Catholic News 2
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) -- The latest on Tonya Couch, the mother of a Texas teen who used an "affluenza" defense in a drunken wreck (all times local):...
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that Florida's unique system for sentencing people to death is unconstitutional because it gives too much power to judges - and not enough to juries - to decide capital sentences....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The White House is promising a nontraditional address for President Barack Obama's final State of the Union. But, no, don't look for him to slow-jam Tuesday's speech or rap it....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama says Donald Trump is waging a White House campaign based on "simplistic solutions and scapegoating."...
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) -- A new report by a federal watchdog outlines a history of harassment on river trips through Grand Canyon National Park in which male park employees allegedly propositioned female colleagues for sex, touched them inappropriately and made lewd comments....
BEIRUT (AP) -- Syria's official news agency says the army has seized "full control" of a strategic rebel-held town in the northwestern province of Latakia, a stronghold of President Bashar Assad....
ISTANBUL (AP) -- A suicide bomber affiliated with the Islamic State group detonated a bomb in a historic district of Istanbul popular with tourists Tuesday morning, killing at least 10 people - nine of them German tourists - and wounding 15 others, Turkish officials said....
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Monday afternoon received the first copy of the Italian edition of his book-length interview with journalist Andrea Tornielli, entitled The Name of God is Mercy. Marina Berlusconi, the President of the Mondadori Group, hand delivered the book to the Holy Father in the Casa Santa Marta. Also present were Andrea Tornielli, the Vatican correspondent for the newspaper La Stampa, who also edits the newspaper’s Vatican Insider website; Ernesto Mauri, the chief executive of the Mondadori Group; Enrico Selva Codde, managing director of Mondadori books; as well as other representatives of Mondadori and the Piemme imprint.The book was officially released on Tuesday, and is available in Italian, English, French, German, Spanish and Portuguese. During the interview, Pope Francis answered 40 questions, which have been divided into 9 chapters.
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Monday afternoon received the first copy of the Italian edition of his book-length interview with journalist Andrea Tornielli, entitled The Name of God is Mercy.
Marina Berlusconi, the President of the Mondadori Group, hand delivered the book to the Holy Father in the Casa Santa Marta. Also present were Andrea Tornielli, the Vatican correspondent for the newspaper La Stampa, who also edits the newspaper’s Vatican Insider website; Ernesto Mauri, the chief executive of the Mondadori Group; Enrico Selva Codde, managing director of Mondadori books; as well as other representatives of Mondadori and the Piemme imprint.
The book was officially released on Tuesday, and is available in Italian, English, French, German, Spanish and Portuguese. During the interview, Pope Francis answered 40 questions, which have been divided into 9 chapters.
(Vatican Radio) The Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano remembered David Bowie in its Tuesday edition, saying the influential rock star was “never banal.”David Bowie died from cancer on Sunday, at the age of sixty-nine. His 25th album – Blackstar – was released just two days before his death.The newspaper noted Bowie’s five decade career “combined rock music with an artistic rigour” which seemed to contradict the “ambiguous image” he used early in his career to “attract the attention of the media.”“One might even say that, beyond the apparent excesses, the legacy of David Bowie” – the article reads – “is surrounded by its own sort of personal sobriety, expressed even in his lean – almost threadlike – physique.”The newspaper went on to say Bowie was “never dull,” and credited his frequent incursions in other art forms such as painting, the...
(Vatican Radio) The Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano remembered David Bowie in its Tuesday edition, saying the influential rock star was “never banal.”
David Bowie died from cancer on Sunday, at the age of sixty-nine. His 25th album – Blackstar – was released just two days before his death.
The newspaper noted Bowie’s five decade career “combined rock music with an artistic rigour” which seemed to contradict the “ambiguous image” he used early in his career to “attract the attention of the media.”
“One might even say that, beyond the apparent excesses, the legacy of David Bowie” – the article reads – “is surrounded by its own sort of personal sobriety, expressed even in his lean – almost threadlike – physique.”
The newspaper went on to say Bowie was “never dull,” and credited his frequent incursions in other art forms such as painting, theatre and cinema, with his maturity as an artist.
The article specifically mentioned the song “Heroes” – dedicated to the children of a divided Berlin – as “a real gem.”
The President of the Pontifical Council for Culture, Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, also paid tribute to Bowie.
He tweeted lyrics from the rock star’s earliest hit, “Space Oddity.”
The tweet reads:
“Ground Control to Major Tom
Commencing countdown,
engines on
Check ignition
and may God's love be with you (David Bowie)”
Washington D.C., Jan 12, 2016 / 02:22 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Surrogate pregnancy is back in the news with two high profile cases where two different surrogate mothers of triplets rejected requests to have abortions. And one organization is responding by saying the practice is so unethical it should be banned.“The problems with surrogacy aren’t limited just to here in the U.S. – they’re universal,” said Christopher White, director of research and education at the California-based Center for Bioethics and Culture.White’s organization advocates for a complete ban on surrogacy. He said surrogacy “commodifies human life” and exploits women, especially those from a low socio-economic status. “It’s indistinguishable from the buying and selling of life,” he told CNA Jan. 8. “Many of the children conceived through surrogacy can’t help but to feel as if they are mere products and that they were brought into exist...
Washington D.C., Jan 12, 2016 / 02:22 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Surrogate pregnancy is back in the news with two high profile cases where two different surrogate mothers of triplets rejected requests to have abortions. And one organization is responding by saying the practice is so unethical it should be banned.
“The problems with surrogacy aren’t limited just to here in the U.S. – they’re universal,” said Christopher White, director of research and education at the California-based Center for Bioethics and Culture.
White’s organization advocates for a complete ban on surrogacy. He said surrogacy “commodifies human life” and exploits women, especially those from a low socio-economic status.
“It’s indistinguishable from the buying and selling of life,” he told CNA Jan. 8. “Many of the children conceived through surrogacy can’t help but to feel as if they are mere products and that they were brought into existence simply through a commercial exchange and a contract. Surrogacy intentionally severs the maternal bond, which in every other form of pregnancy is encouraged.”
His comments come after two surrogate mothers spoke out against abortion requests from their babies’ biological parents.
California resident Melissa Cook, 47, has filed a lawsuit in a Los Angeles court against her state’s surrogacy law. She charged the law violates her constitutional rights.
She had agreed to be a surrogate for a 50-year-old man in Georgia. She is now 23 weeks pregnant with three boys. According to Cook’s lawsuit, filed Jan. 4, the man asked her to undergo “selective reduction” and abort one of the babies. The lawsuit claims he cited concerns about his finances and the health of the babies.
“I am pro-life and I am not having an abortion,” Cook said, according to legal documents.
“I no longer view surrogacy arrangements in the same favorable light I once did,” she told the Washington Post. “I have a deep empathy for men who want children. However, I now think that the basic concept of surrogacy arrangements must be re-examined, scrutinized and reconsidered.”
California law allows paid surrogacy, compensating a woman in addition to medical costs and other expenses.
Cook’s lawsuit aims to establish her as the legal mother of the triplets. She wants parental rights over the third child and a custody hearing for the two others. She has requested a declaration that she cannot be sued for refusing an abortion.
Judith Daar, chairman of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine’s Ethics Committee, told the Washington Post it would be unlikely that a court would grant Cook parental rights. Daar added that the woman’s request for protection against a lawsuit is a new issue that has not been addressed by the courts.
"I now think that the basic concept of surrogacy arrangements must be re-examined, scrutinized and reconsidered.”
Although most surrogacy agreements contain an “abortion clause” in which a parent can request an abortion, Daar said it is not enforceable.
The man’s lawyer, Robert Walmsley, told the Washington Post that doctors had told the man that there were major risks in multiple births and this motivated his suggestion that Cook undergo a selective abortion, not convenience.
“Believe me, it crushed him to make that call or request,” the attorney said.
Cook challenged this account, saying the man initially told her he could not raise all three children.
Walmsley said the biological father has since accepted Cook’s decision and has said he will raise all three children.
Another California woman, Brittneyrose Torres, is a surrogate about 17 weeks into her pregnancy. She told the New York Post her surrogacy contract paid $25,000 for carrying one child and an extra $5,000 for carrying two or more children. The 26-year-old woman was implanted with a male and a female embryo. The male embryo split into twins.
The biological parents then asked her to abort the unborn girl about 12 weeks into her pregnancy, citing concerns about increased health risks.
“I emailed my doctors. There were no abnormalities,” Torres told the New York Post. She recounted a conversation with the babies’ biological mother.
“I told her I couldn’t abort one of the children,” she said. “I could not emotionally and physically do that at nearly 13 weeks. I believe it will be killing this baby.”
Torres said the couple refused her offer to adopt the girl.
Andrew Vorzimer, an attorney for the babies’ biological parents, told the Washington Post that the situation has been resolved. He said the biological parents had suggested the abortion for the unborn girl because it was medically easier, as the male babies were in the same gestational sac. According to Vorzimer, the mother had initially agreed to an abortion but later refused.
For surrogacy critics like White, there are hopes the latest stories will spark action.
“We’re hoping that legislators and the general public alike will take a serious look at this practice and the harms involved,” he said.
Surrogacy law in the U.S. is “a patchwork of legislation,” White said. “Some states explicitly allow it, others ban it, and in many areas the law is simple grey – which makes the legal protection for surrogate mothers equally ambiguous.”
He added that surrogate-conceived children face significant health risks including low birth weights, general development difficulties, and an increased likelihood of stillbirths.
“Surrogate mothers are enticed with large sums of money that coerce them to act against their best interests,” White charged. “This in itself corrupts the notion of informed consent within the medical profession.”
In developing countries some women are forced into the practice by their husbands to help pay family expenses.
White said that last fall in Idaho, a surrogate mother pregnant with twins died from complications. He accused the media and government authorities of turning a blind eye.
“What will it take for people to start paying attention and for laws to be changed?” he asked.
Photo credit: K3S via www.shutterstock.com
