by Carolyn Moynihan
One of the inventors of the contraceptive pill spoiled the holiday season for some diehard birth-controllers by publicly ruminating on the harm the Pill has done to Europe -- if not the rest of the world. The 85-year-old Carl Djerassi wrote a commentary in the Austrian paper, Der Standard, outlining the “horror scenario” of plunging birth rates the pill had helped to create.
Continue...
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Japan sees more babies as solution to economic woes
by Carolyn Moynihan
In a week in which leading US politician Nancy Pelosi opined that preventing births was good for the economy, CNN reported that Japanese business leaders see more births as part of the solution to the recession. Keidanren, Japan’s largest business group, with 1300 major international corporations as members, has issued a plea to its members to help break the overwork syndrome that bedevils the country and let workers go home early to spend time with their families.
Continue...
In a week in which leading US politician Nancy Pelosi opined that preventing births was good for the economy, CNN reported that Japanese business leaders see more births as part of the solution to the recession. Keidanren, Japan’s largest business group, with 1300 major international corporations as members, has issued a plea to its members to help break the overwork syndrome that bedevils the country and let workers go home early to spend time with their families.
Continue...
US 'baby bust' may come without govt. funding
by Carolyn Moynihan
Another thing Nancy Pelosi should have thought of before trying to justify $200 million for birth control in the stimulus package: during the Great Depression of the 1930s the birth rate in the US fell to an unprecedented low of 2.1 children per woman, without the contraceptive pill or government intervention. During the inflationary “oil shock” of the 1970s, it fell again to 1.7 -- this time, no doubt, with the help of the Pill, but with how much government funding?
Since people seem likely to postpone births anyway during this recession, putting hundreds of millions of dollars at the disposal of Planned Parenthood could make the birthrate sink dangerously low. The Population Reference Bureau -- a population control organisation -- thinks there could be a “baby bust”, but we won’t know until early 2010, “when the recession will probably already be over.”
However, the problems from such a “bust” might only be beginning. ~ PRB, January 2009
http://www.mercatornet.com/family_edge/us_baby_bust_may_come_without_govt_funding/
Another thing Nancy Pelosi should have thought of before trying to justify $200 million for birth control in the stimulus package: during the Great Depression of the 1930s the birth rate in the US fell to an unprecedented low of 2.1 children per woman, without the contraceptive pill or government intervention. During the inflationary “oil shock” of the 1970s, it fell again to 1.7 -- this time, no doubt, with the help of the Pill, but with how much government funding?
Since people seem likely to postpone births anyway during this recession, putting hundreds of millions of dollars at the disposal of Planned Parenthood could make the birthrate sink dangerously low. The Population Reference Bureau -- a population control organisation -- thinks there could be a “baby bust”, but we won’t know until early 2010, “when the recession will probably already be over.”
However, the problems from such a “bust” might only be beginning. ~ PRB, January 2009
http://www.mercatornet.com/family_edge/us_baby_bust_may_come_without_govt_funding/
Young Brits cool towards marriage
by Carolyn Moynihan
Attitudes to marriage and family life among young adults in Britain differ markedly from their grandparents and even parents, with fewer than four out of 10 considering marriage as the best form of relationship. The annual British Social Attitudes report, based on interviews with 4000 people, found that 34 per cent of 18- to 34-year-olds believe that women should work full-time once their youngest starts school, compared with just 15 per cent of over-50s.
Continue...
Attitudes to marriage and family life among young adults in Britain differ markedly from their grandparents and even parents, with fewer than four out of 10 considering marriage as the best form of relationship. The annual British Social Attitudes report, based on interviews with 4000 people, found that 34 per cent of 18- to 34-year-olds believe that women should work full-time once their youngest starts school, compared with just 15 per cent of over-50s.
Continue...
Industrially produced babies
The case of the octupulets gets more and more ethically challenged. The grandmother of all these babies is not happy.
This case seems bad because it is so extreme. However, in my opinion, the extremity of the case only highlights what is wrong with Artificial Reproductive Technology, and what has been wrong all along. The babies are products of industry and technology, rather products of love and relationship.
Angela Suleman told The Associated Press she was not supportive when her daughter, Nadya Suleman, decided to have more embryos implanted last year.
"It can't go on any longer," she said in a phone interview Friday. "She's got six children and no husband. I was brought up the traditional way. I firmly believe in marriage. But she didn't want to get married."...
She said she warned her daughter that when she gets home from the hospital, "I'm going to be gone."...
Her daughter's obsession with children caused Angela Suleman considerable stress, so she sought help from a psychologist, who told her to order her daughter out of the house.
"Maybe she wouldn't have had so many kids then, but she is a grown woman," Angela Suleman said. "I feel responsible and I didn't want to throw her out."
This case seems bad because it is so extreme. However, in my opinion, the extremity of the case only highlights what is wrong with Artificial Reproductive Technology, and what has been wrong all along. The babies are products of industry and technology, rather products of love and relationship.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Are Children Worth It?
by Jennifer Roback Morse
Let us state it at once: Revolutionary Road is a bad movie, despite the awards it garnered from its Hollywood peers. The story is Hollywood's fantasy of the stultifying life in the 1950's suburbs. Unbelievable storyline, unsympathetic characters, and a socially irresponsible message: evidently these are the requirements for Hollywood awards.
Continue...
Let us state it at once: Revolutionary Road is a bad movie, despite the awards it garnered from its Hollywood peers. The story is Hollywood's fantasy of the stultifying life in the 1950's suburbs. Unbelievable storyline, unsympathetic characters, and a socially irresponsible message: evidently these are the requirements for Hollywood awards.
Continue...
The Super Bowl Commercial You Won't See
by Marcia Segelstein
That wonderful pro-life Obama commercial you may have seen here recently was supposed to run during the Super Bowl on Sunday. After first accepting it, NBC apparently changed its collective mind, saying it wasn't going to run advocacy ads during the big game.
Continue here to watch the ad.
That wonderful pro-life Obama commercial you may have seen here recently was supposed to run during the Super Bowl on Sunday. After first accepting it, NBC apparently changed its collective mind, saying it wasn't going to run advocacy ads during the big game.
Continue here to watch the ad.
'Obstacle course' restricts pro-life speech, access
Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow - 1/30/2009
Pro-life counselors are not always extended free-speech rights -- and that's why one has taken the city of Pittsburgh to court.
The Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is considering arguments in a Pittsburgh "bubble zone" case that deals with a 2005 ordinance that restricts access to and speech within the public areas surrounding abortion clinics.
Continue...
Pro-life counselors are not always extended free-speech rights -- and that's why one has taken the city of Pittsburgh to court.
The Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is considering arguments in a Pittsburgh "bubble zone" case that deals with a 2005 ordinance that restricts access to and speech within the public areas surrounding abortion clinics.
Continue...
Homosexual 'marriage' - gateway to polygamy?
Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow - 1/30/2009
Two polygamists in Canada are testing that country's law against their lifestyle.
According to the Associated Press in Vancouver, British Columbia, Winston Blackmore and James Oler have been accused of being married to more than one woman at a time. In fact, Blackmore, 52, and Oler, 44, lead rival polygamous sects in the town of Bountiful. Blackmore has been charged with having 20 wives, while Oler is accused of having a mere two.
Continue...
Two polygamists in Canada are testing that country's law against their lifestyle.
According to the Associated Press in Vancouver, British Columbia, Winston Blackmore and James Oler have been accused of being married to more than one woman at a time. In fact, Blackmore, 52, and Oler, 44, lead rival polygamous sects in the town of Bountiful. Blackmore has been charged with having 20 wives, while Oler is accused of having a mere two.
Continue...
Pro-life doctors protected by law...for now
Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow - 1/30/2009
Medical professionals who don't want to perform abortions or fill prescriptions that are contrary to their religious or ethical beliefs now have some help.
A federal law called 45 CFR Part 88 is already on the books to protect people in the profession on the basis of conscience, and former President George W. Bush implemented rules to enforce the law. Matt Bowman of Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) notes that Planned Parenthood and the ACLU have filed suit to block enforcement.
Continue...
Medical professionals who don't want to perform abortions or fill prescriptions that are contrary to their religious or ethical beliefs now have some help.
A federal law called 45 CFR Part 88 is already on the books to protect people in the profession on the basis of conscience, and former President George W. Bush implemented rules to enforce the law. Matt Bowman of Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) notes that Planned Parenthood and the ACLU have filed suit to block enforcement.
Continue...
Stem cells - a cure for AIDS?
Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow - 1/30/2009
At the Stem Cell World Congress, research has been presented that could mean a cure for AIDS at some point in the future.
In Palm Springs, California, adult stem-cell research experts met to discuss how AIDS could be treated by using stem cells from the infected patient's own body. Details of the research come from Dr. David Stevens of the Christian Medical & Dental Associations.
Continue...
At the Stem Cell World Congress, research has been presented that could mean a cure for AIDS at some point in the future.
In Palm Springs, California, adult stem-cell research experts met to discuss how AIDS could be treated by using stem cells from the infected patient's own body. Details of the research come from Dr. David Stevens of the Christian Medical & Dental Associations.
Continue...
Fighting FOCA with all he's got
Jim Brown - OneNewsNow - 1/30/2009
Senator David Vitter is vowing to do everything within his power to block the Freedom of Choice Act from moving forward in the Senate...
Vitter says the Freedom of Choice Act is not likely to come up for a vote in President Obama's first 100 days, but Democrats will be working to include provisions from that measure in appropriations bills. For example, he expects an attempt soon to eliminate the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits taxpayer funding of abortions.
Continue...
Senator David Vitter is vowing to do everything within his power to block the Freedom of Choice Act from moving forward in the Senate...
Vitter says the Freedom of Choice Act is not likely to come up for a vote in President Obama's first 100 days, but Democrats will be working to include provisions from that measure in appropriations bills. For example, he expects an attempt soon to eliminate the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits taxpayer funding of abortions.
Continue...
A life rich in significance
by Francis Phillips
A father’s struggle to understand the point of his daughter’s short, totally dependent life.
Kent Gilges’ oldest daughter, Elizabeth, was born in 1993. She seemed to be progressing well, but then developed a tumour on the brain. At eight months she underwent major surgery to remove it. During this process she suffered a stroke; from then until her death in 2004, she was never able to walk, talk, feed herself or even smile. In this poignant memoir her father pays tribute to a “tiny, insignificant, monumental life”.
Continue...
A father’s struggle to understand the point of his daughter’s short, totally dependent life.
Kent Gilges’ oldest daughter, Elizabeth, was born in 1993. She seemed to be progressing well, but then developed a tumour on the brain. At eight months she underwent major surgery to remove it. During this process she suffered a stroke; from then until her death in 2004, she was never able to walk, talk, feed herself or even smile. In this poignant memoir her father pays tribute to a “tiny, insignificant, monumental life”.
Continue...
The up side of Down
by Monica Regnal
A mother who has raised two children with an intellectual disability cannot comprehend the view that such lives are “not worth living”.
I am always bemused, as the adoptive mother of two girls with Down syndrome, when people assume that my husband and I did something particularly praiseworthy and saintly. No one seems to regard birth parents who keep children with disabilities, as Governor Sarah Palin did, so highly. Birth parents who choose to give up a child with Down syndrome can be subjected to criticism. However, if the baby is diagnosed with a disability before birth, the most desirable action for the benefit of all (including the child) appears to be abortion. Indeed, the quickest way to find “Down syndrome” in most pregnancy books is to look up “abortion”; what message does that send to pregnant women?
Continue...
A mother who has raised two children with an intellectual disability cannot comprehend the view that such lives are “not worth living”.
I am always bemused, as the adoptive mother of two girls with Down syndrome, when people assume that my husband and I did something particularly praiseworthy and saintly. No one seems to regard birth parents who keep children with disabilities, as Governor Sarah Palin did, so highly. Birth parents who choose to give up a child with Down syndrome can be subjected to criticism. However, if the baby is diagnosed with a disability before birth, the most desirable action for the benefit of all (including the child) appears to be abortion. Indeed, the quickest way to find “Down syndrome” in most pregnancy books is to look up “abortion”; what message does that send to pregnant women?
Continue...
Excuse me, Madam Speaker
by Jennifer Roback Morse
If Nancy Pelosi wants to save the American economy some money she needs to stop investing in irresponsible sex.
Nancy Pelosi made “stupid” history this week by her claim that “family planning” funds will stimulate the economy. Her argument, if you can dignify it with that term, is that reducing unwanted pregnancies will reduce the burden on taxpayers. But she doesn’t ask herself whether more contraception is really the answer to “unwanted” pregnancies.
Continue...
If Nancy Pelosi wants to save the American economy some money she needs to stop investing in irresponsible sex.
Nancy Pelosi made “stupid” history this week by her claim that “family planning” funds will stimulate the economy. Her argument, if you can dignify it with that term, is that reducing unwanted pregnancies will reduce the burden on taxpayers. But she doesn’t ask herself whether more contraception is really the answer to “unwanted” pregnancies.
Continue...
Voters in Wyoming push for traditional marriage amendment
Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow - 1/29/2009
Traditional values groups in Wyoming are pushing a proposed constitutional amendment to protect traditional marriage in spite of opposition from top political officials.
The proposal has a good deal of support from the people, but not from state politicians. Becky Vandeberghe of WyWatch Family Institute tells OneNewsNow about results of a survey of registered voters.
Continue...
Traditional values groups in Wyoming are pushing a proposed constitutional amendment to protect traditional marriage in spite of opposition from top political officials.
The proposal has a good deal of support from the people, but not from state politicians. Becky Vandeberghe of WyWatch Family Institute tells OneNewsNow about results of a survey of registered voters.
Continue...
Homosexual 'marriage' bill advances in New Mexico
Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow - 1/29/2009
A bill is being rushed through the New Mexico legislature that could lead to homosexual "marriage."
Hearings are being heard this week on the Domestic Partner Rights and Responsibilities Act, which passed the state House by a 33-31 margin. Former New Mexico Congressman Bill Redman weighed in on the subject recently in an interview on Ruidoso Christian radio station KEDU.
Continue...
A bill is being rushed through the New Mexico legislature that could lead to homosexual "marriage."
Hearings are being heard this week on the Domestic Partner Rights and Responsibilities Act, which passed the state House by a 33-31 margin. Former New Mexico Congressman Bill Redman weighed in on the subject recently in an interview on Ruidoso Christian radio station KEDU.
Continue...
Stimulus still funds anti-family programs
Charlie Butts and Jody Brown- OneNewsNow - 1/29/2009
A multi-million dollar proposal for contraception and abortion has been removed from the huge economic stimulus bill. But the bill still contains funding for controversial projects.
Earlier this week Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-California) vehemently defended the idea of spending millions of dollars on birth control and abortion as part of the economic stimulus package. "Contraception will reduce costs to the states and to the federal government," she stated on ABC. But after pro-life advocates -- including several in Congress -- cast a spotlight on that portion of the package, it was removed. The U.S. House passed the stimulus package on Wednesday and has now passed it on to the Senate.
Continue...
A multi-million dollar proposal for contraception and abortion has been removed from the huge economic stimulus bill. But the bill still contains funding for controversial projects.
Earlier this week Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-California) vehemently defended the idea of spending millions of dollars on birth control and abortion as part of the economic stimulus package. "Contraception will reduce costs to the states and to the federal government," she stated on ABC. But after pro-life advocates -- including several in Congress -- cast a spotlight on that portion of the package, it was removed. The U.S. House passed the stimulus package on Wednesday and has now passed it on to the Senate.
Continue...
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Dignitas Personae: On the Originality of Every Human Person
My friend Fr. James Schall, SJ, has an article up on Ignatius Insight on the Vatican Document Dignitas Personae. It was Fr. Schall, who brought to my attention, way back in the 1990's that something is owed to children. This was not an idea I was comfortable with, back in my libertarian days, to say the least. But as my life as mother was developing, I could not ignore the things I was learning about the human condition. (My dissatisfaction with libertarianism on the subject of children is what motivated me to write Love and Economics, but that is another story.)
Anyhow, here is what Fr. Schall has to say about what is owed to children in this essay on biotechnology:
Rather than focus on the negatives, that is, what the Church forbids us to do, Fr. Schall bids us pay attention to the positives. Every "no" is a "yes" to its opposite.
Read it all here.
Anyhow, here is what Fr. Schall has to say about what is owed to children in this essay on biotechnology:
The origin of the human child, moreover, in view of what it is, should only have its origin in marriage, not in scientific laboratories. "The origin of human life has its authentic context in marriage and in the family, where it is generated through an act which expresses the reciprocal love between a man and a woman. Procreation which is truly responsible vis-à-vis the child to be born 'must be the fruit of marriage.'" (#6). Marriage is not simply intended to be a human institution. In what it is, it is intended to be the proper and only place where human life should be begotten and brought forth. One might say, on this basis, that the Church is hopelessly romantic—which it is—but in defending the dignity of the person, it is defending what love itself is intended to be. (my emphasis: I love this part!)
The coming to be of new human life is a gift, not a right. The proper relation of a man and a woman is the only place where the good of the begotten child can properly flourish and be recognized in its origins in a relation of a man and a woman. Anything else that pretends to be marriage or a place for the inception of human life is, in principle, a violation of the dignity of an actual child.
Rather than focus on the negatives, that is, what the Church forbids us to do, Fr. Schall bids us pay attention to the positives. Every "no" is a "yes" to its opposite.
G.K. Chesterton once remarked, speaking of the Commandments, that though they often seem "negative" what in effect they do is make possible all the wonderful things we are free to do if we do not do what is wrong or forbidden. This is, I think, the effect of this Document. If we do not do, individually or as a society, what we are not to do as it violates our dignity, we are free to live the live that God intended for us, a life that really does enjoy the gift of children and the adventure of their lives.
Read it all here.
The Father Factor: Advanced Paternal Age
We are used to the idea that advanced age of mothers places children at risk for Downs' Syndrome. New evidence is coming to light that the advanced age of fathers may be a factor as well. This article from Scientific American is based on the Israeli study I have already reported on this blog, here, here, here and here.
But the article has some new info as well:
Read it all here.
But the article has some new info as well:
Researchers had analyzed medical records in Israel, where all young men and most women must report to the draft board for mandatory medical, intelligence and psychiatric screening. They found that children born to fathers 40 or older had nearly a sixfold increase in the risk of autism as compared with kids whose fathers were younger than 30. Children of fathers older than 50—that includes me—had a ninefold risk of autism.
The researchers said that advanced paternal age, as they call it, has also been linked to an increased risk of birth defects, cleft lip and palate, water on the brain, dwarfism, miscarriage and “decreased intellectual capacity.”
What was most frightening to me, as someone with mental illness in the family, is that older fatherhood was also associated with an increased risk of schizophrenia. The risk rises for fathers with each passing year. The child of a 40-year-old father has a 2 percent chance of having schizophrenia—double the risk of a child whose father is younger than 30. A 40-year-old man’s risk of having a child with schizophrenia is the same as a 40-year-old woman’s risk of having a child with Down syndrome....
a 1912 study not(ed) that a form of dwarfism called achondroplasia was more common among the last-born children in families than among the first-born. Weinberg didn’t know why that was so, but he speculated that it might be related to the age of the parents, who were obviously older when their last children were born. Weinberg’s prescient observation was confirmed decades later when research showed that he was half right: the risk of dwarfism rose with the father’s age but not the mother’s.
Since then, about 20 inherited ailments have been linked to paternal age, including progeria, the disorder of rapid aging, and Marfan syndrome, a disorder marked by very long arms, legs, fingers and toes, as well as life-threatening heart defects. More recent studies have linked fathers’ age to prostate and other cancers in their children. And in September 2008 researchers linked older fathers to an increased risk of bipolar disorder in their children.
Read it all here.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)