Greetings from LifeIssues.net (www.LifeIssues.net)
Dear Friends for Life,
Doctors oppose assisted-suicide. In a breath of fresh air, the British Medical Association reaffirmed its opposition to assisted-suicide at its recent annual conference. It also rejected a call to prevent prosecuting doctors who break the law by participating in assisted-suicide.
In the tiny country of Costa Rica, 50,000 people marched in November to tell its politicians to "defend all human life from conception to natural death, and that marriage and the family continue to be protected in law."
In another bit of good news, France says NO to euthanasia. The French National Assembly in November rejected an attempt to legalize euthanasia by a vote of 326 - 202. This solidly rejects any attempt to follow the example of its northern neighbors, Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg.
God Bless,
Jerry Novotny, OMI
(Quote) "... no doctor, no man, no accident, either can give life or take it away; it rests with God alone." - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
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Lifeissues.net NEWSLETTER #462
February 21, 2010
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(TABLE OF CONTENTS):
1. Indian Court Rules Born and Unborn Are Equal
2. Leaked Document: No Opt-Out for Children from Pro-Gay Classes in Ontario Schools
3. Association of Quebec Medical Specialists claim to support euthanasia
4. Bishop Vasa Severs Church's Ties with Hospital over Sterilizations
5. BBC Host Admits Killing Ailing Partner
6. Book-Writing Man In Coma Fails Communication Test
7. IPPF Africa Conference Pushes Abortion and Youth Sex
8. Couple advised to abort baby celebrating her second birthday.
9. Mother of disabled son voices opposition to assisted suicide.
10. The thriving business of dying
11. Gay rights: Don't ask, don't think
12. The Jupiter concedes abstinence ed can work
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(FOCUS ON ASIA): "Filipino caregivers deserve better" - The Economic Partnership Agreement that Japan has with some countries, especially the Philippines, has placed many Filipino nurses and caregivers working in Japan in a miserable situation where they are subjected to unfair labor practices, extreme pressure to pass licensing exams in Japanese within three years, cramped living conditions and poor salaries.
http://www.worldpress.org/link.cfm?http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/japantimes/~3/XyGPgJ9r0ts/rc20100211a5.html
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ITEM #1. Indian Court Rules Born and Unborn Are Equal
"The foetus is another life in a woman and loss of the foetus is actually loss of a child"
View full article at LifeSiteNews.com:
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/feb/10020903.html
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ITEM #2. Leaked Document: No Opt-Out for Children from Pro-Gay Classes in Ontario Schools
Public school children in Hamilton, Ontario will not be permitted to withdraw from classes that promote homosexuality, according to the Hamilton Mountain News. At the same time, according to a leaked document obtained by a local journalist, teachers are being instructed to tell parents who object to the curriculum that "this is not about parent rights."
View full article at LifeSiteNews.com:
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/feb/10021508.html
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ITEM #3. Association of Quebec Medical Specialists claim to support euthanasia
Before reading this article you need to know that Euthanasia is when one person (usually a physician) directly and intentionally causes the death of another person (often their patient) to eliminate suffering. It is dealt with under section 222 (homicide) of the criminal code of Canada.
View full article at Euthanasia Prevention Coalition:
http://alexschadenberg.blogspot.com/2010/02/association-of-quebec-medical.html
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ITEM #4. Bishop Vasa Severs Church's Ties with Hospital over Sterilizations
The Catholic Diocese of Baker, Oregon announced yesterday that it has severed ties with St. Charles Medical Center, in Bend, because the hospital has adopted practices that violate Catholic teaching and will not back down on them. "It is my responsibility to ensure the hospital is following Catholic principles both in name and in fact," said Bishop Robert Vasa.
View full article at LifeSiteNews.com):
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/feb/10021605.html
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ITEM #5. BBC Host Admits Killing Ailing Partner
Comment: Both these deaths were from asphyxiation. Neither was pretty or dignified by any stretch of the imagination. Both were violent because death was forced. One was suicide, one assisted suicide. Both were wrong. However, one is portrayed as a tragedy while the other is portrayed as an act of love and compassion.
Yesterday, I received the medical examiner's report on my daughter Marie's suicide in October. She died of asphyxiation also. She struggled for years with substance abuse and mental health issues. She suffered greatly at times and talked about suicide. Therapy, hospitalizations and the love and support of family and friends kept her alive for many years until we were undermined by how-to instructions on some pro-euthanasia website.
I wouldn't have killed my daughter under any circumstances. And I wouldn't have held her hand at the end if, as assisted suicide supporter have suggested, assisted suicide were legalized for the mentally tormented. I would have fought for her life until her-or my-dying breath.
We must fight both scourges - assisted suicide and suicide - with equal vigor and without discrimination based on misguided sympathy. --Nancy Valko, RN
View full article at NYT:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/18/world/europe/18britain.html?ref=world&pagewanted=print
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ITEM #6. Book-Writing Man In Coma Fails Communication Test
Comment: I actually once read a book by a man who was conscious but in a "locked in" state. This is different from the so-called "vegetative" state but can be mistaken for one. Even if this article is accurate about this one patient, I've personally seen way too many "vegetative" people evenually regain all or some consciousness to believe the bioethics myth that such severely brain-injured people are "unaware" and/or automatically "hopeless." -Nancy Valko, RN
View full article at npr.org:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2010/02/bookwriting_man_in_coma_flunks.html
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ITEM #7. IPPF Africa Conference Pushes Abortion and Youth Sex
Major conference themes included promoting sexual education and sexual rights for young people, establishing closer links between "sexual rights" and "reproductive health rights," transforming traditional cultural and religious norms about human sexuality, and advocating for legal abortion on demand throughout Africa. Organizers focused on youth participation, hosting a "Youth Sexuality Institute" immediately prior to the conference, as well as homosexual lifestyle promotion.
Article is located at Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute:
http://www.c-fam.org/publications/id.1575/pub_detail.asp
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ITEM #8. Couple advised to abort baby celebrating her second birthday.
A new report by the International Planned Parenthood Federation is advocating that children as young as 10 be given extensive sex education, including an awareness of sex's pleasures. The report, "Stand and Deliver," charges that religious groups, specifically Catholics and Muslims, deny their young access to comprehensive sexual programs and education.
Article can be found at Daily Echo:
http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/5011300.Meet_Millie__the_baby_who_wasn_t_expected_to_survive___/
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ITEM #9. Mother of disabled son voices opposition to assisted suicide.
'My fear,' she says, 'is that if people begin to think of assisted suicide as an option then the balance will change. As a society, we will shift towards a different mindset. A mindset in which people like James begin to appear expendable.
'It may mean ITUs (intensive therapy units) wouldn't fight so hard to preserve lives, and that some people would lose the opportunity to live.
'I also fear it may mean that people like James begin to feel that being such a burden on a carer, who is very often a close relative, is a choice they are actively making by not committing suicide. That guilt may be enough to tip the balance into them taking their life.'
View entire text at Mail Online:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1251777/Mercy-killing-Never-Ill-fight-like-lioness-darling-boy-.html
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ITEM #10. The thriving business of dying
When Mr. Gall accompanied the couple to Switzerland in January 2008 for the final act, his doubts intensified about their decision-and about Switzerland's legalized assisted-suicide movement. The suicides took place not in a private medical facility, but in an industrial space next to a large brothel, Mr. Gall says, just two spare rooms without a bathroom. He says two Dignitas volunteers, neither a doctor, helped prepare the couple. There was just one single bed, forcing Mr. Peninou to sit in a chair near his wife when the couple took the lethal dose. "It seemed like a factory," recalls Mr. Gall, 71. "It was an awful, ugly place."
View entire text at online.wsj.com:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703414504575001363599545120.html
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ITEM #11. Gay rights: Don't ask, don't think
The central argument in favor of same-sex marriage or overturning "don't ask, don't tell" contains a fatal flaw. In fact, this is the flaw at the heart of the entire gay rights movement.
View entire text at One News Now:
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Perspectives/Default.aspx?id=885392
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ITEM #12. The Jupiter concedes abstinence education can work
The New York Times editors have had to eat their recent words dismissing abstinence education as a "narrow, ineffective and fundamentally dishonest approach" not worthy of federal funding or, by implication, any funding whatsoever.
View entire text at Family Edge:
http://www.mercatornet.com/family_edge/view/6569/
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YOU CAN CHANGE SOCIETY:
1. BE INFORMED: "My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge." Hosea 4:6. Visit Lifeissues.net Website for insights into current Life Issues www.lifeissues.net. All prior email Newsletters Archives are located online at http://lifeissues.net/newsletters/mojo.cgi?flavor=archive&list=lifenews&start=0
3. PRAY DAILY: for the courage to be God's presence in society and to strongly support those who are deemed "unworthy of life". "If My people who are called by My Name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land." 2 Chronicles 7:14
4. BECOME INVOLVED: Several years ago Fr. Jerry created a project entitled, "Journey for Life into the Heart of Asia". It is a project which appeals for donations to help finance plane travel for lectures and seminars to developing countries in Asia. Strong focus is placed on reaching Asian Catholic Major Seminaries, Universities, Parishes, Hospitals and Family/Pro Life related groups. The lectures place emphasis on "The Asian Family at Crossroads: Life Issues Trends and Challenges".
For information about no-cost Pro Life Talks to your group in Asia: contact Fr. Jerry at jerry@shirt.ocn.ne.jp.
To become a supportive Missionary participant for this Asian project, kindly send your donations to:
** Fr. Jerry Novotny, OMI
** LifeIssues.net, Editor
** Akebono-cho 1-15-9
** Kochi City, Japan, 780-8072
(or transfer donation directly to ProLife bank account: Jerome Novotny, Shikoku Bank, Asakura Branch, No. 102-1-0080824)
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Contact EDITOR:
Jerry Novotny, OMI
Akebono-cho 1-15-9
Kochi City, Japan, 780-8072
[tel/fax: 088-843-0406]
[email: jerry@lifeissues.net (or) jerry@shirt.ocn.ne.jp]
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Websites by Editor:
English LifeIssues Site: http://www.lifeissues.net,
Japanese LifeIssues Site: http://www.japan-lifeissues.net,
OMI Site: http://www.omijapankorea.net/index.html
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