Our good friend Jill Stanek draws our attention to a story—encouraging, although biased—in the Washington Post on the new growing phenomenon of pro-life pharmacies.
Coming Soon: Pro-Life Pharmacies
The article mentions a pharmacy slated to open this summer in Chantilly, VA whose shelves will be stocked with the usual items found in pharmacies, but not condoms, birth control pills, or the morning-after pill.
One might logically expect those who clamor about “choice” to be respectful of such pharmacies’ choice to run their businesses as they see fit, but one would be wrong.
Marcia Greenberger of the pro-abortion National Women’s Law Center showed her intellectual prowess when she stated, “Contraception is essential for women’s health. A pharmacy like this is walling off an essential part of health care.”
As Stanek points out, given the well-documented harmful side effects of hormonal contraceptives, it would be more accurate to say, “Contraception is essentially dangerous for women’s health.”
Tom Brejcha, president and chief counsel of the Chicago-based Thomas More Society Pro-Life Law Center was also quoted in the article as saying, “The United States was founded on the idea that people act on their conscience — that they have a sense of right and wrong and do what they think is right and moral. Every pharmacist has the right to do the same thing.”
Bishops Issue Statement on Embryonic Stem Cell Research
The U.S. Bishops issued a statement last week on embryonic stem cell research that plainly and simply states the facts that many would prefer to ignore:
Second, some claim that the embryo in his or her first week of development is too small, immature, or undeveloped to be considered a ‘human life.’ Yet the human embryo, from conception onward, is as much a living member of the human species as any of us. As a matter of biological fact, this new living organism has the full complement of human genes and is actively expressing those genes to live and develop in a way that is unique to human beings, setting the essential foundation for further development. Though dependent in many ways, the embryo is a complete and distinct member of the species Homo sapiens, who develops toward maturity by directing his or her own integrated organic functioning. All later stages of life are steps in the history of a human being already in existence. Just as each of us was once an adolescent, a child, a newborn infant, and a child in the womb, each of us was once an embryo.
Others, while acknowledging the scientific fact that the embryo is a living member of the human species, claim that life at this earliest stage is too weak or undeveloped, too lacking in mental or physical abilities, to have full human worth or human rights. But to claim that our rights depend on such factors is to deny that human beings have human dignity, that we have inherent value simply by being members of the human family. If fundamental rights such as the right to life are based on abilities or qualities that can appear or disappear, grow or diminish, and be greater or lesser in different human beings, then there are no inherent human rights, no true human equality, only privileges for the strong.
Along these same lines, it’s worth noting an article that received almost no media attention a few weeks ago about yet another significant breakthrough in treatment using adult stem cells.
Using stem cells from bone marrow and umbilical cord blood, researchers at the University of Minnesota appear to have cured a normally fatal genetic disease called epidermolysis bullosa in a 2-year old Minneapolis boy.
By no means is this the first disease to have been treated using adult stem cells —far from it, in fact—but it is the first time cells from bone marrow and cord blood have been used to treat a condition that does not involve blood.
Rest in Peace, Margaret Creagh
Please say a prayer for Margaret Creagh, who died Friday at the age of 83. Margaret had been a faithful volunteer for the Pro-Life Action League for 27 years. She was laid to rest Tuesday at Queen of All Saints Basilica in Chicago and buried later that day at All Saints Cemterey in Des Plaines. May her soul and all the soul of the faithful departed rest in peace. Amen.
