April 2016 Newsletter
Posted By cmbuuck on April 7, 2016
Life Affirming News
Please join us in welcoming our new Fort Wayne Lutherans for Life officers :
President: Karen Blank
Vice President: Harriet Stennfeld
Secretary: Dennis Brink
Treasurer: Vicki Layman
We would also like to thank our outgoing president Dennis Brink for his dedication and service to our commitment in affirming and preserving life. And also keep him in your prayers during his recovery from hip surgery.
Women’s Care Center
Anne Koehl, Fort Wayne Director
Looking back on another busy year we would like to share with you the impact of your generosity and kindness. We were able to serve nearly 2,500 women last year and they made over 12,000 visits. Earning their coupons from attending parenting classes and birth preparation classes allowed our moms to have more than 5,400 shopping visits. In the next few months we will welcome nearly 800 new babies.
Adult Stem Cells Cure Blindness
LifeWire / March 30, 2016
Scientists at the University of California San Diego successfully use ethical stem cells to cure cataracts.
If this human breakthrough had occurred with embryonic stem cells, the front page stories would have screamed around the world.
But it was adult stem cells and so the reporting was muted. You see, the media still – after all these years – tend to judge the newsworthiness of a story based on whether a breakthrough is embryonic.
The story is sensational, nonetheless. Adult stem cells have cured blindness and may provide a splendid treatment for cataracts. From the Telegraph story:
“Cataracts can be cured by using a patient’s own stem cells to regrow a ‘living lens’ in their eye, restoring sight in just three months, scientists have shown. In research described as ‘remarkable,’ surgeons reversed blindness in 12 infants born with congenital cataracts by removing the damaged lens and coaxing nearby cells to repair the damage.”
This is great news. And the potential is really exciting…
First U.S. Uterus Transplant Fails:
Cleveland Clinic plans to continue with nine other womb transplants
National Review / March 9, 2016
The first womb transplant to take place in the U.S. has failed – under dramatic circumstances. The recipient of the transplant, who was operated on last month, appeared smiling and healthy with doctors at a media conference on Monday (March 7). Yet just a day later there was a sudden complication that required specialists to remove the transplanted uterus.
The clinic released a statement about the emergency operation:
“There is a known risk in solid organ transplantation that the transplanted organ may have to be removed should a complication arise. The medical team took all necessary precautions and measures to ensure the safety of our patient.”
The woman, known only as Lindsey, 26. of Texas said she was recovering well after the womb removal.
Irish Looking Abroad for Surrogacy
Since 2011, surrogacy has been on the rise in Ireland with over 80 children born by means of this practice. Of that number, over 60 were born via international surrogacy in India. The recent passage of same-sex marriage in Ireland will doubtlessly expand the surrogacy practice.
California Legislator Introduces Bill to Pay for Eggs for Research
A California state assembly leader has introduced new legislation that would compensate women to sell their eggs for research. Such attempts have been introduced in the past, but Governor Jerry Brown vetoed the last bill in 2013.
Adult Stem Cells Used to Create Human Heart
LifeWire / March 30, 2016
Scientific team uses scaffolding concept, combining it with ethical skin stem cells, to provide a foundation for new heart cells to be grown onto.
Scientists announced that they had successfully grown a human heart using stem cells. That in itself is a major development. But to the surprise of many these stem cells did not come from embryos, but rather skin cells, making this not only a major development, but an ethical one too.
The ability to create a human heart using stem cells could significantly benefit the over 4,000 people in the United States waiting for a heart transplant. According to the report:
After just two weeks, the networks of lab-grown heart cells already resembled immature but intricately structured hearts. The team gave them a burst of electricity, and the hearts actually started beating.
What was once thought of as a mere dream could very possibly become a reality.
Belgium Combines Organ Donation Presumed Consent, Euthanasia
Center for Bioethics and Culture / March 22, 2016
Possibility of donating organs following euthanasia raises ethical concerns with respect to the potential donor’s motivation.
A just published article in the Journal of Medical Ethics argues for allowing killing by organ removal as a form of euthanasia and organ donation.
The authors mention that Belgium has “presumed consent” for organ donation. From the piece:
When a patient is determined dead on the basis of either circulatory or neurological criteria, the treating physician is legally allowed to remove his organs for transplantation.
In case of donation, three non-treating physicians, who are not involved in the transplantation procedure, should independently determine death.
The law explicitly states that relatives should be enabled to say farewell to the deceased as soon as possible after the donation procedure.
In the immoral utilitarian milieu that now reigns in Belgium, this means that doctors could look upon all “suffering” patients as potential organ suppliers.
There are 471 reasons to celebrate now that this 40 Days for Life campaign has drawn to a close! That’s how many babies have been saved from abortion – that we know of!
LifeNews / March 16, 2016
Here are more reasons to celebrate – 40 Days for Life locations where abortion centers have closed!
Jacksonville, North Carolina celebrates the closing of an abortion facility that had been in business for decades.
Earlier in the campaign, two facilities in Georgia – in Augusta and Marietta – also shut down.
This was the 16th 40 Days for Life vigil outside the Women’s Pavilion in South Bend – and it should be the last.
In the final days of the campaign, it was announced that the business would shut down on March 18 – Day 38 of this campaign. And it did!
This center had been open for more than 30 years … and had been accused of having “little regard for health standards and women’s safety.” Abortions had stopped at this location, but they were still referring women to other centers for abortions.
Three years ago, pro-life groups bought the building next to the abortion facility and housed a chapel and several other pro-life ministries. All of that prayer certainly had an impact.
“It’s a good day,” Shawn Sullivan, the 40 Days for Life director in South Bend told the media. “There won’t be anybody going next door to get abortions anymore.”
Praise God!
Gov.Pence Signs Bill
Washington (CNN) / March 31, 2016
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence on Thursday March 31 signed a bill that bars women from seeking an abortion because the child will be born with a disability, a controversial restriction that is one of the tightest abortion laws in the country.
Indiana already has some of the most restrictive abortion laws in the nation, and Pence called the bill, House Enrolled Act 1337, a “comprehensive pro-life measure.”
“HEA 1337 will ensure the dignified final treatment of the unborn and prohibits abortions that are based only on the unborn child’s sex, race, color, national origin, ancestry, or disability, including Down syndrome,” he said in a statement. “Some of my most precious moments as Governor have been with families of children with disabilities, especially those raising children with Down syndrome.
We thank Rep. Casey Cox for authorizing the bill.
Assisted Suicide Law Set to Take Effect in California
Center for Bioethics and Culture / March 11, 2016
California will begin permitting assisted suicide this summer. The state’s so-called “End of Life Option Act” green-lighting physician-assisted suicide for terminally ill individuals will go into effect June 9, 2016.