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NRL News
Pro-Life
News in Brief Michigan Ballot Question Could Expand Embryonic Stem Cell Research Michigan pro-lifers and others opposed to research that uses stem cells obtained by killing human embryos have joined together to fight against a proposed ballot initiative that would greatly expand such research in their state. Supporters of the destructive research submitted 570,373 signatures to the Michigan Secretary of State July 7 that brings them closer to putting their proposal on the November ballot, according to the Detroit Free Press. The state must certify that at least 380,126 signatures are valid. Groups including Right to Life of Michigan and the Michigan Catholic Conference have formed an organization called MiCAUSE: Michigan Citizens Against Unrestricted Science and Experimentation to oppose the ballot initiative. “This proposal is deliberately deceptive,” MiCAUSE spokesman Dave Doyle said in a press release. “This proposal will allow unregulated and unrestricted experimentation on human embryos.” Doyle pointed to several examples of confusing legalese in the ballot wording that seems to limit embryonic research but in reality will do nothing to prevent such destructive experiments. “The proposal states that nothing shall be interpreted to alter or abrogate the current law banning cloning,” Doyle explained. “However, leaders of this proposal have already introduced bills in the Michigan legislature that would legalize human cloning by deceptively changing the current definition of human cloning to a misleading definition which would allow researchers to create cloned human embryos. This proposal will permit the legalization of cloning.” In addition, “The proposal’s language allows for any research on live human embryos which is permitted under federal law,” Doyle said. “Federal law currently has no restrictions on research on human embryos. Therefore, research on human embryos in Michigan would have no restrictions.” Supporters of the proposal have already spent $2 million and plan to raise at least $10 million before Election Day, according to the Associated Press. MiCAUSE and its member organizations will try to counter this by getting the truth out to all Michigan voters. “The goal is to make sure people understand this proposal,” Doyle told Michigan Catholic. “The key in these things is what’s in fine print, and what’s in fine print here is very different than what they tell you.” Disabled Italian Woman May Be Starved to Death Overturning a 2007 court decision that prevented the starvation and dehydration death of a 37-year-old disabled woman, an Italian appeals court authorized the woman’s father to remove her feeding tube, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP). Eluano Englaro received brain injuries 16 years ago in a bicycle accident. Her father, Beppino, has sought to remove her feeding tube since 1999, AFP reported. Eluano has been breathing on her own since three months after the accident, but she still requires assistance in feeding and nutrition, according to The Guardian. The Milan appeals court ruled July 9 that Eluano’s “persistent vegetative state” was “irreversible,” AFP reported. The court also decided that she “would have preferred to die than being kept alive on artificial support,” based on testimony from her father and a friend. The Vatican swiftly condemned the decision. “A patient in a ‘permanent vegetative state’ is a person with fundamental human dignity,” Monsignor Rino Fisichella, head of the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy for Life, told the ANSA news agency, “and must, therefore, receive ordinary and proportionate care which includes, in principle, the administration of water and food even by artificial means.” Prosecutors have 60 days to file an appeal, The Guardian reported. Brazilian Legislative Committee Rejects Abortion Legalization Two months after the Social Security and Family Committee of Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies rejected an abortion decriminalization law, the Justice and Constitution Committee followed suit July 9 and overwhelmingly defeated the proposal, according to Reuters. The committee voted 57–4 against the bill, which would have expanded the legalization of abortion, Reuters reported. Currently, abortion is only legal for the life of the mother or for rape. Officials in the federal government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva have made statements supporting the decriminalization of abortion, according to Agence France-Presse. However, the influential Catholic Church conducted an aggressive campaign against any proposals that threatened human life. The proposal to legalize abortion will most likely be shelved after this latest defeat, the BBC reported. Women Harmed by Abortifacients Sold over the Internet Over 10% of women who bought abortifacients over the Internet, killing their unborn babies without medical supervision, needed surgical intervention, “either because the drugs had not completed the abortion or because of excessive bleeding,” according to the BBC. “Too many women have been misled into believing that this is a safe, simple, easy procedure, and this marketing method feeds into that myth,” Randall K. O’Bannon, Ph.D., NRL director of education and research, told NRL News. “The reality is that these abortions are far more complicated, painful, and serious than advertised, and that a woman may not figure this out until she is doubled over in pain, gushing blood, and desperately trying to call for emergency medical help.” A report in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology describes the experiences of women who ordered the drugs from a site called “Women on Web.” The web site advertises in countries with protective abortion laws, and charges a “donation” of at least $110 for orders of mifepristone and misoprostol, the drugs used in the RU486 abortion technique. The authors stated that only 8% of women who ordered the drugs did not use them. The web site asks women to declare that they are less than nine weeks pregnant and recommends that they have a pregnancy test and ultrasound, Press Association News reported. However, these women receive no further medical assistance or counseling. “How women are supposed to screen themselves for ectopic pregnancies, which RU486 doesn’t affect, or distinguish signs of serious infection or hemorrhage from the standard side effects of chemical abortion, when trained doctors themselves find this a challenge, I don’t understand, but it certainly isn’t safe or responsible in under conditions like these,” added O’Bannon. “I can hardly think of any more callous or dangerous exploitation of desperate women than this. Even under a doctor’s supervision, a dozen women taking these drugs have died and hundreds of others have faced life-threatening complications.” Baby Wakes after Being Wrongly Declared Dead Told by doctors at Sion Hospital in Mumbai, India, that the tiny baby girl was born dead, her family was traveling to a cemetery for her burial when she suddenly started crying, according to Gulf News. Authorities are now investigating whether the hospital or doctors should be charged with negligence in the baby’s care. The Gaikwad family rushed the unidentified girl back to the hospital, where she remains in the neonatal intensive care unit. “The baby is premature by six weeks or so,” Dr. Sandya Kamath, acting dean of the hospital, told Gulf News. “She has been put on a ventilator and is in critical condition. Her mother, however, is doing well.” The baby’s mother, Aruna Gaikwad, began suffering high blood pressure and convulsions June 15, according to Gulf News. Doctors at Sion Hospital gave the 32-weeks-pregnant woman medication to induce labor, and her baby girl was born in the morning of June 16. “As no heartbeat was felt, the child was declared stillborn,” Dr. Suleiman Merchant told Indian Express. “The mother was on a high dose of sedatives and the convulsions may have lulled the child.” A death certificate was issued for the baby, India Times reported. The family took the baby from the hospital and was preparing her for burial when she began moving, grandmother Hausabai More told the Times. Authorities and hospital officials are actively investigating the events that led to the mistaken declaration of death. “The investigation is looking into the incident and is seeing as to why this has happened,” Shubhada Ghudekar, chair of the Health Committee of the company that runs the hospital, told the Times. “We will prepare a report on the matter and action will be taken against those who are responsible for this mess.” |