Category Maybe It’s Just Me, But…

General ramblings of an easily amused mind.

Valuing Human Life

Ed

2009_conference_logo_72_pixelsLast night I heard Bobby Schindler give the keynote speech at the National Lutherans For Life Conference. He is Terri Schindler Schiavo’s brother and the executive director of the Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation. He briefly recounted the events around Terri’s situation and the final days of her life.

The purpose of Bobby’s keynote wasn’t to re-tell all the details of Terri’s story, but to urge us to stand for the weak and defenseless. He noted that the most at-risk person in our society today is someone who has a disability; in our culture, having a disability puts you at the mercy of someone else to determine whether your life is worth saving or not–just like Terri.

He made it clear that Terri was not dying in 2005; she did not have a terminal illness and she was not in a so-called “permanent vegetative state” as was reported in the mainstream media. Terri had a severe cognitive disability, and it was decided that her life was not worth saving because her so-called “quality of life” was deemed unsatisfactory. She was refused all nutrition and hydration until she died nearly two weeks later of dehydration–that’s usually called “murder.”

During this time, several people were arrested for attempting to get water to Terri in the hospice facility where she was slowly being killed. One of them was a 10-year-old boy and part of his punishment was to write a letter of apology. The text of the letter is reproduced below; to read the letter in his own handwriting, click here.

To whom it may concern,

My name is Joshua Heldreth, I am 10 years old. I was arrested on Good Friday for trespassing on the hospice center’s property.

I am not a law breaker, I keep God’s law. That is very important to me.

In the Bible it says thou shalt not murder in the 10 commandments. It says to love your neighbor as yourself. It also says in Matthew 25, When I was hungry and thirsty you gave me food and water. Doing it for others was like doing it for God and He called the people who did that righteous and let them into heaven. So I wanted to do the same thing.

Not giving Mrs. Shiavo [sic] food or water was wrong. The reason I had to go on your property was because Jesus would do the same thing. It made me sad that she was so thirsty and it made Jesus sad too. I knew she would die without water and I am called by Jesus to be a defender of the defenseless. So I had to go on your property to try to bring her a drink.

I am sorry that you didn’t like that and wouldn’t allow me to help her when I came on your property. I am also sorry you didn’t help save her life and one day you will have to tell God why. I won’t be able to help you then like I tried to help her.

I will pray for you every day that you will some day have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and serve Him whole heartedly [sic] no matter what.

Joshua Heldreth

Maybe it’s just me, but…if it is so clear to a 10-year-old that it’s not right to cause a person to die by denying him nutrition and water, why do our laws stipulate that it is okay to withhold these things from someone who cannot speak for himself? And if a child can stand up and speak for life, what excuses do we have for not doing the same? Where will we draw the line? Who will decide how much “quality of life” a person with disabilities has to have to make his life worth saving? When will we defend the defenseless?

The Hand of Hope — Ten Years Later

Ed 3 Comments
The Hand of Hope

The Hand of Hope (c) Michael Clancy

I recently met Michael Clancy at the National Right to Life Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina.  I could not believe that it’s been 10 years since the famous photo (at right) taken by Michael was first published.

Michael was a freelance photojournalist who was documenting an in utero operation on a baby with spina bifida.  Suddenly, the baby (later named Samuel) reached out of the womb to grab the surgeon’s finger.  Samuel was only 21 weeks old at that time.

Fox News recently published an article about Samuel and what he’s doing now, including winning first place in swimming competitions.

In the article, Michael says that he was pro-choice before the assignment that led to the photograph.  But because of what he witnessed during this surgery, he became pro-life.  Now he is a full-time motivational speaker for pro-life groups.  Click here to go to his website to read the story and see his speaking schedule.

Maybe it’s just me, but…I think we should never forget that the baby in the womb is exactly that–a baby!  Regardless of how the pro-choice folks try to denigrate the life in the womb by calling him a “glob of cells,” “mass of tissue,” or the “product of conception,” we must always return to the one undeniable fact that the life in the womb is a human life that is worthy of our love and protection. With compassion and hope, let’s show mothers (and fathers) struggling with life and death choices understand that there are alternatives to abortion when told that the baby they are carrying is “less than perfect.”

New Pro-Life Movies

Ed 2 Comments

Several new pro-life movies were released in the past few months. I’ve seen the trailers for all of them and I plan on purchasing many, if not all, in order to pass the pro-life message on to others. Check them out for yourselves and see what you think. These movies were recently recommended by a pro-life friend.

22weeks (Documdrama)

Synopsis from the website: “A young woman is locked in the bathroom of an abortion clinic after her aborted baby was born alive. A film about decisions, their effects and the echoes they leave behind. Based on the shocking World Net Daily article by Ron Strom, on victim’s testimonies, and real 911 calls about one of the most controversial subjects of our time, “22weeks” achieves to confront both sides of the spectrum and their perspective to the on going question: ‘what would you do?'”

Killing Girls (Documentary)

Synopsis from the website: “In today’s Russia 80% of the women have between 2 and 10 abortions in their life. … Late term abortions became on of the popular methods of solving the problems for the girls aged … 14 to 18. … ‘Killings Girls’ brings us into the world of an abortion clinic that specializes in late term teenage abortions. Here, abortions are sometimes performed even after 6 months of pregnancy. … ‘Killing Girls’ tells the truth about abortion–this film is neither Pro Life nor Pro Choice.”

Continue reading “New Pro-Life Movies” →

Over-the-counter Plan B for 17-year-olds

Ed 2 Comments

Earlier this month, I told you about the court ruling forcing the FDA to allow over-the-counter sales of Plan B to minors. It has now been reported that the FDA will not challenge the court’s ruling. I guess what’s really telling appears in this Washington Post article: the FDA has “approved sales to 17-year-olds at the manufacturer’s request.”

Maybe it’s just me, but…I thought the whole purpose of a regulatory agency is to act as a “check and balance” to the industry that it regulates. Why is the FDA approving anything at the request of the manufacturer?  Is the FDA supposed to be safeguarding the public or helping the pharmaceutical company make money?  The question that I have which the FDA still has not answered is this: if a high dose of hormonal birth control is safe for self-diagnosing and self-medication, why is a prescription still required for the regular dose of hormonal birth control? In fact, why do low-dose hormonal birth control, such as Ortho Tri-Cyclen Lo, need a prescription, yet a HIGH DOSE of hormonal birth control is now going to be available to minor children without a prescription?

It still doesn’t make sense to me…unless you frame it all in the context of a hidden agenda.

All the News Redux

Ed

Here’s another example of deliberate misinformation, if not by commission then by omission.

The April 2009 issue of Scientific American–and no, I have not caught up on my reading, I was just browsing around the Internet–has a short news item on the successful treatment of 21 patients with multiple sclerosis (as I wrote about in “All the News That’s Not Fit to Print“). The treatment involved using bone marrow cells, which are adult stem cells. And yet the little news piece is coupled with the excitement of “data from stem cell therapies in general” becoming available soon because the FDA has approved the first human embryonic stem cell trial.

Maybe it’s just me, but…this is completely deceptive.

Continue reading “All the News Redux” →