The Week in Review: 14-20 January, A.D. 2007

The big news, I suppose, is not from this week, but this upcoming weekend:
The 34th Annual March For Life - January 20, 21, and 22 - Washington, D.C.
Read all about it here -

http://www.marchforlife.org/

And, just to remind yourself what it's all about,
Amazing pictures that show triplets bonding -- in the womb....

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/health/womenfamily.html?in_article_id=429098&in_page_id=1799&in_a_source=&ico=Homepage&icl=TabModule&icc=picbox&ct=5

Meanwhile, some legislatures are preparing to do battle with Roe...
Georgia Prepares to Battle Roe v. Wade
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/jan/07011507.html

While other legislatures just get more and more ridiculous...
CALIFORNIA BILL WOULD BAN SPANKING YOUNG CHILDREN...
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/politics/16487654.htm?source=rss

Here is the CMA's take on the HPV Vaccine,
Catholic Medical Association Press Release on HPV Immunization
http://www.cathmed.org/pressreleases/hpv_vaccine_jan07.htm
There is a link at the CMA site to their downloadable position paper as well.

From the National Catholic Bioethics Center,
Correction to the Fifth Edition of Health Care Ethics - Care of Permanently Unconscious Patients
http://www.ncbcenter.org/07-01-13-HE5.asp

First test-tube baby in the world gives birth – without IVF
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2545718,00.html
This week, we're discussing early human embryology in out little stem cell series, as a foundation to understanding embryonic stem cells, IVF, and a whole host of related topics. Next week we'll get into IVF a bit more specifically, since, at this point, IVF embryos are where many (not all) human embryonic stem cells come from. I'll grant you, a blastocyst doesn't look much like those hugging triplets, but the blastocyst is a biological human being just as surely as are the triplets, you, or I. And, when Louise Brown, born in England, 25 July 1978, began her life, she began it in a petri dish, and was a blastocyst, exactly as we will discuss next week. And, as a blastocyst in a dish, she could just as easily have been dissected for her parts rather than being placed in her mother's womb, to grow, be born, and one day bear children of her own. We will all do well to keep that in mind.

The stem cell wars are not going to go away. It'll be a race to the bottom, folks.
New York Legislature Pledges to Outstrip Competitors in Funding Ambitious Embryo Research Project
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/jan/07011702.html
Pro-life groups decry House backing for embryonic stem cell research
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=8368

Just to see what our brethren in the UK and north of the border are up to.
UK, Canada Ran Neck and Neck in 2006 Race to Exterminate Religious Freedom
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/jan/07011704.html

And, to keep us from becoming smug here in these United States,
2006 Losses of Religious Freedom Should Make American Christians Wake Up
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/jan/07011504.html
Congress preparing to criminalize critics-
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53813

And now,
51% of Women Are Now Living Without Spouse...
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/16/us/16census.html?ei=5065&en=fd431ee3a6bf026f&ex=1169528400&partner=MYWAY&pagewanted=print The tone of this article suggests that the writers (three of the four of whom are women) think this is a good thing. It is filled with quotes from women - many in their mid or late 50's, and divorced, or never married - who are now liberated, and living fulfilling lives. There are also quotes from their daughters (granddaughters?) who have never been, and presumably, will never be, married. Yet our civilization will cease to survive without the family unit. Perhaps, if one has renounced the family, one doesn't really care too much about the future beyond that encompassed one's own life span. Meanwhile, those Muslims keep making babies...

In the miscellaneous department, first this:
2 cousin companies bet market for RFID chips will extend to humans before long
http://www.wnd.com/redir/r.asp?http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/jan2007/sb20070111_186325.htm?chan=smallbiz_smallbiz+index+page_today%27s+top+stories

And, this...
WEATHER CHANNEL Climate Expert Calls for Decertifying Global Warming Skeptics...
http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressRoom.Blogs&ContentRecord_id=32abc0b0-802a-23ad-440a-88824bb8e528
Some time back, I ceased being under the illusion that there was any objectivity in medical research, understanding that instead that the public opinions of "medical experts" were instead shaped primarily by (1) the political agendas of the liberal left, and secondarily by (2) big money. I am saddened, but not surprised, to see the same thing happen to meteorology.

And, finally, this...
Air Force colonel reports lights 'not of this world'; Snaps images above Arkansas- 'I have no idea what they were'...
http://wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53820

Why, you might ask, am I putting this in here? Well, not because I believe in UFO's. I don't. And, I know it has nothing directly to do with Catholicity and medicine. However, I do believe that we threw away our future when we turned our back on manned space exploration. The NASA of 1969 (not to be confused with the NASA of 2007) was completely capable of developing a colony on Mars, and could have done so by the mid 1980's. All it lacked was money: we, the people, said it was a waste of money. How much money, instead, have we spent since 1969 on pointless dead end social programs, not to mention cat and dog food? Despite the hundreds of billions we have poured, and still pour, down the drain labeled “entitlements” (far, far more than we ever spent on the moonships), today we have a vicious and ever expanding class of persons who truly live lives outside the boundaries of what was once known as "western civilization", and cats and dogs on weight control programs and Prozac. And, for good measure, the nation which once could send three men to the moon for a week can today barely get a man into low earth orbit. Here's a thought experiment: suppose, just suppose, that the NASA of 1969 had really been able to carry out its (then) very realistic plans of moon and Mars colonization in the last decades of the 20th century. Today we would have permanent colonies on the moon, and on Mars, and a growing and developing interplanetary transport system. How would our world be different?