Posted on 08/31/2011 4:46:55 PM PDT by wagglebee
LifeNews.com Note: Bobby Schindler is the brother of Terri Schiavo and he and his family now work for Terri’s Life & Hope Network to help disabled and incapacitated patients like her. The anniversary of the death of his father, Robert Schindler, was earlier this week.
The passing of both Terri and my father is what helps inspire my family and the work we do at Terri’s Life & Hope Network to continue fighting for our most vulnerable every day.
My father was a man of incredible strength, and loved his family so much that he essentially gave up his life for Terri, doing everything he could possibly do to try and care of her. He would have done the same for any one of us. With so much attention on Terri’s case, my dad showed the world, with remarkable strength, what it means to love without condition.
What I admired most about my dad was that even following Terri’s horrific death, he had the fortitude to keep fighting for others, dedicating the remainder of his life to help fight for the lives of others, not wanting any family to have to experience what his family experienced with Terri.
As you know, Terri’s Life & Hope Network’s mission, first and foremost, is to provide resources and support to those with cognitive disabilities, the elderly and countless others that are facing life threatening situations due to the threat of not receiving adequate health care and medical treatment. In the six years since we began advocating for others we have been involved in several hundreds of cases.
Specifically, this year we have either supported or have been directly involved in close to a hundred situations with families who needed help to protect a loved one from the threat of an inhumane death by the actions of others.
For example, we just had a case where a daughter was advocating for her mother. The mother was doing very well, living on her own, but dealing with some dementia. Sadly, the daughter’s, sister placed their mother in a nursing home and because of this, her mother began to deteriorate. The daughter, who contacted us, feared that her sister was taking the steps to end her mother’s life in order to make claim of her mother’s estate. After several conversations we were able to use our resources to recommend an attorney for the daughter so she can take the necessary steps to take over the care of her mother, so she would be out of harm’s way.
These situations of our elderly, cognitively disabled, those suffering from Alzheimer’s and others in similar situations where life is constantly at risk of being taken prematurely is only becoming more frequent.
The horror stories we hear reveals just how prevalent imposed death has become in our society. This is why we believe education is so valuable. Educating our youth, our future attorneys and medical professionals, our clergy and even the average person on this threat facing our vulnerable is vitally important.
In fact, since Terri’s Life & Hope Network has been established in 2006, we have spoken in 44 states, over 150 cities, at 29 universities, colleges, and Medical Schools and in 9 countries abroad, which includes addressing members of Parliament in Canada and Australia.
Clearly this is an issue that is only going to get worse. Because of the Terri’s horrible experience, we are fortunate to be put in the position to help others. With God’s graces, we will continue to do that.
bttt
Thread by blueyon.
Another layer to the depth of the Sebelius abortion corruption has been revealed with today’s AP report that Kansas health department (KDHE) in 2005 destroyed the state late-term abortion reports at the heart of the felony charges against Planned Parenthood.
The pre-trial hearing for felony “false-writing” charges had been scheduled for Monday Oct. 24, Since the original reports have now been discovered as destroyed, the Johnson County District attorney’s office had asked for a delay so they could engage other witnesses to verify the authenticity of copies of the state reports.
The state reports are verifications that abortionists send to KDHE for statistical purposes, and are annually tabulated and published. Copies of those reports are required to be kept in the patient medical files. Of crucial importance is that these reports fail to provide valid medical reasons that banned post-viability abortions were performed. They are evidence of illegal abortion.
KFL Executive Director, Mary Kay Culp, said, “Only guilty people destroy evidence; not even we anticipated Sebelius and her administration could stoop this low to protect abortion industry criminality, but this proves they did.
(Excerpt) Read more at lifenews.com ...
Thread by rhema.
Last week the House passed with bipartisan support the Protect Life Act, which amends [Obamacare] to assure that no taxpayer dollars will be used to fund abortions.
It also assures that health care providers who do not wish to provide abortions are not forced to by government.
< . . . . >
Liberals love to frame the killing of developing humans as being about women's lives, health and rights. But, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, about 3 percent of abortions are performed for reasons of a woman's health.
Abortions that are performed because a woman's life is in danger amount to a fraction of 1 percent. That leaves more than 96 percent for convenience with some 50 percent repeat customers.
Regarding abortion, the liberal agenda is really about two things. One, an alleged right to sexual promiscuity and two, an alleged right to have others bear social and financial responsibility for that promiscuity.
Fortunately, a sizable part of the American population doesn't see things this way. And, fortunately, a sizable part of our population remains in awe of the miracle of life and our responsibilities toward all aspects of life, both in and outside the womb.
It doesn't take that much thought to realize the fallacious thinking that suggests that matters of economy and matters of morality have nothing to do with each other.
The "right to abortion" culture is simply a subset of the entitlement culture, the culture that says your life is about making claims on others rather than personal responsibility.
Disrespect for life and disrespect for property go hand in hand. We can't divorce our sexual promiscuity from our fiscal promiscuity.
Restoring personal responsibility in both areas is what we need today to get our nation back on track.
(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...
Thread by me.
FREDERICK, Md. — A 55-year-old Maryland man who became temporarily unconscious after suffering a heart attack and a seizure has been saved from being starved to death after an ADF-allied attorney obtained an order in state court on behalf of the man’s mother and brother. The man, Daniel Sanger, is now responding to hospital staff after going six days without food and water.
Although Sanger told his doctor and his mother “I want to live” before he went unconscious, Frederick Memorial Hospital removed the public-assistance patient from life-giving food, water, and nutrients on Friday with the permission of his wife.
“Everyone deserves a chance to recover,” said ADF Legal Counsel Matt Bowman. “There is no question that Daniel expressly stated his desire to live, and yet he was denied the food and water he needed to survive. His wishes should have been followed. ADF sees far too many situations involving hasty decisions to pull the plug on a human life.”
“The court has done the right thing in granting our request to have Daniel’s food and hydration restored,” said Sanger’s legal counsel Daniel Cox, one of nearly 2,100 attorneys in the ADF alliance. “We are asking the court to award temporary decision-making authority to Daniel’s mother and brother.”
Cox, who heads The Cox Law Center, LLC, filed a motion in Frederick County Circuit Court Wednesday to force the hospital to resume sending life-giving nutrients to Sanger through his feeding tube. The motion, filed in Sanger v. Rafiq, also requested that Sanger’s mother, Phyllis Sanger, and his brother, Mark Sanger, be awarded temporary custody instead of his wife, Leta Sanger, who went against her husband’s express wishes to remain alive.
Chief Judge Peter Krauser, of the Maryland Court of Special Appeals, responded by issuing an order Wednesday to provide immediate water and nutrition to Sanger pending the outcome of a hearing that was held Thursday. At that hearing, Frederick County Circuit Judge Theresa Adams issued a temporary restraining order instructing Frederick Memorial Hospital to provide life-sustaining nutrition to Sanger until the completion of a trial set for Wednesday at 9 a.m. EDT at the Frederick County Circuit Court at 100 W. Patrick St.
"We will not be silent.
We are your bad conscience.
The White Rose will give you no rest."
Thanks for the ping!
Thread by NYer.
The Planned Parenthood abortion clinic of Overland Park, KS, is currently on trial for 107 counts of falsifying abortion records and committing illegal late-term abortions, 23 of which are felonies.
The charges were brought by former Attorney General Phill Kline in October 2007 following an investigation he launched in 2003.
Today came the bombshell news that the administration of former Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, now the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, destroyed critical evidence in 2005. The evidence was needed to compare records Kline acquired with records Planned Parenthood later submitted.
From the Kansas City Star:
Key evidence needed to prosecute Planned Parenthood for allegedly falsifying abortion documents has been destroyed by the state, court records show.
Prosecutors have asked a judge to delay a Monday hearing to determine whether there’s enough evidence to try the abortion provider on 23 felony counts of falsifying termination of pregnancy reports.
Prosecutors say the records kept by the state needed to make their case were destroyed in 2005, some two years before criminal charges were brought against Planned Parenthood.
Court records say that Kansas health officials shredded the documents as part of a “routine document destruction.”
It’s impossible to know precisely when it occurred although it is believed to have been done in 2005, when the health department was part of the administration of former Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, an abortion rights supporter….
Abortion opponents were so incredulous about the revelation that they hard to time finding words to describe their reaction.
“Unbelievable,” said Mary Kay Cup [sic], executive director of Kansans for Life. “We don’t believe for one second this was anything but purposefully done to protect the abortion industry.”
The destroyed records were critical in establishing the authenticity of records from 2003 obtained by Kline when he investigated the agency as attorney general. Planned Parenthood later provided copies of the documents that the state contended did not match those Kline had.
Later, as Johnson County district attorney in 2007, Kline filed the 107-count complaint against the agency.
Kline argued at the time that the group had performed illegal late-term abortions and falsified or forged documents to make it appear they were legal.
Prosecutors contended that Planned Parenthood had not kept the documents five years as required by law and falsified copies to cover it up.
Kline subpoenaed the documents in question in the fall of 2004. So their destruction the following year doesn’t look on the up and up, to say the least.
It now becomes more clear why the Kansas Department of Health and Environment strangely but strongly resisted turning over those documents to Kline and also refused to certify the documents Kline had.
Furthermore, Kline’s decision not to inform the Sebelius administration about his investigation appears vindicated. His rationale was that it was Sebelius cronies he was investigating.
That decision was one of the reasons a Sebelius-empowered panel suspended Kline last week.
Thread by me.
UTRECHT, Netherlands, October 24, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Royal Dutch Medical Association (KNMG) has released new guidelines for interpreting the 2002 Euthanasia Act that now includes “mental and psychosocial ailments” such as “loss of function, loneliness and loss of autonomy” as acceptable criteria for euthanasia. The guidelines also allow doctors to connect a patient’s lack of “social skills, financial resources and a social network” to “unbearable and lasting suffering,” opening the door to legal assisted death based on “psychosocial” factors, not terminal illness.
The June 2011 position paper, titled “The Role of the Physician in the Voluntary Termination of Life” concludes that the “concept of suffering” is “broader” than its “interpretation and application by many physicians today.”
Included in a broader interpretation of suffering would be “disorders affecting vision, hearing and mobility, falls, confinement to bed, fatigue, exhaustion and loss of fitness,” according to the authors.
“The patient perceives the suffering as interminable, his existence as meaningless and—though not directly in danger of dying from these complaints—neither wishes to experience them nor, insofar as his history and own values permit, to derive meaning from them,” explains the KNMG position paper.
“In the KNMG’s view, such cases are sufficiently linked to the medical domain to permit a physician to act within the confines of the Euthanasia Law.”
“It doesn’t always have to be a physical ailment, it could be the onset of dementia or chronic psychological problems, it’s still unbearable and lasting suffering. It doesn’t always have to be a terminal disease,” said Dr. Nieuwenhuijzen Kruseman, Chairman of KNMG to Radio Netherlands Worldwide.
Alex Schadenberg, Executive Director and International Chair of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition committee responded to the new guidelines, saying that in his view “the expansion of euthanasia and assisted suicide has been constant and deliberate.”
Schadenberg warned that what has happened in the Netherlands can—and will—occur in other jurisdictions, if euthanasia and/or assisted suicide is legalized.
When the Netherlands sanctioned euthanasia for emotionally ill patients in 1994, Karl Gunning, head of the Dutch Doctors’ Union warned the country of the “slippery slope” it was sliding down.
“We have always predicted that once you start looking at killing as a means to solve problems, then you’ll find more and more problems where killing can be the solution,” he said.
Prominent conservative bioethical commentator Wesley J. Smith wondered on his blog how anyone can say that ‘there is no slippery slope’ with the legalization of euthanasia when “loneliness” is now one of the legally recognized factors in the decision to end one’s life.
“Since 1973, when euthanasia was quasi decriminalized, Dutch doctors have gone from euthanizing the terminally ill who ask for it, to the chronically ill who ask for it, to people with disabilities who ask for it, to the mentally anguished who ask for it…And now, they want to target vulnerable and marginalized elderly people.”
“The Culture of Death is voracious. Once it begins to feed, it is never satiated. [T]he categories of the killable [are] never finally enough.”
“This is compassion?” asked Smith rhetorically.
Thread by me.
A new photo of a young boy holding a sign talking about how he survived abortion as one of the 10 percent of Down syndrome children not victimized by abortion before birth has gone viral on Facebook today.
The photo has received thousands of shares and likes and is inspiring pro-life people across the world, including Josh Mercer of CatholicVote.
“This powerful message is making its way around Facebook,” he said after viewing the photo. “When I speak with friends who have a child with Down Syndrome, unfailingly they all say how much joy their child brings into their life. It makes me feel ashamed to live in a country that chooses death instead of life for 90% of babies who are diagnosed with Down Syndrome.”
Recently, LifeNews reported on a new study showing how researchers at Children’s Hospital in Boston surveyed families where a member had Down Syndrome and found that Down Syndrome is a positive. From MSNBC.com:
The Reillys represent some of the experiences reported in three surveys conducted by doctors at Children’s Hospital in Boston that suggest the reality of Down syndrome is positive for a vast majority of parents, siblings and people with Down syndrome themselves.
Among 2,044 parents or guardians surveyed, 79 percent reported their outlook on life was more positive because of their child with Down syndrome….
Skotko also found that among siblings ages 12 and older, 97 percent expressed feelings of pride about their brother or sister with Down syndrome and 88 percent were convinced they were better people because of their sibling with Down syndrome. A third study evaluating how adults with Down syndrome felt about themselves reports 99 percent responded they were happy with their lives, 97 percent liked who they are, and 96 percent liked how they looked.
As writer Rebecca Taylor noted her in LifeNews post, “So once again the culture of death distorts the truth by suggesting that parents are doing the right thing by killing their Down Syndrome child. The culture of death says, “Better dead than have Downs.” But 99% of adults with Down Syndrome report they are happy with their lives. I doubt you would find anything close to that percentage in the “healthy” adult population. And yet it is these very happy adults that are being targeted for destruction in the womb.”
Thread by surroundedbyblue.
The United Nations has officially designated October 31st as 7 Billion Day. On that day, the United Nations estimates that the population of the earth will hit 7 billion for the very first time. But instead of celebrating what a milestone 7 billion people represents, the UNPF is focusing instead on using October 31st to raise awareness about "sustainability" and "sustainable development". In other words, the United Nations is once again declaring that there are way too many people on the planet and that we need to take more direct measures to reduce fertility. In recent years, the UN and other international organizations have become bolder about trying to push the sick population control agenda of the global elite. Most of the time organizations such as the UN will simply talk about "stabilizing" the global population, but as you will see in this article, there are many among the global elite that are not afraid to openly talk about a goal of reducing the population of the world to 500 million (or less). To you and I it may seem like insanity to want to get rid of more than 90 percent of the global population, but there is a growing consensus among the global elite that this is absolutely necessary for the good of the planet.
(Excerpt) Read more at endoftheamericandream.com ...
Thread by Kaslin.
"For a renewed respect for human life, from conception to natural death ... "
Seared in my memory is the sound of Kobi Cudjoe, gasping for air, as he read that prayer.
He was one of the petition readers at the special mass held on Oct. 23 at St. Matthew's Cathedral in Washington, D.C., "Honoring the Gifts of Persons with Special Needs." From his wheelchair, he could only be heard as pleading for all those whose lives may be undervalued by a society that sees their disabilities as burdens, and the differently abled as more handicap than human. Just weeks before, the same church had hosted the more well-known mass for Supreme Court justices, lawyers and other dignitaries. That one makes news -- this one, not so much.
It is easy to dehumanize the sick, the weak and the disabled. Pulitzer Prize-winning commentator Paul Greenberg noted one way to do so a few days later, addressing a crowd in Manhattan: "Verbicide must precede homicide," he said. And so whether it be the Down syndrome baby or an unborn child with another adverse prenatal diagnosis, "speak of a fetus, not an unborn child," Greenberg said. "Vocabulary remains the decisive turning point."
The folks at The Human Life Review were celebrating an early Thanksgiving. They gathered in gratitude for the work of Arkansas Democrat-Gazette columnist Greenberg, naming him a "defender of life."
But he didn't always start out that way.
"When Roe v. Wade was first pronounced from on high, I welcomed it," he said in his remarks.
It didn't come up at the dinner, but Greenberg's example stood as a corrective to Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, who had earlier in the week announced on "The O'Reilly Factor" that a man can't be 50 or 60 and change his mind on major issues. We all know what he was doing there -- aiming for a primary blow against the shifting views of rival candidate Mitt Romney. But he was not making a defensible point.
And it wasn't just abortion that Greenberg had changed his mind on. "Start off opposing abortion and you'll start questioning euthanasia, too." He recalled, with the great, tender passion of a touched conscience, the death of Terri Schiavo, the cognitively impaired woman who was denied food and water for 13 "long days." With Schiavo's brother, Bobby Schindler, who runs the Life and Hope Network, which helps families facing the same pressures to end life, in the audience, he said, "It would have been kinder to shoot her."
Most of us have moved on. Perhaps many have on abortion, too. "It is settled law," he said, quoting defenders of legal abortion. "Another generation," though, Greenberg reminded us, "was told Dred Scott v. Sandford was settled law." But, as Greenberg reminded us: "No good cause is forever lost."
Novelist (and medical doctor) Walker Percy wrote, in 1981: "To pro-abortionists: According to the opinion polls, it looks as if you may get your way." I'm not sure he would write that anymore. Polls are changing. And the language of dehumanization has reached a pitch of desperation. The same day Greenberg was being honored for his change of heart and subsequent leadership, abortion-advocacy groups were sending out hyperbolic emails about a "Let Women Die Act" the House of Representatives had supposedly passed. The House passed a bill, all right, but it would simply protect taxpayer money from being used on abortions as part of the health-care legislation passed in 2010.
But Percy might not be surprised at the continuing turn of events. Back then, he wrote: "Picture the scene. A Galileo trial in reverse. The Supreme Court is cross-examining a high school biology teacher and admonishing him that of course it is only his personal opinion that the fertilized human ovum is an individual human life. He is enjoined not to teach his private beliefs at a public school. Like Galileo he caves in, submits, but in turning away is heard to murmur, 'But it's still alive!'"
There were no predictions from Greenberg. "Win or lose, what's important is that we bear witness" to the dignity of man. Like Mr. Cudjoe, we should all be speaking for those who have no voice.
"We will not be silent.
We are your bad conscience.
The White Rose will give you no rest."
Thanks for the ping!
Terri was murdered and she's not the only one.
We don't know when we are going to be stricken with something. Make sure to have trusted people around you and that may not be family. Some families like Mikey Schiavo are very bad people. Some families want a quick death so they can get their inheritance.
Find someone to trust before you have a health crisis so you aren't preyed upon or become "stock footage" for one of the big networks.
Thread by surroundedbyblue.
FREDERICK, Md. — A judge in Maryland must decide if a man who suffered severe brain damage after a heart attack should continue getting sustenance through a feeding tube at his mother’s and brother’s behest, contrary to his wife’s instructions.
A Frederick County Circuit Court judge will hear arguments Wednesday in the case involving Daniel Sanger, 55, of Rohrersville. The unemployed computer technician lost much of his speaking ability and mobility after a heart attack in July, according to his brother Mark Sanger, a Eugene, Ore., businessman.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Thread by me.
“The baby is incompatible with life. Here is the number if you choose to terminate.”
Until this Summer, I had never heard of Trisomy 18. Also known as Edwards Syndrome, Trisomy 18 is a genetic disorder caused by the presence of an extra 18th chromosome in a person’s cells. This can cause heart malformations, kidney problems, breathing difficulties and a number of other problems. The idea of a genetic disorder was abstract, until Tad, my unborn baby cousin, was diagnosed with T18.
After learning that Tad had T18, doctors quickly changed their tone when talking about him. Despite the fact that some children do survive with the condition, they told his parents that the condition is “lethal” and that the baby is “not compatible with life”. Sometimes subtly, and sometimes bluntly, they urged abortion.
Fortunately for Tad (and his extended family), his parents are not only opposed to abortion, but active in the pro-life movement in their community. But, hearing my aunt and uncle tell about the doctors brought me to an important question: Aren’t we all “incompatible with life”?
Death is faced by every human being — even those with the ideal lives envisioned in the “every child a wanted child” mantra of Planned Parenthood and pro-abort groups. The fact that Tad will one day meet his Creator proves that he is just as alive and human as his born contemporaries. Knowing that this sad day may come sooner, however, is no reason to end his life now.
Quality of Life vs. Life
In discussing Trisomy 13, another type of Trisomy, a 2003 report by the Hastings Center stated,
“Although many of the congenital syndromes that used to be lethal no longer are, they are still routinely referred to as “lethal anomalies.” But the label is not only inaccurate, it is also dangerous: by portraying as a medical determination what is in fact a judgment about the child’s quality of life, it wrests from the parents a decision that only the parents can make.”
Aside from the final statement (that implies one should be able to decide the fate of another), this point is very true — and the same logic applies to Trisomy 18. As anyone involved in the pro-life movement knows, our society repeatedly fails to make the distinction between quality of life, and life itself.
In the past few decades, science has progressed drastically. We can know the gender, size, health, and even face of our baby before they make their birthday debut. With 4-D ultrasounds, we don’t have to wait nine months to see if Baby has “Daddy’s nose.”. Yet, with all of these advancements, there is one thing science has yet to create: There is no “quality-of-life meter.” Nor will there ever be.
We all have that friend who takes pride in their refined taste for something. Perhaps a friend believes his opinions on movies are unsurpassed, or another claims she can distinguish a perfect brew of coffee. Humanity is very gifted at comparing the values of various objects, but we must not carry over that pride into the judgment of life. We don’t get to be life connoisseurs, claiming to know what life is worth trying — and what life is not. Children with disabilities will know life differently than you and I, but their lives are not worth less than our own.
Lethal Language
The failure to distinguish between quality of life, and life itself, moves from frustrating to dangerous when doctors advising mothers miss the distinction as well. Life is lethal, not my cousin. Pressuring a mother to end the life of her own child, however, is lethal and absolutely unacceptable.
I have been unable to find statistics specific to the Trisomy 18 abortion rate, but a more common form of Trisomy, Trisomy 21 (Down Syndrome), has an abortion rate of about 90% upon diagnosis. I would assume the Trisomy 18 rate is higher, as the condition is more life-threatening.
As pro-life individuals, we need to be aware of these dangerous labels for two reasons. First, as with any abortion, we need to have compassion for women and families who have fallen victim to this harmful rhetoric and opted for abortion. Even friends who identify as pro-life could have a hard time knowing where they stand when given such a manipulated diagnosis. In the midst of the trauma and emotion of an unexpected diagnosis, one could easily be swept away by the suggestions of “professionals”. Second, we need to be prepared when friends are faced with similar circumstances, and ready to help clarify the distinction between quality of life and life itself.
My family is not disillusioned into thinking Tad will live a struggle-free life, but for now we are thankful for him as he is. Let us inform our society about the value of every human life, and help put aside this dangerous, lethal language.
____________________________________________________________
November 4, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Smiles abound throughout the pre-op room, but the eyes betray everyone present. They reveal the hesitation and dread of this fateful day. My patient has come to the day of the probable death of her son, Brenden. It has been a long and emotionally difficult pregnancy for the parents. Chrissi and Scott have known since the 19th week that their beloved son would eventually die because of anencephaly.
Abortion was an option presented by their first round of medical caregivers, but Brenden’s parents decided on life for their son. They set out to commemorate his short life so that he would not be forgotten. They opted for our clinic’s perinatal hospice program.
A Very Special Case
I think back to the first day I saw Chrissi and Scott as patients in our crisis pregnancy medical clinic. The nurse told me, “Your next patient is abortion-vulnerable and has been told that her unborn child has anencephaly.” I was scared as I considered what little support I could offer this young mother and her fiancé.
But my course was set: My stance of pro-life means I promote life in all situations, even in cases of lethal congenital anomaly. I stopped and prayed, asking the Lord to give me the wisdom and ability to assist this couple to choose life for their unborn son.
Upon being introduced to Chrissi and Scott, I could see the discomfort behind the superficial smiles they wore. What could I offer them for comfort? What answers could I give that would satisfy?
I listened for a time and heard that another medical consultant had already discussed abortion as the most reasonable option for them. But they weren’t satisfied with that course. We discussed the fears and reality of what lay ahead and together concluded that they would carry Brenden to term and that my staff and I would support them in every way possible.
The clinic’s first complete case for perinatal hospice had begun.
Who Is the Giver?
There were many ultrasounds performed, allowing family and friends to see Brenden jump in the womb. Gathering memories was important for them, as well as for us, the clinic staff. It would appear that we were the ones giving to Brenden’s family, but we received so much more than we anticipated. This brave couple allowed us to share their sorrow and impending loss and join with them in their journey toward death. It was a rare privilege: When as physicians do we see parents who know the probable day of their child’s death?
Chrissi had chosen a Caesarean section because it offered her the best chance at being able to hold her son alive. However, we met resistance on many fronts as we arranged for Brenden’s delivery. At the beginning of this pregnancy it was her “right to choose.” But now, when she has chosen life and a surgical delivery for her son, people questioned her judgment and mine. After all, they reasoned, why go through the cost and rigors of a surgical delivery when the baby was going to die anyway?
Then the miraculous occurred: Hearts began to soften. As those involved in approving the procedure became more acquainted with Chrissi and Scott and their case, their perspective changed. Resistance faded and was replaced by curiosity about this extraordinary new family.
The Arrival
We now wheel her to the operating room with entourage in tow: family and friends to chronicle the events of the day and to provide support and encouragement. But Chrissi is the one doling out the courage.
The parents are finally ready to meet their son face to face, knowing that the meeting may be short-lived and very painful.
As a parent myself, I weep as I think of my children.
Brenden is delivered, and he cries his first sounds as if to tell his mom and dad that he is here. Medical knowledge says he can’t sense much, lacking the upper parts of his brain. But I see him respond to his mommy and daddy with squeals. What do the experts know? God allowed him to be born this way, and his mother rejoices with tears as her wish to see him alive is granted. God has been gracious to all involved.
Following lots of photos and tears, I realize that we are so much richer for having been involved in Brenden’s birth.
Later, while walking to my car for the drive home, I consider something my mentor told me years ago: “Scott, only live fish swim against the current. Dead fish float downstream with the flow.” Brenden’s parents, my staff and I had swam hard these past 18 weeks against the current of a culture of death. Brenden also had been swimming. Although he died 14 hours after his arrival, his parents rejoiced in the short but special time they spent with him here on earth.
Thread by me.
TORONTO, November 1, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Because organ donors are often alive when their organs are harvested, the medical community should not require donors to be declared dead, but instead adopt more “honest” moral criteria that allow the harvesting of organs from “dying” or “severely injured” patients, with proper consent, three leading experts have argued.
This approach, they say, would avoid the “pseudo-objective” claim that a donor is “really dead,” which is often based upon purely ideological definitions of death designed to expand the organ donor pool, and would allow organ harvesters to be more honest with the public, as well as ensure that donors don’t feel pain during the harvesting process.
The chilling comments were offered by Dr. Neil Lazar, director of the medical-surgical intensive care unit at Toronto General Hospital, Dr. Maxwell J. Smith of the University of Toronto, and David Rodriguez-Arias of Universidad del Pais Vasco in Spain, at a U.S. bioethics conference in October and published in a recent paper in the American Journal of Bioethics.
The authors state frankly that under current practices donors may be technically still alive when organs are harvested – a necessary condition to produce healthy, living organs. Because of this, they say that protocol requiring a donor’s death is “dangerously misleading,” and could overlook the well-being of the donor who may still be able to suffer during the harvesting procedure.
“Because there is a general assumption that dead individuals cannot be harmed, veneration of the dead-donor rule is dangerously misleading,” they write. “Ultimately, what is important for the protection and respect of potential donors is not to have a death certificate signed, but rather to be certain they are beyond suffering and to guarantee that their autonomy is respected.”
Instead of the so-called Dead Donor Rule (DDR), the authors propose that donors should be “protected from harm” (i.e given anesthesia so that they cannot feel pain during the donation process), that informed consent should be obtained, and that society should be “fully informed of the inherently debatable nature of any criterion to declare death.”
The doctors note that developing the criteria for so-called “brain death,” which is often used by doctors to declare death before organ donation, was an “ideological strategy” aimed at increasing the donor pool that has been found to be “empirically and theoretically flawed.” They also criticize the latest attempts to create new, even looser definitions of death, such as circulatory death, which they argue amount to simply “pretending” that the patient is dead in order to get his organs.
The legitimacy of “brain death,” “cardiac death,” and even “circulatory death” - which can be declared only 75 seconds after circulatory arrest - as actual death has been an ongoing debate in public commentary on organ donation. Many experts assert that doctors familiar with organ donation are aware that the terms, intended to delineate a threshold of probable death, is different from actual bodily death, rendering highly uncertain the moral status of organ donation.
Meanwhile, countless stories have emerged of “miraculous” awakenings following brain death, providing weight to the arguments of doctors and others who say that the process of procuring viable organs not only fails to ensure that a patient has certainly died, but is impossible unless a body is still technically alive.
Dr. Paul Byrne, an experienced neonatologist, clinical professor of pediatrics at the University of Toledo, and president of Life Guardian Foundation, said he was not surprised at the recent statements, which he said merely reflect a long-open secret in the organ donation field.
“All of the participants in organ transplantation know that the donors are not truly dead,” Byrne told LifeSiteNews.com in a telephone interview Tuesday.
“How can you get healthy organs from a cadaver? You can’t.”
Byrne affirmed that giving pain medication to organ donors is routine. Doctors taking organs from brain-dead donors “have to paralyze them so they don’t move so when they cut into them to take organs, and when they paralyze them without anesthetics, their heart rate goes up and their blood pressure goes up,” he observed. “This is not something that happens to someone who’s truly dead.”
The neonatologist said he has personally studied the theory of “brain death” since 1975, seven years after the first vital organ transplant in 1968, and has found that death criteria has continually been changed to accommodate a demand for fresh organs. The idea of a “dead donor rule” did not even emerge until the 1980s, he said, and didn’t enter common parlance until years later.
“There really is no dead donor rule, although they’re trying to make it seem like there is,” said Byrne.
Byrne led a Vatican conference on “brain death” criteria in 2008 in which a large group of international experts, many of whom are world leaders in their fields, attested to the illegitimacy of “brain death” as an accepted criterion for organ removal.
The comments by the Canadian and Spanish experts have come under fire from the organ donor community, some members of which have expressed concern that the statements could lead people to opt out of donating their organs.
“In the overwhelming majority of cases, the concept of death is easy, obvious and not really subject to any complex interpretation. It’s very clear,” Dr. Andrew Baker, the medical director of the Trillium Gift of Life Network, which oversees Ontario’s transplant system, told the National Post. “They’re dead, you can see it, there is no return of anything.”
James DuBois, a health ethics pro-fessor at Saint Louis University, also criticized the comments, saying that removing the Dead Donor Rule could “have negative consequences: decreasing organ donation rates, upsetting donor family members and creating distress among health care workers.”
See related article: Vindication of criticisms of organ donation
‘Brain dead’ Quebec woman wakes up after family refuses organ donation
Thread by markomalley.
Health authorities in south China said Friday they were investigating a hospital medical team for mistakenly diagnosing a stillbirth and disposing of a baby that was alive.
The probe is taking place at the Nanhai Red Cross Hospital in the Guangdong provincial city of Foshan where the incident occurred on October 26, the Nanhai district health bureau said in a statement faxed to AFP.
According to the statement, Liu Dongmei -- eight months pregnant -- had been rushed to the hospital with internal bleeding and stomach cramps.
She later had an emergency birth, but the baby was neither breathing nor crying after leaving the womb and its skin had turned purple, it said.
Believing it was dead, the medical team disposed of the child but did not follow proper hospital procedures, the statement added.
The Foshan News, a local website, reported that when Liu's sister-in-law asked to see the body around 30 minutes after birth, she was handed a yellow plastic bag containing the infant and found it was still alive.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Herman Cain is meeting with Kissinger who is pro eugenics. Word to the wise republicans before you get on the Cain bandwagon.
Thanks for the ping!
Obsma already had a baby disposed of in Chicago, didn’t he? A nurse gave her account of a baby in the janitor’s closet or was that a hypothetical? I believed that it actually occurred.
Thread by massmike.
The lucrative abortion industry sure loves to wallow in its hatred of God:
Imagine the deal they’ll probably give you if you come in to kill your baby on Christmas morning.
(Excerpt) Read more at moonbattery.com ...
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