Why bring a child into this world? - A film by Unilever

Entrevista ao P. Miguel Cabral, MD, PhD, sobre o aborto e as gravidezes de risco

Entrevista ao Dr. João Paulo Malta sobre apoio a mães grávidas, contracepção, NaproTechnology

Primera vez en el mundo: Operan en el vientre materno a bebé con obstrucción en laringe

BARCELONA, 10 May. 13 / 11:42 am (ACI/Europa Press).- Los hospitales de Sant Joan de Déu de Esplugues de Llobregat y Clínic de Barcelona (España) han operado por primera vez en el mundo con éxito a un feto de 21 semanas que tenía una obstrucción en la laringe, una patología que en la mayoría de las ocasiones acaba con la muerte antes de nacer.

La operación, que tuvo lugar el 14 de marzo de 2012, se ha dado a conocer este jueves, diez meses después del nacimiento del niño, llamado Gonzalo, que lleva una vida normal y sin secuelas.

La paciente fue enviada a Barcelona desde el Hospital de Cartagena, donde detectaron que el feto tenía los pulmones muy dilatados y ello comprimía el corazón y podía derivar en un fallo cardiaco.

"Dábamos todo por perdido, nos dijeron en Cartagena que teníamos que abortar, pero que antes fuéramos a Barcelona", ha relatado Francisco, el padre del bebé, ante los medios de comunicación.

En Barcelona, los médicos confirmaron que la laringe del feto estaba totalmente obstruida, lo que impedía que los pulmones expulsaran sus secreciones por la tráquea, y ofrecieron a los padres una intervención para desobstruir la laringe, algo que se había intentado tres veces en el mundo sin éxito.

El equipo de cirugía fetal de Sant Joan de Déu y del Clínic operó el feto en el vientre de la madre, introduciendo un fetoscopio --un endoscopio especial de sólo 3 milímetros de grosor-- que confirmó que la laringe estaba obstruida por una membrana que, posteriormente, perforaron y eliminaron.

El jefe del servicio de cirugía fetal, Eduard Gratacós, ha explicado que "la operación se estuvo preparando durante una hora y media para inmovilizar al feto y colocarlo en la posición idónea, y la cirugía en sí duró tan sólo 22 minutos".

Esta es la primera vez en el mundo que se desobstruye una laringe en un feto en el vientre materno, una operación "que es muy compleja ya que es difícil llegar a la tráquea sin romper nada", ha dicho Gratacós.

La obstrucción laríngea es una malformación extraña que provoca la muerte a la mayoría de fetos que la sufren, y los que sobreviven acaban falleciendo o con secuelas muy graves, ya que el tejido pulmonar queda gravemente dañado.

New study finds shame leads to abortion, discovers winning strategy to save babies - by Johanna Dasteel

February 28, 2013, (LifeSiteNews.com) – A new study commissioned by the Vitae Foundation has taken a careful scientific approach to identify what drives women's decisions to keep their child, place a child in adoption or abort one’s child. The study has determined what influences that decision, which women are most reachable, what message is most likely to reach them and from whom vulnerable women would like to hear that message.

Instead of focusing on swaying public opinion, this study focuses on reaching abortion-vulnerable women with a message that will support their instincts to protect their children rather than forfeit their lives to abortionists.

The study itself is replete with empathy-arousing, first-person descriptions of the anxieties, emotions and logic – sometimes legitimate, often irrational – of women faced with surprise pregnancies. And that empathy, the study finds, is necessary to reach women and help them through a troubled pregnancy.

First, the study distinguishes the abortion-minded woman - whose conflicts, the study describes, “focus more on self-identity issues than on right and wrong” - from the abortion vulnerable woman, who feels more guilt and is more concerned with “right and wrong” than the abortion-minded woman.

Among the abortion-vulnerable are women who are aware of the humanity of their child in utero. The study concluded that "women who believe that abortion is murder and yet choose to abort will suffer guilt and regret for the rest of their lives.” This bolsters the study’s claim of the importance for post-abortion ministries such as Rachel’s Vineyard and Project Rachel.

When it comes to preventing abortions, the study recommends that pro-life efforts focus on abortion-vulnerable above abortion-minded women with a “strong need to preserve their character” and believe they are “good people who do the right thing.”

This is where the study’s “Psychological Kernel” comes into play. The study’s authors, Charles T. Kenny, Ph.D. and Paul Swope, conclude: “Women carry an unwanted pregnancy to term when guilt wins out over shame, when they feel that the pregnancy will not end their own current and future selves, and that the unborn will be better off alive than dead.” Thus, they deduce that pro-life messaging and marketing must focus on overcoming the shame women feel of an “unplanned pregnancy” with the lifelong consequences they will feel after aborting their own children.

Part of their finding is identifying the best messenger, which the researchers identified as “The Admired Woman.” She is “non-judgmental, caring, compassionate, a good listener, encouraging, has overcome obstacles in her life, is approachable and manages her life effectively.”

“Some also say that the admired woman does not give unwanted advice,” the authors gently add.

The Vitae Foundation has already implemented their findings into their marketing and training efforts.

A recent TV ad the organization developed showcases the findings of their study:

[African-American woman standing alone, in great distress (Voiceover) “That was me when I found out I was pregnant. I really lost it. My boyfriend wanted me to have an abortion. My parents, they sent me mixed signals. Everybody knew what I should do, except for me. Then I talked to some people I didn’t even know. They were kind, caring and compassionate. They helped me make a choice I can live with [shows young child playing in front of her]. And maybe they can help you too. Call them today."

Reaching the right people with a convincing pro-life message is of prime importance to pro-life advocates. Much of the movement’s time and money is spent developing talking points and material with which to lobby Congress, social media campaigns to bypass the pro-abortion stalemate in the mainstream media, and literature to put in the hands of college students. The impressive messaging and marketing efforts have gone a long way to confront the average citizen with the reality of abortion, despite his ignorance and apathy.

The results of the study, the Vitae Foundation promises, will not only be of use for ad campaigns, but for pregnancy care center counselors, public speakers, educators, pro-life literature, health care professionals, fundraising and marketing, and for the average man or woman acting as a confidant to an abortion-vulnerable friend or family member.

Síndrome de Down podría tratarse durante embarazo, afirma investigador pro-vida

MADRID, 15 Oct. 12 / 06:10 am (ACI/EWTN Noticias).- El Director del Instituto de Epidemiología Molecular y del Centro Medicina Embrionaria y Salud Materna en Chile, Elard Koch, presentó en España una investigación que minimizaría las manifestaciones clínicas del Síndrome Down y mejoraría su calidad de vida.

El anuncio se hizo en la Facultad de Medicina de la Universidad CEU San Pablo (España). Según una nota de prensa, la investigación se lleva a cabo en dos fases. En la primera se optimiza un test de embarazo para detectar la presencia del embrión durante los primeros 10 días de gestación y, con avanzadas técnicas de biología molecular, ubicar la presencia de la anomalía genética.

“A partir de aquí y ya en la segunda fase, se ensayará una terapia embrionaria entre la segunda y octava semana de gestación -semanas más proclives a los procesos que conllevan enfermedades o malformaciones congénitas- para reducir la expresión de las principales anomalías que conlleva la presencia del cromosoma extra” y que desemboca en el Síndrome de Down.

Koch planteó “que se pueden realizar intervenciones no invasivas muy tempranas durante la gestación”. “Es un tema complejo, fascinante y esperanzador. Nuestro grupo está trabajando intensamente en una nueva formulación experimental que inhibe enzimas responsables de las alteraciones cognitivas y físicas de la trisomía del cromosoma 21”, explicó.

El experto dijo que “si todo marcha de acuerdo al plan en curso, finalizaremos los estudios preclínicos en aproximadamente dos años, lo que nos dejaría a un paso de iniciar los primeros ensayos clínicos en seres humanos”.

Elard Koch es conocido por demostrar que la mortalidad materna se reduce a través de una mejora en los sistemas de salud y una mayor educación en las mujeres; y no a través del aborto, como señalan las organizaciones feministas.

La investigación se titula "Nivel de educación de mujeres, instalaciones de salud materna, legislación sobre el aborto y mortalidad materna: un experimento natural en Chile desde 1957 hasta 2007", y fue publicada el 4 de mayo de este año en PLoS ONE, la revista científica más grande del mundo.

O Hospital das Trevas - Nuno Serras Pereira

O auto-intitulado hospital da luz - com a chancela Espírito Santo (!)… - anunciou que vai realizar o seu 2º simpósio sobre ética a 9 de Novembro do corrente ano. 

Miguel Oliveira e Silva e Ana Campos falarão sobre gravidez (Wrongful action in pregnancy) e Margarida Silvestre acerca dos direitos do embrião e sua protecção. 

Convidar conhecidos thanatosfilos (tânatófilos) para preleccionarem sobre estes temas é moralmente equivalente a convocar membros activos do partido nazi para discorrerem sobre os direitos e a protecção dos judeus.

É caso para dizer como Nosso Senhor, nos Evangelhos: se a luz que há em ti são trevas quão tamanhas serão essas trevas! (Mt 6, 23).

27. 09. 2012

In Focus 02/17/12- Matt Trewhella with Dr. Allan C. Carlson; Godly Seed

In Focus 02/17/12- Matt Trewhella with Dr. Allan C. Carlson; Godly Seed from VCY America TV on Vimeo.

Familia conmueve a argentinos con amor a bebé engendrado en violación

BUENOS AIRES, 13 Sep. 11 / 08:25 pm (ACI)

El Diario de Cuyo dedicó una nota especial a una familia de escasos recursos de la localidad de La Bebida, Rivadavia, que ha acogido a su nuevo miembro con amor desbordante a pesar de su dramático origen. Este bebé, ahora el más mimado del barrio, fue concebido en una violación.

La identidad de la madre se mantiene en reserva. Ella tiene 23 años y padece un importante retraso mental, su hijo nació hace 20 días y desde ese momento es su alegría mayor, todos lo quieren y a pesar de su pobreza material, los abuelos del niño aseguran que a este bebé nunca le faltará nada.

Según el diario, el bebé "genera un magnetismo particular. Todos (familia y vecinos) sonríen al verlo, todos quieren mimarlo, todos parecen agradecidos con su presencia".

"Quizá sea por verlo en brazos de su madre, una joven de 23 años con sonrisa imperturbable, que también conmueve porque es alguien especial: tal es su retraso madurativo que un neurólogo lo tradujo en un duro diagnóstico, ‘80 por ciento de incapacidad total y permanente’", explica el periódico.

El drama de esta familia se descubrió cuando la joven tenía cinco meses de embarazo. "Al ver su vientre abultado su mamá (también madre de otros seis chicos) preguntó quién le había hecho eso, y entonces la chica le señaló a su propio cuñado como autor del ultraje", el sujeto podría ser detenido en cualquier momento.

La violación amargó a la familia, pero "la noticia del embarazo provocó una reacción muy distinta: la gente del barrio empezó a acercarse con ropa para el bebé y con ayuda para la joven mamá, muy querida en el vecindario".

"Nosotros somos pobres. Yo cobro una pensión por los siete hijos, mi marido hace changas, mi hija de 18 años trabaja de empleada doméstica. Mi hija no tiene pensión por su discapacidad y nos hacen falta muchas cosas, pero al niño nunca le va a faltar nada. Con el muchacho verán lo que harán, porque no puede ser que un yerno me haya hecho eso", dice Hilda, la abuela.

Según la iniciativa ArgentinosAlerta.org este caso "nos conmueve y nos muestra cómo la nueva vida fue sorteando obstáculos y encontrado su camino para finalmente llevar alegría no sólo a su humilde familia, sino también a toda una comunidad que ha acogido a este bebé con mucho cariño".

"Lamentamos toda la violencia que implica una violación y esperamos que la justicia actúe con prontitud para encontrar al culpable. Nos resulta ejemplar el cariño con el que su familia y la comunidad han acogido a este bebé", agrega.

Hard Cases for Defenders of Abortion - by William E. May, Ph.D

by William E. May, Ph.D. Senior Fellow

In Culture of Life Foundation

There are several “hard cases” that advocates of abortion find difficult to justify. In the recent, The Ethics of Abortion: Women’s Rights, Human Life, and the Question of Justice (New York/London: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, Routledge Annals of Bioethics, 2011), author Christopher Kaczor identifies these contradictions of reason as 8 “hard cases.” The first two cases he treats, 1. murder of pregnant women, and 2. sex selection abortion, I will consider for this essay and elaborate with material of my own.

The murder of pregnant women

Almost everyone thinks that raping women is a morally repugnant act, especially if she is pregnant and even more so if it causes her to miscarry. This is so true, Kaczor notes, that even the most vociferous champions of capital punishment balk at executing a woman while she is pregnant. If someone murders the pregnant woman and murders her unborn baby as well, this horrible crime becomes even more odious.

But there exist vicious men who have caused their wives or girl friends to become pregnant by sexually abusing them or using them in the sexual act to satisfy their lustful urges while at the same time not wanting the pregnancy that may result. Some such men have been found to go so far as to murder the wives or girlfriends they made pregnant when they refuse to abort the child. They do not want to incur the obligation—one that can be, has been, and is legally enforced—to help pay expenses for the care of the child after he or she is born. A notorious example occurred in the early years of this century. Scott Peterson’s wife Laci was eight months pregnant with their son Connor. She went missing on Christmas Eve, 2002. After she disappeared, Peterson changed his appearance and purchased a pick-up truck using his mother's maiden name instead of his own. He added two pornography television channels to his cable service a few days after his wife's disappearance; and later, after he had been brought to trial, the prosecution made clear its inference that this behavior showed that Peterson knew that his wife would not be returning home. He also showed interest in selling the house he had shared with his wife, and he did sell Laci's Land Rover. The prosecution presented Scott Peterson's affair with Amber Frey and money as motives for the murder. Prosecutors argued that Peterson killed his pregnant wife due to increasing debt and a desire to be single again (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Peterson gives details of this celebrated case). On April 14 the bodies of Laci and Connor were separately washed to shore in San Francisco Bay. Baby Connor’s umbilical cord was still attached.

Despite protests by abortion rights advocates, Peterson was legally charged and found guilty by the California Court with two counts of murder, with “special circumstances”—the second murder, that of Connor, the unborn child, calling for tougher penalties.

This is obviously a hard or difficult case for abortion advocates. Here we have a duly constituted jury in the State of California, finding a person guilty of murdering an unborn child. One is never condemned or executed as a murderer of a non-human animal or a non-person. But abortion advocates claim that unborn human beings are not “persons.”

Sex-Selection Abortion (SSA)

Kaczor addressed this matter not only in his book but also in “Sex Selection of Children” [for abortion], available at http://www.lifeissues.net/writers/kac/kac_02sexselection.html. Sex selection can and does occur after implantation by abortion. Sex Selection Abortion (SSA) can be done very early during pregnancy—one blood sample in early weeks of embryonic development can show whether the embryo is male or female. One authority, J. M. Millietz, who judges SSA to be morally wrong, in an important article (“Sex Selection for Non-Medical Purposes,” Reproductive BioMedicine Online 14, 114-117) even stated that SSA “for personal convenience is unanimously banned” (at 115). Kazor notes that this is not true because, for example, abortion for any reason is legally permissible throughout the entire pregnancy in the US.

Nevertheless, many who describe themselves as pro-choice oppose SSA, among them the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG). But from a pro-choice perspective, it seems difficult to explain why fetal killing for gender preference should be wrong. Amazingly, however, Wendy Rogers, Angeline Ballyntyne, and Heather Draper developed arguments in “Is Sex-Selective Abortion Morally Justified and Should It Be Prohibited?” (Bioethics (2007) 21.9, 320-324) that abortion advocates think are compatible with a defense of abortion. The authors argue that SSA is wrong, but it is not wrong because it kills an unborn human person (they adhere to the claim that the unborn entity may be a human being but definitely not a “person” with rights that need to be taken into account). They find SSA wrong because it discriminates unjustly against women and can lead to further violence against women.

Millietz’s major claim in his article is that SSA is morally wrong because it unjustly kills an innocent human person in the embryonic or fetal stage of his or her development. According to him abortion in general ends the lives of “girls” and “children” and this surely applies to SSA.

Toward the end of his article posted on the Life Issues website, Kaczor refers to and quotes from an excellent article by S. Matthew Liao, “The Right of Children to Be Loved” (this appeared in Journal of Public Philosophy (2006) 14.4, 420-440). In it Liao considers SSA and argues that children have a right to be loved. The following quotation from Liao is in my opinion a fitting end for this brief piece.

Liao writes as follows:

Human beings have rights to…conditions . . . essential for a good life. As human beings, children have rights to those conditions. Being loved is a condition. . . essential for children to have a good life. Therefore, children have a right to be loved. To explicate this argument, let me begin by characterizing the kind of love at issue, namely, parental love, which has the following characteristics: To love a child is to seek a highly intense interaction with the child, where one values the child for the child's sake, where one seeks to bring about and to maintain physical and psychological proximity with the child, where one seeks to promote the child's well-being for the child's sake, and where one desires that the child reciprocate or, at least, is responsive to, one's love. One important feature of parental love is valuing the child for the child's sake. As a child psychologist Mia Pringle argues: "The basic and all-pervasive feature of parental love is that the child is valued unconditionally and for his own sake, irrespective of his sex, appearance, abilities or personality; that this love is given without expectation of or demand for gratitude” (422).

Conclusion

Surely the murdering of pregnant women and their unborn children as well as abortion chosen because the unborn child is not the “right” sex are cases very difficult for abortion advocates to justify. Kaczor, in his book, gives excellent reasons why the efforts of some to do so fail miserably, thus demonstrating the inability to truly justify the killing of innocent human life.

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