"Facts of Life" Email: March 28, 2003

The Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003, H.R. 760, is advancing in the House of Representatives.  It passed the Constitution Subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee on March 25th by a vote of 8-4, with only Republican votes.  California Democrat, Adam Schiff (CD 29--Pasadena) did not vote. H.R. 760 passed the full Judiciary Committee on March 26th by a vote of 19-11, after 6 hostile amendments were defeated by decisive margins.  It is not clear when it will be taken up in the full House. 

Kaiser Permanente in Oregon is plumbing the medical community for physicians who would be willing to assist in killing their patients in the only state to make physician-assisted suicide legal.  The giant HMO already has a reputation for being an advocate of abortion on demand, and assuring that parents are excluded from any involvement in their minor daughters' abortions or other reproductive health care issues, and has no qualms about withdrawing food and water from  patients who end up dying from dehydration rather than from their medical conditions.  Now Mary Starrett has reported that Kaiser sent an e-mail to over 800 M.D.'s in Oregon asking for doctors who would be willing to help patients to commit suicide to respond to their inquiry. (NewsWithViews, March 21, 2003)

Scientists across Canada are trying to uncover how brains can repair themselves after strokes with stem cells from their own bodies.  With a $1.5 million dollar project, they "hope to train stem cells from diverse parts of the body to travel to the brain's injured area, form themselves into brain cells, connect with other neurons-- and actually think."  This is just one more promising stem cell study that does not rely on human embryos who would have to die to yield their precious stem cells.   http://www.canada.com/search/story.aspx?id=e77030dd-39a8-447f-8dd2-c2c1bc5c3079

A new study by a social scientist at the University of North Carolina estimates that 85 newborns are killed or abandoned and left to die each year.  The study, led by Dr. Marcia Herman-Giddens, was also reported on in the March 19 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.  It was primarily based on homicides among children under five days old from 1985 through 2000 in North Carolina. Researchers also concluded that "Safe Haven" laws could prevent some of these deaths.  At least 42 states have passed such laws, but there is little money available to advertise them. http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-03/uonc-nse031703.php

In a bizarre incident in China, where infanticide of baby girls has been rampant in recent decades, 28 baby girls  from only a few days to three months old were discovered hidden in suitcases on a long-distance bus trip.  Apparently the babies were drugged to keep them from crying.  Some were two or three to a suitcase, and one of the babies had died.  More than 20 people were arrested, including some who were accompanying the babies on the bus.  It was not known where they came from or where they were headed, but apparently trafficking in children and females has been a recurring problem in China.
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/030322/1/399ul.html

Check out the News section of the California ProLife Council Website for recent articles regarding pro-life issues. http://www.californiaprolife.org/news/index.html

 California ProLife Council (CPLC) (www.californiaprolife.org.) is the largest statewide organization in California solely dedicated to pro-life issues. CPLC is a non-sectarian, non-partisan, non-profit grassroots organization of pro-life groups and individuals in California dedicated to protecting and fostering the most basic value of our society—respect for LIFE itself.  We seek to educate our community in regard to abortion, euthanasia, and infanticide, to identify and organize the pro-life population of the state into an effective team, and to restore respect for human life to public policy.  California ProLife Council is the California affiliate of the National Right to Life Committee, Inc. (www.nrlc.org).