.

Dr Nitschke said The Peaceful Pill Handbook had been a steady seller on Amazon.com, often ranking in the top 1000 books in a pool of 2 million but Australian customers ran the risk of customs confiscating it.

Read the rest at Marlowe's Shade

Theresa Marie Schindler December 3, 1963 - March 31, 2005 - The Terri Schindler-Schiavo Foundation

Terri Schiavo: Victim of Lethal Bigotry - Freedom Eden

Terri Schiavo: Finding the Answers - BlogsforTerri

The dehydration death of a nation - Bobby Schindler for WND

Terri Schiavo Passed Away 2 Years Ago Today - Proecclesia

Death Does Not Have The Last Word - North Country Gazette

I remember Terri. Do you?? - And Rightly So

Remembering Terri Schindler-Schiavo - Life at the Frontier

TERRI SCHIAVO'S NEXT TO LAST DAY: A LOOK BACK, "I WANT TO LIVE" - LifeNews

Priest who was with Schiavo says society has it all wrong - WorldNetDaily

Updates:

A Worthless Life? - Dakota Voice

Remembering Terri - A Good Choice

A Sad Anniversary - Thoughts of a Regular Guy

Fr. Pavone Comments on Terri Schiavo Anniversary - Christian Newswire

After thirteen days without food and water Terri Schiavo died on this date two years ago. Ironically, the barbaric act of taking away her food and water, the most basic of care, was marketed by the mainstream media and euthanasia extremists as an act of compassion given to a woman whose life was not worth living.

As if understanding the illegitimacy of their act, some attempted to dehumanize Terri by suggesting that she was in a coma, brain dead, or a "vegetable" while others reported that machines were keeping her alive, as if she was dying. The use and continued republication of these blatant falsehoods to justify Terri's death underscores the implication that withholding food and water to bring about death is fundamentally immoral.

Dehumanization is a necessary because the value of human life is key. Terri's case revealed that our courts and society have taken a low view of human life, one that measures a person's worth by the scale of the young and healthy. The core values of this death oriented belief system have been festering below the surface for decades, emerging with the legalization of abortion in 1973.

What has surprised many is the that the Culture of Death is progressive and has turned from the oppression of those hidden in the womb to strike out against the weak and helpless in plain view of society and by the authority of the State and Federal governments.

Statement from the Schindler family following the death of Theresa Marie Schindler

From March 31, 2005

Pinellas Park, FL - As you are aware, Terri is now with God and she has been released from all earthly burdens. After these recent years of neglect at the hands of those who were supposed to protect and care for her, she is finally at peace with God for eternity. We are speaking on behalf of our entire family this evening as we share some thoughts and messages to the world regarding our sister and the courageous battle that was waged to save her life from starvation and dehydration.

We have a message for the volunteers that have helped our family:

Thank you for all that you've done for our family. Thank you to the hundreds of doctors who volunteered to help Terri. Thank you to the fifty doctors who provided statements under oath to help Terri. Thank you to the lawyers who stood for Terri's life in the courtrooms of our nation. From running our family's website, to driving us around, to making meals, to serving in so many ways--thank you to all of the volunteers who have been so kind to our family through all of this.

We have a message for the supporters and people praying worldwide:

Please continue to pray that God gives grace to our family as we go through this very difficult time. We know that many of you never had the privilege to personally know our wonderful sister, Terri, but we assure you that you can be proud of this remarkable woman who has captured the attention of the world. Following the example of the Lord Jesus, our family abhors any violence or any threats of violence. Threatening words dishonor our faith, our family, and our sister, Terri. We would ask that all those who support our family be completely kind in their words and deeds toward others.

Two events this week spotlighted the truth: People calling themselves "pro-choice" aren't that at all. They are pro-abortion. They are anti-choice. They do all they can to suppress the free speech of pro-lifers.

At a March 27 rally sponsored by liberal feminists in Washington, D.C., to promote the reintroduction of the Equal Rights Amendment, one pro-abort ripped up a sign held by a pro-lifer with the simple message, "Abortion hurts women." See video here:

And members of a pro-life student group at Indiana's Purdue University had to spend the night of March 28 defending their display against pro-abort vandals. Go to www.jillstanek.com for that story and photo.

Many comments to my blog post yesterday, "Death Angel vs. Terri Schiavo," perpetuated false information, which Terri's brother Bobby dispels in a column today

The most obvious thread between abortion support and euthanasia support is promotion of death. The underlying thread is selfishness, i.e., promotion of convenience.

Over 90% of abortions are for convenience, either as primary or secondary birth control.

Likewise, every euthanasia enthusiast I read on my blog supports it for convenience. Oh, they attempt to appear altruistic, using themselves as an example. "I wouldn't want to be a burden," they say, actually forced to make this argument to remain consistent with their support of abortion. But they are actually telling family and friends how they would consider them in similar a situation: inconvenient.

Here is an excerpt from Bobby's column today, which brilliantly describes their hypocrisy. It can be read in its entirety at WND.com.

Much of the problem that exists stems from a blind acceptance of misinformation that has moved us from a firm belief in the sanctity of life to a "quality of life" mindset, which says that some lives are not worth living....

The sad fact is we have become a nation that spends billions trying to find the perfect body, while ignoring the condition of our collective soul; where altruism seems to be a thing of the past, and moral relativism has become a bona fide religion....

My sister's case is a perfect example. Look how the popular media presented Terri's story, abandoning any attempt at objective or ethical reporting in their rush to justify her death. In an effort to dehumanize Terri, they repeatedly reported she was in a coma, brain dead, a "vegetable" and that the autopsy proved she was in a persistent vegetative state, all of which are patently false.

All one has to do is watch the videos of Terri to see how alive she was. If that's not enough, more than 40 medical affidavits stated Terri wasn't in PVS and/or could have been helped with new medical technology.

The media chose to ignore all of this, instead reporting what Terri wasn't able to do and referencing a doctor who took pride in the moniker, "Dr. Humane Death."

They painted a story of a husband's unconditional love as he carried out his wife's "wish" to die, completely ignoring the fact that there was no evidence of this and that Michael essentially abandoned Terri as soon as he began living with his new wife-to-be.

They framed this as a strictly pro-life issue, ignoring the 30 disability groups publicly supporting Terri's life....

Completely unaware of their own hypocrisy, they commended Christopher Reeve's wife, Dana, and rightly so, for her dedication in caring for her husband, while vilifying my parents for wanting to do the same thing for their daughter.

In the same vein, they repeatedly questioned the intent of our legal team while glossing over the fact that Schiavo's attorney, George Felos, admitted in his book to having violent images of bludgeoning his wife to death.

They chastised former Gov. Jeb Bush for doing his job by trying to stop the two-week dehydration death of an innocent disabled woman, but praised him when he placed a moratorium on death row executions after a lethal injection went 15 minutes too long.

They justify the destruction of embryos to produce stem cells (ignoring both the success of adult stem cells and that embryonic cells have produced no cures), reporting that their use will improve the lives of the disabled, and at the same time they work to convince the public that it is OK to kill the very same people they say this research could cure.

And, finally, they paid more respect to and had more compassion for a racehorse than they did my sister.

Senate Bill 385 is currently before the Illinois General Assembly. This bill directs the state to create a professional license for midwives to attend homebirths. Our current laws allow a woman to give birth at home, but make it illegal for midwives to attend those births. This essentially takes away a woman's right to choose where she will birth her baby. Women should not only be allowed to but be supported in working with their bodies during birth. Illinois is one of the few states in our country that has outlawed qualified, licensed midwives who wish to perform this service.

This great story was just sent to me by reader Monica, originally reported Feb. 4 by Florida's KLTV

Jennifer and Taylor White had been married for several years when they decided to add children to their family. A first pregnancy ended in a miscarriage. Then last March, Jennifer became pregnant again.

Just as the critical first six weeks approached a blood sample tested positive for spinal bifida. They headed straight to Dallas to a specialist who said that test was negative...but

"He told us, there was no amniotic fluid," says Taylor White. "And this was our first ultra sound of the pregnancy, this was our first time to even see...and there was no amniotic fluid, no kidneys of course because there was no amniotic fluid....

"He told us then," says Jennifer White, "if I were you I would go home and pray, because it really doesn't look good"....

Read happy ending to story at www.jillstanek.com.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with inherent and inalienable rights; that among these, are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; ...." --Declaration of Independence as originally written by Thomas Jefferson, 1776. ME 1:29, Papers 1:315

Mark Pickup asks:

Will Century 21 extinguish our belief in of unalienable human rights and blur the notion of self-evident truth. The long shadows of the 21st Century threaten to make the savagery of the 20th Century pale in comparison. We find ourselves in a world with unbridled abortion on demand, a world where children are killed in the birth canal. We are confronted with a new-age terrorism dressed in the utilitarian lab-coats of bioethics, theories of futile care, and legal jurisprudence that's increasingly hostile to imperfect or inconvenient human life. A climate of public acceptance of euthanasia and assisted suicide is rooting into North America's mindset. This is such an arrogant a generation as to tamper with the genetic building blocks, the very genesis of life itself. -- Human Life Matters

CNN has reported that on her first day back on the campaign trail after disclosing she had bone cancer, Elizabeth Edwards promoted human embryo experimentation. Speaking at a Cleveland fundraiser, she said:

"I think that we're foolhardy to not be engaging in federal funding of stem-cell research in the most aggressive way we possibly can"....

"If people think that you're throwing babies out, dissecting children, to do stem-cell research, I'm not for that," [she] said....

Edwards noted that stem-cell work uses blastocysts containing clumps of 16 or 32 cells that were collected
by fertility clinics but are no longer needed and would otherwise be thrown away....

Edwards' statement was wrong on a critical point, that the only human embryos being experimented upon are fertility clinic leftovers....

It was also bizarre of Edwards to say she opposed "dissecting children," although I guess it's a plus.

Those aside, the ironies are profound. In addition to supporting the embryo experimentation, both John and Elizabeth are pro-abortion.

Yet, of all people they should revere the sanctity of life more than most. They lost a son at age 16 in a car accident. Following that, Elizabeth underwent fertility treatments to give birth at the age of 48 and 50.

Now Elizabeth has incurable bone cancer. Bone. Bone is where blood cells are made. Bone marrow is just another term for a certain type of adult stem cells....

Finish reading my column today, "Elizabeth Edwards still lauds culture of death," at WorldNetDaily.com.

[Photo, top right, courtesy of CNN]

The 16,000-member Christian Medical Association today voiced strong opposition to a bill (AB 374), reviewed Tuesday by the Assembly Judiciary Committee, that would legalize assisted suicide in California.

The national organization of physicians added its voice to the American Medical Association and the California Medical Association in opposing the bill as a lethal threat to patients and the medical profession.

Tony Perkins, Family Research Council president, calls pro-lifers to action:

Ever since last November's elections, which resulted in a pro-abortion leadership in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, national abortion groups have boldly pushed an agenda of death - forcing taxpayers to pay for it! In 2005 Planned Parenthood got $272 million in our taxes, twice the money it made from its 255,000 abortions that year. Since 1987 Planned Parenthood has taken in $3.2 billion in taxpayer funds for its deadly agenda.

Now these groups want even more taxpayer funding for their death march. Just last Friday, Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) sent a letter to her Senate colleagues asking for a boost of $100 million, specifically for Planned Parenthood clinics!

Even more reprehensible are the attacks on legitimate women's clinics, pregnancy care centers (PCCs), which protect the health of both the mother and the unborn child. Planned Parenthood and NARAL want to close these pregnancy care centers down. Currently, legislation in Oregon blatantly lists NARAL and Planned Parenthood as co-sponsors of a bill that targets pregnancy care centers for closure. We must send a message to these abortion profiteers that we've had enough!

Please e-mail the Oregon legislature and ask them to stop this taxpayer-funded, pro-abortion vendetta against legitimate clinics that help women in a time of need.

Brookfield, WI - Pro-Life Wisconsin strongly opposes legislation being circulated for co-sponsorship by Senator Fred Risser (D-Madison) and Representative Frank Bo yle (D-Superior) that would permit physician-assisted suicide (PAS) in Wisconsin .

"In a stark denial of reality, the bill states that taking prescribed medication to end your life does not constitute 'suicide.' If this isn't suicide, I don't know what is," said Peggy Hamill, state director of Pro-Life Wisconsin.

"Assisted suicide, no matter how compassionate it may seem on the surface, is nothing more than a cruel lie," said Hamill. "To the terminally ill, it tells them that there is no meaning to their life and that when they become a 'burden' to others suicide is the easiest answer for everyone. It also robs them of something integral to the human spirit - hope. Real compassion takes time and commitment. It means standing by someone and bearing their burden."

In the State of Oregon , where assisted suicide is legal, Kaiser Permanente Northwest HMO has not merely permitted doctors to assist in patient suicides - it has actively solicited its doctors to participate in this deadly practice. In August of 2002, a Kaiser executive e-mailed a memo to more than 800 Kaiser doctors recruiting PAS-doctor volunteers. According to Portland psychiatrist Gregory Hamilton, MD, this email represents the first step down the slippery slope of killing patients to save money.

"In an age of soaring healthcare costs and cutbacks, how much longer until the 'right to die' becomes the 'duty to die?'" said Matt Sande, Pro-Life Wisconsin's Director of Legislation. "How much longer until those considered a 'burden' on society are systematically denied healthcare and life-saving measures in order to cut costs? The great state of Wisconsin can do better than assisted suicide."

A 2002 study of the impact of Oregon 's "Death with Dignity Act" revealed that ninety percent of Oregon assisted-suicide patients change their minds. According to Dr. Susan Tolle, director of the Center for Ethics in Health Care at Oregon Health and Science University and head of the study, most people who ask their doctor about assisted suicide are simply depressed or fearful of pain. If properly counseled and treated, 90% choose to continue living.

"Right to die" forces routinely speak of patients dying in intractable pain. They call killing oneself a "basic human right" that should be constitutionally protected. Yet medical studies show that virtually all pain can be alleviated at the end of life. A study by the World Health Organization found that 95 to 100 percent of the pain experienced by people at the end of life can be adequately controlled.

"Instead of killing the pain, these 'right to die' activists focus on killing the patient," said Sande. "Few of them seem enthusiastic about educating healthcare professionals about the amazing advances in palliative care."

Source: Pro-Life Wisconsin

TAMPA, Mar. 27 /Christian Newswire/ -- As the second anniversary of Terri Schiavo's death from dehydration on March 31, 2005, approaches, her brother, Bobby Schindler is releasing a letter written to Bishop Robert Lynch of St. Petersburg, Florida.

The text of the letter is available online. Bobby Schindler also makes the following comments:

In light of the fact that Bishop Lynch refused my family's pleas for his help in our attempt to save my sister's life, I am posting an "open letter to Bishop Robert Lynch" which I sent to him on March 9, 2007, and to which I have, to date, received no response.

On March 13, 2007, Pope Benedict XVI reasserted that Catholic politicians have a "grave responsibility" to defend all innocent human life, and a "non negotiable" duty to oppose the practices of abortion and euthanasia.

If the Church teaches that such a grave responsibility rests on elected officials who are here today and gone tomorrow, and who hold mere temporal power, what of the successors of the apostles - our bishops - who hold the greatest spiritual authority on earth?

Pope Benedict XVI clearly stated, "all Catholics have a duty to uphold the Church's pro-life teachings, but the responsibility is especially incumbent on those in positions of power." (emphasis mine)

Pope Benedict further stated, "Bishops are bound to reaffirm constantly these values (the pro-life teaching of the Church) as part of their responsibility to the flock entrusted to them." As Catholic dissenters continue to flaunt their pro-death agenda, and as laws are promoted, especially in the economically progressive world, for the legalization of euthanasia, the bishops have been charged by the Holy See "with the task of monitoring whether elected officials in their local churches shouldn't be receiving communion because of a violation of the church's pro-life teachings."

Perhaps certain bishops should not consider themselves above such scrutiny as well. As my letter states, "I beg the Lord to spare us another successor of the apostles who would exhibit the same scandalous inaction and silence by which you remain complicit in my sister's murder via euthanasia."

Bobby Schindler now works for The Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation, Center for Health Care Ethics in St. Petersburg, Florida, an organization dedicated to promoting the Culture of Life, embracing the true meaning of compassion by opposing the practice of euthanasia.

We knew it was coming.

With abortionists dying out and very few young physicians wanting to bear the notoriety (not to mention the stains on the soul) of killing preborn children, the clamor of the abortion lobby would certainly begin that people other than doctors be allowed to perform the grisly deed.

And so...here we go. This Guardian Unlimited story (quite biased, it's no shock) explains how "experts" are calling for nurses to be now given the go.

Last week Rev. Rob Schenck, Rabbi Levin and Rev. Patrick Mahoney held a press conference at the White House to respond to the flap surrounding General Pace and his comments on homosexuals and the military.

General Pace stated earlier this month that he supported the military's dont' ask, don't tell policy and added that homosexual acts "are immoral".

"I believe homosexual acts between two individuals are immoral and that we should not condone immoral acts,"

Many people got upset over those remarks, and conservatives supported him while chastising the many Republicans, including the President, who wouldn't openly support him.

Click here to continue reading and to view the video at NationalProLifeRadio.net

From CCTV.com, today:

BEIJING - Scientists have created the world's first human-sheep chimera - which has the body of a sheep and half-human organs, according to news report Monday.

The sheep have 15 percent human cells and 85 percent animal cells and their evolution brings the prospect of animal organs being transplanted into humans one step closer....

But the development is likely to revive criticisms about scientists playing God, with the possibility of silent viruses, which are harmless in animals, being introduced into the human race.

Animal rights activists fear that if the cells get mixed together, they could end up with cellular fusion, creating a hybrid which would have the features and characteristics of both man and sheep....

Does this mean animal rights activists will have to become pro-life activists?

[Photo courtesy of CCTV.]

For info about dinner with Dr. Keyes, Judie Brown and Rev Flip Benham
call 303-753-9394.

A pro-abortion diatriabe written by Joyce Arthur is occasionally thrown up as a comment by pro-abortion people. I refuse to publish this long, insane argument about "anti-choice" women who are faced with an unwanted pregnancy, and then choose the death of their children.

I will post a paragraph and comment on it however.

Representative Barbara Lee (D-CA) and Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) recently introduced the "Responsible Education About Life" (REAL) Act. This bill would provide $208 million dollars in federal grants for so called comprehensive sexuality education programs.

Comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) programs, also known as abstinence plus programs, may have innocuous names but are not in the best interests of our youth. They are comprised of an aggressive agenda designed to influence the values and morals of our culture's children in favor of risky sexual behaviors.

(To find out more about CSE programs, visit http://www.Comprehensive-Sex-Ed.com)

To be clear, teaching students about reproduction and disease prevention is not at issue here. The issue is that these programs do much more than this. Central to these programs is the idea all lifestyle choices and sexual values in a society should be respected, including alternative gender identities, homosexuality, contraception, and abortion.

CSE isn't just about teaching kids about human reproduction - it's an attempt to influence the sexual and moral values of our culture via indoctrination. For all of the protests from abortion advocates about the imposition of values and morals on society, they are certainly trying to push their sexual values on children via the REAL act.

So far, the pro-life movement hasn't made too much noise about the REAL act. It seems that the only people really concerned with the REAL Act and CSE programs are those who are trying to get it implemented. For example, take a peek at the keep it real campaign kit The Keep it REAL Campaign Toolkit, and then find the pro-life version to oppose the act - you probably can't, because there doesn't seem to be any concerted effort to oppose it.

Why should the REAL Act and CSE programs be opposed? There are at least four strong reasons:

1. CRITICAL FUNDING FOR PLANNED PARENTHOOD

Do a yahoo.com search on Dr. Mariam Grossman for more information on her book 'Unprotected'.

Click here to view the live broadcast now

From the AP today, Harvard Club Promotes Abstinence:

Some feminists, in particular, have criticized True Love Revolution's message.

Harvard student Rebecca Singh said she was offended by a valentine the group sent to the dormitory mailboxes of all freshmen. It read: "Why wait? Because you're worth it."

"I think they thought that we might not be `ruined' yet," Singh said. "It's a symptom of that culture we have that values a woman on her purity. It's a relic."

Others on campus have mocked the group. Murray said his friends take pleasure in loudly, and graphically, discussing their sex lives just to taunt him.

"On campus there is such a strong attitude of pluralism and acceptance, but then it doesn't extend to this," Kinsella said.

Read entire article here.

I have not written about the intolerance on today's college campuses for anything other than the leftist, libertine ideology, but I hope you all know this exists even more in the extreme than it does in the public sphere. This is really just a very small example of the double standard of the left. In today's "tolerant" universities, people like Ms. Singh would never criticize a gay group for sending a valentine to each dorm. And in the face of criticism, the gay group would cry "hate speech!"

Students touting abstinence? How unthinkable!

MONTPELIER, Vermont, March 22, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Vermont House of Representatives voted against a proposal yesterday that would have made the state the second in the country to permit physician-assisted suicide, following Oregon.

House members voted 82-63 against the measure euphemistically entitled "Patient Choice and Control at End of Life," after a week of impassioned debate on the issue, the Associated Press reported. The legislation would have made it legal for a doctor to assist a patient with a terminal illness to commit suicide by prescribe lethal medication.

Read the rest

Harvard's Abstinence Club - True Love Revolution.

Across the nation, a counter-cultural phenomenon is brewing among teens and young adults - abstinence from pre-marital sex.

That's right, a new sexual revolution is underway, one that rejects contraception, hookups, "free love" unhealthy sexual behaviors. And contrary to the presumption of many, this isn't a religious movement. One doesn't have to be religious to recognize that waiting until marriage is the healthiest sexual choice one can make.

This burgeoning movement is springing up on campuses across the nation, from small community... Continue reading "The New Sexual Revolution"

From the New York Times, March 21:

More than five million Americans have Alzheimer's disease, a 10 percent increase from the last official tally five years ago, and a number expected to more than triple by 2050, absent a cure, as the 85-and-over population soars and the baby boomers move into their late 60s and 70s.

From the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, March 2007:

In April 2006, officials with the Health Resources and Services Administration released projections that the nation's nursing shortage would grow to more than one million nurses by the year 2020.... [A]ll 50 states will experience a shortage of nurses to varying degrees by the year 2015.... [There is currently] a national RN vacancy rate of 8.5% [in hospitals].

Three points.

1. Thanks, abortion.

2. Sick, aging baby boomers should be categorized: Those who have advocated abortion the past 34 years should roll their wheelchairs to the back of the line.

3.What goes around comes around. Aging abortion proponents should not be surprised to hear surviving young family members say they cannot afford to care for them, they have no room for them, or this is just not a good time.

[Photo from the 1973 sci fi movie, Soylent Green]

I'm taking this one on faith because it has the ring of truth to it.

Hopefully publicizing it will expose the abuse and neglect in Oregon that hides behind the smokescreen of Oregon's advocacy of euthanasia

I've left out the names and other contact information from the original post.

What I've written here is a true story that must be told. There are people who have gone to great lengths to suppress the information herein. What I
hope to do is compel those reading it to join with me in demanding
accountability from the responsible parties. An investigation
independent of Oregon's Protection and Advocacy agency is needed to
decide exactly who the responsible parties are.

In early April 2006 I found out that a close friend of mine had stage
3 colon cancer. She had a profound developmental disability and was
non-verbal. In order for critical health care decisions to be made on
her behalf, she needed representatives who knew and cared about her to
gather and interpret medical information and weigh all her options. An
Advocacy Team was assembled including myself, two other staff members
from her day program (who knew her well), and her Individual Service
Plan (ISP) team. This consisted of a management staff representative
of the day program provider (who saw her a few times a year), the
owner of her foster home (who supervised her direct caregiver) and a
county case manager (who was assigned my friend a few months earlier,
and didn't know her). A close friend of the day program representative
was brought on board to act as health care representative (who didn't
know my friend prior to her diagnosis). We all met and decided that
the case manager would look into what was covered under her health
plan, the health care representative would get the medical record and
a 2nd opinion. She committed to providing these documents to the team
as soon as she got them. I said that I would look into treatment
options. Without any of this being accomplished, other than the
information I shared about diet and exercise being critical, she was
placed in hospice about two weeks later.

Continued at Marlowe's Shade

A federal district judge has recently ruled that the Children's Online Protection Act is an unconstitutional suppression of free speech. The law requires porn site operators to verify that patrons are 18 years old before giving them access to pornography. The lawsuit, brought by the ACLU on behalf of several sexual health sites and salon.com, states that this is a burdensome requirement and has a chilling effect on free speech. This position is absurd.

The law has been in effect now for 9 years. There is a clear track record to how the law is applied and to what content it applies to. If the law was signed 9 days ago, one could make a claim about a potential problem. However, after 9 years there have been apparently no cases in which a legitimate sexual health site has been prosecuted or that other speech has been curtailed.

Wired pursued the homosexual community's response to points raised in my column yesterday:

Eschewing the eugenics question, Stanek seems more interested in another question posed by Mohler.

How can [feminists and political liberals who support a woman's right to choose] now complain if women decide to abort fetuses identified as homosexual?

Out of curiosity, I called the Equality Forum to ask their take on aborting a baby because he or she is gay. Communications officer Christopher Scoville said that the Equality Forum would not support the decision to abort a baby just because they're gay, anymore than they would support aborting a baby because they are left handed.

When asked if the Equality Forum had an official position on abortions of babies with congenital defects, Scoville demured, leaving that question to bioethicists. He said that the Equality Forum is a civil rights organization and therefore the question is "not in our purview."

It will be interesting to see how various religious denominations weigh in. Some will suggest, as Mohler did, that altering a baby's sexual orientation is a way to protect a child from sin. Others will argue that this is nothing more than eugenics and should be forbidden.

One thing's certain: If such a prenatal test is found and women start aborting babies for being gay, pro-choice organizations supporting gay rights cannot argue against a woman's right to abort a gay fetus. If they do, other groups will fight for the same protections for their members and the right to choose will be so limited that it might as well not exist.

Wired also quoted an earlier EF press release:

Fetal invasion to alter sexual orientation is reminiscent of the Nazis. It reflects a theocratic and Taliban-like plan that should frighten all Americans.

"Fetal invasion"? How quickly gays are being converted on the sanctity of life.

By Dave Andrusko, National Right to Life

First, the very good news. A Texas hospital has agreed not to withdraw life support from 16-month-old Emilio Gonzales until April 10. This gives his family a chance to find another hospital which, hopefully, will accept the child.

The very bad news is that Texas--"ground zero for the futile care movement," in bioethicist Wesley Smith's arresting phrase--can be expected to produce more of these egregious cases until and unless hospital ethics committees no longer possess the unchecked power to vote to withdraw treatment from patients and give families only ten days to find a new hospital to provide care.

The good news related to Emilio Gonzales is that his hospital has agreed to extend his treatment to April 10 and is assisting the family with a transfer. Today we received this important message from Jerri Ward:

I am the attorney for Catarina and Emilio Gonzales, and I have a request. I am requesting of all our supporters that they refrain from calling Emilio's treating physicians at the hospital, their offices or their homes.

I am making this request, because unknown supporters have been making such calls. We have reason to believe that physicians who may be willing to help are being frightened off because of the phone calls made to the doctors.

It is imperative that we find a hospital and doctor willing to help, so I am asking that all of you pass this along and ask your supporters to refrain from calling the doctors, if they are doing that. As I said, we are not sure if the callers are with a particular group or just unaffiliated We just ask that you confine your calls to the switchboard and express disapproval. Please just don't ask for the doctors.

I wish to thank each and every one of you for your help. Please keep Emilio in your prayers.

Presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney
recently stated, "My view was a case like this would normally be left in the hands of a court."

Romney was referring to the attempt by Congress to help save the life of my sister, Terri Schiavo. He mistakenly assumed passing the buck on this issue would gain him political capital. He could not be more wrong, morally or politically....

Romney's comments and similar remarks made by other politicians about Terri's situation have, in my opinion, been prejudiced by a media that have oversimplified what Congress did by spinning it as "meddling in a private family affair."

In reality, Congress enacted a law to afford my sister's constitutional and statutory civil rights claims to be heard in federal court. This law already exists for every convicted murderer on death row.

If monsters like Ted Bundy or Scott Peterson are afforded this right after their cases have gone through the state court system, why shouldn't an innocent disabled woman be given that same chance before she is cruelly starved and dehydrated to death?

Congress was not only justified in getting involved, I believe it was their duty.

Read my complete op ed today at www.WorldNetDaily.com.

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For some time now, gays have attributed their sexual behavior to genetics. They attempt to bolster their point by strangely lamenting, "Why would anyone choose this life?" Said Rosie O'Donnell, for instance:

I don't think you choose whether or not you are gay. Who would choose it? It's a very difficult life.... I think life is easier if you're straight.... [I]f I could pick, would I rather have my children have to go through the struggles of being gay in America or being heterosexual? I would say heterosexual.

Really?

The Associated Press reported March 14 on the rising "furor" over an article by Rev. Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, for "suggesting that a biological basis for homosexuality may be proven, and that prenatal treatment to reverse gay orientation would be biblically justified," according to the AP....

I am more interested in this quandary Mohler presented, which the AP overlooked:

Feminists and political liberals have argued for decades now that a woman should have an unrestricted right to an abortion, for any cause or for no stated cause at all. How can they now complain if women decide to abort fetuses identified as homosexual? This question involves both abortion and gay rights - the perfect moral storm of our times....

Liberals are also taking notice of the potential for homosexual feticide....

Read my column today, "Abort gay babies?" at WorldNetDaily.com.

Poland submitted her European Union accession treaty with the caveat that "no EU treaties or annexes to those treaties would hamper the Polish government in regulating moral issues or those concerning the protection of human life." That didn't stop the European Court of Human Rights from demanding that Poland compensate a mother who claims she was refused an abortion. Yes, her case had been previously dismissed in Polish courts.

LifeSiteNews has the story

Wesley Smith writes:

Ah, the power of good lawyers and public scrutiny. After going to court, attorney Jerri Ward, attorney for Baby Emilio's mother, just informed me that the Children's Hospital of Austin has agreed not to remove life support until April 10. And good for the people at the hospital for being flexible enough to continue to try and work these matters out. But note this quote from a committee member:"This care is medically inappropriate," said committee member Michael Regier. "The aggressive care that this infant is receiving is causing suffering, harm to the infant and without clinical benefit, and that should be discontinued."

Note that Mr. Regier is essentially claiming that continuing to live is not a clinical benefit. That turns the ultimate purpose of medicine on its head.

The Texas Futile Care law must go.

Read more about futile care theory by Smith - click here.

An update from North Country Gazette:

Lawyers for the mother of "Little Emilio" Gonzales, a 16-month-old baby boy who physicians say is dying of Leigh's Disease, filed a temporary restraining order request Tuesday against the Seton Family of Hospitals in an effort to stay the "death by vote" edict imposed by the ethics committee of Children's Hospital.

The life of the toddler has been deemed "futile" and under Texas' Futile Care Law, they say they will end all treatment as of Friday, March 23, meaning that it's likely, within hours, Emilio will die.

Self-contradiction is epitomized by Exhale, the online service for post-abortive women that presents abortion as a tragedy for some and victory for others. The pluralistic themes of its electronic greeting cards have sparked some controversy, leading to a March 16 CNN Headline News interview/debate featuring the FRC's Dr. Charmaine Yoest (VP Communications, Reasoned Audacity) and Exhale Executive Director Aspen Baker.

I suggest you watch the short video clip - click here. The first question is a logical fallacy and is directed to Charmaine: "What's wrong with lending someone support, especially at a time when a woman may need it more than every." Can you say Plurium Interrogationum? It's when an interviewer uses a question with a false, disputed, or question-begging presupposition.

No, it didn't phase Charmaine. Here's her response:

It's very important to lend women support following abortion. In fact, for years the pro-life movement has been talking about the reality of the post-abortion depression. And so from that perspective we're really pleased to see that the reality of what woman deal with after abortion is getting out there and its really interesting to me to see the abortion movement try to come to grips with that.

But the truth that they are not coming to grips with is they're glossing over the loss of life of the unborn baby and that's what these woman are grieving and you really can't have it both ways. It's a little schizophrenic to say 'I'm grieving with you' [and] 'I appreciate your loss' without really coming to terms with that loss and you're not helping women in that.

Right to Life of Michigan has just placed one of its pro-life ads on You Tube.

The ad, entitled, "Weak," aptly describes the pro-life movement's mission, "to provide a voice for people at their weakest moments...when they are preparing to die and preparing to be born," states RTLMI's press release. "Weak" has aired on MI television for seven years.

Hospital "ethics" committee votes that toddler does not deserve treatment, boy may die by Friday

AUSTIN, Texas -- A Texas mother is urgently battling to save her child's life after officials at the Children's Hospital of Austin deemed the toddler's life as "futile" and voted to end his treatment as of Friday, March 23, 2007. Without the treatment, the boy, named Emilio, will most likely die on Friday.

"This is a no-brainer. The Children's Hospital of Austin needs to do the right thing and focus on the getting little Emilio the treatment he needs to live," said Jerri Ward, the attorney representing the family. "Unfortunately, the Children's Hospital of Austin betrayed little Emilio when their so-called 'ethics' committee voted that his life was 'futile.' What little Emilio needs from this hospital is medical assistance from doctors, not a death sentence by amateur philosophers."

On Dec. 28, 2006, Emilio Gonzales' mother Catarina brought him to the pediatric intensive care unit at Children's Hospital of Austin. Though unsure in their diagnosis, doctors believe the boy has Leigh's Disease, a condition that is treated primarily through vitamin therapy. But on March 12, a hospital ethics committee voted behind closed doors to end Emilio's treatment, deeming his life "futile."

Under Texas law, a hospital must wait 10 days before discontinuing treatment, to allow for a transfer to another hospital willing to admit the patient. But because of hospital bureaucracy and extensive paperwork, a successful transfer may not occur in time to save Emilio's life. The Children's Hospital of Austin will cease Emilio's breathing and vitamin therapy Friday, and without the treatments, the boy will likely die in a matter of hours.

An outside nurse reviewing Emilio's records noticed that the hospital had removed the boy's vitamin treatments during the 10-day period, bringing up fears among some that the hospital could be rushing to end the toddler's life to avoid discovery of malpractice in the boy's treatment.

Ward and Carden are filing a temporary restraining order to allow Emilio to receive his treatments while his case moves forward. A copy of the order filed in the Travis County Probate Court in the case Gonzales v. Children's Hospital of Austin can be read at the links below. The password is 1Life.

"I don't know the hospital officials want to free up a hospital bed or cut costs by not administering treatment, or whether they just believe that they should be the final arbiters as to whose life is worth living, but the life of a child far outweighs such concerns," said Ward. "Whatever the reasons for the hospital officials' mad dash to end this child's life, little Emilio should not be subject to 'death by vote.'"

A new museum dedicated to abortion and contraception opened this week in Vienna, cataloguing a history of human effort through the ages devoted to suppressing or destroying the next generation of human life in the womb. - LifeSiteNews

This quote from a March 15 Associated Press story on the ignorance about the sexually transmitted disease human papillomavirus (HPV) would be funny if it weren't so sad. Such pitiful, lost kids....

That was the case for one 24-year-old woman in San Francisco, who recently learned she has one of the high-risk types of HPV....

"I was scared, sad, disappointed and definitely ashamed. It seemed unfair that I should have it when I've had relatively few partners," says the young woman, who's been sexually active for eight years and had four monogamous sexual partners, including her current boyfriend of two years.

Monogamy used to mean, "the state or custom of being married to one person at a time." It now apparently means to have "relatively few partners," one at a time.

Hence, someone like the aforementioned can ignorantly claim it "unfair" that she has contracted HPV while also claiming to her ignorant, new, unmarried sex partner she is monogamous while bringing HPV to bed with them along with whatever else she has contracted from skin-to-skin sexual contact and exchange of blood and body fluids with three other men.

Update: the hospital and doctors are working with the family and should be commended. We've edited some of the language from the email below in response to some of the comments that have been received.

Melanie Childlers, one of Andrea Clark's sisters, wrote the following disturbing message concerning Emilio Gonzales, the 16-month-old boy who is set to be taken off "life support" against his mother's wishes:

Emilio Gonzales is a sixteen month old infant at Brackenridge Children's Hospital in Austin, TX. He has been diagnosed with Leigh's disease. Leigh's disease is a genetic malady which is caused by a lack of functional mitochondrial complexes. There is NO DEFINITIVE TEST for Leigh's disease, and physicians usually diagnose it based on symptoms, alone. There are tests which can back up the diagnosis, but let me reiterate: there are no definitive tests for this disease.

[snip]

This disease is usually treated with thiamin, but these physicians decided to take him off of treatment. It was only when his lawyer, Jerri Ward, insisted that they put him back on the treatment that they did so. These children can live, and often do live, to be about six or seven years of age. This child is sixteen months old and these physicians have decided not to give him a chance at the rest of his life, despite his family's wishes to the contrary.

In 2005, Arizona Right to Life sponsored an evening with Bobby Schindler, brother of Terri Schiavo, who is now working full-time for the Terri Schindler-Schiavo Foundation. The Phoenix event drew hundreds of people and included an introduction by Fr. Frank Pavone, president of Priests for Life.

The evening was important because it called attention to the secular mindset that led to the acceptance of Terri Schiavo's death and set a vision for reversing laws that devalue the disabled and equate nutrition and hydration to medical treatment.

Bobby Schindler spoke passionately and with emotional charge, still carrying the pain and grief that followed the public dehydration of his sister and yet describing his hope and vision for the future.

In light of the upcoming two year anniversary of Terri's death, we are republishing this post containing the first portion Bobby Schindler's address. Of course, these details and much more can be read by simply ordering a copy A Life that Matters.

Part I - Terri Schiavo's Life and Death

Part II - Terri Schiavo and the Culture of Death Movement

Part III - Legalized Killing: The PVS Diagnosis

Part IV - Terri Schiavo: Finding the Answers

"Inasmuch as you have done it for the least of My brothers, you have done it unto Me."

Tragically, after an exhausting twelve year struggle to bring Terri home, my sister died on March 31, 2005. A United States Court ordered the removal of her feeding tube that was supplying the most basic necessity, food and water. Please make no mistake, this was a court ordered murder issued by Circuit Court Judge George Greer. Terri's life ended after two weeks of suffering without food or water and without receiving ice chips to help ease some of the pain she was experiencing.

To explain all of the complexities of my sister's case would be impossible in the short time I have here this evening. However I would like to cover several issues involving my family's battle to save Terri, the organization behind this movement, and in particular, how it has now become relatively simple to kill persons with disabilities; those receiving their food and water via a feeding tube.

Two years ago today, at 1 p.m. March 18, 2005, the ruthless process of the execution by starvation of Terri Schindler-Schiavo began when the government, via judicial order, removed her feeding tube which provided her nutrition and hydration.

Many of us remember what we were doing and where we were at the time. We never thought the United States government was capable of the act which was perpetrated against a helpless disabled woman. Terri's slow and agonizing death via dehydration/starvation began on this day two years ago.

While Terri's life was taken, her family continues to fight euthanasia in all of its forms through the Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation.

The high-tech versatile mobile CPC will hit the streets to help women where their needs are the greatest:

New York City, NY - Operation Rescue announces that it is making a financial contribution to Expectant Mother Care, for the support of their ground-breaking hi-tech mobile Crisis Pregnancy Center that will be operated outside New York area abortion mills, including twice per week visits to the troubled New Jersey mill, Metropolitan Medical Associates, if it is ever allowed to reopen.

Operated by veteran pro-lifer Chris Slattery, the 32-foot long mobile office will offer free 4-D ultrasounds to women in climate controlled comfort just steps away from the abortion clinic doors. Slattery says that the motor home costs about $300 per day to operate. Expenses include gas, insurance, parking, and wages for an ultra-sound technician and counselor.

Another successful application of adult stem cell research:

British experts are pioneering a treatment using stem cell therapy to improve the sight of people born with a rare genetic eye disorder.

Stem cells taken from dead donors, living relatives or even the patients themselves are grown in a laboratory until they form sheets and then transplanted on to the surface of the cornea.

[snip]

Four patients have so far received the treatment successfully in one eye and reported an improvement in their comfort and vision, and now await treatment in their other eye.

All had little or no vision because they had few or no limbal stem cells under the eyelid which help keep the surface of the cornea clear and healthy.

And no one has to die for it. - Life Ethics Blog

Yes, it's outrageous: