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Dear Friends For Life,
Prof. Janet E. Smith sent me an update about an African lady doctor who sent an open letter about the pill to Melinda Gates. The contraceptive pill in Africa is called the "anti-baby" pill. Prof. Smith asked a nun from Africa if there was resistance to the teaching of the Church on contraception in Africa. She gave a look of disbelief and said, "We in Africa always welcome new life." Excerpt from her letter:
Growing up in a remote town in Africa, I have always known that a new life is welcomed with much mirth and joy. In fact we have a special "clarion" call (or song) in our village reserved for births and another special one for marriages. The first day of every baby's life is celebrated by the entire village with dancing (real dancing!) and clapping and singing - a sort of "Gloria in excelsis Deo." All I can say with certainty is that we, as a society, LOVE and welcome babies.
With all the challenges and difficulties of Africa, people complain and lament their problems openly. I have grown up in this environment and I have heard women (just as much as men) complain about all sorts of things. But I have NEVER heard a woman complain about her baby (born or unborn). Even with substandard medical care in most places, women are valiant in pregnancy. And once the baby arrives, they gracefully and heroically rise into the maternal mode.
This woman's letter is very powerful. Click here to read.
God Bless,
Jerry Novotny, OMI
(The Difference is LIFE) "A teacher affects eternity, he can never tell where his influence stops." Henry Adams
*---*(Due to volume of spam received, do not reply to this message but instead send all emails to jerry@shirt.ocn.ne.jp. Thank you!)
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Lifeissues.net Newsletter #599
October 28, 2012
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(TABLE OF CONTENTS):
1. The Kids Aren't All Right: New Family Structures and the "No Differences" Claim
2. What Can We Learn from the Stem Cell Debates?
3. One Human Heart: Wordsworth's Old Cumberland Beggar and the Sweetness of Being Human
4. Here's Twenty Bucks: Don't Have Babies
5. AIDS and medical ethics: a great betrayal
6. Taking (Conscience) Rights Seriously
7. Religious Freedom Under Fire (Part I)
8. Religious Freedom's Legal and Moral Basis (Part 2)
9. India: More than half of children die in the first month of birth if the mother is illiterate
10. Trial and error in Cambodia
11. Science Proves the Unborn Are Human Beings
12. Boy Who Doctor Claimed Was in PVS State Makes Miraculous Recovery
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(Religious Liberty and Conscience Freedom): "The Deception Behind the HHS Mandate" - The HHS Mandate is an assault on religious liberty and freedom of conscience. This video contains many false statements from Obama about the HHS mandate and excerpts of Congressional hearings where HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius displays incompetence and a complete lack of knowledge about the legal problems surrounding the HHS mandate. The panel of "medical experts" that Obama refers to consisted exclusively of Planned Parenthood and other abortion rights groups who stand to benefit financially and politically by the mandate's sweeping language. These same groups are now spending millions to protect their taxpayer funding source by helping to re-elect Obama. The video also contains portions of speeches from some of our speakers at the June 8, 2012 Rally. Please vote on Tuesday, November 6, for the candidate who will protect the Sanctity of Human Life and Religious Freedom.
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ITEM #1: The Kids Aren't All Right: New Family Structures and the "No Differences" Claim
Two new peer-reviewed studies show that family structure matters and children do best when reared by their married biological mother and father.
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ITEM #2: What Can We Learn from the Stem Cell Debates?
The stem cell debates of the past decade and a half were among the most heated controversies about science and politics in recent memory, raising important questions about how to promote and fund scientific research while protecting human life at all its stages. "The Stem Cell Debates: Lessons for Science and Politics," a major report published earlier this year by the Witherspoon Council on Ethics and the Integrity of Science, revisits those debates, articulating lessons about how moral reasoning must shape public deliberation about science.
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ITEM #3: One Human Heart: Wordsworth's Old Cumberland Beggar and the Sweetness of Being Human
Wordsworth denounces those who reduce human worth to utility and teaches us that the goodness of being is absolute. We must learn to love those incomparably useless and precious beings, the child, the elderly, the unborn, and the dying.
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ITEM #4: Here's Twenty Bucks: Don't Have Babies
Melinda Gates and the Family Planning Summit will waste 4.6 billion dollars on contraception for women in third world countries instead of addressing the educational and healthcare-related challenges pregnant mothers face.
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ITEM #5: AIDS and medical ethics: a great betrayal
The science of ethics, which implies universally binding principles, loses its capacity to console when it becomes merely an ethic of science - a vehicle to administer whatever the physical sciences can deliver. This only brings us back to square one; it gets us no closer to the Socratic counsel to "know thyself".
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ITEM #6: Taking (Conscience) Rights Seriously
As a pluralistic liberal democracy, we should craft our laws so that individuals will never be unnecessarily coerced into violating their consciences.
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ITEM #7 Religious Freedom Under Fire (Part I)
The threats to religious freedom in our nation are real, and they are serious. And things will get worse unless we defend our rights. The first in a two-part series.
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ITEM #8: Religious Freedom's Legal and Moral Basis (Part 2)
The right to religious freedom was crucial to the Founders' vision of America. Religious freedom is a right to be protected because it enables us to fulfill our human obligation to seek the truth. The second in a two-part series.
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ITEM #9: India: More than half of children die in the first month of birth if the mother is illiterate
A government study focuses on the problem. Post-natal mortality in the first month of birth drops to 20 per cent for women with a grade 12 education or more. Berlyn Fernandes, who heads a Mumbai kindergarten, notes that "education reduces the dangers of malnutrition and anaemia, and increases the likelihood that women will go to the hospital or health centres in case of emergency."
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ITEM #10: Trial and error in Cambodia
Here are just a few recent cases from the Cambodian judicial system, where the absolutely bizarre is entirely commonplace.
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ITEM #11: Science Proves the Unborn Are Human Beings
Abortion is a controversial issue, and at the center of the controversy is the question of whether the unborn are human beings. If they are, then abortion kills a human being. Many people think that this is somehow a religious issue and involves religious questions like when the soul arrives. Some people deliberately try to frame the issue this way in order to shut down rational discussion of the subject.
****************************************ITEM #12: Let's Be Clear About the Science and Ethics of iPS Cell Research and Its Reproductive
Summary: The production of iPS cells may not involve the immediate killing of human embryos, but they can be used to reproduce new living human embryos for both destructive research and reproductive purposes -- not to mention the plethora of scientific and other ethical problems inherent in iPS research.
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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. Access to all prior Newsletters is located in the Archives on main page.
2. 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
3. BECOME INVOLVED: Several years ago Fr. Jerry created a project entitled, "Journey for Life into the Heart of Asia". The project appeals for donations to help finance plane travel for lectures and seminars to developing countries in Asia. Strong focus is centered 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@shirt.ocn.ne.jp]
["Due to volume of spam received, we're asking you not to reply to this message but instead send all correspondence to jerry@shirt.ocn.ne.jp. Thank you! Editor"]
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Websites by Editor:
English LifeIssues Site: http://www.lifeissues.net,
Japanese LifeIssues Site: http://www.japan-lifeissues.net,
HIV/AIDS Site: http://capcha.org
OMI Japan/Korea Site: http://omijapankorea.net/
