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Tuesday April 21, 2009 Polish Cardinal, Former Secretary to Pope JPII: Politicians, Like Pilate, Kill the Truth of the Life of the Unborn By Thaddeus M. BaklinskiKRAKOW, Poland, April 21, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - During his Good Friday homily at Kalwaria Zebrzydowska, a Marian pilgrimage site near Krakow and home to a live dramatization of the Passion of Christ, Archbishop of Krakow Stanis?aw Cardinal Dziwisz called on the over 150,000 faithful present to show courage and speak the truth in defense of the dignity of human life.The Cardinal condemned abortion, euthanasia, common-law marriage, homosexual unions and in vitro fertilization.Speaking to...

div class="noticia_imagen_contenedor" style="width: 250px;"> Bishop Thomas Wenski Orlando, Fla., Mar 16, 2009 / 08:01 pm (CNA).- Bishop of Orlando, Florida Thomas G. Wenski has written an editorial for the Orlando Sentinel stressing the dignity of the human embryo. Noting the ways some medical reproductive technologies “devalue the meaning of human sexuality itself,” he condemned “procreation without sex.”Invoking Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, which he summarized as being about “a mad scientist who in his quest to create life never stopped to consider the consequences of his actions,” Bishop Wenski said that science reality is “stranger than science fiction.”Similarly, he suggested that some...

Regarding the Instruction Dignitas PersonaeAim In recent years, biomedical research has made great strides, opening new possibilities for the treatment of disease, but also giving rise to serious questions which had not been directly treated in the Instruction Donum vitae (22 February 1987).  A new Instruction, which is dated 8 September 2008, the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, seeks to provide some responses to these new bioethical questions, as these have been the focus of expectations and concerns in large sectors of society.  In this way, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith seeks both...

Once again, judges in California have taken sides in the culture wars. On Monday, in North Coast Women’s Care v. Benitez, the Golden State’s highest court ruled that doctors may not rely on their religious principles to refuse in-vitro fertilization for same-sex couples. The decision runs roughshod over the First Amendment’s free-exercise clause, seeking to supplant Judeo-Christian principles with the state-imposed religion of secularism. This is a false choice under the federal Constitution, which makes room for both. Early press reporting indicated that the California court had found the state’s “compelling” interest in preventing discrimination outweighed the complaining doctors’ religious...

LONDON: Frozen embryos are better than fresh when it comes to producing healthier babies using in-vitro fertilisation, a new study has revealed. Researchers in Denmark have found that babies born from thawed embryos were heavier at birth and were unlikely to suffer abnormalities as compared to those born from fresh embryos. “Only very top-quality embryos survive the freezing and thawing process. And you only get pregnancies in patients with lots of good embryos to freeze,” lead researcher Dr Anja Pinborg was quoted by The Daily Telegraph as saying. The researchers at Copenhagen University reached the conclusion after comparing over...

New Delhi (CNSNews.com) - In a new twist to the outsourcing for which India has become renowned, poor Indian women are renting out their wombs to foreigners. Surrogate motherhood -- carrying to term and giving birth to another woman's baby - once was limited in India to helping close relatives who couldn't complete a pregnancy due to medical difficulties. But leading gynecologist Dr. Kamla Selvaraj says it's now becoming a regular "profession" in India, with more and more women willing to carry babies for others, for a fee. India has for years been providing foreigners with in-vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment...

HALIFAX, September 24, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Nova Scotia's Progressive Conservative government rapidly approved new regulations, effective immediately, allowing birth certificates to register a lesbian "spouse" of a birth mother as the "other parent." The decision was made in cabinet only four days after the couple launched a human rights complaint. Halifax scrambled to make adjustments to the Vital Statistics Act after a "married" lesbian couple, Emily and Jamie O'Neill, filed a Human Rights complaint demanding the province recognize them equally as parents to Emily's newborn daughter, Jordyn, who was conceived through artificial insemination and born August 7. Since the old...

California Company: We'll Turn Your Child's Sibling Embryos Into Extra Body Parts No evidence to support claims that stem cells from these embryos can offer any treatment By Hilary White A California-based biotechnology company, StemLifeLine, is making a special offer to parents of children conceived through in vitro fertilisation techniques: "We'll turn your spare embryos into embryonic stem cell lines tailored to your child's potential future medical needs." StemCellLifeLine's website calls it "a novel service for individuals who have undergone in vitro fertilization, fulfilled their childbearing needs and now have to decide what to do with their remaining stored embryos....

LONDON — Louise Brown, who was the world's first "test-tube" baby, has given birth to her first child. Cameron John Mullinder was born Dec. 20 in the western English city of Bristol, reports said. "He's tiny, just under 6 pounds, but he's perfect," the Mail on Sunday newspaper quoted her as saying. The baby was naturally conceived. The 28-year-old married Wesley Mullinder, 37, three years ago. Her sister, Natalie, who also was conceived through in-vitro fertilization, in 1999 became the first "test-tube" baby to give birth.

THE LAW of UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES You've probably heard of the Law of Unintended Consequences. It refers to the unanticipated later results of earlier decisions or actions. We saw a television report of an unintended consequence of "sperm banks"--organizations which sell male sperm to lesbians or other single women who want pregnancy "without a father," and couples who want to have children despite male infertility of the husband. You will be shocked, as we were, to discover an estimated 40,000 children are born each year using this repulsively modern means. Apparently, anonymous "profiles" of the sperm donor are used to market...

WASHINGTON — When the U.S. Senate debates stem cell laws this summer, they should learn a lesson from Mary Schneider.   When she saw her 2-year-old son’s fists balling up and his arms getting spastic, she knew she had to do something drastic.   Ryan Schneider was diagnosed with a mild form of cerebral palsy before his third birthday. Fortunately, Mary and her husband, Steve, had stored the boy’s cord blood with the Cord Blood Registry when he was born.   The blood is stored as a source of adult stem cells, which doctors have found effective. A bill sponsored...

Alfonso Cardinal Lopez Trujillo, the outspoken president of the Pontifical Council on the Family, has asserted that "destroying human embryos is equivalent to abortion"; therefore, he says, those directly involved in such deeds are liable to the canonical penalty established for abortion, namely, excommunication (1983 CIC 1398). That the cardinal stands on solid biological and moral grounds in equating deliberate embryo destruction with procured abortion is beyond serious question. What I want to ask is whether he stands on solid canonical grounds as well. Consider: until the last few decades, all canonical discussions of abortion were concerned with actions...

The Vatican today published a sweeping condemnation of contraception, abortion, in-vitro fertilisation and same-sex marriage, declaring that the traditional family has never been so threatened. The document was issued by the Pontifical Council for the Family, whose head, Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, is a strong opponent of the use of condoms under any circumstances. Gay activists in Italy condemned the report as a grotesque attack against modern life, freedom and social redemption.The 57-page document does not break any new ground but summarised traditional Vatican positions."Man of modern times has radicalised the tendency to take the place of God and substitute him," it...

May 11, 2006 — - After five years trying to conceive, Kelly and Eric Romenesko decided to try in vitro fertilization. Their twins, Alexandria and Allison, were born last year. It was a joyous event in the couple's life. "They're miracles. They're precious," Kelly Romenesko said. The couple were not prepared for what came next. When Kelly, a teacher at two Catholic schools in Wisconsin, told her bosses she had gotten pregnant through in vitro, they handed her a pink slip. "I was in tears," she said. "I remember asking, 'Is this the only reason why I'm being fired?' They...

VATICAN CITY - Scientists told a Vatican conference Tuesday that screening embryos for disease before implanting them in in-vitro fertilization posed grave ethical problems that could ultimately result in parents choosing the type of children they want. The warning, however, was rejected as unfounded by outside scientists. The Vatican conference, which ended Tuesday, focused on the ethics surrounding the handling of embryos before they are implanted in in-vitro fertilization procedures when they are just a few days old and a few cells in size. On Monday, Pope Benedict XVI told the conference that even such young embryos deserve the same...

REDDING – A 62-year-old woman gave birth Friday to a healthy 6-pound, 9-ounce baby boy, becoming one of the oldest women in the world to successfully bear a child. The newborn is the 12th child of Janise Wulf, who's also a grandmother of 20 and great-grandmother of three. Wulf and her third husband, Scott, 48, named the red-haired boy, Adam Charles Wulf. He follows just 3½ years behind his older brother, Ian. “I hate to raise one alone, without a sibling,” said Wulf, who was impregnated both times through in vitro fertilization. Wulf has given birth to a total of...

The world just learned that "Catholic" actress Brooke Shields is the proud mother of a new baby girl. For a long time infertility problems made it impossible for her and her husband to conceive, and after many failed attempts to conceive naturally she resorted to the technological solution: in vitro fertilization (IVF). Now she is pictured on the covers of glamorous magazines with a smiling beautiful baby girl, but some have questioned her decision to use IVF. I am one of them. Was this star wrong to have a "test tube" baby? Yes. Dead wrong. While recognizing the pain of...

All signs point to yes. During the past several months, the image has flickered into our homes with increasing regularity: Following the end of a campaign-trail speech, little Emma Claire Edwards, 6, and Jack Edwards, 4—both blond and cherubic—joyfully run up to the stage where their dad, Sen. John Edwards, 51, scoops them into his arms. Standing nearby beaming, always, is Elizabeth Edwards, 55. Do the math, and it's not hard to figure out that Edwards gave birth to Emma Claire at age 48 and Jack at 50. And yet if Edwards used her own eggs, this is all but...

Trial Opens Over Unauthorized Pregnancy By JAY LINDSAY, Associated Press Writer CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - Trial began Wednesday to hear a man's claims that his wife was impregnated without his permission at a clinic that used an embryo fertilized with his sperm. Richard Gladu testified that the birth shattered his family and sent him into a spiral of depression. He's seeking $3 million in the breach of contract and negligence suit against two doctors and the fertility clinic Boston IVF. In their opening statements, lawyers for the clinic and doctors said Gladu gave consent for his embryos to be used, and...

Gay dads welcome new baby By Valarie Honeycutt Spears HERALD-LEADER STAFF WRITER The two Lexington gay men who made worldwide news by parenting quadruplets had a fifth child yesterday with the help of the same biological mother. The baby, named Brandon Lane Dysarz, was born shortly after 8 a.m. at Lexington's Central Baptist Hospital by a planned Caesarean section, according to Lexington hair stylist Thomas Dysarz, the baby's biological father. "He looks just like me," said Dysarz, who said the healthy boy weighed in at 8 pounds, 9 ounces. The birth, like the July 26, 2002, birth of the quadruplets,...