Jivin J’s Life Links 9-13-10
by JivinJ, host of the blog, JivinJehoshaphat
- Does Carlton Veazey not understand how ridiculous this sounds?
Respect for all human life is a basic principle of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice – but the facts are that these embryos were created for fertility treatments, are no longer needed, and are slated by those who created them for destruction.How can “respect for all human life” be a basic principle for an organization which advocates the killing of certain human beings? If you respect all human life it wouldn’t matter if the embryos are created for fertility treatments, are “no longer needed” (talk about proving how you don’t respect life – no one who genuinely respects life thinks of human beings as a type of commodity which is needed or not) and whose parents want them destroyed.
- Operation Rescue reports abortionist Stephen Brigham has agreed to have his NJ medical license suspended starting September 15 so he can prepare a defense for himself. His suspension hearing is now scheduled for October 13.
- The LA Times has an article on stem cell face lifts using adult stem cells from the patient’s fat: Stem cell face-lifts could someday offer real advances, says Dr. Michael McGuire, president of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons and a clinical associate professor of surgery at UCLA. But he believes that scientists are still at least 10 years away from reliably harnessing stem cells to create new collagen and younger-looking skin. Until then, promises of a quick stem cell face-lift are a “scam,” he says.
Sep.13, 2010 1:00 pm |
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Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
Well my mom always told me I was created to be a playmate for my sister, so since my sister is now grown and married with four children I guess she doesn’t need me as a playmate so thats the end for me! Carlton Veazey can just slate me for destruction with no moral qualms since the reason for my creation no longer exists and that apparently negates the sanctity of my life.
I have been wanting another child for well over a year now. I mean REALLY WANTING another child…like baby fever. My husband says no because he says we are not in a financial position to do so right now. It is something that pains my heart especially when I see woman after woman around me having babies upon babies. When I hit 30 my biological clock really started ticking away and the baby fever increased. The thing I comfort myself with is that my son was conceived despite using the pill and that if God wants me to have another child He will make it happen. Children are NOT possessions or commodities. They are not created for OUR pleasure but for HIS pleasure. All human life is created for the sole purpose of bringing glory to God and when that is conveniently ignored or ridiculed you find the culture of death that we are now living in. A society of supreme selfishness. A society where your life is in danger if you are no longer useful to those humans around you.
I humbly ask God to bless me with more children but I also bow my head to Him and know that children are a GIFT and not a right.
Oh Sydney, your situation bring a tear to my eye. I greatly sympathize and understand your longing. I will keep your family and cause in prayer. As you mentioned, if God wants you to have another child, you will have one. God love you.
Sydney,
God bless! I can tell you have a very self-giving loving heart! Cultivate that with the child(ren) you have, and who knows, maybe you will be blest with more! :-)
Oh Sydney, I have been there, and I am praying for you and your husband. God bless you.
Saying people should use embryos because they’re going to be destroyed anyway sounds like a sort of grave-robber concept, like those old-time medical students who used to go dig up the potter’s field because the people buried there were poor and/or unknown and they figured no one would care.
Does anyone take this group seriously (besides the media and the Obama administration)?
Marauder, African American graveyards were often ransacked for bodies in the 19th century, which is odd since black people were considered not quite human then.
So, the embryo’s aren’t human life, according to Veazey. They’re not human because Veasy decides they’re not, or because a doctor or a mother or father decide they’re not. Hm. That’s not very scientific. Either, embryos are as human as teenagers or none of us are human. Science isn’t based on what you want to find useful. 2 + 2 = 4, even if I don’t need 4 of something. Shall I make 2 + 2 = 3 if I only need or want 3? Or maybe gravity should stop if I’m tired of it?
It’s both ironic and funny that pro-abortion advocates often chide pro-lifers for being religious and not scientific. That’s silly for so many reasons, I’d have to start my own blog to explain them all. Is God not capable of creating a material universe that holds up to scientific scrutiny? Sure, but the pro-abortionists think they can have it both ways. They can make fun of religion while at the same time embrace their own man-made fiction, all the while smiling to themselves at how clever they think they are. Yep, embryos aren’t human unless you subjectively decide they are…and pigs fly.
Hey Sydney M. I have been there also and I do understand. The pro-aborts think we get to “choose” when a baby is conceived, when it is convenient to have a baby, which babies get to live or die or whether a baby’s life is worth continuing or not. I will be praying for you and your family.
Is the basic thought by pro-lifers on this board that they should outlaw the practice of creating these embryos?
What is the thought on what to do with all these extra frozen ones?
Ex-GOP,
I’m not in favor of IVF, but if I were, I think the IVF doctors could create fewer embryos, not allow for reduction, and not charge as much for the procedure so a couple could afford a second or third attempt at pregnancy without bankruptcy. This would eliminate extra embryos ending up in a freezer.
Prolifer L,
I believe society’s obsession with pregnancy prevention that is forced on girls is at fault for this “I WILL get pregnant whenever I want” mentality. They fail to see the interventions of God’s creative hands.
Sydney,
I’ve been there too and I pray for God’s will for you. You are young so don’t loose hope…
Is the basic thought by pro-lifers on this board that they should outlaw the practice of creating these embryos?
For me, yes.
What is the thought on what to do with all these extra frozen ones?
Embryo adoption.
Janet I see so much of the enemy’s clawprint throughout this mindset (like Phil Hisman has written). I can “choose” to get pregnant whenever I want , I “choose” to have sex with whoever I want and to murder my unborn when it is inconvenient, I “choose” to have the babies and embryos that I want and to discard the rest, I ”choose” to have the power of life and death over my babies, I “choose” to abort any “defective” babies that I deem unworthy of my love and could mess up my life (what did Margaret Sanger write about “the unfit, the imbeciles and human weeds”). I can even sue the OB for “wrongful life” if I don’t get the “perfect” baby and I didn’t get the choice to abort and my baby lives. I, I, I, Me, Me, Me. Sounds like a great time for Phil Hisman’s essay about what ”Abortion Is”. God help us this is so schizophrenic.
I have to talked to expectant couples who are afraid to announce and celebrate their pregnancies because they are waiting for prenatal genetic test results to come back so they can decide whether they are going to keep their baby or abort him/her. One person said to me “we had all the testing done so we could confirm that this baby is “perfect”. What the hell does that mean, “perfect”.
Another young man said to me “we’re going to move in together and see how it goes, then we’ll decide whether to get engaged or married”. In both cases sounds like they’re going to the grocery store to pick out the perfect watermelon, trying on a pair of shoes at the mall or test driving a car therefore they get to return or discard the human being they don’t want. Excellent research on marriage, the problems with cohabitation and divorce in the book ”Why Marriage Matters” by Glenn T. Stanton. Such a sad mindset, everyone is disposable, babies included.
Thanks everyone for your kind words. You know Prolifer L I was reading your post and the thought came to me that someone could have a “perfect” child who could grow up to be a rapist and a killer. Another couple could have a “defective” child with Downs or any other handicap and grow up to be the most loving person who takes care of his parents and is that spot of joy in everyone’s lives. I’ve seen it happen from both angles. “Perfect” and “imperfect” are only skin deep. We should accept whatever gift God gives us and strive to protect and cherish and train those little children God gives to us.
I agree Sydney.
God is going to bless you with a child at the right time, His time. Life is such a precious gift. How arrogant of man to think we are the ones who should decide which babies should live or die according to our circumstances or a physical/mental disability.
Some of the most loving children I have ever seen were Downs babies like Trig Palin who brought so much joy to their families. One family I remember years ago were told by the OB “to place their DS baby boy in a institution because he was going to be a vegetable” (that was before they recommended DS baby become medical waste), this family refused took their baby home, he did beautifully. He was the light of their life, the older siblings adored him, he laughed and played with them and they all kissed and loved on him. They were a wonderful Hispanic family, it brings a smile to my face years later because they proved the doc wrong. He was never a “vegetable” but a happy, friendly baby.
Embryo adoption
http://www.nightlight.org/adoption-services/snowflakes-embryo/default.aspx
Ex-GOP,
Every major embryology text recognizes that a new human being comes into existence at fertilization. As new members of the species they ought to enjoy the full protection of the law based on the KIND of thing they are (Human), which is an intensive property, and not based on extensive criteria such as relative stage of development.
That said, IVF includes technicians winnowing these embryonic humans looking for the healthiest.
It is this scientist’s contention that such a process is profoundly unethical and that any parents who could knowingly consent to it are the most unfit individuals among us for parenting. Children are NEVER the property or possessions of parents, to be disposed of at whim. They are autonomous human beings in need of shelter and nurture, of gradual formation for eventual autonomous function as adults.
The entire IVF process treats children as chattel, with cryogenic preservation an equal affront to the intrinsic dignity of the new individual—again a grotesque distortion and abdication of parental responsibility. Good parents facilitate and foster growth. They don’t arrest it.
Embryo adoption is the only remedy for the babies who are on ice. Beyond that, there is no good or ethical way to administer a technology that is so fundamentally immoral, unethical, humanely blind, and cravenly committed to the commodification of human life.
My parents had a hard time getting pregnant with me, and when they looked into the possiblity of IVF, doctors basically told them that they (the doctors) wouldn’t be willing to help them create, say, three embryos and implant them all. They wouldn’t do it unless my parents would let them create a whole bunch of embryos and abandon/destroy the rest once one implanted. My mom is still irritated about it to this day if anyone brings it up. If human reproduction is supposed to be about “my body, my choice”, why couldn’t my parents choose to just make a few embryos and give them all a chance to be born?
Do you have to be infertile to adopt an embryo?
According to Dr. Leon Speroff (Clinical Gynecologic Endocrinology and Infertility, Williams and Wilkins, 5th ed., 1994, 937-39.) three to six embryos will be inserted into a woman’s uterus with the hope that at least one of them will implant; but the success rate is extremely low. This means that for every failed IVF, at least six embryos have died. For every “successful” IVF in which one or two embryos survive, at least two to four others have died. Multiply this by repeat attempts over several months and the number of embryos who have died or been frozen numbers in the dozens.
This means that a woman who chooses to have IVF performed is willingly creating embryos in a petri dish (each of which is a new human being) while fully acknowledging that the majority of these embryos, if not all of them, are going to die. She is deliberately sacrificing the lives of several children in the hopes of having just one or two children.
Randy Alcorn, author of Prolife Answers to Prochoice Arguments says, “To the argument ‘You can’t seriously believe a frozen embryo is a human being,’ the proper response is, ‘Both scientifically and theologically we can’t seriously believe a frozen embryo is anything other than a human being.’ ”
The Washington Post, back in 1999, reported that hundreds of thousands of human embryos are now frozen indefinitely. They estimated that an additional 19,000 more embryos will be added to that number each year.
The IVF Phoenix Infertility Information Booklet says on page 164: “Not all embryos survive the freeze-thaw process. A 50% survival rate is considered reasonable. After the thaw, embryos retaining 50% or more of the cells they had before freezing are cultured and placed back in the uterus via a tube inserted in the cervix. The number returned varies with the desires of the patient under the guidelines of age categories; under 35 years old, up to four embryos, 35 years and older, up to six embryos. National statistics for women 39 or less is 27% per embryo transfer, for women over 39, 14% per embryo transfer.”
She is deliberately sacrificing the lives of several children in the hopes of having just one or two children.
Bekah Ferguson,
Those are really sobering statistics that you’ve presented. The word “sacrificing” really jumped out at me. It could not be God’s will that so many children die in IVF procedures. The cumulative numbers must be staggering. As Gerard mentioned, this is “the commodification of human life”. I fear that as long as there are doctors willing to promote this procedure, it will not end. There is the moral issue of who is more culpable here. The patients or their doctors?
Sydney M., you may not believe me but despite our differences, I do feel for you. If women want babies, we should do all we can to assist.
I must point out something which causes my brow to furrow – you say how badly you want another baby, ‘baby fever’ you called it. Yet you also say ‘They are not created for OUR pleasure but for HIS pleasure’, is this not either dichotomous or selfish?
I’m also perplexed that your husband does not wish to proceed at this stage because you are ‘not in a financial position to do so’. Yet you and many others here consistently castigate anyone who would have sex without the acceptance of the potential outcome, to the extent that some beleive contraception is not acceptable.
Also, according to Bekah and Julie P., you have possibly participated in abortion. I disagree with them but that’s their definition.
Cranium, thank you for your nice words. I enjoy being a mommy to my little son. So yes, parents get pleasure out of their children but having a child NO MATTER WHAT MORAL COSTS there may be (abortion for “defective” fetuses or IVF or sleeping around just to get pregnant etc…) is not right. My husband insists we use condoms (tmi ??? sorry) I don’t poke holes in them even though I desperately want another baby. I just let my husband know how I feel and I respect why he feels the way he does. He may be coming around. But we know that if we do conceive (I keep hoping) we will not abort. I try to do what is right and respect my husband even if we have different desires rights now. Any child that comes despite precautions, like my son, will be welcomed with love and joy.
I was on the pill. I do believe the pill CAN (but may not always) cause abortions which is why I refuse to no longer take it. It also poses health risks to me. My husband’s good friend has a girlfriend who had a serious blood clot in her leg while on the pill. So I don’t know if I have ever unknowingly aborted my baby. That makes me sad.
I do not like contraception but I don’t judge anyone who uses it if it doesn’t kill an already conceived baby. Contraception is not abortion. Abortion is killing an already conceived human life. Contraception does not allow life to be conceived, it does not kill. I wish my husband would agree to NFP but he will not. What can I do? Using a barrier method of birth control is our compromise. Being pro-life does not mean popping out baby after baby even if you are not financially able. But being pro-life means not killing a baby even if you are not financially ready. There are other options.
My best wishes for you Sydney M.