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When does life begin? I think most agree that eggs and sperm individually by themseves is not life. By many standards it starts at conception, when they join and become an embryo. Or, is it when there is a heartbeat? Or, later when viable? Or, at birth? If Christian, then thou shall not kill. But what does that mean? At conception? Maybe when implanted (but what about in the not to far future, when a baby might be grown in an artifical womb? What about when faked in a mentally ill man?). Once there is a heartbeat? Once viable? Once...

Life begins at the moment of conception. We know this to be true due to the unique genetic nature of every fetal human. I didn’t always accept this truth, however. In fact, for most of my life, I was pro-choice. I came to this realization about the nature of human life through a careful examination of embryology, rather than a careful reading of Scripture. The Bible does, however, affirm this truth. Every human being, according to Christian scripture, is a unique, intentional creation of God, even if he or she might appear to be an unplanned accident from our limited,...

A federal jury on Monday found a scuba dive boat captain was criminally negligent in the deaths of 34 people killed in a fire aboard the vessel in 2019, the deadliest maritime disaster in recent U.S. history. The U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles confirmed Jerry Boylan was found guilty of one count of misconduct or neglect of ship officer, a pre-Civil War statute colloquially known as seaman’s manslaughter that was designed to hold steamboat captains and crew responsible for maritime disasters. Boylan was the only person to face criminal charges connected to the fire.

HAPPY SUNDAY! This is truly stunning! One confession: this isn’t truly “breaking news” but it is new to me. And probably you. Reposting because a friend just reminded me of it today. It’s a few years old, but big thanks to a reader who brought this to my attention. I had never seen it before and so I suspect many of you have not either. Be prepared to be blown away. What does the Bible say about life and light? This….from John 1:4-5: 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light...

A federal judge in Los Angeles on Friday dismissed the criminal indictment against a dive boat captain charged with manslaughter in the deaths of 34 people when the vessel caught fire and sank off the California coast three years ago. The 75-foot (23-meter) Conception caught fire while most of those onboard were sleeping, killing 33 passengers and a crew member. It is considered one of California’s worst maritime disasters. U.S. District Judge George Wu said in a ruling that the indictment, handed down on December 2020 against captain Jerry Nehl Boylan by a federal grand jury, must be thrown out...

MSNBC pundit Joe Scarborough tore into leading Republicans on Thursday for their rhetoric on abortion following the leak of a draft opinion showing the Supreme Court is poised to overturn Roe v. Wade. “The Republicans say ‘oh we’re going to replace and reform.’ They haven’t done anything,” Scarborough said on his show, “Morning Joe.” “The fact is, they do support the death penalty, that is one thing they support. But more and more this seems to be a party that really believes that life begins at conception but ends at childbirth.”

President Biden made an early morning trip to church Wednesday to mark the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception ahead of an afternoon flight to Kansas City to push his spending agenda. Biden attended the 8:15 a.m. Mass at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Georgetown, waving to children and parents outside the adjacent Holy Trinity School as he walked in. The president left the church approximately 40 minutes after he arrived and returned to the White House. The trip was not initially listed on Biden’s public schedule. The president was expected to depart Washington later Wednesday morning to travel to Kansas...

COVID-19 may negatively affect sperm quality and reduce fertility in men, and the magnitude of that effect may depend on the severity of disease, researchers reported. “Little is known about the virus-host interaction of COVID-19 in sperm cells,” Behzad Hajizadeh Maleki, a doctoral student and research assistant in the department of psychology and sports science at Justus Liebig University in Germany, and Bakhtyar Tartibian, PhD, of the physical education and sports science department at Urmia University in Iran, wrote in in the journal Reproduction. “We are the first to address the connection between changes in multiple seminal biomarkers and reproductive...

"O God, who by the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, did prepare a worthy dwelling place for Your Son, we beseech You that, as by the foreseen death of this, Your Son, You did preserve Her from all stain, so too You would permit us, purified through Her intercession, to come unto You. Through the same Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, world without end. Amen."

Unplanned is one of those films that have many distinct attributes to it. For one, its composition is so well done, that it makes you look at the substance of a very controversial issue in a very unique way. Second, apart from being one of the most definitive films of 2019, it is a film that will play an important part of a movement…. For many years to come. Thirdly, this film stirs up contention among extremely political special interest groups, which in turn raises awareness to the substance to the cause, and debate as well. But once you see...

With increasing rates of infertility and higher average rates of maternal age, people are turning to assisted reproductive technologies (ART) like in vitro fertilization (IVF) more than ever. More than 8 million babies have been born since the first IVF pregnancy in 1978. Recognizing the emotional agony of dealing with trouble conceiving, it makes sense why IVF is becoming so widely used. IVF provides a glimmer of hope for couples who have faced numerous cycles of negative pregnancy tests. But recently, some light has been shed on less positive aspects of the ART industry, revealing inflated success rates, maternal and...

When couples struggling to conceive approach an infertility clinic for help, they’re not just patients seeing a doctor: they’re also healthcare consumers navigating a billion-dollar industry. All too often, they’re also sucked onto a moving sidewalk designed to effortlessly take them from one intervention to another, without stopping to heal their spirits, discern their options, or possibly close their wallets. That’s what happened to me. I should be clear: I feel that most of the doctors we talked to were sincerely trying to help. This was especially the case with the reproductive endocrinologists who worked with nonprofit hospitals. They are...

Federal investigators on Thursday released a preliminary report on the Conception boat that killed nearly three-dozen people earlier this month off the coast of California, and said the entire crew was asleep when the blaze began. National Transportation Safety Board officials have said the full investigation could take more than a year, and preliminary findings highlight remaining questions as much as they provide answers as to how the tragedy happened. “A crew member sleeping in the wheelhouse berths was awakened by a noise and got up to investigate,” the report said. “As crew members awoke, the captain radioed a distress...

Boats like the Conception, which caught fire around 3 a.m. on Sept. 2 and sank, are required to have a crewmember keep watch at night. The National Transportation Safety Board has been investigating the tragedy and released a two-page preliminary report that said five crew members were sleeping in their quarters behind the wheelhouse on the second deck and another below deck when the fire broke out. The report comes as investigators seek to determine the cause and try to recover the wreckage of the Conception from the bottom of the sea amid an ongoing criminal probe conducted by the...

Surviving crew were driven back by the fire off the coast of Southern CaliforniaThey are said to have told investigators in 'very lengthy, detailed, comprehensive interviews' the harrowing story of the moments after the fire erupted MondayJumping from the ship's bridge to its main deck, they tried to get into the galleyWith the galley's doors on fire, they tried to get through windows but could not'At that point, due to heat, flames and smoke, the crew had to jump', officials sayTwo retrieved a skiff to see if they could rescue any survivors. None were foundThe only crew member to...

LOS ANGELES — One of the crew members aboard the dive boat Conception hadn’t been asleep long when a noise jolted him awake. He swung open the door of the wheelhouse — the top level of the 75-foot boat, located just above the galley — and was greeted by flames. As the fire raged in the predawn hours of Labor Day, the vessel’s captain made a frantic mayday call to the Coast Guard. Then he and four crew members jumped from the wheelhouse and climbed into a dinghy to get help from the Grape Escape, a fishing boat anchored nearby...

<p>LOS ANGELES (AP) — Officials vowed to find what sparked the inferno aboard the dive boat Conception that killed 34 people in waters off Southern California but vital evidence may have gone down with the ship or drifted out to sea.</p>

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (AP) — A middle-of-the-night fire swept a boat carrying recreational scuba divers anchored near an island off the Southern California coast early Monday, leaving at least 25 dead and nine others missing. Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr Matthew Kroll said Monday night that 25 people had died. Five of six crew members on the Conception escaped by jumping into an inflatable boat they steered to a nearby vessel. Rescuers initially recovered four bodies about 90 miles (145 kilometers) northwest of Los Angeles just off Santa Cruz Island, and 16 others were pulled from the water later in the...

LOS ANGELES - The 75-foot dive boat Conception was considered one of the best of its kind in the region, and both it and its operator, Truth Aquatics Inc., were in compliance with U.S. Coast Guard regulations. That all changed Monday in the flash of a predawn fire near Santa Cruz Island, when the Conception sank in flames, taking with it more than 30 people who were below deck in bunk beds, apparently unable to get out.

Welcome to life!