Pro-LIFE NEWS

Vol. 21 No.2 - Summer/Autumn (Fall) 2005                             Print Post Approved - 33L385/00042

Contents:

- Meeting With Treasurer Peter Costello
- Editorial
- LIFE's Reply to British PM Tony Blair
- Pro Life Musical to be Staged in Melbourne
- The Pen is Mightier than the Sword
- Stem Cells Update
- Unborn children, The Vulnerable Sick, Disabled and Dying Lose a
   Great Champion - and Gain Another!
- Pregnancy Australia Posters
- "All their tomorrows depend on your love"
- Fireman Speaks After Brain Injury
- World View
 

On 11 November 2004, 1 met with the Federal Treasurer, the Honorable Peter Costello for about 40 minutes, before he headed off quickly to attend the commemoration of Remembrance Day. I was accompanied by Mrs Sheila Wells of Pregnancy Counselling Australia and Ms Jodie McGuiness, Executive Officer, Right to Life Australia.

We were given a good hearing. We attacked the Medicare funding of abortion, and emphasised the extent and nature of post abortion grief. Shelia was able to refer to several case studies and appealed for an end to Medicare funded abortions. I have no doubt Peter Costello is concerned with the practice of abortion at present. He showed particular concern with the inadequate/lack of counselling and perhaps also with informed consent.

The meeting was agreed to prior to the election as Jodie and 1 live in his electorate and he responded before the election showing interest in the counselling services provided to women. In a letter to Peter Costello, 1 had quoted Australian Medical Association's Dr Trevor Mudge from a South Australian Sunday Post report . He had agreed in his letter of response with the sentiments of Dr Mudge re need for counselling before and after abortion and that unbiased counselling was not possible to obtain.

He did say that they definitely would not create a new Medicare item for GPs to bill for counselling. As supporters, you will probably gather from his public comments, Peter Costello would prefer not to have to address the issue. He commented to us that the States make it legal - the Commonwealth funds what is legal. We pointed out that elective surgery is not necessarily funded. Abortion is elective surgery and neither medically necessary or of medical benefit.

Our meeting followed John Howard's statement on "the abortion debate". Consequently when we argued against Medicare funding as not medically necessary and providing no medical benefit, Peter Costello acknowledged that the Parliament may well address that.

We argued that there is virtually no area of Government expenditure which has not been reviewed over the years but Medicare funding of abortion is an exception. We spoke of the abortion mentality as being all about suppression - suppression of debate, suppression of grief, suppression of choice. He agreed the Federal Government has funded it and asked nothing. We argued the Government should know what Government expenditure is expended on abortion. He agreed and said that this will be assessed/looked into - 1 think he meant moves are afoot already.

I think he is receptive, is already thinking of the need for better statistics and further ideas on what the Federal Government can do.

Prolifers need to keep writing letters to their MPs, especially as sympathetic politicians are doing their bit lately, more than in the last 20 years.

Positive feedback to MPs gets noticed much more than negative feedback and following positive feedback, we are free to ask for more, having gained their attention and made them receptive.

Others have been seeking support for measures such as mandatory "independent" counselling, more funds for counselling, etc.. We refrained from suggesting measures other than the abolition of abortion funding which must be the clear aim of the Pro Life movement.

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0ne of the first tragedies to be reported out of the devastating December 26 tsunami, the death by drowning in Thailand of 16 year old Paul Giardina from Melbourne, will he amongst the most lasting of my memories of this heartbreaking disaster. Amidst such unparalleled death, heart break and destruction, the grief visited upon Paul's family and shared, courtesy of a compassionate media, with all Australians, surely reaffirmed the pro life philosophy, that all human life is valuable and sacred? How we all felt for Paul's parents and sister who described their lives as "full of Paul's love", his mother Evanna weeping bitterly over his white coffin as the music played the song Beautiful Boy. A sensitive and sympathetic media told us of how bereft his family felt with the very purpose of their lives gone forever. Everything it seemed had revolved around Paul and he repaid them a thousand times over with his love. For once it seemed, as a community we were all at one in valuing all human life. And yet Paul was born with Down Syndrome. We all know that in the search, and destroy missions of today's genetecists, reproductive technologists and ultrasonographers, Down children are top of the list of those marked for elimination before birth. These are children known for their very distinctive lovableness! It's crazy. Amongst the architects of war, the perpetrators of the evils known to this world, a Down person will never be found! More than half of Australians support the abortion of a mildly disabled baby, a new study just released by the Southern Cross Bioethics Institute has shown. Next time you hear discussion or read of the acceptance of abortion for Down Syndrome or any other disabled babies, remind your fellow Australians of Paul Giardina and how we all (along with a demonstrably pro abortion media) mourned the loss of his young life amongst something like a quarter of a million other lives in the Boxing Day tsunami. And believed his life was as valuable as every other life lost that day.

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LIFE's Chief Executive, Martin Foley said: 'We are appalled by the Prime Minister's recent comments implying that the prolife lobby has nothing to offer women in crisis pregnancy situations. LIFE has a great deal to say about this, as the Prime Minister knows full well. Only last year he sat through a talk at his local parish church in Great Missenden, given by one of LIFE's trustees, Nuala Scarisbrick, on exactly what LIFE offers women in crisis pregnancy situations."

"LIFE's aim has always been to provide help and support for women, especially young women, who are faced with a crisis pregnancy and are in the predicament the Prime Minister describes. This is exactly what we have done for over three decades and we have a network of services which were formed in 1970. We receive approximately 50,000 requests for help each year. We are the largest provider of supported housing in the UK for homeless mothers before and after birth. We also offer free and confidential pregnancy testing, counselling and support the whole way through pregnancy and after birth."

'We have written to the Prime Minister and asked him to apologise for his misleading comments. If Mr Blair thinks that by coming up with such misleading nonsense he can take the abortion issue off the political agenda, he is sorely mistaken."

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Several members and supporters of the sidewalk counselling Helpers of God's Precious Infants (called simply "The Helpers") have lead roles in a new musical titled `Call of Guadalupe' to be staged at the Besen Centre here in Melbourne between 1 & 5 June 2005, Written by Melbourne playwright John Lee and musically directed by composer Peter Foster. Call of Guadalupe is about a couple faced with the idea of aborting their first child for the sake of an employment promotion. They are thrown into conflict and utter confusion as they struggle with their decision. A sudden flashback to 16th century Mexico shows the parallel and true story of an Aztec couple who are pressured to offer their child as a human sacrifice to appease pagan gods. The Virgin Mary appears to a peasant man Juan Diego and leaves her image on the front of his "tilma" or cloak. The apparition so impresses the Aztecs that they cease human sacrifices, which have been numbering hundreds each day, just as in Australia, there are approximately 200 babies killed by abortion every day, The theme of Call of Guadalupe is that the Virgin Mary's message in defence of human life is as powerful today as it was in 1531.

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Time and again, over the years, we have made small gains in our quest, so often by good men and women like yourselves doing the task of writing letters on the subject of abortion, over and over again, to your parliamentary representatives. None of you could be blamed for tiring of the task, but it would be tragic for our unborn brothers and sisters if our supporters did just this. You are the "powerhouse" of the prolife movement. Without you a handful of ,executive members' would be totally ineffective. So once again we ask you to take up your pen and write letters to the following Members of Parliament:

Urge them to stop the medicare funding of abortion. Write only one page, a few words only, telling them it is completely untenable, unjust and immoral to use taxpayers money to pay doctors to kill babies within their mother's wombs. Tell them we expect doctors, as well as parliamentarians, to be more imaginative, innovative and resourceful in offering solutions to women who find themselves unexpectedly pregnant.

If you have never written such a letter before, consider doing so now, lightening the burden for those who have been very faithful letter writers over many years. No letter is a waste of time! Just consider why the abortion debate has flared again. Undoubtedly because of the steady flow of letters over the years. It's now time to make the flow become a torrent!

Over the coming months we will also be urging our supporters to seek appointments with their local House of Representative Members to ask their support in Parliament to end Medicare funding of abortion. There are 39 Victorian Federal Members. We hope you will assist us by forming delegations of two or three local constituents to visit your Member just as PLV executive member Peter Beriman did, as reported elsewhere in Pro Life News.

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Scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have reported success in coaxing human embryonic stem cells to become motor neurons. Embryonic stem cells are proving much harder to use than many scientists predicted, a major obstacle being the short window of time during human development when the cells have the potential to transform. Dr Su-Chun Zhang who led the study warned that it will be many years before the results can be tested on humans.
 

Medical News Today January 2005

Adult stem cells derived from fat cells in a seven-year-old girl in Germany have been used to successfully regrow a bone defect in her skull. Unlike other bones, which do grow back and replace themselves, skull bones do not. Traditionally, with a skull bone defect, metal plates have been implanted to protect the brain. This little girl had a defect totalling 19 square inches and wore a protective helmet as her brain could be seen through the skin covering the missing bone. The surgeon mixed bits of the child's bone with her own fat-derived stem cells, implanted them and they turned into bone building cells. Note these were not embryonic stem cells obtained from killing another human embryo, but her own cells, therefore, this eliminated any possibility of them being rejected.

LIFE spokesperson Matthew O'Gorman said: "This is just the tip of the ice-berg with regard to adult stem-cell technology. Around the world there are already over 50 working treatments for diseases and disabilities using adult stem cells. Their potential to regenerate damaged tissue and to encourage the growth of one's own stem cells is unmatched by alternative treatments."

"The majority of bench scientists and medical financiers are investing their time and money in adult stem cell research. It is successful, ethical and provides real hope for those with severe disabilities."

"Embryonic stem cell research does not work. There are no working treatments which use cells taken from cloned embryos. Why is it, therefore, that our government has allowed maverick scientists to clone our citizens in the name of redundant research?"

"Tony Blair has been reminded yet again that his support for cloning human beings, apart from being unethical, is anomalous, ineffective and unwise."

Researchers in Taiwan have isolated multi-potent cells from a human placenta. These stem cells will be used in the treatment of patients with damaged brains and bones. Assuming success, this would be another available ethical alternative to the use of embryonic stem cells.

Researchers from The Medical College of Georgia and the University of South Florida have used umbilical cord stem cells in animals with strokes. They first administered the drug mannitol to breech the blood brain barrier then delivered the stem cells intravenously. This caused the size of the stroke in the animals to decrease by 40%. Note, these were "non-embryonic" or "adult" stem cells.

"We would hope that doctors anywhere at anytime would be on the side of the patient, not on the side of the state. Elie Wiesel

American scientists have discovered that hair follicles are a good source of stem cells. Dr Yasuyulki Amoh and colleagues from the University of California, San Diego, have shown that hair stem cells could potentially be used to treat neurological conditions. Features of hair follicle cells that make them an attractive source are the fast growth of hair, its continual replenishment and its relative accessibility. The researchers said.. "These results suggests that hair follicle stem cells may provide an accessible source of stem cells for therapeutic application."

Researchers at the University of Central Florida have found that treating bone marrow cells with a compound called bromodeoxyuridine may increase the chances of them developing into neural cells to treat damage caused by conditions such as Alzheimers. Professor Kiminobu Sugaya and his team hope that transplants from blood or bone marrow will eventually be used to treat Alzheirner's and other neurological diseases. Unlike embryonic stem cells, adult stem cells do not pose the risk of rejection because they are extracted from the patient's own body and provide an ethical basis for research and treatment.

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The author of Evangelium Vitae, The Gospel of Life, who described the world as living in a culture of death and appealed to us all to work towards creating a culture of life, has gone from our midst. Pope John Paul II died on 3 April. His very dying, played out upon the world's stage at the very time the world was witnessing the deliberate killing by starvation of his vulnerable fellow human being Terri Schiavo, was an undeniable unforgettable witness to the dignity of life in all its stages. His prolife philosophy could not have been more forcibly demonstrated or admired than in the very manner of his own dignified suffering and death. One could only look on and ponder optimistically about the effect this witness could have on so many observers worldwide.

Looking back over 26 years of memories of John Paul 11, 1 marvel at the experience I feel privileged to have been given. Beginning all those years ago with the traditional announcement Habemus Papam! followed by the unfamiliar name of Karol Wojtyla, which was of some want mild interest to me then and ending a year ago in Rome at the Life Sustaining Treatments and Vegetative State: scientific advances and ethical dilemmas conference conducted by the International Federation of Catholic Doctors Associations. In the intervening years 1 was so often galvanised by John Paul Il's championship of the unborn and vulnerable. I remember his first visit as Pope to Australia when he implored all Australians of good will to defend the unborn from abortion and destructive embryo experimentation. At a time when our spirits were particularly low, I can still see now, excited prolifers with copies of The Gospel of Life under their arms, devouring every word of this definitive encyclical and telling fellow prolifiers: "Look, the Pope hasn't given up! Look what hope he exudes! We must not give up. And I can still feel the buzz on the last afternoon of that conference in Rome when a copy of L'Osservatore Romano in which was published the transcript of his address to the conference participants was excitedly unfurled in front of us all. The address confirmed definitively what we all hoped to hear: "the patients in a 'vegetative state' do not lose their dignity or rights and withholding food and water from them amounts to euthanasia by omission". Pope John Paul II had said: "I feel the duty to affirm energetically that the intrinsic value and personal dignity of every human being does not change, regardless of the circumstances of his life ... a man, even if he is gravely ill or limited in the exercise of his functions, is and always will be a man, he will never become a 'vegetable' or an 'animal' ... Doctors and health agents, society and the Church have moral duties toward these persons, of which they cannot exempt themselves without betraying the demands of professional deontoogy and of human and Christian solidarity ... the prolongation of the vegetative state cannot justify ethically the abandonment or interruption of the minimal care of the patient. Death in fact, is the only possible result should these be suspended".

In his Gospel of Life, Pope John Paul II wrote, "The Commandment 'You shall not kill', thus establishes the point of departure for the start of true freedom. It leads us to promote life actively, and to develop particular ways of thinking and acting. ... The Gospel of Life is not for believers alone, it is for everyone

And who could ever forget his words in "The Gospel of Life" I would now like to say a special word to women who have an abortion. The Church is aware of the many factors which may have influenced your decision and she does not doubt that in many cases it was a painful and even shattering decision. The wound in your heart may not yet have healed ... You will come to understand that nothing is definitely lost and you will be able to ask forgiveness from your child who is now living with the Lord. With the friendly and expert help and advice of other people and as a result of your own painful experience you can be among the most eloquent defenders of everyone's right to life. Through your commitment to life whether by accepting the birth of other children or by welcoming and caring for those most in need of someone to be close to them you will become promoters of a new way of looking at human life."

Pope John Paul II's successor Benedict XVI has been a strong voice in favour of life, clearly articulating the Church's teachings. In particular he has explained how the Church must be the conscience of the State. In the report he made as Cardinal Ratzinger on the occasion of the 1991 Conclave of Cardinals, which formed the basis for Pope John Paul ll's document Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life) he had this to say: " ... (A) State which arrogates to itself the prerogative of defining which human beings are or are not subjects of rights, and which consequently grants to some the power to violate others' fundamental right to life, contradicts the democratic ideal to which it continues to appeal and undermines the very foundations on which it is built. By allowing the rights of the weakest to be violated, the State also allows the law of force to prevail over the force of law. One sees then that the idea of an absolute tolerance of freedom of choice for some destroys the very foundation of a just mode of social life. The separation of politics from any natural content of law, which is the inalienable patrimony of everyone's moral conscience, deprives social life of its ethical substances and leaves it defenceless before the will of the strongest." (April 4-7, 1991, Consistory of Cardinals, The Problem of Threats to Human Life.)

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EUROPE - The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has rejected a draft resolution on assistance to patients at the end of life after a long debate. Parliamentarians voted on 71amendments to the resolution which was then overwhelmingly rejected 138 votes to 26, with five abstentions.

POLAND - The Polish parliament has voted not consider a controversial bill, which would have allowed abortion up to 12 weeks into pregnancy. It would also have made sex education a separate subject in primary schools and allowed young people to seek abortions without parental consent. The Catholic Church and pro-life groups, widely supported by public opinion, opposed the bill, which had been proposed by the ruling Democratic Left Alliance. Consideration of the bill was defeated in parliament by 199 votes to 183.

UNITED KINGDOM - A woman who was in a coma for 20 years after a traffic accident has started talking to people. Sarah Scantlin was 18 when she had the accident and her family were told that she was in a vegetative state and would never communicate again. Dr James Dobson of Focus on the Family said that the case proved why Terri Schiavo should have been allowed to live. He said: "Terri Schiavo deserves the same chance at life that Sarah Scantlin was given. Mental disabilities do not damage a person's worth - the preciousness of life is not defined by one's abilities."

UNITED KINGDOM - A woman is pregnant after undergoing fertility treatment using frozen eggs. One of the woman's eggs was frozen, thawed and fertilized before being inserted into her womb. She is said to have chosen the method because she objected to the creation and destruction of human embryos. However, concerns have been raised about using a new technique when the long-term risks have yet to be fully investigated.

UNITED KINGDOM - A UK mother has described how her premature baby was left to die by doctors in the Netherlands. A recent publication in the Dutch Journal of Medicine, drawing attention to the illegal euthanasia of newborns in the country, prompted Linda Baldwin to reveal how, 26 years ago, Linda and her husband were falsely informed that their premature baby, Claire, was dead. Claire's father found her in a dirty laundry room in a kidney dish and demanded that she be placed in an incubator, in spite of resistance and ridicule from nurses. Claire recovered and now works in the Body Shop in Carmarthen in South Wales.

from This Is South Wales February 2005.

USA - A  woman is taking legal action against an Orlando  abortion facility after they refused to call an ambulance when her baby was born alive. The woman, named Angele, had a late term abortion at Orlando Women's Centre involving the baby having an injection directly into the heart. However, the baby boy was born alive and Angele was forced to telephone a friend to ask her to call an ambulance after staff refused. The baby died before help arrived.

USA - A set of sextuplets from Missouri have celebrated their first birthday. Tina and Ron Otten were told to abort one or more of the babies to improve the chances of the others being born healthy but they refused, asking doctors not to discuss it with them any further.

UNITED NATIONS - Head of UNICEF Steps Down, New Director Won't Promote Abortion. The director of a United Nation's agency dedicated to children, who came under fire for promoting abortion, has stepped down. Her replacement has indicated that she doesn't view abortion as a legitimate issue that falls under the purview of UNICEF. Carol Bellamy was the director of the United Nation's Children's Fund (UNICEF) for ten years and pro-life groups were frequently concerned at the proabortion positions the agency took under her direction. "She has taken UNICEF in the radical feminist direction of promoting abortion rights," Austin Ruse, president of the Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute, told Family News in Focus. It is her feeling and the feeling of the people she brought into UNICEF that children will not get their rights until women can get their rights first." As recently as October, UNICEF officials wrote members of the New Zealand parliament telling them to oppose efforts to require abortion business to tell parents when their teenage daughters are considering an abortion. "The child advocacy group said the primary right when a girl became pregnant was not the right of a parent to know," the New Zealand Herald newspaper reported. However, outgoing U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman will take over at UNICEF after being nominated by President Bush for the post. Veneman says she will shift the agency's attention back to helping children combat hunger and disease and away from making sure teenagers can get abortions. Earlier this year, Veneman said she thought advancing abortion was "irrelevant" to UNICEF's mission. Veneman says she will shift the agency's attention back to helping children combat hunger and disease and away from making sure teenagers can get abortions.

SCOTLAND - In a homily preached at a Requiem Mass for the Pope at St Andrew's Cathedral, Dundee, the Bishop of Dunkeld praised John Paul ll's 'moral courage' and his witness to life during his last illness. Bishop Vincent Logan said: "He put great emphasis on human rights, and especially the most fundamental right of all - the right to life. Pope John Paul II  preached such values and he lived them to the very end."

ITALY - The president of the Italian ProLife Movement has revealed that the late Pope John Paul II allocated 25,000 euros to their work four days before his death. Carlo Casini said that the money would be used to fund the Gemma Project, which offers financial support to pregnant women who would otherwise face pressure to have abortions.

EUROPE - The Terri Schiavo case has provoked discussion about euthanasia in European countries such as Austria and Germany, The Guardian reports. Neither Austria nor Germany are considering legalising euthanasia but are exploring the introduction of living wills. The euthanasia programmes of the Second World War have had a profound effect on public attitudes to euthanasia with one survivor of the Nazi medical experiments expressing horror at the killing of Terri Schiavo. Johann Gross, who was a victim of experimentation at a Vienna psychiatric hospital, said: "No people in the world have the right to kill another, it's murder. It's the same as the Nazis did."

USA - Most States Don't Make Doctors Enforce Advance Directives Washington, DC - The medical community is a buzz with talk about living wills and other advanced directives in the wake of 'Terri Schiavo's painful starvation death. However, a new report from a leading pro-life organization shows most states don't make doctors enforce advance directives. According to the National Right to Life Committee, the laws of all but ten states may allow physicians and hospitals to disregard advance directives when they call for patients to be provided with treatment food or fluids. Media outlets and medical professionals have encouraged people to complete advance directives like living wills. However, the report, issued by NRLC's Robert Powell Center for Medical Ethics, charges that health care providers who consider a patient's "quality of life" too low are defying these directive to deny treatment against patient and family wishes. Such actions are a concern for the American public, the group said. A national poll conducted by Polling Company conducted in April found 76% of those told "A seriously ill patient has indicated they want food and fluids but the doctor thinks the patient's quality of life too low" say the patient should be able to receive food and water. Only 14 percent of Americans say the physician should be allowed to withhold them.

from Lifenews.com May 2005.

USA - Disability activists in the US have requested a suspension on the starvation and dehydration of people deemed to be in a `persistent vegetative state" after a report indicated high brain activity in such patients, suggesting that those in a "minimally conscious state" are aware of what is happening around them but cannot respond. Stephen Drake, a research analyst for the national disability rights group, Not Dead Yet said: "Given the current research regarding brain activity and misdiagnosis, it's a virtual certainty that countless people have been helpless to prevent their own deaths through starvation and dehydration". Not Yet Dead state that Terri Schavio falls into this category of people.

UNITED NATIONS - A report released by the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) this month highlighted the importance of skilled birth attendants, not abortion, as the primary means of reducing maternal mortality. 'Maternal Mortality Update 2004: Delivering Into Good Hands' acknowledges that almost all maternal mortality is avoidable" because "all five of the most life-threatening complication scan be treated by a professional health worker." However, UNFPA continues to support and promote abortion around the world.

from C-Fam April 2005

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