Catholicism
      Catholicism
      Cat Chat Concert 2012
      Family Photo

    • Ottawa Diocesan Week for Life

      In-Vitro Fertilization

      What is it?   
          In-vitro fertilization (IVF) means fertilization “in glass” and refers to the fertilization of a human egg in a laboratory setting.  The moment of fertilization marks the beginning of a new human life.  Eggs are extracted surgically from a woman’s ovaries and the sperm comes from a male donor.
          Once fertilization has occurred, the new living embryos continue to grow for a few days.  They are examined to ensure that they are of “quality”.  Those found to be “deficient” are discarded and destroyed.  Embryos deemed “suitable” are then transferred to the mother’s womb.
          Usually more than one embryo is transferred, sometimes three or four, to increase the chances of implantation of at least one.  Only a small portion of the embryos which are transferred will survive and result in a live birth.  The transferring of many embryos in IVF can result in greater numbers of multiple pregnancies than in natural conceptions.

      What happens to the Remaining Embryos?
      Frozen:  Remaining living embryos may be frozen for future use.  Many couples who have used IVF face an agonizing decision as to the fate of their embryos when they no longer want them.  Many embryos are never implanted.
      Death:  Many embryos die during the transfer or the thawing processes.  Some human embryos, with the parents’ consent, are donated for research.  A living human embryo used for embryonic stem cell research will die once its life-giving stem cells are extracted. Sadly, the generation of a new human life becomes a laboratory process wherein the embryo is not accorded the respect and protection deserved from the moment of conception..

      READ MORE....

      NaPro TECHNOLOGY
      The approach NaPro TECHNOLOGY takes to infertility respects the integrity and dignity of marriage, the spouse and the child. It recognizes the personhood of the child and that the child is a gift to be received and not an object to which a person has a "right". Unlike IVF, a child conceived through NaPro TECHNOLOGY does not have embryonic siblings that have been frozen, discarded, selectively aborted or experimented upon. Neither does NaPro TECHNOLOGY come with IVF's risk of multiple pregnancies or premature birth. The success rate of NaPro TECHNOLOGY is up to 80% and it is nearly three times more effective than IVF depending on the underlying condition.


    • Chen, the conscience of China

      by Steve Mosher 
      Wed May 09, 2012 13:23 EST

      LIFE NEWS ARTICLE LINK

      Stephen Mosher
       
      May 9, 2012 (pop.org) - I was going to devote this article to my recent trip to New Zealand, where I gave seven talks to a total of over 3,000 people. But then a blind Chinese human rights activist named Chen Guangcheng escaped from house arrest, and my phone began to ring off the hook.

      The media wanted to know what I thought of this case, so similar to my own. You see, Chen originally got in trouble in the same manner that I did: by reporting on forced abortions and forced sterilizations being carried out by Communist Party officials in the village he was living in.

      Of course, our experiences were widely separated in space and time. I was living in the far south of China in 1980 when the one-child policy was first imposed upon the peasants of the Pearl River Delta. Chen was living in the far northern province of Shandung in 2005 when that same policy, some 25 years later, resulted in the arrest and abortion of thousands of women in his county alone.

      We were both arrested for our trouble, but here the similarities end. I was held for three days and then released, largely due to my get-out-jail-free card—also known as a U.S. Passport.

      Click ‘like’ if you are PRO-LIFE! 

      Chen, on the other hand, was a subject of the People’s Republic of China. He was arrested, brought before a kangaroo court, and sentenced to four years in prison for “disturbing the public order.” Thereafter he was put under “house arrest,” without even the pretense of a trial. Up to a hundred security personnel patrolled the streets of his village to make sure he was kept sequestered and silent.

      A self-taught country lawyer selflessly trying to help his fellow citizens would be a sympathetic figure to many Chinese. Add to this the fact that he is blind, is the father of two small children, and has been jailed by corrupt officials on trumped up charges.

      But what makes him an iconic figure to his countryman is his exposé of the one-child policy.

      Bear in mind that almost every Chinese family has been impacted in some way by the loss of a loved one because of the one-child per family policy. Virtually everyone in China is missing a son or a daughter, or a brother or a sister because some Communist Party hack found out that their wife or mother was pregnant with an “illegal” second or third child, arrested them for the “crime” of being pregnant, and took them in against their will for an abortion.

      Chen documented 7,000 such cases, taking down the names and addresses of those women who were victimized, as well as the particulars of the officials who committed these crimes.

      Now you can see why the Chinese Communist Party is so eager to silence Chen. Not only has he exposed their crimes against the Chinese people, he has at least the potential to generate massive protests against the brutal one-child policy.

      No wonder he is being called China’s Sakharov. Like Sakharov, he has courageously spoken truth to power, and has become the conscience of the Chinese people where forced abortions and forced sterilizations are concerned. Like Sakharov, he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize.

      Update: As of today, May 8, Chen has said by phone that he is hopeful he and his family will be allowed to travel to the U.S. And Vice President Biden has expressed the same hope, stating, “We expect the Chinese to stick to that commitment.” But Chen fears that his remaining relatives in China will suffer reprisals.
       
      The Beatrice Watson-Acheson Foundation
      4740 Dunning Rd.,
      Navan, ON, K4B 1J1
      (613) 835-4201

      'Sensitivity and Reverence for all Life'