University Faculty for Life

new Kansas law protects conscience rights

Richard Myers — Wed, 16 May 2012 17:31:23 +0000

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”

Richard Myers — Mon, 14 May 2012 14:37:41 +0000

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

Richard Myers — Wed, 02 May 2012 14:29:49 +0000

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

Richard Myers — Wed, 02 May 2012 14:12:18 +0000

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

Richard Myers — Wed, 02 May 2012 14:04:46 +0000

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

Richard Myers — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 14:58:11 +0000

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.

Teresa Collett defending Pain-Capable Child Protection Acts

Richard Myers — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 14:10:07 +0000

Here is a good article on the Public Discourse website by Teresa Collett (president of University Faculty for Life) defending Pain-Capable Child Protection Acts. http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2012/04/5176 Teresa explains: “These laws are premised on the idea that an unborn child’s capacity to feel pain, independent of fetal viability, is sufficient to establish the humanity of the child and to sustain a limited prohibition on abortion. Like partial-birth abortion bans, these laws advance public recognition of the unborn child’s humanity and should be supported.” The article discusses the evidence supporting the view that unborn children can feel pain at about 20 weeks post-fertilization. It also discusses the constitutionality of these bans. On the constitutional issue, Teresa concludes:”

Recognition of a compelling state interest in the protection of pain-capable unborn children does not require the Court to reject a woman’s liberty interest in obtaining an abortion or the balancing framework of Casey. It only asks the Court to recognize the legislature’s ability to use new scientific evidence that supports a strong state interest in regulating abortions at twenty weeks after fertilization. Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Acts modestly expand upon the states’ interests in the protection of fetal life and affirm the value of unborn life as recognized in the latest Supreme Court cases addressing abortion.”

Richard M.

good article by Wesley Smith on the bigotry against the disabled

Richard Myers — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 19:49:27 +0000

Here is a link to a recent post on Wesley Smith’s blog. Smith links to an article he recently published in the Human Life Review on “the unrepentant bigotry” against people with profound disabilities. http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/secondhandsmoke/2012/04/18/that-unrepentant-bigotry/ Here are the closing paragraphs of the article:

“Activists and their supporters who struggle against racism and other forms of discriminatory thinking have long understood that the words we use express how we think, which in turn, leads to action being taken–both private and public. By working to make racist and similar epithets beyond the pale, activists like Martin Luther King understood that better behavior would follow—and so it has.

Yet, there remains in society one group of people who are still mocked, dehumanized, marginalized, castigated, blamed for woes, and subjected to threatened actions that present a clear danger to their lives and futures. If we are to have a truly equal and moral society, if our health care system is to have any chance of caring properly for the least of those among us, to use a Biblical turn of phrase, we need to watch our mouths and cleanse our hearts.”

Richard M.

“The Constitutional Right Not to Kill”

Richard Myers — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 14:46:47 +0000

That’s the title of a new article (link to an abstract below) by Mark Rienzi (Catholic U). Rienzi argues that there is a federal due process right not to be forced to kill. The right arises in a variety of contexts–military operations, capital punishment, assisted suicide, abortion, and self-defense or defense of others. Rienzi doesn’t enter into the debate about the propriety of substantive due process (which brought us Roe v. Wade); he accepts the current law and argues that it supports a constitutional right not to kill.

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2025281

Richard M.

“Murder not the answer to Alzheimer’s”

Richard Myers — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 19:21:52 +0000

That’s the title of a recent post by Wesley Smith.http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/secondhandsmoke/2012/04/04/murder-not-the-answer-to-alzheimers/

Smith was commenting on a good article by David Brooks who discussed a recent murder-suicide. Charles Snelling, who in December had published a moving article about caring for his wife who had Alzheimer’s, murdered his wife and then committed suicide. It is difficult to comment on such a tragedy. By all accounts, Mr. Snelling was devoted to his wife of 61 years and we don’t know all the circumstances that led to these acts.

It is still necessary though to make the basic moral point that murder is not the solution to a serious illness or disability. As Brooks noted, “Our job is not to determine who is worthy of life, but how to make the most of the life we have been given.”

Richard M.