NEWS SHORTS FOR TUESDAY
Disclaimer: The linked items below or the websites at which they are located do not necessarily represent the views of The Illinois Federation for Right to Life. They are presented only for your information.
Studies Revolve Around 'Abortion' Drug
There is a new use for a drug that is supposed to help treat ulcers. But it has doctors concerned, because more women are apparently using the drug to have an abortion. There are multiple warnings on the bottle, and they couldn't be more clear. Pregnant women should steer clear of misoprostol, an ulcer medication that causes cramping and could cause miscarriage. But pharmacist Bob Rosenberg knows firsthand that some pregnant women try and buy the drug without a prescription to intentionally terminate a pregnancy.
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/local&id=6586273&rss=rss-wabc-article-6586273
Burris denied seat in U.S. Senate to succeed Obama
Former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris announced his rejection for Barack Obama's Senate seat Tuesday in a bizarre rainy-day scene on the Capitol grounds as lawmakers awaited the gaveling of the 111th Congress into session.
Standing amid a huge throng of reporters and television cameras in a cold and steady rain, Burris, 71, declared that he had been informed that "my credentials are not in order and will not be accepted." (View video report)
He said he was "not seeking to have any type of confrontation" over taking the seat that he was appointed to by embattled Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=375230
Adult Stem Cells Grow New Teeth
Wisdom teeth are a rich source of stem cells, and apparently they can be used to grow teeth on demand. From the story:
As long as there are hockey players, there will be niche markets for false teeth. But the real news about the future of dentures is that there isn't much of one.
Toothlessness has declined 60 percent in the United States since 1960. Baby boomers will be the first generation in human history typically to go to their graves with most of their teeth.
And now comes tooth regeneration: growing teeth in adults, on demand, to replace missing ones. Soon. It turns out wisdom teeth are prolific sources of adult stem cells needed to grow new teeth for you. From scratch. In your adult life, as you need them. In the near future. According to the National Institutes of Health.
http://www.wesleyjsmith.com/blog/2009/01/dont-buy-stock-in-denture-making.html
Dawkins Yearning for Human/Chimp Hybrid Again
I am not sure why some materialists are so fervently anti human exceptionalism. I suspect they believe that by humbling us into believing our lives are no more important than that of animals, it would undermine Judeo/Christiam moral philosophy in general and theism in particular. Some too, I think, wish to have us sacrifice ourselves to "save the planet," in pursuit of the neo- nature worship that seems to be growing.
This desire leads some materialists to yearn for scientists to find (or create) a human/chimpanzee hybrid that could interbreed with both species, and thereby "break the species" barrier. James Hughes yearned for such a hybrid to be manufactured through genetic engineering in Citizen Cyborg, because he wrote, it would prove humans are not special and undermine what he calls "human racism." Similarly, the crusading atheist and biologist, Richard Dawkins has repeatedly expressed the same desire, for example in supporting the Great Ape Project in an essay in the book of the same name in 1993. (The illustration on the left at the top of this post is a depiction of what such an animal might look from Dawkins' essay.)
http://www.wesleyjsmith.com/blog/2009/01/dawkins-yearning-for-humanchimp-hybrid.html
Retired Pontifical Academy for Life Head Launches New Pro-life Initiative
When the former head of the Vatican’s pro-life office retired, he moved directly into the work of “educating consciences” to help re-build a Culture of Life in the Catholic Church in Italy. Bishop Elio Sgreccia, in an interview with LifeSiteNews.com, explained that his work with the newly founded Ut Vitam Habeant (“That They May Have Life”) Foundation is the next natural step in a lifetime of work in the field of Catholic medicine and bioethics.
Bishop Sgreccia’s name will be familiar to long-time LifeSiteNews.com (LSN) readers, as the former president of the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy for Life. During his time in that position his became a familiar voice defending the right to life of the unborn and the vulnerable ill and elderly, from the heart of the Roman Catholic Church.
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/jan/09010602.html
