Editor:
Jerry Novotny OMI
Updated Daily:
January 6, 2009

Breaking News

Youth In Nigeria At Increased Risk Of HIV Because Of Inadequate Information, Counseling
Sodeinde said HIV is increasing among young people because they have not received education on how to prevent transmission of the virus. Youth are hindered further because they often are not considered in decisions regarding HIV programs, she said, adding that they should be involved in policymaking to successfully curb the spread of the virus.

Debate Over Mandatory HIV Testing Increases In Malaysia, New Cases Up Among Married Women
A limited mandatory testing policy recently was extended by Muslim clerics to cover all Muslim couples seeking to get married, based on an argument made by non-Muslim organizations, individuals and religious groups that HIV transmission can be curbed only through mandatory testing of all couples.

Survey: Majority Favors Abortion Limits
The online poll of 2,341 adults, commissioned by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and conducted Dec. 10-12 by Harris Interactive, also found strong majorities favor specific laws limiting abortion. The data was weighted to be representative of the U.S. population. Among the findings:

Strike At Gaza School 'kills 30'
At least 30 people were killed and 55 injured when Israeli artillery shells landed outside a United Nations-run school in Gaza, UN officials have said.

What Price Life?
Bruce Hardy probably doesn’t have long to live. But he could live longer, if it weren’t for the attitude and policies of the British government. As recounted in a New York Times article, Mr. Hardy has kidney cancer that has spread to his lung. His doctor wanted him to take an expensive but effective new drug that has been shown to delay cancer progression for six months.

Baby Girl Given Only 10 Percent Chance Of Survival Goes Home For First Time
A baby girl given a 10 percent chance of survival after she and her twin were born at just 23 weeks has gone home for the first time. Steven and Michelle Wilson were told to expect to lose both their girls after the death of Ellie at 30 days. But Chloe has defied the odds and has gone from strength to strength in hospital. Mr Wilson, 24, of South Hetton, County Durham, said: "We have waited 16 weeks for this and it feels fantastic. "It feels just right having her here in her home rather than hospital. I think we must be the only parents who are looking forward to being woken in the night."

'Never Again' - Combatting A Culture Of Death
The Second International Symposium on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide will be held in May in Landsdowne, Virginia. In the aftermath of the passage of an assisted suicide constitutional amendment in Washington State, Alex Schadenberg, executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, says the meeting and discussion are especially important "to build a culture that rejects 'mercy killing.'"

Merck Stops Producing Vaccines Without Cells From Babies Killed In Abortions
A leading pro-life group that educates about the vaccines that are based on the cells from babies killed in abortions is worried about a new decision from the pharmaceutical giant Merck. The company has decided to stop producing some vaccines that are not made based on fetal cells from abortions.

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Ethical Perspectives

New! 'Embryos On Ice' And Other Absurdities

Judie Brown
Of all the now familiar terms we have seen and heard applied to preborn children, perhaps the most heartless is "Embryos on ice." While the term was coined by a Raleigh, North Carolina News & Observer reporter covering fertility clinics, the idea reappeared just a few days ago in a New York Times article entitled "Parents Torn Over Fate of Frozen Embryos." The underlying idea in both articles is that parents are faced with a dilemma involving "extra" embryos that were not needed for the in vitro fertilization procedure they underwent in order to have a child. These parents - loving and well meaning, I am sure - have unwittingly contributed to the ongoing growth of the culture of death by agreeing with the hypothesis that there are embryonic children who are somehow less human than those who were implanted in their mom and brought to term. It is as if there are some embryonic children who are really children and others who are not.

New! Children: the Supreme Gift of Marriage

Janet E. Smith
What I wish to explore here is how the modern age has a philosophical and theological dysfunctionality in respect to its understanding of children and their intrinsic importance, and of the importance of children to their parents and society. At the risk of sounding unduly alarmist, I must observe that our society has nearly reached a state of philosophical insanity in respect to the value of human life, the value of babies and the meaning of sexuality. A state of philosophical insanity means that we are fundamentally and basically denying the reality of fundamental and basic truths to the point that our behavior is dangerously self-destructive.

New! Harvesting Embryonic Stem Cells from Deceased Human Embryos

Maureen L. Condic
The retrieval of cells from deceased human embryos would enable scientists to obtain genuine embryonic stem cells for use in their efforts to cure various diseases that they believe could be alleviated if wider access to these cells were made available. Most importantly, harvesting cells from deceased human embryos overcomes the central moral objection to this line of research, namely, that it requires the destruction of living human embryos.

Clinical Overview of HIV Disease

*Offsite Article
We now know that untreated HIV disease typically progresses relentlessly in almost all infected persons from clinically silent infection detectable only by laboratory tests to severely damaged immunologic function, resulting in the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Without treatment, the disease progresses over a median interval of about 10 years, although with great individual variation, and eventually causes death in most, if not all, cases. During the course of HIV disease, a variety of clinical syndromes may occur. Incompletely understood interactions between host, HIV, and environmental factors determine the particular clinical manifestations and rate of disease progression for each individual.

The human zygote is a "tiny being." not a "tiny thing."

Michael D. Pfeifer
Presently, some scientists and politicians are talking about the distinction between "reproductive cloning" and "therapeutic cloning." In reproductive cloning, the cloned zygote is implanted into the womb of a woman and allowed to grow to full term, resulting in a live baby. In therapeutic cloning, the zygote is kept in a petri dish in the lab and only allowed to grow to the early embryo stage and then dismembered to obtain stem cells. The distinction between these two types of cloning is a biotechnical distinction without a moral difference; both are a crass manipulation of the intrinsic dignity of human life.

Solving The Puzzle Of Natural Family Planning

Charlotte Hays
A primer and resource guide for couples getting started in natural family planning.

Beware of Ethics and False Science

Dianne N. Irving
Bush's decision can move us forward by standing up to the flawed, murky principles of bioethics and fake science, or it can leave us where we are - facing irreversible chaos, conducting research on human cells and human beings, with no clear idea of right and wrong, human and nonhuman. It will depend on which ethics and which science he chooses to use. Best of all, he might just use his common sense and stop the confusion before it gets worse.

Hungering and Thirsting After Righteousness:
Providing Nutrition and Hydration to Patients in the Persistent Vegetative State -- Moving Beyond the Problems Toward a Christian Response

Cindy Province
Few human diseases or disabilities generate more confusion and dread than does the condition commonly called the persistent vegetative state (PVS). The term "Persistent Vegetative State" has come to be used generically and often inappropriately. It could reasonably be said that the term itself, taken in the commonly understood sense of the term "vegetable", is dehumanizing as well as biologically nonsensical. A human can no more quot;becomequot; a vegetable than a vegetable can "become" a human being.