new Kansas law protects conscience rights

Governor Brownback (Kansas) has signed a new law strengthening the protection for the right of conscience. The new law prevents ”anyone from being required to prescribe or administer a drug they ‘reasonably believe’ might result in an abortion. The measure is seen as an update or upgrade to existing law, approved in 1969, allowing doctors the right to opt out of performing or assisting in abortions.” http://www.lifenews.com/2012/05/15/kansas-brownback-signs-bill-protecting-pro-life-pharmacists/  

Richard M.

“The Trouble with Futile Care Theory”

That’s the title of a post by Wesley Smith.  http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/secondhandsmoke/2012/05/12/the-trouble-with-futile-care-theory/ The post and another comment by Smith (to which he links) focuses on the very troubling Rasouli case from Canada. Here’s a comment from Smith: “Futile Care Theory is only the first step toward a coming duty to die. Think of Futile Care Theory as ad hoc health care rationing. Once Obamacare is  up and running, centralized boards will create cost-benefit bureaucratic boards  that could systemize Futile Care Theory into mandatory refusals or outright  health care rationing based on patients’ quality of life.”

Richard M.

Supplement to Encyclopedia of Catholic Social Thought published

Along with Joe Varacalli and Michael Coulter, I had the privilege of co-editing the 3rd volume of the Encyclopedia of Catholic Social Thought, Social Science, and Social Policy. The original 2 volumes were published in 2007 (Steve Krason was the 4th co-editor of those volumes). Here are a couple of links to volume 3.  https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780810882669 and http://www.amazon.com/Encyclopedia-Catholic-Social-Thought-Science/dp/0810882663/ref=pd_sim_sbs_b_1

The 3rd volume includes a number of entries on pro-life topics. For example, the volume includes entries on Dignitas Personae (authored by Father Joseph Koterski), Ectopic Pregnancy (Richard Myers), Embryo Adoption/ and or Rescue (William E. May), Eugenics (Father John Berry), Infanticide (Chris Kaczor), International Law and the Right to Life (Pierro Tozzi), Palliative Sedation (Joseph Piccione), Partial-birth Abortion (Rick Hinshaw), Persistent Vegetative State , Feeding and Hydrating Persons in (William E. May and Christian Brugger),  and the Right to Life movement (Keith Cassidy).

Richard M.

Georgia bans assisted suicide

Georgia has now banned assisted suicide. http://www.lifenews.com/2012/05/01/georgia-bans-assisted-suicide-after-final-exit-network-flouted-law/

Georgia’s law banning advertsing for assisted suicide had been held unconstitutional by the Georgia Supreme Court on First Amendment grounds. This new law bans the practice of assisted suicide, and according to the Lifenews article, makes Georgia the 39th state with such a criminal prohibition.

Richard M.

Georgia bans abortions based on fetal pain

Here is a Lifenews story on recent developments in Georgia. Georgia is the latest state to enact a ban on abortions to avoid fetal pain. Here is the opening sentence: “Governor Nathan Deal of Georgia delighted pro-life advocates today by signing a law that would ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy based on the scientific evidence showing unborn children feel pain at least at that point in development, if not sooner.”

http://www.lifenews.com/2012/05/01/georgia-gov-deal-signs-fetal-pain-based-abortion-ban/

Richard M.

The US ought to ban sex-selection abortions

Here’s a good piece by Rebecca Taylor calling for the US to ban sex-selection abortions. Here is the conclusion of the article:

“And it is time for sex selection in the U.S. to end. At the minimum we need federal legislation like PRENDA that would make aborting a fetus based on gender a crime. And like other countries around the world we should also prohibit the use of IVF and PGD solely to have a child of a certain gender. Both would go along way to say that, in the United States, we value all life, not just lives with the “right” gender.”

http://www.lifenews.com/2012/04/24/u-s-must-join-other-nations-banning-sex-selection-abortion/

Richard M.