Category: Life Issues & Bioethics

What’s Wrong with This Picture?
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What’s Wrong with This Picture?

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A very conscientious Catholic, Harold Baumeister, saw this cartoon in his hometown paper and had the conviction and gumption to do something about it! He wrote to the editor (letter follows) to let him know that he was deeply offended by this crass cartoon and that the pope and all Catholics will fight to defend our freedoms. […]

Knights of Columbus Battle Abortion Insurance Mandate of Wash. State
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Knights of Columbus Battle Abortion Insurance Mandate of Wash. State

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  Need a little dose of humility?  Try testifying before a legislative committee in Olympia, Washington chaired by condescending Senator, Karen Keiser.  Want to be humbled?  Get reprimanded by this same pro-abortion Senator calling herself a Lutheran Christian, who co-sponsored the redefinition of marriage bill, and who has been homesteading in the legislature for 16 […]

The Contraception Mandate Fix: Fact vs. Fiction
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The Contraception Mandate Fix: Fact vs. Fiction

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If you read the emails and tweets coming from abortion-rights members of congress and pro-abortion feminist groups you have probably heard that Senator Blunts amendment will prevent women from obtaining contraception. International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) claims making birth control inaccessible is by male design to set us back to the dark ages when there […]

Controlling Human Genetic Engineering Before it Controls Us
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Controlling Human Genetic Engineering Before it Controls Us

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We do have the ability to control human genetic engineering without it controlling us.  To do that we must draw a line in the sand between morally laudable therapy and human altering enhancement. My previous article, What is the Catholic View on Genetic Engineering, was all about the distinction between gene therapy and genetic enhancement.  Now, […]

Supreme Court Filing: Obamacare Compels Individuals to Pay for Abortion Coverage
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Supreme Court Filing: Obamacare Compels Individuals to Pay for Abortion Coverage

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The individual mandate not only forces individuals into private purchases, it also effectively mandates personal payments for surgical abortion coverage without exemption for individual’s religious or moral objections.  This is the argument presented by seven medical organizations in an amicus brief filed Monday in the U.S. Supreme Court by lead counsel Bioethics Defense Fund (BDF), […]

Narcissus and Contraception's Curse
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Narcissus and Contraception’s Curse

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The myth of Narcissus is very suggestive for our day. There are many variations to the story, but they all end the same way. Narcissus is cursed to forever experience the pain of unrequited love. That happens to be our own curse, too. But first, here’s how it happened to Narcissus. Narcissus was a handsome […]

Congress Holds Hearing on Human Rights Abuses in China as China's VP Visits WH
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Congress Holds Hearing on Human Rights Abuses in China as China’s VP Visits WH

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This Tuesday Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ) chairman of the U.S. China Commission presided at a hearing entitled “The Case and Treatment of Prominent Human Rights Lawyer Gao Zhisheng” with Co-Chairman U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D–OH). At the same time China’s Vice President Xi Jinping (in line to assume the presidency in March 2013) was meeting with President Obama and Vice […]

Young Women Exploited by Fertility Industry
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Young Women Exploited by Fertility Industry

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Why Is Selling Eggs an Exception to Law? Catholic teaching is consistent and clear. The sale of human organs and tissues is immoral because it demeans human dignity and regards the human person as a commodity. John Paul II addressed the subject in a speech to the 18th International Congress of the Transplantation Society in […]

Dying Time Can Be Good Time
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Dying Time Can Be Good Time

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The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is an advisory body to the European Union.  Based in Strasbourg, France, PACE has more than three hundred delegates. Their pronouncements of human rights issues are highly influential within the E.U. Last month, PACE passed a resolution (No. 1859) that made a strong statement against euthanasia. […]

Abortion's Hard Case Exceptions
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Abortion’s Hard Case Exceptions

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When it comes to the hot-button issue of abortion, there are some questions that make even the staunchest pro-lifer uncomfortable:  What do you say to the woman who finds herself pregnant due to rape?  What do you do with the adolescent girl who is impregnated by her father, brother, or uncle?  What if it was […]

The Heart of the Issue
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The Heart of the Issue

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It is always essential to go to the heart of the issue through prayer and discernment. Is President Obama’s smoke and mirrors “compromise” on health plan coverage to cover sterilization and contraception, including drugs that may cause abortion announced on February 10, 2012 going to result in any reduction whatsoever of contraception, sterilizations, and early […]

UN Secretary General Tells African Nations to Adopt LGBT Rights
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UN Secretary General Tells African Nations to Adopt LGBT Rights

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Last week UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told African nations to repeal criminal laws that places sanctions on homosexual conduct and to stop discrimination because of sexual orientation or gender identity. Ban Ki-moon addressed the 54 African nations at the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa on January 29. He urged the countries in attendance […]

Contraception Mandate: Turning America Into Europe
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Contraception Mandate: Turning America Into Europe

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President Obama thought he picked a fight over birth control, one that his re-election campaign quickly touted to his supporters. Instead, he has united Catholics, Evangelicals, those who cherish religious freedom and the right to follow one’s conscience, and those who believe that children are a blessing, not a “punishment” (as Obama once called babies). […]

There Are No Loopholes
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There Are No Loopholes

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I am just a simple man. But even simple men must stand up for and defend Truth as best they can. It is disheartening to see how many still think there is some way for our political and religious leaders to compromise their way out of the recently promulgated unconstitutional infringement on the right to […]

As Long As We Are Alive, We Have All the Life There Is
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As Long As We Are Alive, We Have All the Life There Is

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In his book As I Lay Dying, Fr. Richard John Neuhaus writes about being sick and near death in the hospital: “The very sick can look simply awful. Although they politely tried to hide it, I saw the recoil on the faces of visitors. A young parishioner arrived unannounced and, before I knew what she was […]

Obama's Frightening 'Adjustment'
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Obama’s Frightening ‘Adjustment’

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What Obama just said on Friday afternoon was extremely confusing. But once you get to the truth of it, it’s also extremely frightening. The president was facing down a conundrum: trying to assuage religious groups appalled at being forced to cover birth control under an impending federal mandate, while making it clear to his base that he […]

Pope Paul VI and Humanae Vitae: I Told You So
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Pope Paul VI and Humanae Vitae: I Told You So

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The image has spread rapidly around social media networks: It’s a photo of Pope Paul VI, and in the likeness of those popular inspirational posters, includes the saying, “Humanae Vitae No. 17: I told you so.” It’s a humorous but stark nod to a reality that Catholic Americans are facing today: a slow, but sure […]

White House Misrepresents Its Own Contraceptive Mandate
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White House Misrepresents Its Own Contraceptive Mandate

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The Obama administration, to justify its widely criticized mandate for contraception and sterilization coverage in private health plans, has posted a set of false and misleading claims on the White House blog (“Health Reform, Preventive Services, and Religious Institutions,” February 1). In what follows, each White House claim is quoted with a response. Claim: “Churches […]

Record Spring 40 Days for Life Campaign Set for 40th Year of Legal Abortion
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Record Spring 40 Days for Life Campaign Set for 40th Year of Legal Abortion

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“With the January 22 anniversary of the Roe v Wade Supreme Court ruling, the United States began its 40th year of legal abortion,” said Shawn Carney, campaign director of 40 Days for Life. “This is a critical year in terms of the sanctity of human life — a year in which people from across America and […]

What is the Catholic View on Genetic Engineering?
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What is the Catholic View on Genetic Engineering?

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The genetic engineering of humans is not yet a reality.  But, with advancements in gene therapy and cloning, it will be and it is critical that Catholics be ahead of the rhetorical curve on this one, instead of behind. Now is the time to look at the genetic engineering of humans and what the Church […]

When Grant Policy Makes News
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When Grant Policy Makes News

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How do ya like them apples? That’s the question I was left with after the public to-and-fro between Planned Parenthood and the Komen Foundation for the Cure. The phrase popped unbidden into my head  as though my dad had said it, with New York vocabulary mellowed by long exposure to Hawaiian speech. In any case, […]

Abortion: A Private Matter Between a Woman and Her…Vending Machine?
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Abortion: A Private Matter Between a Woman and Her…Vending Machine?

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At Shippensburg University, female students who hook-up for drunken sex on Saturday will find it easy to dispose of just-conceived babies on Monday or Tuesday. A quick trip to the vending machine is all it takes. Easy. Kind of like buying a bag of Doritos. Women who wake up in unfamiliar beds or sober up […]

Catholics Unite: We Are Not Second-Class Citizens
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Catholics Unite: We Are Not Second-Class Citizens

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Sometimes, an outside force attacks the Catholic Church in such a way that it creates a swathe of very public unity amongst Catholics.  These attacks are rare in this country.  However, the Obama administration, with the inexplicable boorish tenacity we’ve come to expect from them, has truly risen to the occasion. Back in December, PRI […]

Abortion: There’s an App for That
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Abortion: There’s an App for That

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I know it’s cliché, but bear with me. I have a point to make. Whole Woman’s Health that operates in Texas and Maryland is proud to announce the launch of an “app.” They officially launched a new mobile website in January so women can make appointments for abortions and learn about their services more easily. This […]