NEWS SHORTS FOR WEDNESDAY

Right-to-Die Fight Becomes Disabled Man's Reason to Live

Kurt Perry wanted to die.

The thin, pale 26-year-old has suffered from a painful neurological disease since childhood, forcing him to support his wobbly legs with a cane. His stiffly crimped fingers can hardly grasp a book. The terrifying lapses in breathing eventually became too much, pushing him to pick the day he'd kill himself with an assisted suicide network's help.

Now that authorities have effectively shut down the Final Exit Network, Perry said he's found his reason to live.

"I just feel that this is a huge setback for the rights of many to pursue the right to die," the suburban Chicago man told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

"I felt I've got to speak out about this," he said, his soft-spoken speech sometimes halted by gasps.

Perry was to become the youngest person to die with the network's help on Feb. 26, the day after the Georgia-based organization's president and three other members were arrested in Georgia and Maryland following an eight-month investigation there in which an undercover agent posing as a suicide-seeker infiltrated the group.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,509604,00.html


New law on abortion is disastrous step in history of Spain, bishop warns

Bishop Demetrio Fernandez of Tarazona in Spain said this week a new law on abortion being debated in the national Congress "is a disastrous and incredible step that lacks protection for the unborn" and is based on a misunderstood concept of freedom that says a mother can kill her innocent child.

In a recent letter, the bishop raised his voice "to denounce this violent and silent massacre that will affect thousands of millions of persons," and to say that even though the law seeks to convert it into a right, "abortion continues to be a crime and can never be a right for anyone."
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=15399


Nurse Charged With Murdering 3 Patients' in Drug Deaths

An Air Force nurse has been charged with murder for allegedly giving lethal amounts of medication to three terminally ill patients in his care over one month last summer, military officials said Tuesday. Capt. Michael Fontana, 35, was formally charged Monday by the Air Force with deliberately giving three Wilford Hall Medical Center patients lethal amounts of medication, and with conduct unbecoming an officer for allegedly changing a medical record for one of the patients. The Air Force began investigating after another staff member at the San Antonio hospital discovered irregularities in Fontana's administration of medications that may have resulted in the death of a terminally ill patient, Air Force spokesman David Smith said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090318/ap_on_re_us/military_nurse_deaths_8


Stanek op ed in USA Today today

USA Today requested an op ed from me on the topic of in vitro fertilization regulation, and I was grateful for the opportunity.

Opposing view: Define embryos as human  by Jill Stanek

The sensational story of Nadya Suleman giving birth to octuplets after in vitro fertilization of multiple embryos has spotlighted the need to regulate this Wild West of women's reproductive care.

Now is the time for pro-lifers to introduce legislation in their states regulating IVF and, with it, the creation and care of embryos. A bill introduced in the Georgia Senate this month had perfect model language. It would have limited the number of embryos implanted to the same number fertilized, up to a maximum of three. That would stop the practice of freezing human embryos and would curtail "selective reductions," the abortion of some.

Though that language did not survive, it remains a model for other states. The bill still importantly defines embryos outside the uterus as human beings, so court disputes must be decided in the best interest of the embryo, not either parent fighting over the embryo.
Click here for the full article


More Babies Born in 2007 Than Any Other Year in U.S. History

More babies were born in the United States in 2007 than any year in the nation's history, topping the peak during the baby boom 50 years earlier, federal researchers reported Wednesday.

There is both good and bad news from the more than 4.3 million births:

—The U.S. population is more than replacing itself, a healthy trend.

—However, the teen birth rate was up for the second year in a row.

The birth rate rose slightly for women of all ages, and births to unwed mothers reached an all-time high of about 40 percent, continuing a trend begun years ago. More than three-quarters of these women were 20 or older.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,509672,00.html