August 2010 Newsletter
Posted By cmbuuck on August 10, 2010
40 Days for Life—David Bereit…Ever since 40 Days for Life grew into a national – and then international – movement, beginning back in 2007, we have been blessed to see:
- More than 2,800 lives saved from abortion…
- Thirty-eight abortion workers experience conversions and leave the abortion industry…
- FIVE abortion centers have gone out of business following 40 Days for Life campaigns outside their doors.
The National Women’s Health Abortion Center in Raleigh, North Carolina – outside of which 40 Days for Life campaigns have been conducted — is no longer doing abortions as of June 26th.
Study: Stem Cells Reverse Some Blindness—Alicia Chang of The Associated Press…Dozens of people who were blinded or otherwise suffered severe eye damage when they were splashed with caustic chemicals had their sight restored with transplants of their own stem cells – a stunning success for the burgeoning cell-therapy field, Italian researchers reported Wednesday.
The treatment worked completely in 82 of 107 eyes and partially in 14, with benefits lasting up to a decade so far. One man whose eyes were severely damaged more than 60 years ago now has near-normal vision. Stem cell transplants offer hope to the thousands of people worldwide every year who suffer chemical burns on their corneas from heavy-duty cleansers or other substances at work or at home.
The approach would not help people with damage to the optic nerve or macular degeneration which involves the retina. Nor would it work in people who are completely blind in both eyes, because doctors need at least some healthy tissue that they can transplant.
In the study, published online by the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers took a small number of stem cells from a patient’s healthy eye, multiplied then in the lab and placed them into the burned eye, where they were able to grow new corneal tissue to replace what had been damaged. Since the stem cells are from their own bodies, the patients do not need to take anti-rejection drugs.
Adult stem cells have been used for decades to cure blood cancers such as leukemia and diseases like sickle cell anemia. But fixing a problem like damaged eyes is a relatively new use. Researchers have been studying cell therapy for a host of other diseases, including diabetes and heart failure, with limited success.
Adult stem cells are different from embryonic stem cells, which come from human embryos and have stirred ethical concerns because removing the cells requires destroying the embryos.
Currently, people with eye burns can get an artificial cornea, a procedure that carries such complications as infection and glaucoma, or they can receive a transplant using stem cells from a cadaver, but that requires taking drugs to prevent rejection.
The Italian study involved 106 patients treated between 1998 and 2007.
Information on the Opt-Out Indiana Campaign—The new federal health care law, known as Obamacare, requires federal agencies to subsidize and administer health plans that will pay for abortions.
The law also opens the door to direct federal funding of abortion in Community Health Centers, hundreds of which are operated by Planned Parenthood – the nations (and Indiana’s) largest abortion provider. The Executive order signed by President Obama cannot overrule the abortion impact of the law.
States are allowed to opt-out of abortion coverage in the state-based insurance “exchanges” created by the law. This does not correct all of the Obamacare abortion problems, but it does address what can be done at the state level in relation to mandatory health care exchanges. Opt-out legislation cannot be introduced until January of 2011. If you have an opportunity to sign a petition (and are so inclined), please do it so that Governor Daniels and members of the Indiana General Assembly will know that thousands of Hoosiers want Indiana to opt-out of subsidizing abortions through man-dated health care exchanges. If you would like more information or petitions, go to www.irtl.org.
Life Quote – “God gave you life. Job reminds us that God shaped and formed you in the womb like a potter shaping and forming a vessel (Job 10:8) As a vessel belongs to the potter, so you belong to God.”