Category: Life Issues & Bioethics

The Biological Arms Race No One Can Win
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The Biological Arms Race No One Can Win

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I have been going to physical therapy a lot this past year. One kid has had two knee surgeries, another a shoulder injury, and my back has finally decided that having four kids wasn’t so good for it. I spend a good amount of time getting to know the people that work there. There is […]

In an Industry that Makes People, What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
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In an Industry that Makes People, What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

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Sperm donation, egg donation and surrogacy: Third party reproduction seems to be a “done deal” in Western society. Even ardently pro-life people do not seem to see the problems. Hey, these techniques are making babies, not killing them. So what could possibly go wrong? A lot of things can go very wrong. Let me describe […]

The Big Deal With Bathroom Laws
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The Big Deal With Bathroom Laws

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About ten years ago Regina and I were going through a stretch of pretty rough road together, and all the hidden fault lines in our marriage were exposed. My best friend who had been one of the priests on the altar at our wedding heard my confession one day and said, “Gerry, for your penance, […]

Congress Investigates Heinous Crimes
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Congress Investigates Heinous Crimes

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The Committee on Energy and Commerce in the US House of Representatives has convened a Select Investigative Panel to probe the marketing and sale of aborted baby body parts. The website tells us that the Committee has been established to “gather information and get the facts about medical practices of abortion service providers and the […]

State Department Human Rights Report Condemns Forced Abortions in China
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State Department Human Rights Report Condemns Forced Abortions in China

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In the mid-eighties I met with Elliot Abrams, who was then serving as Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights, to call his attention to the victims of China’s one-child policy. I told him that massive numbers of forced abortions and forced sterilizations had occurred in China over the past few years as the Communist […]

Sex-Selection, Forced Abortion Are Happening Here in the United States
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Sex-Selection, Forced Abortion Are Happening Here in the United States

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Many women today living in immigrant communities in the United States face discrimination, mistreatment, or resentment from family members if they fail to bear a son. Disproportionately girls are being targeted for abortion in some parts of these communities. The choice to abort is a coerced one, more often than not one pushed by husbands […]

Latest Pope Francis Controversy and Why Non-Catholics Should Care
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Latest Pope Francis Controversy and Why Non-Catholics Should Care

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Non-Catholics may be wondering why Pope Francis’ Apostolic Exhortation, Amoris Laetitia or The Joy of Love, has Catholics in an uproar. Has the Pope changed Catholic doctrine? Has he left the doctrine officially intact, but changed pastoral practice so much that the doctrine is annulled? Now that I have taken the weekend to read it, […]

Five Things my Mother (and Daughter) Taught Me about Caring for People with Dementia
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Five Things my Mother (and Daughter) Taught Me about Caring for People with Dementia

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My mother developed Alzheimer’s disease, the most common type of dementia, in her early 60s. Later on, she was diagnosed with an aggressive thyroid cancer that required a surgical opening in her throat called a tracheostomy so that she would not suffocate from the tumor. My father and siblings were naturally distraught and overwhelmed. I […]

Assisted Suicide: Canada's Deadly Shifting Landscape
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Assisted Suicide: Canada’s Deadly Shifting Landscape

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Canadian legal landscape is shifting. On April 14th 2016, Canada’s Liberal government introduced for 1st reading it’s assisted suicide legislation.[1] Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau initially said he was going to whip his majority government into supporting the bill for state-sanctioned assisted suicide. Unnamed sources informed me he was faced with a potential Caucus revolt […]

Male Privilege and Women's Bathrooms
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Male Privilege and Women’s Bathrooms

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North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R) has become a whipping boy for the advocates of the latest round of the sexual revolution. The Human Rights Campaign has gathered a bunch of business owners to bully the governor in an attempt to get him to back down. “Your bigotry is bad for business,” is their mantra. […]

The Great Unaddressed Human Rights Issue of Our Day
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The Great Unaddressed Human Rights Issue of Our Day

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Moments after speaking before a sea of families in Rome about the dangers of commercial surrogacy, an Italian reporter asked why I was being so vocal in a country where it is already illegal. Isn’t that like preaching to the choir, she wondered? While the notion of speaking to hundreds of thousands of people who […]

USAID Needs to Warn Women of the Dangers of Depo-Provera
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USAID Needs to Warn Women of the Dangers of Depo-Provera

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Jonathan Abbamonte also contributed to this article. Despite mounting evidence of serious side effects associated with the use of injectable contraceptives, international aid programs continue to indiscriminately distribute Depo-Provera under various brand names worldwide. Indeed, a coalition of family planning partners including the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Bill and Melinda Gates […]

Genetically Engineered Language: Propaganda Colors Public Perception
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Genetically Engineered Language: Propaganda Colors Public Perception

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A recent headline in the United Kingdom’s Independent shouts that the first genetically modified human embryos could be created in Britain in just a few weeks. The article by Steve Connor reported that scientists have submitted a proposal to the Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority (HFEA), the government’s fertility regulatory body, asking to edit the genes of […]

Canada’s Demand for Death
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Canada’s Demand for Death

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I spent this past weekend in Montreal, Canada, where despite the expected joie de vivre that Francophone cultures are prone to celebrate, the province of Quebec seems to be spending more time and energy focused on death rather than life. Last year the Supreme Court of Canada overturned the country’s ban on physician assisted suicide […]

Remembering an Old Friend who Saved Lives
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Remembering an Old Friend who Saved Lives

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“I’ve been served with a restraining order. I need a lawyer. Will you help me?” I answered the call one evening in 1989. I said yes and, as it turned out, from that point forward I have been active in the pro-life movement. The caller was Chuck Pelletier, founder of the local pro-life center here […]

Bigotry Towards Catholics Showcased at the UN During Holy Week
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Bigotry Towards Catholics Showcased at the UN During Holy Week

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Marianna Orlandi, Ph.D also contributed to this article. Holy Week did not deter an open attack sponsored by the government of Finland on the Catholic Church and religious teaching on family and sexuality at an event at the United Nations last week. Finland’s government screened a documentary on an aid worker determined to confront Catholic […]

"Progressives" on the Value of Life
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“Progressives” on the Value of Life

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Within certain media and academic circles the term “progressive” is used to describe policy makers and politicians who promote agendas typically attributed to liberal causes. It’s a curious description that is used to cast a positive light on favored or fashionable ideological perspective.   Conservative views are often described with derogatory labels such as right-wing (or even […]

America's Act of Contrition
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America’s Act of Contrition

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The use and the abuse of apology as a political weapon, gambit, or statement has a long and varied history. It often includes a demand for a statement of sorrow and of responsibility, an “act of contrition.” Not a week goes by that some persons, group, institution, political party, or political leader requests (demands) an […]

Abortion is Never the Answer for Pregnant Women with Zika
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Abortion is Never the Answer for Pregnant Women with Zika

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Abortion advocates have attempted to lobby and shame pro-life Latin American countries into legalizing abortion for women who may contract the Zika virus. Although it has not been proven that Zika causes microcephaly and other congenital disabilities, pro-abortion groups have nonetheless assumed that it does. Apparently abortion activists think they know more about ZIKV than […]

European Surrogacy Market Suffers Setback
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European Surrogacy Market Suffers Setback

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Yesterday, the Council of Europe rejected a report on surrogacy that proposed regulation of the practice rather than a full ban. This is excellent news for those of us who have been campaigning for so long to Stop Surrogacy Now in all forms and in all places. This comes at a time where Europe is […]

Catholic Colleges Can Discuss Abortion Without Inviting Planned Parenthood
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Catholic Colleges Can Discuss Abortion Without Inviting Planned Parenthood

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Georgetown University has defended next month’s lecture by Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards by claiming a commitment to “the free exchange of ideas.” Catholic colleges absolutely should expose students to the arguments against Catholic teaching — including those about abortion, contraception and sexuality — but an unfiltered lecture from someone who has no respect for […]

UN Human Rights Power Grab
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UN Human Rights Power Grab

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The UN abortion debate took a turn last week when one of the top human rights committees abandoned a decades-long diplomatic tactic of using linguistic ambiguity to advance a right to abortion. The committee that monitors the 1966 Convention on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (CESCR) issued a “general comment” saying that abortion rights are […]

Be Present: A Suitable Place For The Lord
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Be Present: A Suitable Place For The Lord

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My Lenten meditation and prayer this year has yielded some spiritual fruit. I am trying to work toward a renewed focus on something in my life: Be Present. It’s a simple idea. I want to pursue a life that does less looking backward to where I have been and less looking forward to where I […]

New Study Shows Depo-Provera Increases Risk of HIV Infection
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New Study Shows Depo-Provera Increases Risk of HIV Infection

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A new peer-reviewed study,1 conducted in collaboration with the Population Research Institute (PRI), shows that women who use Depo-Provera are significantly more likely to acquire HIV. Due to funding from organizations like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and agencies like the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Depo-Provera is the most widely used form of […]