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Please email your suggestions and submissions to Marie Therese
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Our St. Francis Pro-LIFE Meeting Minutes are viewable here. |
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A spot has been reserved for a St Francis parishioner by the St Francis ProLife Committee. To Apply: Write a short letter stating that you are a member of St Francis of Assisi parish, why you wish to go to the March for Life and any prolife activities you have been involved in or intend to participate in. Please indicate your grade level if applicable, as special consideration will be given to a high school youth. Please send your letter to: St Francis of Assisi Parish, Attn: Marilyn Geyer of the ProLife Committee, 2150 Frieze Avenue, Ann Arbor, MI 48104-4799 by the deadline of Friday, January 9th. The bus will depart for Washington DC from Domino’s Farms Lobby H on Wednesday, Jan 21, 2009 at 6:00 am and will arrive back at Domino Farms around 5:30 am on Friday, Jan 23rd. |
Pregnant? Crisis Pregnancy?
-------------------- Prayer to End Abortion
I know there is nothing that destroys more life
than abortion,
I am ready to do my part in ending abortion.
I commit myself to be active in the pro-life movement,
Through Christ our Lord. Amen! |
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Below Here are three items From: Grace Potts: Wed, 6 Jun 2007:
- (A prayer- written by me.)
- (The "they say/you say" on stem cell research- is edited down from RTL MI.)
- (The article "abortion hurts women"- edited down from usccb site.)
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The life of every human, body and soul The new life of every developing child; The changing lives of adolescents; The promising life of every young adult; The generous life of every parent; The transformative lives single adults; The sage lives of our elders. You, Blessed Mother, guided and shaped the life our Lord Jesus- We ask you in His name to guide and shape coming generations as guardians of human life, O Mother of Life and Truth. Amen. |
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Isn’t it a prolife position to support all stem cell research and help people who are living? You say. . . It is not prolife to kill one group of human beings
in the hope of treating or curing another group of human beings.
If they say. . . It’s just a frozen fertilized egg. What’s the big deal? You say. . . This statement is false. Embryonic stem cells are removed from embryos who are around a week old. These embryos are also called blastocysts, and they number around a hundred or so cells. It is also important to mention that an embryo is no less valuable if she is frozen than if she is in her mother’s womb. The fact that an embryo is a living human being is what makes her priceless. If they say. . . All of these embryos will just be destroyed anyway, so why not use them to help people now? You say. . . Embryonic research advocates act like all of the
embryos currently frozen in fertility clinics will be thrown away. This,
however, is simply not the case. The parents generally have at least two
other options. First, preserve the embryos for possible future attempts
at pregnancy (chosen by about 90 percent according to a study by the RAND
corporation). Second, donate the embryos to another couple struggling with
infertility so they can have children.
If they say. . . Embryonic stem cells have the greatest potential to cure a variety of diseases. You say. . . Research with adult stem cells and stem cells from umbilical cords have already been used to help treat human patients suffering from a wide variety of ailments. Embryonic stem cells are nowhere near even being tested in human patients, much less curing millions of people. Embryonic stem cells face a number of huge obstacles
before they could ever be used in human patients. They have a tendency
to form tumors when used in animals and also can be rejected by the patient’s
immune system because they have a different genetic code.
If they say. . . Cloned embryos aren’t really alive You say. . . Cloned embryos are alive. If they aren’t alive, then how are they growing? If they aren’t alive, then how are they developing? If these embryos weren’t alive, they would be of no use to researchers. The life of a human being begins as a zygote which, if allowed, develops into an embryo and then a fetus and then a newborn and then a toddler and so on. If they say. . . Cloned embryos aren’t really human. This is cellular life; not human life. You say. . . Some believe stem cells from cloned human embryos are human enough for research but not human enough to join the human family. This logic defies the reality that life begins at fertilization, a truth some researchers and politicians have chosen to ignore. If they say. . . Somatic cell nuclear transfer isn’t really human cloning because scientists don’t intend to place the embryo in a woman’s womb, right? You say. . . The truth is, somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT)
is human cloning. Somatic cell nuclear transfer is the name for the scientific
method researchers use to create clones. There is no escaping this fact.
If they say. . . We should ban reproductive cloning but keep therapeutic cloning legal. Isn’t that a fair compromise? You say. . . Actually, in a lot of ways therapeutic cloning (or human cloning for research) is worse than reproductive cloning. Human cloning for research takes away the intrinsic value of human life. The cloned embryos used for this research are living human beings, yet they will never be treated as such. They will be treated as products and commodities who are created to serve the needs of others. Do we really want a society that uses science and research as an excuse to create, experiment on, manipulate and kill the most defenseless members of the human family? If they say. . . Most cloned embryos wouldn’t survive more than a few days, so what’s wrong with experimenting on them in hopes of helping people with various diseases? You say. . . One of the biggest problems with therapeutic human cloning is it creates a new class of human beings; humans created solely for their stem cells which will be removed, ending their young lives. Destroying some humans in the hopes of helping others isn’t human therapy, it’s human sacrifice. The advancement of scientific research is not a worthy reason to end the life of a human being. If they say. . . We need therapeutic cloning to help cure various diseases. Why should this helpful research be stopped? You say. . . First and foremost, no human has ever been helped by stem cells from human embryos, much less a cloned human embryo. No one is even sure if treatments from these stem cells will work. All of this research and hype is based on possibility, not reality. This is not quick, simple research by any means, but enormously complex and unproven. No one knows for certain if embryonic stem cells will lead to cures, but we do know every time stem cells are removed from a human embryo, a human life ends. If they say. . . This kind of research could save lives. We should explore all areas of research to find ways to cure such a wide array of diseases. You say. . . Even though some researchers think this research could be helpful, it is still never ethically correct to sacrifice the life of one human to save another without their consent. This kind of utilitarian thinking was the same kind of rationale used during syphilis experiments on African-Americans in Tuskegee, Alabama. If they say. . . If we can’t obtain more embryonic stem cells, then millions of people will never be treated? You say. . . Right now adult stem cells and/or stem cells from umbilical cord blood have treated human patients who have a wide variety of ailments, including sickle-cell anemia, spinal cord injuries, heart failure, leukemia, Parkinson’s, lupus and many more. Study after study on life-affirming stem cell research shows we don’t need to kill human embryos to help people. |
| On the Backs of Women
by Gail Quinn June 21, 2002
We often hear that scientists must be allowed to clone and conduct harmful experiments on human embryos. Unless such research is allowed, it is said, cures for many deadly diseases will never be found. Forget for the moment that these claims are simply wrong. Not one therapeutic benefit has come from such research; every beneficial result has come from morally acceptable adult stem cell research. Instead, focus on another aspect the fact that cloning would exploit women on a massive scale. It is estimated that 133.9 million Americans suffer from diseases some claim may be helped by cloning. If just 10 percent were eligible for therapies derived from human cloning, the potential patient pool would 13.4 million people. To provide genetically matched material to treat such numbers, one would need at least 670 million eggs to clone. Where would the eggs come from? Senator Mary Landreiu (D-LA) put it rather succinctly: women would simply become egg factories. Women also bear the burden regarding family planning. Many American women take birth control pills or other forms of hormonal contraceptives, or they undergo sterilization, a permanent and terrible choice. Yet, Natural Family Planning, a completely healthy alternative involving the cooperative effort of husband and wife, is often dismissed out of hand. The message? Let women take the risks. When an unintended pregnancy occurs, the solution: Leave the woman to bear and raise the child alone, or let her subject herself to the abortionist's curette, and if she's lucky, she'll come away physically intact. If she suffers emotionally, psychologically, spiritually, the message: "Get over it." Women deserve much better. Wouldn't it be terrific if women banded together to say: "We are not research subjects. We are not egg factories. We are human beings deserving of respect and dignity. We expect to be treated that way." |