Science Daily reports: Reprogrammed amniotic fluid cells can generate all types of body cells. High hopes rest on stem cells: one day, they may be used to treat many diseases. To date, embryos are the main source of these cells, but this raises ethical problems. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin have now managed to convert amniotic [...]
Today is the day we send the dead tree version of the paper to the printer. It's always crazy around here when we are finishing up so there is no time to blog. You can subscribe to the paper edition of The Interim here. We are still honouring the out-dated two years for the price of one promotion.
I just completed my story on Pope Benedict's comments on condoms for our December issue. I wish I could have included these comments by Fr. Roger J. Landry, but we didnt' have room in our jam-packed Christmas edition: Pope Benedict in his response also states that, while in an individual case the use of a condom in an immoral circumstance may open someone [...]
Blazing Cat Fur is being sued for a half-million dollars for linking to a Mark Steyn article by, you guessed it. And yes, you read that correctly: $500,000. You can show your support for BCF, the blogger husband to blogger extraordinaire Five Feet of Fury, at a Chanukah party/fundraiser on December 1 organized by JDL. Here's the info: JDL Chanukah Party to [...]
As you read more about the controversy of the Catholic Church supposedly reversing course on condoms, you more you realize there is nothing to the story. Pope Benedict XVI is not promulgating a new teaching on contraception but the moral responsibilities of a dangerous but extremely tiny cohort of the population. Again, I wish he avoided adding ambiguity to a discussion in which [...]
Birthornot.com, as you probably know by now, is the website of the couple who is having the public vote on whether they should keep their unborn baby or kill it through abortion. When you hear about the concept it is extremely offensive, but if you look at the website, you can't but help but think it is a way for a pro-life [...]
There is a new parliamentary committee looking at end-of-life issues. Yeah, I get how boring that sounds, but this story from the November issue is really important: "Parliamentary committee examines palliative care." It is a positive story about the pro-active strategy of Canadian politicians -- not all of them pro-life -- to oppose euthanasia and doctor-assisted suicide rather than always playing defense while reacting to the [...]
LifeSiteNews.com has redesigned their website. Looks very good. Alas, LSN has blogs.
There has been plenty reported in the media over the past day or so about Pope Benedict XVI giving his endorsement of condoms in certain situations based on an excerpt from his forthcoming book, Light of the World. I was going to warn that we should wait for some clarifying remarks before accepting the media line that the Catholic Church has changed [...]
Earlier this week in Ottawa, the Carleton University Students’ Association rescinded the official club status of Carleton Lifeline, a campus pro-life club saying that Lifeline's opposition to abortion violates the student union's Discrimination on Campus Policy which (for some reason) includes upholding “a woman’s right to choose.” In a letter to the club, CUSA said that it would reconsider its decision if Lifeline amended its [...]
WorldNetDaily reports on C-510, the private member's bill before the Canadian Parliament that would outlaw coercive abortion. The story by Michael Carl does a great job of giving background to the bill, MP Rod Bruinooge's motivation for bringing it forward and the opposition by pro-abortionists who hypocritically bark choice while opposing an anti-coercion bill. Whatever problems there are with the bill, it [...]
There are endless arguments within the pro-life movement about incrementalism. I have summed up my own views in an Interim cover story. "How to Chip Away at Abortion" (August 2006). Michael J. New has also written about the effectiveness of incremental laws in saving unborn human lives. Daniel McConchie of Americans United for Life points to another person who thinks incrementalism matters: [...]
Wesley Smith links to a story in the Daily Telegraph about Gunther von Hagens, the entrepreneur who plasticizes dead human beings, a form of "art" popularized in the travelling Body Worlds display. Now von Hagens is selling the skinless bodies and body parts for "scientific" purposes to scientists only. However, as Smith points out, legitimate scientists have legitimate ways to obtain bodies for research [...]
Six Life Prize winners were announced by the Gerard Health Foundation and all six are very deserving winners: Jean Head (UN Representative for National Right to Life); Terri Schiavo Life & Hope Network; Douglas Johnson (legislative director of the National Right to Life Committee); Kristan Hawkins (executive director of Students for Life America); Rev. Alveda King (niece of Martin Luther King Jr. [...]
After several weeks hiatus Harley Price continues his series The Atheist Delusion with his fourth and penultimate post. The best line in his latest offering: The opposition between religion and science has been a longstanding trope of anti-Christian polemic, and by the time that [Richard] Dawkins and [Christopher] Hitchens joined the Church of Atheistic Reason, it was already a hallowed article of faith. [...]