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Alan
Sears explains why the conscience rights of medical personnel to refuse to
perform abortions or other unethical procedures must be protected. Excerpt:
“Always let your conscience be your guide,”
Jiminy Cricket used to sing to Pinocchio. Sounds like good advice, but
then…Jiminy had his ulterior motives. To his mind, he was the voice of that
puppet boy’s conscience – so he himself would be doing the guiding.
That’s pretty much seems to be the
philosophy of the Obama administration when it comes to the “rights of
conscience” of medical professionals. The team now pulling the strings at the
Department of Health and Human Services has decided that preserving religious
liberty – much less life in the womb – is a luxury the nation can’t afford.
And they expect health care providers to
take their moral cues from the government…not their own convictions.
 Unfortunately, the Supreme Court of Arizona has ruled that the state’s school voucher program is unconstitutional. The program enables parents of disabled or foster children to send their kids to a school of their choice that they would not previously have been able to afford. Because of the Court’s unanimous decision, the only way the voucher program could be resurrected is if voters approve a constitutional amendment protecting it. Jillian Bandes also reports. Excerpt:
State laws that prohibit school boards from giving money to private educational institutions are now the reason disabled kids in Arizona can no longer attend specialized classes that meet their needs.
A unanimous Arizona Supreme Court ruling on Wednesday held that vouchers were illegal in their state, and the children who used them to attend private, specialized schools can no longer do so.
For more information check the website of the Institute for Justice Arizona Chapter which defended the voucher program in court. Also, see this YouTube video (see below) that the Institute created about “Lexie Weck, a six-year-old little girl with autism, cerebral palsy and mild mental retardation who relies on the program for pupils with disabilities to attend the Chrysalis Academy, a small private school in Tempe that specializes in working with autistic children.”
Our nation needs more school choice for parents, not less. Unfortunately, many politicians (including President Obama who recently approved a spending bill which destroyed the successful DC Opportunity Scholarship voucher program) will sacrifice school choice for the sake of a radical ideology and crass political calculations.
Breitbart
reports. Is it just us, or does it
seem that this should not be a major concern of the US Senate, especially during
economic crisis? Although, if this kind
of meddling will delay or prevent that august body from tampering with
marriage, the rights of the unborn, or from nationalizing health care and
private businesses, we are all for it.
The
Scotsman reports on some exciting developments in ethical adult stem cell
research. Hopefully, human cartilage
will be produced using adult stem cells from patients’ own bodies.
The
Hill reports that the US Congress will soon be facing legislation designed
to undermine the traditional definition of marriage and offer special unequal
privileges based solely on sexual behavior.
LifeNews reports. Looks like the efforts of our friend Lila
Rose are paying off in Arizona.
Now
that a federal judge has determined (CitizenLink reports)
that underage girls must be allowed easy access to the “morning after pill,”
this information from FRC on
the health dangers of Plan B, is very relevant.
My Way News
reports. Unfortunately, name-calling
and intimidation are common techniques used by so-called “gay rights”
proponents such as Barney Frank. Anyone
who raises objections to elements of the homosexual agenda is isolated and
disparaged. A video clip of the
interview can be viewed here.
Dr.
David Prentice and Clarke Forsythe have written a helpful
opinion piece on President Obama’s push to invest our tax dollars on
unethical stem cell research with very little prospect of success. Excerpt:
Despite his talk of economic hardship,
President Obama has been on an ideological spending spree -- expanding
government, increasing taxes, and doubling the national debt. New money pits
are dug daily. Consider Obama's commitment to government controlled health care
and the possible nationalization of banks. But little discussed has been the
financial ramifications of taxpayer-funded human embryonic stem cell research.
The morality of such life-destroying
science aside, it is a prime example of pork barrel spending as it funds the
kind of stem cell research that has the least chance of leading to real
therapies for real patients. While it's "only" a billion dollars so
far -- chump change, perhaps, out of a $3 trillion budget -- at a time of fiscal
crisis, it's an "investment" in failure.
The
American Thinker reports. Excerpt:
President Obama's statement that human
cloning is "dangerous and wrong" is a non sequitur in its context,
because there is no material difference between abortion, embryonic stem cell
research, and cloning. They differ in appearance, they sometimes differ in
ends, but they differ not one whit in essence. Each is an instance of
deliberately destroying an innocent human being at a certain stage of
development. If the first two are OK, then the third is OK as well. Let's see
why.
LifeNews reports. Excerpt:
The American economy is in turmoil but the
Obama administration sent a $50 million check yesterday to the United Nations
Population Fund. That's the pro-abortion group that has been accused of
supporting and working in concert with Chinese family planning officials.
There, the Chinese population control
program has relied on forced abortions, involuntary sterilizations and other
human rights abuses to enforce its rule that most couples may have no more than
one child.
CitizenLink reports. Excerpt:
During the campaign, then-candidate Barack
Obama claimed he would reduce abortions. Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of
the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, said that is a major
reason why he backed the Democratic nominee.
"I believe there is a definitive contradiction
between campaign rhetoric and campaign promises and public-policy
execution," Rodriguez told Family News in Focus.
Rodriguez's frustration stems from Obama
overturning the Mexico City Policy that prevented U.S. taxpayer dollars from
funding international groups that promote or provide abortions. He also
expressed concern about Obama's decision to remove restrictions on tax-payer
funding of embryonic stem-cell research.
President Barack Obama has made his first nomination to the federal courts. While the New York Time claims David Hamilton is a moderate, but as LifeNews and CNS News explain, his pro-abortion views and judicial record would suggest he is a radical liberal.
Judge Hamilton was responsible for overturning Indiana’s over a hundred-year policy of allowing prayer in to open sessions of the State House and ruling that people giving the invocation could not pray in the name of Jesus.
Brian Sikma, with the Indiana-based organization Reclaim Our Heritage provides more information about the Hamilton nomination. Excerpt:
In nominating Judge David F. Hamilton to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, President Obama solidified what many had already suspected about his approach to the judiciary. Judge Hamilton has served as the Chief Judge for the Federal District Court of the Southern District of the State of Indiana and in that capacity he has earned a reputation that runs counter to the flowery rhetoric that is now used to describe his temperament and qualifications.
Judge Hamilton drew the ire of many Hoosiers and a sizeable number of Indiana state legislators when he ruled in 2005 that prayers before the Indiana House of Representatives must not contain the words “Jesus Christ” or any other phrase that refers to the Christian faith. In a poorly researched opinion that relied on an amateurish ignorance of controlling precedent, he made it clear that prayer was allowed so long as it was to a vague, God-like figure that was not affiliated with any particular faith. Prayers that were clearly affiliated with non-Christian faiths were allowed to proceed.
Two years before his ruling imposing a gag order on the Indiana House of Representatives’ opening prayers, Hamilton struck down a state law requiring women seeking an abortion to be provided with information 18 hours before the abortion by either the doctor or staff regarding alternatives to abortion. The law did not seek to eliminate abortion, it only sought to make sure that women preparing to undergo a very serious medical procedure with important psychological consequences were aware of the fact that they do not have to kill their unborn child to deal with the situation.
Tellingly, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals-the very court Hamilton has been nominated to serve on-has found occasion to do damage control and reign in his aggressive rewriting of the Constitution and legal precedent. Now that he will be sitting on the court that has often overturned his judicial misbehavior, he is in a position to support activist judges like himself who are working hard at the federal district court level in Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin.
Lila
Rose has done it again. Live Action Films, the organization of
pro-life students headed by Rose, has released undercover footage of a Planned
Parenthood facility in Phoenix, Arizona attempting to cover-up illegal sexual
abuse.
Check
out the Violations
Map to find out about other cases of Planned Parenthood scandals and of
other sting operations by Live Action Films.
Planned
Parenthood receives millions of dollars from taxpayers every year. Is this how you want your tax dollars spent?
Here’s
the video of the Phoenix case:
Diana
Furchtgott-Roth explains at the Reuters Blog. Excerpts:
By raising taxes on upper-income Americans,
Congress would worsen our tax system’s marriage penalty on dual-income married
couples, and Jeanne and Rick would pay even more tax married than single.
…
Tax systems shouldn’t make it harder for
women to work. The penalty falls most
heavily on married women who have invested in education, hoping to shatter
glass ceilings and compete with men for managerial jobs, and the Obama plan
would exacerbate the penalty.
Daniel Herbster reporting
We again have the privilege to hear from Dr. David Prentice about important bioethical issues. Dr. Prentice has years of teaching and research experience, and he now works for the illustrious Family Research Council in Washington, DC. With President Obama’s recent actions on taxpayer funding of embryo-destroying research, I thought it would be good to hear from our friend and my former teacher.
DH: Dr. Prentice, what exactly did President Obama do in his recent executive order? How will it affect the sanctity of life in this country?
DP: President Obama has removed any restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. The previous Bush policy restricted federal funds for those lines (dishes) of human embryonic stem cells that were already in existence on Aug 9, 2001; this allowed funding for the research to proceed, but did not provide any incentive for more embryo destruction. Now, any lines can receive federal funding, no matter when the embryo was destroyed, and no matter how the embryo was produced. This would mean even for cases in the future, and for embryos created by cloning, or for human-animal hybrid embryos.
DH: It seems ironic that the President would chose to announce his new policy on embryonic stem cell research a matter of weeks after a major breakthrough in ethically produced induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC). Could you tell us what exactly these researchers accomplished and how does it relate to the push for more embryonic stem cell research?
DP: Recently scientists at MIT showed that they could produce these induced stem cells (iPS cells) directly from a Parkinson’s patient, and make the type of neurons in the lab that are missing in the patient. They are still years or decades away from ever using these cells in a patient, but it illustrates the ease with which these iPS cells can be produced, producing cells for study in the laboratory, and all without the use of embryos, eggs, or cloning.
DH: In his remarks President Obama claimed to oppose “human cloning.” What do you think he meant by this statement and do you believe he is being completely accurate?
As
if forcing Americans to support embryo-destroying research with their tax
dollars wasn’t enough, President Barack Obama has also overturned Bush guidelines
which sent research money to ethically obtained adult stem cells which, unlike
embryonic stem cells, are actually producing real results and treatments. LifeNews
reports. Excerpt:
President Barack Obama did more on Monday
than just force taxpayers to fund embryonic stem cell research that requires
the destruction of human life. He also rescinded an executive order President
Bush put into place funding adult stem cells and new research with iPS cells.
 The ability to make nominations to the Supreme Court and other federal benches is probably the most important responsibility a president possesses. There is mounting concern over the kinds of judges Obama will appoint, as the New York Times reports.
Curt Levy with the Committee for Justice considers Obama’s vaunted political pragmatism and contrasts that with the radical agenda he’s been pursuing to date and the radical appointments he’s been making to the Department of Justice asking the crucial question “which Obama will pick judges?”
Jonah
Goldberg explains at NRO. Excerpt:
Imagine a child falls down a well. Now
imagine I offer to lend the parents my ladder to save her, but only if they
promise to paint my house. Would you applaud me for not letting a crisis go to
waste? Or would you think I’m a jerk, for want of a harsher word not printable
in this space?
I ask because I’m trying to come to terms
with Rule No. 1 of the Obama administration.
“Rule 1: Never allow a crisis to go to waste,”
White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel told the New York Times right after the
election. “They are opportunities to do big things.”
LifeNews reports. Just the fact that Snowflake Babies exist
belies to oft-repeated notion that there is such a thing as “leftover” human
beings (human embryos).
 President Obama announced today that
he was signing an executive order overturning President Bush’s restrictions on
embryonic stem cell research. Formerly,
researchers were prohibited from using tax dollars on research which destroyed
human embryos. At the signing ceremony,
Obama pledged his opposition to “human cloning,” but it is most likely that he
means only cloning human beings for the purposes of bringing the cloned human
to birth (so-called reproductive cloning).
However, liberals often approve of the cloning of human embryos for
research purposes as long as the cloned embryos are killed at some early stage
of development, denying that this is in fact human cloning.
This is another sad chapter in the annals of the Obama administration,
especially in its lack of respect for innocent human life.
The
Weekly Standard Blog reports.
Excerpt:
President Obama today fulfilled his
campaign promise to lift federal-funding restrictions on research involving the
destruction of human embryos. He couldn't have done so at a more inappropriate
time, for just last week scientists made headlines again announcing yet another
breakthrough in what is known as "induced pluripotent stem-cell"
technology.
ABC
News also reports. Congressman Mike
Pence (R-IN) responded today.
Read
the executive
order here and read President Obama’s statements
today here.
For
more information check the AdvanceUSA
stem cell page.
Curt
Levy explains what we can learn about judicial activism and the need for a
constitutionalist interpretation of the Constitution at the Committee for
Justice’s blog.
 Ethical stem cell research has made another dramatic advance as researchers in Great Britain and Canada successfully created pluripotent (regenerative cells which can transform into any cell type) stem cells from ordinary skin cells using a new method far more efficient than what was previously known. This means that induced pluripotent stem cell research (iPSC) could soon be tested in humans, without the risks of tissue rejections and tumor formation associated with unethical embryo-destructive research.
LifeNews reports. Excerpt:
Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPS cells) have made yet another advance as they continue to become a second alternative to embryonic stem cell research. Yesterday, scientists in Canada and England published a paper showing they had turned skin cells into iPS cells.
The article, in the prestigious scientific journal Nature saw the research teams announce how they had successfully reprogrammed ordinary skin cells into iPS cells without the use of viruses to transmit the reprogramming genes to the cell.
The Medical Research Council also reports. Excerpt:
Scientists have paved the way for stem cells made from skin cells to be safely transplanted into humans – by overcoming one of the main health risks associated with previous techniques.
The team of researchers from the UK and Canada say their discovery could ultimately spell an end to the need for human embryos as a source of stem cells. Their findings are published today in two papers in Nature online.
Click here and here for the original articles published in Nature. Also, The Washington Post and the BBC also report on this astounding discovery.
Unfortunately, despite these and other astounding advances in ethical stem cell research (not to mention the practical treatments already being offered by adult stem cell research), Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) is pushing to have our tax dollars spent on research which destroys innocent human embryos. The Express-Times also reports. Excerpt:
U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., is taking the lead on Capitol Hill in calling for expanded embryonic stem cell research.
A bill he introduced last week would overturn a Bush policy that restricts federal funding for such studies. The legislation is expected to complement action by President Obama.
For a wealth of information and resources on this important issue, check out AdvanceUSA’s stem cell page and adult stem cell page.
The
Washington Post reports that President Obama is planning to overturn
important conscience protections which allow medical personnel to refuse to
perform operations or dispense drugs which they find unethical (such as
abortions and abortion drugs). The
New York Times also reports.
Excerpt:
The Obama administration moved Friday to
undo a last-minute Bush administration rule granting broad protections to
health workers who refuse to take part in abortions or provide other health
care that goes against their consciences.
MyWayNews
reports. Once again, gay activists
are making the case for a federal marriage protection amendment to the
Constitution.
FRC
has a handy resource on their website which allows you to quickly chart the
status of marriage across the country, state by state. Click here to view the
map.
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