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Abortion Constitutionality Philosophy Politics

Clarke Forsythe’s Book on Prudence

Clarke Forsythe’s book “Politics for the Greatest Good: The Case for Prudence in the Public Square” is worth reading. Here is the Amazon link.  http://www.amazon.com/Politics-Greatest-Good-Prudence-Public/dp/0830829229 Clarke makes the case for pursuing incremental change, an approach that he has helped to implement in his role at Americans United for Life.  A recent review of Clarke’s book by Michael New is […]

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Abortion Euthanasia Health Care Reform Legislation Legislation Taxpayer funding

PPACA and abortion

The controversy about health care reform and abortion continues. See Richard Doerflinger’s analysis, “Abortion returns to the health care reform debate.” http://usccbmedia.blogspot.com/2010/07/abortion-returns-to-health-care-reform.html  His analysis deals with the recent discovery that certain statewide insurance plans (funding by federal money) covered elective abortions. After an outcry, the Obama Administration eventually made clear that abortion would not be […]

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Assisted suicide Constitutionality Court Cases Euthanasia

Bob Destro on the Terri Schiavo case

I highly recommend Bob Destro’s article on the Terri Schiavo case. “Learning Neuroscience the Hard Way: The Terri Schiavo Case and the Ethics of Effective Representatation,” at 78 Miss. L. J. 833-903 (2009). There have been scores of articles on various aspects of the Schiavo controversy. (My own short paper on the Schiavo case is […]

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Abortion Women's health

the new abortion providers

The July 18, 2010 New York Times Sunday Magazine has a long article by Emily Bazelon entitled “The New Abortion Providers.” See http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/18/magazine/18abortion-t.html The article describes the efforts of abortion rights supporters to bring abortion from the fringes of medical practice into the mainstream of medicine. The effort, with generous funding from the Buffett Foundation, seems to be having […]

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Assisted suicide Euthanasia International

assisted suicide debate continues

I think there is a perception that the issue of assisted suicide has receded in importance. The issue does not seem to have the high profile it did in the mid-1990s when Jack Kevorkian was on the loose and when it appeared that the US Supreme Court might create a constitutional right to physician-assisted suicide.  But […]

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Abortion Constitutionality Politics Surgical abortion

Elena Kagan and partial birth abortion

There has been a lot of controversy about Elena Kagan’s testimony in her Supreme Court confirmation hearings as it relates to the issue of partial birth abortion. Americans United for Life has just released a powerful analysis of the whole matter. See http://www.aul.org/featured-images/Kagan-Ethics-Report.pdf Richard M.

Categories
Abortion Feminism Philosophy Religious views

abortion as the “lesser evil”

Albert Mohler has a very good essay on an op-ed (published in the Times of London on June 30, 2010) by Antonia Senior. See http://www.albertmohler.com/2010/07/01/when-feminism-kills-abortion-as-the-lesser-evil/ Senior acknowledges that abortion is the taking of a human life but argues that killing is necessary for women’s rights. The Senior essay is stirring reaction, and Mohler’s response is well worth reading.  […]

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Abortion Fetal anomolies and disabilities Health exception Religious views Women's health

USCCB on the Phoenix abortion case

Here is a link to a statement on the Phoenix abortion case by the Committee on Doctrine of the US Bishops. http://usccb.org/doctrine/direct-abortion-statement2010-06-23.pdf Richard M.

Categories
Abortion Constitutionality Politics

Predicting an end to Roe v. Wade

On June 23, 2010, the Politico website published an intriguing item entitled “Predicting an end to Roe v. Wade.” http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0610/38899.html  That prediction was made by Walter Dellinger a former Acting Solicitor General in the Clinto Administration and a long time professor at Duke. Dellinger’s prediction was based on the idea that Roe has become a target of […]

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University Faculty for Life

2010 UFL conference

The annual meeting/conference of University Faculty for Life (UFL) at Catholic University of America on June 4-5, 2010 was a real success. The conference director was Frank Beckwith (Baylor) and the local host was Father Kurt Pritzl, O.P.  UFL acknowledges with gratitude the hospitality of Catholic U and the Columbus School of Law, where the conference […]