- Newsletters -

Prohibition of Human Cloning and Regulation of Human Embryo Research Amendment Bill 2006

Senator Kay Patterson's bill, "Prohibition of Human Cloning for Reproduction and the Regulation of Human Embryo Research Amendment Bill 2006" will be debated in the Senate, commencing Monday 6th November. If you have not already written to your state Senators, please do so now.

If you live in a state other than NSW, you can find the list of your Senators at:

http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/senators/homepages/index.asp?sort=state

Please email your Senators or write them at

Parliament House, Canberra ACT 2600

Senator George Campbell senator.george.campbell@aph.gov.au

Senator the Hon Helen Coonan senator.coonan@aph.gov.au

Senator the Hon John Faulkner senator.faulkner@aph.gov.au

Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells senator.fierravanti-wells@aph.gov.au

Senator Michael Forshaw senator.forshaw@aph.gov.au

Senator the Hon Bill Heffernan senator.heffernan@aph.gov.au

Senator Steve Hutchins senator.hutchins@aph.gov.au

Senator Hon Sandy MacDonald senator.sandy.macdonald@aph.gov.au

Senator Fiona Nash senator.nash@aph.gov.au

Senator Kerry Nettle senator.nettle@aph.gov.au

Senator Marise Payne senator.payne@aph.gov.au

Senator Ursula Stephens senator.stephens@aph.gov.au

Senators Fierravanti-Wells, Forshaw, Heffernan, Hutchins, MacDonald and Stephens have a clean record on both RU486 and ECSR and so if you haven’t done so already be sure to congratulate and thank them for voting in favour of Life.

Here are a few points from http://www.cloning.org.au/

• Cloning creates a living human embryo, the near-identical twin of the donor. On that essential truth there must be no scientific and political deception.

• Cloning creates a human embryo solely for research, with its destruction intended - and that is wrong. We must not create one life in order to destroy it for the benefit of another life.

• An embryo is an embryo, no matter how it is made - whether by natural conception, by IVF, or by cloning. The cloned embryo, even though created ‘asexually', is no different in itself to one created ‘sexually' by ‘egg and sperm', and could, like cloned animals, be brought to birth . Don't dehumanize the cloned embryo!

• No matter whether the embryo is destined for research (so-called ‘therapeutic' cloning) or for birth (so-called ‘reproductive' cloning), in both cases a living embryo is cloned by the standard technique of SCNT (somatic cell nuclear transfer). And please, no word games! Cloning is ‘SCNT' and ‘SCNT' is cloning !

• Cloning requires either the harvesting of hundreds of eggs per clone, commercialising women's ovaries and risking their health, or using animal eggs to make a human-animal hybrid - and that is wrong.

• Cloning for research will perfect the technique needed for cloning for live-birth and for fetal organ harvesting. While this will remain illegal in Australia , live-birth cloning is being attempted overseas and cloned-fetus farming is being promoted in major journals. Further abuses of this sort can only occur if we permit and perfect the first steps in cloning.

• If cloning was so clearly wrong in 2002, when the Federal Parliament unanimously banned cloning, how can it be ‘right' in 2006? Nothing significant has changed in the science, or in valid polls of public opinion, and nothing can change in the ethics of ‘creating in order to destroy'.

• Although cloning must be rejected as ethically wrong, the great consolation is that we do not need it. We will still get the great benefits of stem cell science without cloning.

• Research on cloning would squander the very limited funds which could otherwise have been spent on treatments for humans using adult stem cells.

• Cloning is wrong; cloning is unnecessary. Let us lead the world in stem cell research that is both effective and ethical – research we can all live with.

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Dear Friend,

Again I am late with this Newsletter. It’s almost November and I am sending you the October edition. Better late than never! There is always so much to say to you, and as we are all aware the attacks on human life continue relentlessly, whether it is

• medical eugenics practiced on the unborn

(I am reading Melinda Tankard Reist’s “Defiant Birth” - essential reading);

• or the attack on children’s innocence

(a relief teacher says that at one school 90% of the Grade 12 girls are contracepting);

• or the push for so-called “therapeutic” cloning

(via the Prohibition of Human Cloning and the Regulation of Human Embryo Research Amendment Bill 2006. Sounds almost innocuous, but if passed it will allow for a mythical ‘pre-embryo’ stage which will be outside of the range of the regulations, and will provide for ‘hybrid’ embryos by mixing human and animal genetic material.

• Or the promise of the Bracks government to legalise abortion up to 9 months.

The horror of it all! We are in a war and blood is flowing, but we already know the victor! The victor is Jesus Christ and we are fighting on His side, but fight we must! If we do not fight on his side we are supporting His enemies. Graham Preston illustrates this well in his article: Do ‘Rescues’ Add to the Problems? It is certainly food for thought.

Till next time,

Keep on praying and doing what you can,

Angela

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What is A Mother?

A mother is the most important person on earth.

She cannot claim the honour of having built Notre Dame Cathedral.

She need not.

She has built something more magnificent than any cathedral

– A dwelling for an immortal soul –

The tiny perfection of her baby’s body.

The angels have not been blessed by such a grace.

They cannot share in God’s creative miracle

To bring new saints to Heaven:

Only a human mother can.

Mothers are closer to God the Creator than any other creature.

God joins forces with mothers in performing this act of creation.

What on God’s good earth is more glorious than this: To be a mother!

Cardinal Mindszenty

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www.veilofinnocence.org

Remain simple and innocent like children and you

will not know the evil that affects men's lives.

Catechism of the Catholic Church

Chastity is that virtue which keeps the sexual secret hidden

as a dominion whose disposition lies in the hand of God.

Dietrich von Hildebrand

There is a radical difference between the modern pedagogical method, known as Sex Education, and classroom instruction regarding the meaning and moral implications of Human Sexuality in a Catholic context.

Veil of Innocence

is a source for information about

Catholic Classroom Sex Education,

Chastity Programs,

Eucharistic Adoration Program,

Safe Environment Programs,

Papal Family Encyclicals,

What's Wrong With Classroom Sex Education?

What DID the Pontifical Council for the Family REALLY mean?

The Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality,

Teachings of the Saints on Purity,

Selected Teachings of the Church On Sex Education,

Scripture Quotations Concerning Purity,

How to Protect Your Children!

Modern Bishops On Sex Education Education in Wholesome Chastity Model letter to Send to your Bishop before the beginning of the school year;

How to give formal notice of your child/ren’s exemption from sex education courses.

PROTECT OUR CHILDREN!

EVERY OCTOBER 7th* FEAST OF OUR LADY OF THE ROSARY

PRAY FOR A BAN ON CLASSROOM SEX EDUCATION.

Parents opposed to classroom sex education are urged to go to their local priest and request a Mass to be said and holy rosaries offered every October 7th*, Feast of Our Lady of The Rosary.

*Please feel free to adapt this so that on any day of the year, Holy Mass can be offered and rosaries requested for the innocence of children.

Request that the following intention be placed in the weekly Parish Bulletin: “On October 7th, Feast of our Lady of the Rosary, Holy Mass will be offered for the intention of begging Our Lady Most Pure to intercede on behalf of parents to protect their children by their efforts to stop programs of sex education in Catholic schools and to reclaim the Catholic identity of the Catholic classroom.”

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Graham Preston of PROTECT LIFE asks:

Do ‘rescues’ at abortion clinics just add to the problems caused by groups resorting to the use of force to get what they want? Besides, why not ‘just’ pray against abortion?

It seems that more and more often there are reports from around the world of pressure groups trying to achieve their ends by using varying degrees of force. This widespread willingness to resort to force generates in many people, whether or not they are directly affected by the behaviour, a general sense of unease and destabilisation.

So to have some pro-lifers advocating that abortion needs to be stopped by means of direct action - sit-ins in front of the doors of abortion ‘clinics’ to prevent anyone gaining entry - can seem just all too much. The feeling is that there are already too many instances of people using force to get what they want (in fact, recently in Brisbane a pro-abortionist blockade almost succeeded in preventing a pro-life talk going ahead), so to have pro-lifers doing that also seems only to make a bad situation worse. Perhaps you know that feeling.

These concerns provide a serious challenge to groups like PROTECT LIFE which advocate such direct action and therefore a response is required.

Firstly, it is perfectly understandable that carrying out such actions may cause people to feel considerable unease. No one likes to think that their relatively orderly society may be seriously disrupted because of the behaviour of those who would, in order see their ends achieved, step outside the generally accepted avenues for change. Indeed, supporters of PROTECT LIFE would fully agree that it is perfectly right for people to become upset by actions which unnecessarily bring about conflict and harm.

The question then is, do actions advocated by groups such as PROTECT LIFE – non-violent sit-ins outside abortion ‘clinic’ doors – fall into the above problematic category?

It can be tempting to group together in one category certain actions which, while having some apparent similarities, are in fact fundamentally different. Are non-violent sit-ins at abortion ‘clinics’ just another example of people using raw force to try to get their way, or are they something different?

It is the case that PROTECT LIFE does intend that by conducting such sit-ins no one will enter those places of death. If people are deterred from getting in, the thinking goes, the preborn children cannot be killed by abortion. Those engaged in the sit-ins simply sit close together in front of the entrances, thus requiring that anyone who wants to enter has to literally walk on and over their bodies (depending of course on how many rescuers are involved). No attempt is made to grab hold of anyone.

It is an essential requirement that those involved in the actions with PROTECT LIFE be committed to remaining completely non-violent in behaviour and speech. Not surprisingly, those who are trying to get into the building do not always show such restraint but regardless of their behaviour, the rescuers have to be completely non-aggressive and must endeavour to remain calm. These actions are conducted with the intention of preventing violence from taking place and so it is held that in order for the rescuers to be consistent, the use of any violence must be completely rejected.

Critics of the rescues may say that it is all very well for the rescuers to claim that they are not being directly violent themselves: it nevertheless remains the case that the actions, proportional to their effectiveness in achieving their stated aims, would have the effect of generating very real conflict and tension at the abortion clinics and in society generally. And supporters of PROTECT LIFE would largely acknowledge that that would be the case. Therefore, the critics argue, regardless of how rescuers may conduct themselves, the actions are at the very least highly problematic.

What, though, is the issue of abortion really all about? What is it about abortion that causes people to say that it should not be allowed? The primary reason PROTECT LIFE directly attempts to stop abortion is that the group believes that every abortion takes the life of an innocent, young, fellow human being. And it would be fair to say that all other pro-lifers would say they believe that is what abortion involves. Every abortion involves the deliberate taking of the life of a fellow human being.

If that statement is quickly or casually read, its enormous import can be passed over. But for those who seriously regard preborn human beings as having the same moral significance as born human beings, and if the Christian understanding that human beings are made in the image of God is accepted, then it is an exceedingly serious claim to make; one having truly profound implications. What goes on in abortion clinics is the regular, open, intentional destruction of innocent, young human lives.

We would hold that whenever we know that someone is about to be killed, it is necessary and right to try, as best we can, to intervene to help them there and then. And that always remains the case even if the intervention causes turmoil and upset. If we are honest, who of us would not want others to intervene for us if we were about to be unjustly killed – even if for some reason such intervention created turmoil and upset?

Regardless of the role that one may regard politics as playing in closing down the abortion ‘clinics’, we believe that non-violent direct action is an essential element if abortion is ever to be stopped. Like it or not, the general failure to intervene directly wherever and whenever we know that preborn children are being killed, sends a loud clear message to the community that these preborn children cannot really be of the same worth as other human beings.

To block an abortion clinic door to prevent anyone gaining entry is not to engage in a mere protest – it is literally an attempt to save lives. There are occasions, perhaps most occasions, where to carry out direct action is inappropriate or wrong, but there are other occasions where it is always necessary and right. In a society where up to 100 000 lives are deliberately ended each year, year after year after year, we believe that direct intervention is not only warranted, but absolutely demanded.

But is it not enough that Christians ‘just’ pray to see abortion stopped? Doesn’t it show a lack of faith and a misunderstanding of spiritual warfare for Christians to participate in something like sit-ins outside abortion clinics?

We at PROTECT LIFE do not believe that it is right to consider our response to abortion in terms of either just praying or just taking action. It is the case that some people’s circumstances definitely preclude them from being able to be actively involved in this way and so their contribution can be specifically through prayer. For others however, as we pray about abortion, we must always be genuinely open to the possibility of God calling us to be actively part of the answer to our prayers. Certainly we have found that engaging in these actions has been an enormous incentive to meaningfully develop our prayer life!

The priest and the Levite may have prayed for the wounded stranger as they passed by on the other side of the road, but, because they did not stop and help, they were not commended by Jesus. The Samaritan quite likely prayed when he stopped to help the man (the robbers could still have been about!) but he was commended because he actually gave aid. Prayer and action go hand in hand – they are never a denial of each other.

Graham Preston is a member of the Sunnybank Wesleyan Methodist Church in Brisbane who had been arrested for the 15th time back in November 2003. I don’t know what is score is right now.

Consueverunt Romani

Pius V on the Rosary

The Roman Pontiffs, and the other Holy Fathers, our predecessors, when they were pressed in upon by temporal or spiritual wars, or troubled by other trials, in order that they might more easily escape from these, and having achieved tranquillity, might quietly and fervently be free to devote themselves to God, were wont to implore the divine assistance, through supplications or Litanies to call forth the support of the saints, and with David to lift up their eyes unto the Mountains, trusting with firm hope that thence would they receive aid.

1. Prompted by their example, and, as is piously believed, by the Holy Ghost, the inspired Blessed founder of the Order of Friars Preachers, (whose institutes and rule we ourselves expressly professed when we were in minor orders), in circumstances similar to those in which we now find ourselves, when parts of France and of Italy were unhappily troubled by the heresy of the Albegenses, which blinded so many of the worldly that they were raging most savagely against the priests of the Lord and the clergy, raised his eyes up unto heaven, unto that mountain of the Glorious Virgin Mary, loving Mother of God. For she by her seed has crushed the head of the twisted serpent, and has alone destroyed all heresies, and by the blessed fruit of her womb has saved a world condemned by the fall of our first parent. From her, without human hand, was that stone cut, which, struck by wood, poured forth the abundantly flowing waters of graces. And so Dominic looked to that simple way of praying and beseeching God, accessible to all and wholly pious, which is called the Rosary, or Psalter of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in which the same most Blessed Virgin is venerated by the angelic greeting repeated one hundred and fifty times, that is, according to the number of the Davidic Psalter, and by the Lord's Prayer with each decade. Interposed with these prayers are certain meditations showing forth the entire life of Our Lord Jesus Christ, thus completing the method of prayer devised by the Fathers of the Holy Roman Church. This same method St. Dominic propagated, and it was, spread by the Friars of Blessed Dominic, namely, of the aforementioned Order, and accepted by not a few of the people. Christ's faithful, inflamed by these prayers, began immediately to be changed into new men. The darkness of heresy began to be dispelled, and the light of the Catholic Faith to be revealed. Sodalities for this form of prayer began to be instituted in many places by the Friars of the same Order, legitimately deputed to this work by their Superiors, and confreres began to be enrolled together.

2. Following the example of our predecessors, seeing that the Church militant, which God has placed in our hands, in these our times is tossed this way and that by so many heresies, and is grievously troubled and afflicted by so many wars, and by the deprave morals of men, we also raise our eyes, weeping but full of hope, unto that same mountain, whence every aid comes forth, and we encourage and admonish each member of Christ’s faithful to do likewise in the Lord.

Given at Rome at St. Peter's, under the Fisherman's ring,

17 September 1569, in the fourth year of our Pontificate.

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If you follow Mary

You will not swerve from the right path;

If you pray to Her, you will not fall into despair;

If She holds you, you will not fall;

If She protects you, you need not fear;

If She leads you, you will never weary;

If She befriends you, you will be safe.

                St. Bernard (1153)

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This illustration shows the score board. Why should embryonic SCR not be banned? What is the real agenda behind ESCR? Below is a list of diseases which have been successfully treated with adult stem cells. There is no list of diseases which have been successfully treated with embryonic stem cells. For more information go to http://stemcellresearch.org/

Do No Harm

 Fact Sheet Updated July 16, 2006

Benefits of Adult Stem Cells to Human Patients

Cancers:

1. Retinoblastoma

2. Ovarian Cancer

3. Skin Cancer: Merkel Cell Carcinoma

4. Testicular Cancer

5. Tumors abdominal organs Lymphoma

6. Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma

7. Hodgkin’s Lymphoma

8. Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia

9. Acute Myelogenous Leukemia

10. Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia

11. Juvenile Myelomonocytic Leukemia

12. Chronic Myelomonocytic Leukemia

13. Cancer of the lymph nodes

14. Brain Cancer

15. Multiple Myeloma

16. Myelodysplasia

17. Breast Cancer

18. Neuroblastoma

19. Renal Cell Carcinoma

20. Various Solid Tumors

21. Soft Tissue Sarcoma

22. Ewing’s Sarcoma

23. Waldenstrom’s macroglobulinemia

24. Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis

25. POEMS syndrome

26. Myelofibrosis

Auto-Immune Diseases

27. Systemic Lupus

28. Sjogren’s Syndrome

29. Myasthenia

30. Autoimmune Cytopenia

31. Scleromyxedema

32. Scleroderma

33. Crohn’s Disease

34. Behcet’s Disease

35. Rheumatoid Arthritis

36. Juvenile Arthritis

37. Multiple Sclerosis

38. Polychondritis

39. Systemic Vasculitis

40. Alopecia Universalis

41. Buerger’s Disease

Cardiovascular

42. Acute Heart Damage

43. Chronic Coronary Artery Disease

Ocular

44. Corneal regeneration

Immunodeficiencies

45. Severe Combined Immunodeficiency Syndrome

46. X-linked Lymphoproliferative Syndrome

47. X-linked Hyper immunoglobulin M Syndrome

Neural Degenerative Disease/Injury

48. Parkinson’s Disease

49. Spinal Cord Injury

50. Stroke Damage

Anemias & Other Blood Conditions

51. Sickle Cell Anemia

52. Sideroblastic Anemia

53. Aplastic Anemia

54. Red Cell Aplasia

55. Amegakaryocytic Thrombocytopenia

56. Thalassemia

57. Primary Amyloidosis

58. Diamond Blackfan Anemia

59. Fanconi’s Anemia

60. Chronic Epstein-Barr Infection

Wounds and Injuries

61. Limb Gangrene

62. Surface Wound Healing

63. Jawbone Replacement

64. Skull Bone Repair

Other Metabolic Disorders

65. Hurler’s Syndrome

66. Osteogenesis Imperfecta

67. Krabbe Leukodystrophy

68. Osteopetrosis

69. Cerebral X-Linked Adrenoleukodystrophy

Liver Disease

70. Chronic Liver Failure

71. Liver Cirrhosis

Bladder Disease

72. End-Stage Bladder Disease

amartello@apostlesforlifesite.org