Babies -- Bought, Sold and Traded

Catholic.net ^ | 09.17.05

[Coleus]

Babies -- Bought, Sold and Traded

LONDON, SEPT. 17, 2005 (Zenit.org)

Abortion advocates' decades-long push to deny or downplay the humanity of the unborn child is bearing fruit. Unborn children are increasingly being treated like consumer products, if recent news stories are an indication.

Last Saturday the London-based Times published a story describing how the Institute for Problems of Cryobiology and Cryomedicine of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, in Kharkov, sells baby parts. The list on its Web site offers a variety of cells and other tissues from babies.

The institute alleges that the material comes from fetuses aborted at an early stage of life. But, according to the Times, this claim is under doubt after revelations that live newborn babies have been disappearing from maternity wards in the city of Kharkov.

The article quoted an ex-employee of the institute, Juliya Kopeika, who said that Ukrainian scientists in the field had long benefited from a more relaxed approach to ethical issues. Moreover, Ukrainian law considers that babies born before 27 weeks or weighing less than 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) are automatically considered abortions. As such, the babies are not officially registered, and are sometimes taken away from their mothers and not returned, human rights activists told the Times.

Last April 17, a report in another British newspaper, the Observer, alleged that Ukrainian women were being paid to sell their fetuses to clinics. The tissues are then used for beauty treatments that purportedly rejuvenate the skin and cure diseases. The Observer claimed that the women were paid 100 pounds ($182 at current exchange rates) per fetus, which were later sold in Russia for up to 5,000 pounds ($9,100).

Fresh embryos

This past week, concern was expressed in Canada over the use of "fresh" embryos as a source of stem cells, reported the National Post on Tuesday. An article published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal warned that women are being encouraged to donate fresh, as opposed to "surplus," frozen embryos left over from previous in-vitro fertilization treatments, to create stem cells.

The authors of the article, Dr. Jeffrey Nisker, of the University of Western Ontario, and Dr. Francoise Baylis, of Dalhousie University in Halifax, also warned that the women might be decreasing their chances of getting pregnant in the future.

As well, Baylis complained about the "surreptitious" way the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, a federal agency, quietly changed the rules on June 7 to explicitly allow stem-cell researchers to use fresh human embryos. Only two days later, a Toronto research team headed by Dr. Andras Nagy announced it was not only working with fresh embryos but had already used them to create Canada's first human embryonic stem cells.

Jeffrey Nisker co-chaired Health Canada's advisory committee on reproductive and genetic technology, which disbanded last year once the federal government passed the new law governing reproductive technology. He told the National Post: "Never for one moment did [the committee] imagine that a woman would ever be approached to give up a fresh embryo." Nisker said the issue demands clarification and added that he thinks physicians who ask women to donate fresh embryos might be breaking the medical code of ethics.

Meanwhile, the scientist who created Dolly the sheep, Ian Wilmut, argued that human embryonic stem cells should be used, in order to save animals from being used in tests. The Scottish newspaper Herald reported Sept. 8 that Wilmut argued that this research would be "more ethical."

In a speech at Glasgow University Vet School, Wilmut said that studying incurable human diseases by creating embryos and cloning them as cell lines would save "potentially many thousands of animals."

Wilmut recently applied for a license to use embryonic stem cells to develop a cure for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Lou Gehrig's disease, a motor-neuron disorder.

Eliminating the "unfit"

Babies suffering from genetic defects are increasingly being eliminated, the Washington Post reported in an in-depth article last April 29. The article explained that according to a survey of nearly 3,000 parents of children with Down syndrome, published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, health professionals who do prenatal screening commonly give negative depictions to parents of the consequences of bearing a child with this problem.

"In many cases the doctors were insensitive or just plain rude," said the author, Harvard medical student Brian Skotko, whose 24-year-old sister has Down syndrome.

The article explained that changes in past years have greatly improved the situation for those who suffer from Down syndrome. Instead of being relegated to institutions they now tend to live among the general population, and better medical attention has seen a dramatic increase in life expectancy. Babies who survive often live into their 50s, according to the National Down Syndrome Society.

But, according to an article by George Neumayr, in the June issue of the American Spectator, researchers estimate that 80% or more of babies now being diagnosed with Down syndrome in prenatal tests are aborted. As well, a high percentage of fetuses with cystic fibrosis are aborted.

In fact, since the 1960s, the number of Americans with anencephaly and spina bifida has markedly declined. This drop corresponds to the rise of prenatal screening, Neumayr explained.

And doctors who do not warn mothers about their fetuses' defects run the risk of being sued. The article quoted the publication Medical Malpractice Law & Strategy: "[C]ourt rulings across the country are showing that the increased use of genetic testing has substantially exposed physicians' liability for failure to counsel patients about hereditary disorders."

Consumer-friendly

It's not only the unborn who are at risk. In an opinion article in the April 17 edition of the London-based Sunday Times, Brenda Power commented on the case of a Tristan Dowse, a 3-year-old adopted by Irish couple Joe and Lala Dowse while they were living in Indonesia.

The couple adopted after not being able to conceive a child. But two years later, Lala managed to have a child of her own. When the couple decided to leave the country, they left Tristan behind too. They abandoned Tristan at the orphanage, which Power described as having "a consumer-friendly returns policy." Apparently under Irish laws what the parents did was legal.

Not all the news, however, is negative. Stories continue to come out of mothers who sacrifice their lives in order to give their unborn children a chance to live. Such was the case of an Italian woman, Rita Fontana, recounted in the national daily, La Repubblica, last Jan. 26.

Already the mother of two children, Rita was expecting her third when diagnosed with a melanoma. She refused treatment that would have put her unborn child's life in danger. Barely three months after Federico was born, his mother died.

Her husband, Enrico, explained that Rita had said it was impossible for her to endanger the life of the unborn baby, saying that it would be like killing one of the two other children in order to save her life.

He added that Rita had seen the new child as a gift and as a miracle, not as a condemnation. And certainly not as a consumer product.

[Coleus]

Unesco Chair  

It figures the UN has their evil and demonic hand involved with moral relativism and baby killing.  Sustainable Development in action. The In-vitro procedure (IFV) is inherently evil, just as Brooke Shields

Croatia's Catholic Bishops Warn In-Vitro Fertilization is “a Serious Crime”

Actress Brooke Shields aborted How Many of her own Children by undergoing 7 IVF Treatments

[OldGuard1]

They'll get their just-desserts in hell.

[Nazarene]

And Jesus Wept....

[CondorFlight]

Whatever did we prosecute those poor Nazi doctors at Nuremberg for? After all, they were only experimenting in the name of science, for the sake of improving mankind. . .

[Nazarene]

Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.

Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

[Jaded]

There are no words...

[metmom]

Amen.

[SunnySide]

"alleged that Ukrainian women were being paid to sell their fetuses to clinics. The tissues are then used for beauty treatments that purportedly rejuvenate the skin and cure diseases"
...

If this is true they'd better get ready for a Tsunami size Katrina(purification) headed their way.

NOT GOOD!

[metmom]

I can certainly believe about the newborns disappearing from maternity wards in the Ukraine. A Ukrainian immigrant (legal) family I know told me that they were terrified for their kids safety whenever they went into a big city because if you weren't careful there were people who would kidnap the children almost right under your nose and then put them up for adoption as orphans.

[SunnySide]

" fetus tissues are then used for beauty treatments that purportedly rejuvenate the skin "
...

Vampire Vanity Alert !

[sfimom]

Evil.

[NYer]

This would be a good time to repost the information regarding childhood vaccines derived from aborted fetuses. Thanks.

* * * * *

Finally, careful consideration should be given to the danger of this power passing into the hands of those public authorities who care little for the precepts of the moral law. Who will blame a government which in its attempt to resolve the problems affecting an entire country resorts to the same measures as are regarded as lawful by married people in the solution of a particular family difficulty? Who will prevent public authorities from favoring those contraceptive methods which they consider more effective? Should they regard this as necessary, they may even impose their use on everyone. It could well happen, therefore, that when people, either individually or in family or social life, experience the inherent difficulties of the divine law and are determined to avoid them, they may give into the hands of public authorities the power to intervene in the most personal and intimate responsibility of husband and wife.
HUMANAE VITAE
1968 Encyclical of Pope Paul VI

Catholic Ping
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[hocndoc]

The good news is that I'm hearing from my colleagues that the decrease in spina bifida and neural tube defects in the US is due to the folic acid fortification of food and in vitamin recommendations. I was told, just last night, that the prenatal diagnosis by ultrasound has plummeted just as the birth rates have.

And, more recently, more evidence:

Prev Med. 2005 Jun;40(6):867-71. Related Articles, Links
Click here to read
Implementation and outcomes of recommended folic acid supplementation in Mexican-American women with prior neural tube defect-affected pregnancies.

Felkner M, Suarez L, Hendricks K, Larsen R.

Texas Department of Health, Austin, TX, USA. marilyn.felkner@tdh.state.tx.us

BACKGROUND: Upon discovering an NTD incidence rate of 27/10,000 in a Texas border county, the Texas Department of Health initiated folic acid intervention for prevention of recurrent NTDs in this predominantly Mexican-American population. This paper describes compliance of this population with USPHS folic acid recommendations and the impact of supplementation on pregnancy outcomes. METHODS: Based upon information from active surveillance, field teams personally contacted women having NTD-affected pregnancies to enroll them in FA intervention. Enrollees were provided FA at home visits at 3-month intervals throughout the project. RESULTS: Of 405 women identified with NTD-affected pregnancies, 299 (73.8%) enrolled in the intervention. One hundred ninety-three pregnancies occurred among 138 women. FA supplementation of 0.4 mg/day or more occurred during the last month preconception in 161 (83.4%) of the 193 pregnancies. No NTDs were detected in the 130 livebirths to women who received supplementation nor were NTDs detected in the 23 supplemented women who experienced pregnancy loss. CONCLUSIONS: Supplementation was successful in preventing recurrent NTDs in Mexican-American women.

[Coleus]

Most Vaccines used in America are derived from aborted fetal cell lines.

Put pressure on the politicians especially Pro-Life and Catholic Politicians, the FDA and Drug Companies, let your clergymen know what's going on.  There are alternatives to using vaccines from abortive tissue, see the links for the lists of vaccines from aborted fetuses and those NOT from aborted fetuses. 

Vatican Condemns Vaccines Made with Tissue Obtained by Abortion

List of U.S. Vaccines Derived From Abortion

Most Vaccines used in America are derived from aborted fetal cell lines.

Put pressure on the politicians especially Pro-Life and Catholic Politicians, the FDA and Drug Companies, let your clergymen know what's going on.  There are alternatives to using vaccines from abortive tissue, see the links for the lists of vaccines from aborted fetuses and those NOT from aborted fetuses. 

Vatican Condemns Vaccines Made with Tissue Obtained by Abortion

List of U.S. Vaccines Derived From Abortion

[Coleus]

folic acid fortification >>

and to think that Carlton Fredericks, preached on the radio and wrote about this in Prevention magazine, way back in the 1970's. The research started in 1952. It's a shame the government and medical establishment took so long.

[cyborg]

Yes the government is always a little behind.

[Calpernia]

Harvesting Fetal Body Parts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1306761/posts

[cyborg]

One only wonders what some shady IVF clinics are up to.

[Calpernia]

Ever hear the commercials on our local radio stations about donating eggs?

::shivers at the thought::