POPE V POPCICLES: RATZO SAYS NO-NO TO FROZEN EMBRYO ADOPTION

Friday, the long-waited Dignitas personae (The dignity of a person), was released by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith with the approval of Pope Benedict XVI. You can read the whole paper here. There’s no surprises: birth control = badabortion = badstem cell research = badsurrogacy = bad Added to the B List: snowflake adoption = bad Here is what Dignitas personae says about our frozen brethern: With regard to the large number of frozen embryos already in existence the question becomes: what to do with them? All the answers that have been proposed (use the embryos for research or for the treatment of disease; thaw them without reactivating them and use them for research, as if they were normal cadavers; put them at the disposal of infertile couples as a “treatment for infertility”; allow a form of “prenatal adoption”) present real problems of various kinds. It needs to be recognized “that the thousands of abandoned embryos represent a situation of injustice which in fact cannot be resolved. Therefore, John Paul II made an “appeal to the conscience of the world’s scientific authorities and in particular to doctors, that the production of human embryos be halted, taking Continue Reading →

NEBRASKA”S NEW BABY DUMP LAW: BETTER THAN RITILAN

In case you missed it, Alaska and Nebraska finally went over to the dark side and legalized baby dumping recently. But in the case of the Nebraska law, it’s fast-track child dumping. Child welfare workers and juvenile court judges are gonna love working with this one! The law, outside of a two sentence intro, reads in full: Section 1. No person shall be prosecuted for any crime based solely upon the act of leaving a child in the custody of an employee on duty at a hospital licensed by the State of Nebraska. The hospital shall promptly contact appropriate authorities to take custody of the child. Note that any CHILD can be left at a hospital. No age limit. In other words, the Nebraska legislature just legalized child abandonment as long as it’s done “properly.” Wanna test-drive your kid? Move to Nebraska! Terrible 2s? No problemo! How about that mouthy 13-year old son? Cheaper than Ritalin. LB157 is the late Dr. Pierce’s fantasy of flexibility” of choice, “non-bureaucratic placement” and safe havens at any age.* Appropriately, Nebraska is Dr. Pierce’s home state. Lately, he’s been thunking his shoe in heaven (think Maine!) , but I heard a little chortle, too. Continue Reading →