World Family Policy Center Newsletter
*News relative to
protecting the family worldwide*
Volume 7 Issue 141 - February
20, 2007
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Quote of the
Day: “Government is not reason, it is
not eloquence,
it is force; like fire, a
troublesome servant and a fearful master. Never
for a moment should it be
left to irresponsible action.”
—George Washington, in commeration of his birthday February 22
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Today’s Contents:
A. Featured Scholar: Shirley E. Cox, Ph.D., DSW, Professor School of
Social Work, Brigham Young University
B. Featured News Articles
1.
US Supreme Court asked to decide legal battle between states over same-sex unions
Related
Article: Gay Activists Decry Michigan Court Ruling
Related
Article: Benefits for gay couples start in N.J.
Related Article: ELCA urged to obey scripture regarding
homosexuality
2. McCain says Roe v. Wade should be overturned
Related
Article: Mental health expert highlights abortion's impact on men 3.
Death for dollars? Ukrainian infants likely killed to harvest stem cells
4. Women will be paid to donate eggs for science
5. Romney
defends opposition to stem cell research despite wife's illness
6. Sexualized Girlhood Tied to Mental, Physical Risks,
Report Says
7.
Stop meddling with our Ten Commandments monument, Dixie County tells ACLU
C. Coming Events
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FEATURED SCHOLAR
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Shirley E. Cox, Ph.D., DSW, Professor School
of Social Work, Brigham Young University, Licensed Clinical Social Worker,
former President of The National
Association of Social Workers
Dr. Cox has presented papers to international audiences for the past
several years. Her work has contributed
significantly to the preservation of the family. Following is one of her papers which was read
by Professor Richard Wilkins at the Cross-Cultural Dialogue on Family and Youth
in Beijing, China, 2006
PARENTS AND THE SEXUAL
EDUCATION OF ADOLESCENTS
By Shirley E. Cox, DSW; Wendy
W. Sheffield, MSW; Richard G. Wilkins, J.D.,
Angelea Panos PhD LCSW,
Patrick Panos, PhD LCSW; & Marya Reed, J.D.
The World Family Policy
Center, Brigham Young University
Introduction and Abstract
Sexual conduct is a crucially
important component of human social behavior.
Such conduct is intimately related to physical and emotional health and
influences outcomes across a broad range of social and economic factors. Over the past four decades, social mores associated
with sexuality have relaxed, resulting in broader social acceptance of
behaviors that were once discouraged (such as multiple sexual partners,
abortion and bearing children outside of marriage). With the advent of the internet, sexually
related materials (including explicit pornography) are widely available. As a result, the proper training of
adolescents regarding sexual matters, including HIV/AIDs and other sexually
transmitted diseases, has become a matter of extreme importance.
The Authors have developed a
family and community-based program that educates children regarding sexually
transmitted diseases and empowers them with the attitudes and skills needed to
remain disease-free. The program, called Stay Alive, goes beyond
technical instruction regarding the use of condoms. Instead, the goal of the program is to make a
lasting difference in the life of each child by increasing personal decision
making skills, improving family communication and support, and providing the
foundation necessary to live a long, hopeful and loving life.
To read the entire
paper: http://worldfamilypolicy.org/parents_sexual_education.pdf
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FEATURED
NEWS ARTICLES
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1. US Supreme Court asked to decide legal
battle between states over same-sex
unions
Allie Martin and Jeff Johnson
OneNewsNow.com
February 13, 2007
The question of whether one state can be forced to
recognize the same-sex civil unions of another state -- even when the first
state's citizens have voted overwhelmingly against civil unions and homosexual
"marriage" -- will come before the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Christian public-interest law firm Liberty Counsel
is asking the high court to take two cases known as Miller v.Jenkins. They pit
Virginia law, which does not recognize same-sex unions, against Vermont law,
which does.
The cases involve Lisa Miller, her biological child,
and Janet Jenkins, Miller's former homosexual partner. Miller and Jenkins
traveled to Vermont to obtain a civil union while living together in Virginia.
Miller gave birth to a child through artificial insemination.
The relationship ended when Miller became a Christian
and left the homosexual lifestyle, after which Jenkins allegedly became
abusive. Miller now lives with her daughter in Virginia.
Vermont courts declared that Jenkins had parental
rights over the child equal to those of Miller and ordered visitation. In what
she described as an effort to protect her daughter from the immoral influence
of her former lesbian partner, Miller defied the order. She is relying on
Virginia law, which does not recognize any rights Jenkins claims, because the
former couple's Vermont civil union is invalid in Virginia, and because Jenkins
made no effort to adopt the child.
To read entire article:
http://www.onenewsnow.com/2007/02/us_supreme_court_asked_to_deci.php
Related Article: Gay Activists Decry
Michigan Court Ruling
CitizenLink
February 12, 2007
A Michigan appeals-court decision prohibiting public
universities and state and local governments from providing health-insurance
benefits to same-sex partners has gay activists up in arms. They're worried it
might adversely affect 17 other states with similar bans.
While 27 states have constitutional amendments
defining marriage as only between one man and one woman, 18 also prohibit legal
recognition of civil unions or same-sex partnerships.
Sean Kosofsky, director of policy for the Triangle
Foundation, said he was disappointed that the court made the connection.
"This is the first appellate court in the nation
to ever say that health insurance gay and lesbian couples receive are the same
as marriage," he told Family News in Focus.
Monte Stewart, president of the Marriage Law
Foundation, said keeping the issue out of the courts has been one of the goals
of the gay activism.
"Gay and lesbian advocates have been very
careful," he said, "because they believe that the federal courts will
not be sympathetic to their situation and they do not want to create adverse
precedent."
To read entire article:
http://www.citizenlink.org/CLNews/A000003874.cfm
Related Article: Benefits for gay couples
start in N.J.
By Nick Petruncio
USA Today
N.J. — Five gay couples filed civil union applications
in the predawn hours Monday in Asbury Park, N.J., as the state law enacted to
give gay couples the same rights as heterosexual ones without calling the
relationship a marriage went into effect at midnight.
The city was one of a handful of New Jersey
municipalities that opened its records offices in the early morning hours so
gay couples could apply for licenses and start the required 72-hour waiting
period before a civil union ceremony could take place.
"There aren't words to describe how happy we are.
It's time for this," said Brett Noorigian, a 31-year-old who came to City
Hall with his partner of eight years, Sean O'Dea, 32.
Noorigian called the law a step toward marriage
equality.
The New Jersey Supreme Court in October ruled that gay
couples in the state were constitutionally entitled to all the benefits of
marriage, but left it up to lawmakers to decide the details. Instead of
following Massachusetts, the only state that allows gay couples to marry, the
state legislature chose to offer civil unions, as Vermont and Connecticut
permit.
To read entire article:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-02-18-nj-civil-unions_x.htm
Related Article: ELCA urged to obey
scripture regarding homosexuality
Allie Martin
OneNewsNow.com
February 12, 2007
The president of the Institute on Religion and
Democracy (IRD) says it's disappointing that leaders of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America want to change church guidelines so an open homosexual
can continue serving as a pastor.
Last week, a discipline hearing committee of the ELCA
ruled that Bradley Schmeling be removed from the denomination's clergy roster
on August 15. Under ELCA guidelines, Schmeling cannot serve as a pastor because
he has a homosexual partner. However, the discipline hearing committee said the
policy regarding homosexual clergy is flawed, and should be changed at the
denomination's meeting, which takes place before the deadline for Schmeling's
removal.
IRD president Jim Tonkowich says the ELCA has rejected
the biblical view on homosexuality. "That's departure not only from
scripture," Tonkowich offers, "but from 2,000 years of Christian
tradition and teaching about sexuality, about maleness and femaleness, about
marriage -- and ultimately about the relationship that Christ has with His
church."
Tonkowich explains that the fifth chapter of Ephesians
portrays marriage, above all else, as a picture of the relationship that Christ
has with His church. "That's distorted in same-sex relationships," he
continues, "and the church needs to uphold marriage between one man and
one woman."
To read entire article:
http://www.onenewsnow.com/2007/02/elca_urged_to_obey_scripture.php
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2.
Related Article: McCain says Roe v. Wade should
be overturned
MSNBC
February 19, 2007
Spartanburg, S.C. - Republican presidential candidate
John McCain, looking to improve his standing with the party’s conservative voters,
said Sunday the court decision that legalized abortion should be overturned.
“I do not support Roe versus Wade. It should be
overturned,” the Arizona senator told about 800 people in South Carolina, one
of the early voting states.
McCain also vowed that if elected, he would appoint
judges who “strictly interpret the Constitution of the United States and do not
legislate from the bench.”
The landmark 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade gave women
the right to choose an abortion to terminate a pregnancy. The Supreme Court has
narrowly upheld the decision, with the presence of an increasing number of more
conservative justices on the court raising the possibility that abortion rights
would be limited.
Social conservatives are a critical voting bloc in the
GOP presidential primaries.
To read entire article:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17222147/
Related Article: Mental health expert
highlights abortion's impact on men
Jim Brown and Jody Brown
OneNewsNow.com
February 19, 2007
A campus psychiatrist at UCLA is drawing attention to
the only study she has found on young men's responses to abortion. Those men,
she asserts, are part of a group of abortion victims who have been essentially
"invisible" to those in her profession. Mental health professionals,
she says, need to stop ignoring the reality that abortion leaves emotional
scars.
The study on men's responses to abortion was not
conducted by a mental health professional, but rather a sociologist and academic
by the name of Dr. Arthur Shostak. Shostak surveyed 1,000 men sitting in the
waiting rooms of abortion facilities across the U.S. and found that 80 percent
of those men indicated that that had been the longest and darkest day of their
life.
Dr. Miriam Grossman, a psychiatrist at UCLA's student
health service, says Shostak then followed those men for months, and even some
for years.
"The numbers went up [over that time]," she
observes. "The number of men who reported that day feeling some guilt and
some ambivalence about what they were doing; the number of men who were asked
'Do you think that in the future you might have some troubling thoughts about
this?' -- the percentages went up." Adds Grossman: "So a few years
afterwards, they were reporting that it was worse than they had
anticipated."
Grossman says men's reactions to abortion have been
ignored by her colleagues in the mental health field. "There is a
significant number of people who do have those scars and that
painfulness," she says, "and if we are going to be open to victims of
every sort, then we in mental health need to be acknowledging them even if they
don't advance a particular ideology."
In fact, commenting on his research, Dr. Shostak has
suggested the professional counseling community adopt what he calls a
"pro-couple approach to the abortion challenge" that can help those
who have abortions recover from "an experience from which they are never
quite the same." According to Grossman, Shostak conducted the research
because he went through an abortion as a grad student and has wondered ever
since what would have happened had he and his partner decided differently.
To read entire article:
http://www.onenewsnow.com/2007/02/mental_health_expert_highlight.php
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3. Death for dollars? Ukrainian infants
likely killed to harvest stem cells
Rebecca Grace
OneNewsNow.com
February 17, 2007
Evidence from a video obtained by the BBC points to
the stomach-churning possibility that healthy babies born in a Ukrainian
maternity hospital were taken their mothers and then murdered so that large
amounts of stem cells could be harvested from their brains and bone marrow. A
spokesman for the hospital denies it is connected in any way with the use of
stem cells -- but one Ukrainian couple never saw their newborn daughter again
after being told all was well and then told later she had died.
In the Ukraine, investigators are exploring the
possibility that healthy infants and preborns were killed for stem-cell
experimentation. It is speculated that the babies' organs were extracted after
allegedly being stolen from mothers by staff at Maternity Hospital Number Six
in the eastern city of Kharkov.
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) claims to have
a video showing the autopsy examination of 30 infants and fetuses that were
exhumed from a cemetery used by the Ukrainian maternity hospital. The video was
also turned over to the Council of Europe who is now carrying out its own
investigation as a response to about 300 families who are coming forward with
charges against the hospital for allegedly taking and killing their newborns.
Pictures from the autopsies reveal tiny dismembered
bodies with missing organs and brains. Since dismemberment of bodies is not a
standard post-mortem practice, it is likely the babies were harvested for the
high amounts of stem cells in their brains and bone marrow.
It is a recognized practice in the Ukraine, the
stem-cell capital of the world, to take stem cells from aborted fetuses with
the mothers' consent. Due to the increasing worldwide demand for stem cells, it
is possible healthy newborns are now being used to feed this demand. These
healthy babies mysteriously "die" following a successful birth.
Such is likely the case for Ukrainian couple Dimitry
and Olena Stulnev who had their baby at Maternity Hospital Number Six. "I
gave birth to a healthy girl," Olena told the Daily Mail. "She was
crying and moving her hands and legs. I was shown the baby. After that the girl
was taken away. They told me everything was OK, and I could see her the next
day."
Olena never saw her baby again. She was told the next
day that her baby was dead and given conflicting stories as to the reason for
the child's death. The couple began investigating the death of their child but
got nowhere. The more they pried, the less information they got.
Even today, Ukrainian authorities and hospital staff
remain tight-lipped about the suspected use of newborns for stem-cell research.
To read entire article:
http://www.onenewsnow.com/2007/02/death_for_dollars_ukrainian_in.php
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4. Women will be paid to donate eggs for
science
Denis Campbell, social affairs correspondent
The Observer
February 18, 2007
Women will be paid to donate their eggs for scientific
research in a landmark decision that will prompt a fierce backlash from leading
figures in the medical world.
The Human Fertility and Embryology Authority (HFEA),
the government regulator of this highly sensitive area, is expected to approve
the policy when it meets on Wednesday. At present, clinics are not allowed to
accept eggs donated for scientific research unless they are a byproduct of
either IVF treatment or sterilisation. Campaigners for change say that this has
led to a chronic shortage of eggs for scientific use.
The HFEA's influential Ethics and Law Committee has
already privately recommended the controversial switch, and the authority is
expected to follow this recommendation. The committee based its opinion on a
64-page report, seen by The Observer, summarising the arguments. 'The potential
scientific gains outweigh the objections,' said one source closely involved in
the decision.
The authority will argue that allowing women to donate
eggs more generally for scientific use may help stem cell researchers to find
cures for heart problems, infertility, diabetes, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
Women who go through the medical procedure to harvest
the eggs from their ovaries, which doctors describe as 'invasive' and possibly
dangerous, will be paid £250 plus travel expenses, the existing maximum
compensation for any egg or sperm donor. Anyone agreeing to donate will have to
show that they are acting for altruistic reasons, for example because they have
a close relative suffering with one of the conditions scientists are trying to
develop new treatments for with the aid of human eggs.
But scientists from the University of Padua in Italy
have warned that women who donate their eggs for research could be at risk from
life-threatening side effects induced by the powerful drugs administered to
them. The drugs help to increase the number of eggs produced and were found by
the scientists to cause paralysis and could lead to limb amputation and even
death.
There were also warnings last night that poor women
could be tempted or coerced into taking part for the money. 'The HFEA could be
unwittingly opening the door to barter or sale of eggs, including women in
Britain as well as abroad, even though it is saying that women doing this would
do so for purely altruistic reasons,' said Donna Dickenson, emeritus professor
of medical ethics and humanities at the University of London and one of
Britain's leading experts on the issue.
'The sum of £250 would still be enough of an
inducement for women from eastern Europe, for example, to come to Britain to
sell their eggs. That's clearly turning eggs into an object of trade and that's
disturbing. Once the principle of egg donation for research is established, it
will become harder to prohibit paid egg donation.'
Some leading scientists have welcomed the HFEA's
expected decision. Professor Peter Braude, head of the department of women's
health at King's College London, said the medical dangers involved in the
process of collecting the eggs should not deter women from offering to help
medical science make potentially significant breakthroughs. There is a low but
well-recognised risk of developing ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome, which can
occur during the extraction of eggs and can damage a woman's fertility and even
cause death.
'Women are intelligent enough to make decisions for
themselves about whether they want to donate eggs for research,' said Braude.
'Why should they be prevented from doing this? They shouldn't be, as long as
they are told about the risks. Women have been donating eggs for more than 20
years, usually those undergoing sterilisation, so the principle isn't new. This
is different because it's volunteering.'
The HFEA, chaired by Shirley Harrison, is set to
approve the policy despite a host of leading scientists voicing a range of
concerns during the consultation process.
Some argued that the putative benefits of stem cell
research had been exaggerated, while others highlighted the medical dangers to
women who undergo the painful and invasive three-stage process to remove the
eggs.
But one leading fertility doctor, who supports the
move and did not want to be named, said there was no reason not to go ahead on
grounds of medical risk because some women already took part in clinical drug
trials for which they received money. Donations for research could lead to
major breakthroughs in the treatment of infertility, he said.
To read entire article:
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0%2C%2C2015789%2C00.html#article_continue
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5. Romney defends opposition to stem cell
research despite wife's illness
By Henry C. Jackson
Associated Press
February 20, 2007
SIOUX CITY, Iowa — Republican presidential candidate Mitt
Romney on Monday defended his opposition to most embryonic stem cell research
despite its scientific promise to cure diseases like multiple sclerosis that
afflicts his wife, Ann.
In an interview with The Associated Press, the former
Massachusetts governor said he was confident that research on adult stem cells
and the existing embryonic stem cell lines could eventually provide the medical
answers.
"I believe that science is able to receive the
stem cells necessary for research through means that don't represent a serious,
moral problem," Romney said.
Scientists say embryonic stem cells hold the most
promise and the research may eventually lead to treatment and perhaps cures for
diseases such as Parkinson's and juvenile diabetes. Stem cells are created in
the first days after conception, but some people such as social conservatives
and President Bush oppose the research because days-old embryos — usually left
over from fertility treatments — are destroyed in the effort to isolate the
cells.
In August 2001, Bush restricted government funding to
research using only the embryonic stem cell lines then in existence, groups of
stem cells kept alive and propagating in lab dishes. Only about 21 of those
lines are available for study, most created in ways that preclude use in
humans.
Romney favors work on those lines and said if elected,
he would increase funds for research of adult stem cells.
"It avoids all of the moral concerns and
therefore presents scientific opportunity without moral dilemma," he said.
"And I found no one to dispute the potential of such avenues of
exploration that was able to convince me that these did not have merit."
To read entire article:
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,660196985,00.html ..................
6. Sexualized Girlhood Tied to Mental,
Physical Risks, Report Says
By Elizabeth Lopatto
Bloomberg News
February 19, 2007
Girls are sexualized ``in virtually every form of
media,'' leading to emotional and self-image problems that include eating
disorders and depression, according to the American Psychological Association.
Dolls and thongs sold at outlets for children, as well
as highly sexualized portrayals in magazines, on TV and in advertising, are
``creating an environment in which being female becomes nearly synonymous with
being a sexual object,'' said a report made public today by a task force of
psychologists.
If a girl identifies herself as being primarily a
sexual object, both her academic performance and her mental health suffers, the
group said. The report linked that identification with increases in the use of
plastic surgery, smoking in teenaged girls and failure to use condoms during
sex.
``What's disturbing is the extent to which we have
allowed the culture to sell to our daughters such a narrow view of what they're
worth and what they're valuable for,'' said Tomi-Ann Roberts, a professor at
Colorado College in Colorado Springs and a co-author of the report, in a
telephone interview today.
To read entire article:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=awZH5UqOacA0
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7. Stop meddling with our Ten
Commandments monument, Dixie County tells ACLU
By Jim Stratton
Orlando Sentinel
February 19 2007
CROSS CITY · In the piney flatlands of Dixie County, a
place where churches easily outnumber traffic lights, Florida's latest battle
between God and government is being fought on the steps of a 40-year-old
courthouse.
At the top of the steps stands a six-ton piece of
granite inscribed with the Ten Commandments and the admonition, "Love God
and Keep His Commandments."
The massive gray monument, approved by county
commissioners and installed last November, is the target of a lawsuit brought
by the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU says the display is
unconstitutional because it violates a provision in the First Amendment prohibiting
the government from establishing a preferred religion.
But what ACLU lawyers see as a violation of law, many
locals see as a fitting tribute to the county's Christian heritage. And those
locals aren't happy.
"I don't think they have the right to come in
here and tell us what to do," said Wanda Wester, 68, a Dixie County
native. "We all believe in God. If they don't like it, they can stay
away." . . . .
[L]ocal business leaders last year approached county
commissioners with a question: Would elected officials allow a Ten Commandments
monument to be placed on the courthouse steps if private donations covered the
cost? After the county attorney offered to defend any lawsuit for free,
commissioners signed off on the plan. The monument, carved to resemble two
stone tablets, was unveiled in November.
To read entire article:
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/florida/sfl-fcommandmentsfeb19,0,3502573.story?coll=sfla-news-florida
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COMING
EVENTS
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U.N.
COMMISSION ON THE STATUS OF WOMEN (fifty-first session)
26
February to 9 March 2007
New
York
The Commission on
the Status of Women is a functional commission of the United Nations Economic
and Social Council (ECOSOC), dedicated exclusively to gender equality and
advancement of women. It is the principal global policy-making body. Every
year, representatives of Member States gather at United Nations Headquarters in
New York to evaluate progress on gender equality, identify challenges, set
global standards and formulate concrete policies to promote gender equality and
advancement of women worldwide.
For more
information:
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/
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WORLD
CONGRESS OF FAMILIES IV
Warsaw,
Poland - May 11-13, 2007
Meeting in
Rockford, Illinois (October 23-25, 2005), a planning committee of the World
Congress of Families chose Warsaw, Poland as the site of the 4th World
Congress. The Warsaw Congress will be held May 11-13, 2007 in the Palace of
Culture and Science.
The Polish
Federation of Pro-Life Movements, an organization with over 130 affiliates
throughout the nation, will serve as the local host for WCF IV.
The Congress theme
will be “The Natural Family: Springtime for Europe and the World.” Sub-themes will include:
1. We Will Renew Cultures of Marriage
2. We Will Celebrate More Babies and
Larger Families
3. We Will Nurture Free, Vital, and
Productive Homes.
For more
information: Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
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Note: The Featured
Articles excerpts are highlights of current events and
do not necessarily
represent the views of the World Family Policy Center
or Brigham Young
University.
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Newsletter created
and distributed by:
World Family Policy
Center (www.worldfamilypolicy.org)
J. Reuben Clark Law
School
Brigham Young
University
Acting Managing
Director: A. Scott Loveless
Newsletter
Editors: Joy S. Lundberg and Gary B.
Lundberg
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articles, editorials, or papers you would like
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