Free Republic

(SACRAMENTO) -- Cars packed the parking lot of a shuttered CompUSA store one recent weekday afternoon as schoolchildren, health professionals and the just plain curious paid $24 apiece to stare at a score of plasticized, dissected human cadavers and roomfuls of preserved body parts. The cadavers are displayed dramatically, with layers of skin and muscle peeled back to reveal internal organs, bones, blood vessels and nerves. The exhibition, with bodies posed as if playing a violin, swinging a golf club or performing other tasks, provoked plenty of hushed comments.   "Where do they come from?" a young woman asked a...

Vermont Right to Life is the latest statewide pro-life organization to back Fred Thompson's bid for the Republican nomination for president. Their endorsement follows on the heels of those from state pro-life groups in West Virginia, New York, Wyoming, and Wisconsin. In a statement sent to LifeNews.com, Sharon Toborg, treasurer of the Vermont Right to Life Political Committee, says the endorsement reflects Thompson's consistent pro-life views and his ability to win the nomination and general election. “It is great that so many candidates in the Republican Primary are pro-life and have been strong friends of the pro-life effort," she said....

This past week, America has watched in anticipation as workers attempt to rescue six trapped miners in a Utah coal mine. Daily news conferences and minute updates have kept us on the edge of our seats, anxious for any sign that the trapped miners are alive. Murray Energy and the Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration have deployed over 130 miners to dig into the mine. Without hesitation or question, local mining companies have devoted much of their resources to this rescue mission. No one ever stopped to consider the bottom line. For a moment allow me to...

WARSAW (AFP) - A Pole who spent 19 years in a coma has woken up and will now have to adapt to a country where the communists are no longer in power, a television station announced Friday. Railwayman Jan Grzebski fell into a coma after he was hit by a train in 1988, the private channel Polsat said. In an interview, Grzebski said that he owed his survival to his wife, Gertruda. "She's the one who always took care of me. She saved my life," he said. Grzebski was a father of four at the time of the accident. He...

Jim Robinson is the founder and operator of FreeRepublic.com. He posted this editorial on Terri Schiavo, Sunday April 3rd. I said it was wrong to kill her. That is my opinion. Nothing can change it. No list of "facts" will ever change it. And I put "facts" in quotes because most of the so-called "facts" posted here were in fact "opinion." Whether it was a poster's opinion, a reporter's opinion, her husband's opinion, a relative's opinion, a supporter's opinion, a detractor's opinion, a politician's opinion, a lawyer's opinion, a doctor's opinion, the president's opinion, the governor's opinion, or even...

At a very young age, I was diagnosed with a congenital eye disease. I was suffering from something called retinoschisis and in the late 1950's surgeons did all they could to provide me with limited vision in one eye. I was technically considered legally blind, but I did have quality of life. Running and jumping, playing baseball and riding a bike are all activities enjoyed by children. Fortunately, with the breakthrough surgeries that were performed on my eye in the late 1950's, I also was able to enjoy these pleasant activities of youth. This is not to say life was...

The recent US Supreme Court decision concerning Oregon's physician-assisted suicide law was really about whether a federal drug-control law provided a US attorney-general the authority to punish a state's doctors for acting in accordance with a state statute. But by contending that physician-assisted suicide is a "legitimate medical purpose" for the prescription of a drug, there can be little doubt that the ruling helped bring the idea of abetting suicide a bit closer to mainstream thinking. That's a deeply unfortunate thing. As it happened, the decision came exactly seven days after a New Jersey nurse who has confessed to killing...

Proclamation by the President of the United States of America Our Nation was founded on the belief that every human being has rights, dignity, and value. On National Sanctity of Human Life Day, we underscore our commitment to building a culture of life where all individuals are welcomed in life and protected in law. America is making great strides in our efforts to protect human life. One of my first actions as President was to sign an order banning the use of taxpayer money on programs that promote abortion overseas. Over the past 5 years, I also have been proud...

Ethics & Life’s Ending An Exchange Robert D. Orr & Gilbert Meilander Copyright (c) 2004 First Things 145 (August/September 2004): 31-37. Robert D. Orr Feeding tubes make the news periodically, and controversies over their use or non-use seem unusually contentious. But feeding tubes are not high technology treatment; they are simple, small-bore catheters made of soft synthetic material. Nor are they new technology; feeding tubes were first used in 1793 by John Hunter to introduce jellies, eggs, sugar, milk, and wine into the stomachs of patients unable to swallow. Why does this old, low-tech treatment generate such controversy today? The...

People who say that the government has no business interfering in a private decision like removing Terri Schiavo's feeding tube somehow have no problem with a squad of policemen preventing her parents (or anyone else) from giving their daughter food or water. Do those who want to keep the government out of private decisions think that the police are not the government? Do they think that the judges who authorized this are not the government? Sadly, this is not the only Alice-in-Wonderland confusion of words and deeds in this tragic case. We are being told that Terri Schiavo is being...

March 18, 2005 Terri Schiavo's Passion Begins by Thomas A. Droleskey Each of us is called to walk our own Via Dolorosas every day of our lives. Every day is simile for the creation of the world by God and the re-creation of mankind on the wood of the Holy Cross by the Sacrifice offered by the Son to the Father in Spirit and in Truth. We are called to carry the crosses, both great and small, of everyday living by remembering that the graces won for us by the shedding of the God-Man's Most Precious Blood are sufficient for...

HELENA (AP) _ A bill that would criminalize killing or injuring a fetus sparked a fierce debate over abortion at a legislative hearing Tuesday, despite assertions by its sponsor that it had nothing to do with terminating a pregnancy. Rep. Penny Morgan, R-Billings, said her bill was meant to address violence against pregnant women and get justice for the unborn children harmed or killed in the process, such as in the Laci Peterson case in California. ``This is a bigger problem than people have ever realized,'' she told the House Judiciary Committee. Opponents called her House Bill 231 a thinly...

Psalm 139: 13; 15 For You created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother’s womb. My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in the secret place.

How dark, how quiet, save for the beating of her heart, quickened with the angel's greeting, and her determined yes, and the touch of the Spirit, then suddenly, in a moment unwatched by any mortal eye, there was fusion between heaven and earth, and a moment later, division, such a tiny speck, Lord of the universe emptied out, master of time and space contained in a zygote. Incarnation, limitless spirit taking on mortal flesh, encased in the warm darkness, quietly pulsing with the beating of her heart. Thank you Lord, for sanctifying our little human life from conception until death...

There is an item on the Senate's legislative calendar of which I was recently reminded by a good friend. The bill is S. 1019, the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, and was introduced by Sen. Mike DeWine (R.-Ohio) on May 7, 2003. In his introduction of the bill, Sen. DeWine noted, "In about half of the States today, 26, if you commit a crime of violence against a pregnant woman and her unborn baby dies, you can be punished for the violence against both the mother and the unborn child. But, tragically, if you commit a Federal crime of violence...

Two People, Two Deaths Paul Weyrich Thursday, Mar. 18, 2004 Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) stated in a letter to South Dakotans that he favored acting "expeditiously" on the Unborn Victims of Violence Act. In his June 12, 2003 letter, Daschle stated: "I agree with the Republican Leader that Congress should consider this issue expeditiously." The rhetoric of the Senate Minority Leader fails to match the record. The Unborn Victims of Violence failed to reach the Senate floor quickly. After all, Tom Daschle has a voting record slanted in favor of legalized abortion, having voted for the Harkin (D-Iowa)...

The California deaths of Laci Peterson and her unborn son are sending shock waves across America as the issue of when human life begins has been reignited. Laci's husband Scott was arrested last week following the discovery of what prosecutors say is Laci's body and that of their "biological child." Scott Peterson, who was booked on two counts of murder hours after his arrest in San Diego, is scheduled for an arraignment hearing tomorrow. If charged and convicted of double homicide, he could face the death penalty. Already, some pro-choice groups including the National Organization for Women are voicing their...

<p>The House this week will set up an election-year showdown over fetal-homicide legislation targeting Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry and a handful of Texas Democrats who have opposed such bills in the past. The bill, called the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, would legally recognize two victims when a pregnant woman and her unborn child are harmed or killed. Polls show the idea is favored by a majority of the public, and the issue is being pushed strongly by the California family of slaying victim Laci Peterson and her unborn son, Conner, as well as the Lyons of Kentucky, whose pregnant daughter, Ashley, and her unborn son, Landon, were killed in January. House Republican leaders expect to vote on the bill Thursday. Twenty-nine states — including California, where Scott Peterson is facing double-murder charges for the death of his wife, Laci, and their son — recognize the unborn as homicide victims in crimes, either throughout the pregnancy or after a certain stage. The Lyons case so mobilized the public there that state lawmakers quickly passed a fetal-homicide law this month. At the federal level, the House has approved such legislation twice, but the Senate has never voted on it. Senate Republican leaders want to bring up the bill soon, even though Democrats have successfully stalled its consideration in the past. President Bush supports the bill and Republican leaders say it's both good policy and good politics. "It has a residual effect in the campaign, but it is a policy we pursued two years before the presidential election," said Stuart Roy, spokesman for House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, Texas Republican. Opponents of the measure, including Democratic front-runner Mr. Kerry, have said it will undermine abortion rights by recognizing a fetus as a separate person with legal rights, while backers of the bill say there are clearly two victims when a pregnant woman is attacked. "There's overwhelming support for making an unborn baby who's been murdered as a separate murder than the mother," Mr. Roy said. "But the Democratic presidential candidates running in a primary have to take a position that puts themselves far out of the mainstream to a normal general election voter." There are a handful of Texas Democrats in the House being targeted by the vote on the legislation as well, including Reps. Martin Frost and Lloyd Doggett. They're among the Democrats who didn't vote for the bill last time, but face somewhat of a predicament this time, since Texas redistricting has made their districts more conservative. Congressional Democrats have pushed an alternative version of the bill that would increase penalties for crimes against pregnant women without recognizing the fetus as a second victim. Senate Democrats will offer this "one-victim" approach when the bill is considered there, and it's not clear which version will pass. A statement from Mr. Kerry's office this week indicated he would support such an alternative. But victims' families reject this approach. A May 2003 Newsweek poll found 84 percent think that when a pregnant woman and her fetus are killed, the attacker should face two murder charges instead of one. The legislation before the House this week would make it a separate crime to hurt or kill a fetus at any stage of pregnancy during the commission of about 68 federal crimes against the pregnant woman. The bill would explicitly exempt legal abortion, but in an e-mail response to a constituent in June, Mr. Kerry disagreed, saying it would "clearly impact" abortion rights. "I have serious concerns about this legislation because the law cannot simultaneously provide that a fetus is a human being and protect the right of the mother to choose to terminate her pregnancy. Therefore, I do not support the Unborn Victims of Violence Act," he said in his e-mail. Laci Peterson's mother, Sharon Rocha, wrote to Mr. Kerry in July to convince him otherwise. She argued that California's fetal-homicide law has been around since 1970 and hasn't affected abortion rights there at all. "What I find difficult to understand is why groups and senators who champion the pro-choice cause are blind to the fact that these two-victim crimes are the ultimate violation of choice," Mrs. Rocha said.</p>

Connor Peterson, Laci Peterson—and Malachi INTRODUCTION The many articles about the tragedy of Connor Peterson and his mom Laci Peterson have brought to mind another murder of a baby boy. His name was Malachi. His story is below and has done a tremendous amount of good in battling the demonic industry of abortion. Though we will never see Baby Connor or know him in this life, he has touched the lives of millions around the world. Let’s pray that the death of Connor Peterson not be in vain, but that like Malachi-- “God intended it for good to accomplish what...

Breast Cancer Walkers Uninformed about ABC LinkBreast Cancer Walkers Uninformed about ABC Link     10/25/2004By Mary E. Traeger, CWA of MO Media CoordinatorOctober is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and anti-cancer organizations are absorbed in sponsoring cancer walks, which involve hundreds . . ."While he was saying this a woman from the crowd called out, ‘Blest is the womb that bore you and the breasts that nursed you!'" (Luke 1:27)October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and anti-cancer organizations are absorbed in sponsoring cancer walks, which involve hundreds of thousands of participants in numerous cities walking to find a breast cancer cure. Corporations are...