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.
Multipurpose Stem Cells From Human Fat
You know that fat in your body you wish you didn't have? It turns out those cells could be used to create stem cells that one day may be able to cure disease. Scientists at Stanford University School of Medicine have discovered that the millions of fat cells removed during liposuction can be easily and quickly turned into induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells, more easily than the skin cells that researchers used when the first iPS cells were created in 2007.
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Healthcare Bill Would Reduce Abortion
Democrats and liberal activists have begun pushing back on conservative charges that Democrat healthcare reform plans would increase access to abortion with a novel argument: that extending health insurance would actually reduce the number of abortions by extending access to contraception. Third Way has just sent Capitol Hill aides its analysis of the House healthcare bill's implications for abortion. The influential progressive think tank argues that the bill will "have the ultimate effect of reducing the number of abortions in America."
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Washington Post: Debate Over End-of-Life Care Began in Small Midwestern Town
This city (LA CROSSE, Wis.) often shows up on "best places to live" lists, but residents say it is also a good place to die -- which is how it landed in the center of a controversy that almost derailed health-care reform this summer. The town's biggest hospital, Gundersen Lutheran, has long been a pioneer in ensuring that the care provided to patients in their final months complies with their wishes. More recently, it has taken the lead in seeking to have Medicare compensate physicians for advising patients on end-of-life planning.
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Lawmaker Hopes to Make Killing Unborn Babies a Crime?
The murder of a pregnant teenager in Santa Fe this spring has some state lawmakers asking why our state laws against murder don't include unborn babies. Most states call it murder, but New Mexico is one of 14 states where there is no punishment for killing an unborn baby—no matter how far along the pregnancy is. Marino Leyba Jr. is accused of killing his 17-year-old girlfriend, Sarah Lovato, her unborn baby boy, and her father, Bennie Lovato. Sarah was nine months pregnant. His lawyer says he was insane when he hauled out the 9 millimeter pistol and started shooting.
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U.N. Calls for Global Abortion Funding
The executive director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) recently gave a speech at an international conference calling for a $23 billion dollar budget to fund abortions worldwide. "It would cost the world 23 billion dollars per year to terminate undesired pregnancies and deaths during delivery," said Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, leader of the organization, before over 400 "reproductive rights" advocates at the Berlin meeting, which was co-sponsored by the German government. She also called for a redoubling of efforts related to contraceptives, despite increasing evidence that such programs actually encourage extramarital sexual intercourse and the spread of disease.
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Stem cell successes go unreported
The Culture and Media Institute believes the media is biased in favor of research on human embryos, but that there is scant coverage of successful work with adult stem cells.
CMI's Colleen Raezler says the media is playing upon emotions in its promotion of embryonic stem-cell research. "Reporter after reporter keeps touting the line that scientists believe that by turning embryonic stem cells into cells damaged by injury or disease, they can treat or even cure everything from spine cord injuries to Alzheimer's disease to diabetes," she notes.
She contends the media fails to mention that such research has proven nothing and has been scientifically ineffective.
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Czechs practicing euthanasia, doctors say
Euthanasia is being practiced in the Czech Republic, even though it is against the law, some doctors have acknowledged.
At a recent meeting of the Czech Doctors' Academy, no physician raised his hand when a speaker asked if anyone is convinced euthanasia is not used in the country, according to an Aug. 26 Czech News Agency report on an article in the daily newspaper Mlada fronta Dnes.
Euthanasia involves the deliberate administration of drugs to cause a person's death rather than to relieve his suffering.
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Question a doctor and lose your child
PARENTS are being threatened with having their children taken into care after questioning doctors’ diagnoses or objecting to their medical care.
John Hemming, a Liberal Democrat MP, who campaigns to stop injustices in the family court, said: “Very often care proceedings are used as retaliation by local authorities against ‘uppity’ people who question the system.”
Cases are emerging across the UK:
The mother of a 13-year-old girl who became partly paralysed after being given a cervical cancer vaccination says social workers have told her the child may be removed if she (the mother) continues to link her condition with the vaccination.
A couple had all six of their children removed from their care after they disputed the necessity of an invasive medical test on their eldest daughter. Doctors, who suspected she might have had a blood disease, called for social services to obtain an emergency protection order, although it was subsequently confirmed that she was not suffering from the condition. The parents were still considered unstable, and all their children were taken from them.
A single mother whose teenage son is terminally ill and confined to a wheelchair has been told he is to become the subject of a care order after she complained that her local authority’s failure to provide bathroom facilities for him has left her struggling to maintain sanitary standards.
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