Categories
Uncategorized

Time magazine cover story on the first 9 months of life

I thought the recent Time magazine cover story on “How the first nine months shape the rest of your life” http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2020815,00.html was quite interesting. I don’t know anything about the field of fetal origins discussed in the article. I was struck, though, by the  assumption that the life of a human being begins ninth months prior to […]

Categories
Uncategorized

University Faculty for Life/2011 Conference

The Call for Papers for the 2011 University Faculty for Life annual meeting/conference was just issued. (See the ad on page 72 of the October 2010 issue of First Things.) The 2011 conference will be at the University of Notre Dame on June 10-11, 2011. The keynote speaker and the recipient of the Smith Award for […]

Categories
Uncategorized

International Law and the Right to Life

Here is a link to John Keown’s review of Rita Joseph’s book “Human Rights and the Unborn Child.” http://www.nationalreview.com/bench-memos/247662/international-human-rights-law-and-unborn-child-john-keown Here is a link to the book.  http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/9004175601/ref=nosim/nationalreviewon As Professor Keown points out, advocates of abortion rights have been trying to develop a recognition of a right to abortion in international law. (See the article by Richard Wilkins and Jacob […]

Categories
Uncategorized

abortion and military facilities

Bill Saunders has a good analysis of this issue. See http://www.fed-soc.org/publications/pubid.1966/pub_detail.asp Richard M.

Categories
Uncategorized

prenatal testing and down syndrome

Wesley Smith has an interesting post entitled “Mothers Refusing Prenatal Testing to Protect Babies with Down.” http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/secondhandsmoke/2010/09/19/mothers-refusing-prenatal-testing-to-protect-babies-with-down/ Smith’s post focuses on a recent article in the New York Times by Amy Julia Becker on “Why Prenatal Testing Harms as Much as it Helps.” http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/14/deciding-not-to-screen-for-down-syndrome/ Becker’s reflection is particularly poignant. She talks about how prenatal testing is often […]

Categories
Uncategorized

Update on the litigation involving the funding of embryonic stem cell research

Courtesy of the Culture of Life Foundation, here is an analysis of the litigation involving the Obama Administration’s policy with regard to funding embryonic stem cell research. http://culture-of-life.org//content/view/657/1/ Richard M.

Categories
Uncategorized

The Neuhaus Colloquium on the Obama Administration and human embryos

Here is a link to the Neuhaus Colloquium’s statement on the Obama Administration and the treatment of human embryos. http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2010/09/1591 The statement is the effort of a group of scientists and intellectuals who were inspired by the life and example of the late Father Richard John Neuhaus. Richard M.

Categories
Uncategorized

Princeton conference on abortion

Here is a link to an upcoming conference at Princeton. http://uchv.princeton.edu/Life_Choice/ The conference, which is entitled “Open Hearts, Open Minds, and Fair Minded Words: A Conference on Life & Choice in the Abortion Debate,” will be held at Princeton on October 15-16, 2010. The conference features well known speakers with a range of views on the underlying […]

Categories
Uncategorized

Montana murder/suicide and Montana’s law on “aid in dying”

Here is Wesley Smith’s commentary on a recent murder/suicide in Montana and the efforts of Compassion and Choices” to use the incident to promote “aid in dying.”   http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/secondhandsmoke/2010/09/04/compassion-and-choices-uses-murdersuicide-to-advertise-doctor-prescribed-death-in-montana/ An 81 year old man shot his 81 year old wife (who had cerebral palsy) and then set their house on fire and then shot himself. According to the […]

Categories
Uncategorized

new Missouri informed consent law goes into effect

Missouri’s new law requiring informed consent (in more detail than had been required) prior to an abortion went into effect on August 28.http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2010/09/02/missouri-abortion-landscape-changes-new-law/  Here is Wesley Smith’s commentary. http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/secondhandsmoke/2010/09/02/new-missouri-law-requires-informed-consent-about-fetal-humanity-before-abortion/  Richard M.