teanc 0 VOL. 40, NO. 28 •
Friday, July 26, 1996
F ALL RIVER, MASS.
FALL RIVER DIOCESAN NEWSPAPER F'OR SOUTHEAST MASSACHUSETTS CAPE COD & THE ISLANDS . , Southeastern Massachusetts' Largest Weekly
•
513 Per Year
Frozen embryos present legal, moral problems
17tn Sumfay
of'
Ortlinarg tI'ime
Index Church & W'orld Daily Readings Editorial
,
Family Fare Necrology Obituary Steering Points Youth New~)
12 5
4 10
11 2 16 14
MANCHESTER, UK(CNS)Aug. I, 1996, will mark a grim day in the history of the British pro-life movement. On that day up to 3,000 frozen embryos are due to be destroyed in fertility clinics across the country. The prospect arises from legislatinn passed by the British Parliament in 1990 that permitted the use of embryos for experimentation, and established rules for the treatment of embryos produced for in vitro fertilization. Parliament agreed that from Aug. I, 1991, embryos could be stored, deep frozen, for a maximum of five years. Parliament has since agreed that thi~ storage limit may be extended, but only with consent of the embryo's parents. Problems arise for fertility clinics which in the past five years have lost contact with their patients. Because they cannot extend the storage period without consent of the patients, thousands of embryos will have to be destroyed or allowed to perish. This has prompted calls from pro-life groups to allow infertile couples to adopt the abandoned embryos, although, as long-term opponents of in-vitro techniques, they could be accused of hypocrisy by seeking the benefits of processes they deplore. The Vatican newespaper, in a lengthy July 22 article on the fate offrozen embryos, noted that some Catholics have proposed that women other than the natural mother adopt the embryos and carry them to term. The article said the i~ea of "prenatal adoption" had the merit of protecting the life of the embryos, and would seem to give more complete significance to the concept of adoption. But such adoption raises other ethical questions, the article said. It may be difficult, for example, to avoid selection of the embryos, or prevent the deliberate production of embryos for adoption, it said. In the end, the solution of adoption might paradoxically end up promoting the very type of embryo manipulation that created the problem, it said. Jack Scarisbrick, chairman of the pro-life group LIFE, has been among those calling for the embryos to be adopted or given to infertile couples. He has also called for British law to be changed to outlaw the freezing of embryos. "Civilized societies should not freeze human beings," he told Catholic News Service in a July 22 telephone interview. "It is incompatible with the dignity of the human being. It is trivializing human life." He has already offered a home to the embryos at a pro-life health . Turn to Page 13
ARCHBISHOP JAMES P. Keleher of Kansas City, Kan., and parish council member Tony Dusil survey the damage to Sacred Hear~ parish in Bonner Springs, Kan., after an intentionally set fire there June 30. Although the Sftcred Heart congregation is white, the fire is being investigated along with other church burnings in predominantly black congregations of the South. (CNS/ Bollig photo)
Nation aids victims of church burnings NEW YORK (CNS) - The Burned Churches Fund of the National Council of Churches has collected more than $7.7 million in cash, in-kind gifts and pledges. Contributions to help congregations rebuild damaged or destroyed houses of worship included pledges from numerous foundations and donations from individuals and churches throughout the country. The NCC has become the clearinghouse for fund drives started by various denominations in response
to publicity about more than 40 fires in predominantly AfricanAmerican churches over the last few years. Federal investigators are looking for racist motivations and other possible links to the fires, which have occurred principally in Southern states. Of the total raised, about $1.55 million has come from 10 foundations, including the Annenberg, Chase Manhattan, General Mills, Helping Hands, John D & Catherine T. MacArthur, Ford, W.K.
Kellog, Charles S. Mott and Rockefeller foundations and the Pew Charitable Trusts. About $3.4 million in noncash pledges includes $2 million in preconstruction loans, technical assistance in construction oversight and financial planning from the Enterprise Foundation. Also donated were wood products from the International Paper Company and modular buildings for use as temporary offices or worship spaces. Turn to Page 13
ApprOVld near for RU-486
Unborn suffer yet another blow WASHINGTON (CNS) - A panel of scientific experts recommended July 19 that the Food and Drug Administration allow the controversial abortion-inducing pill R U-486 to be marketed in the United States. Following a public hearing in Gaithersburg, Md., the FDA's Reproducti.ve Health Drugs Advisory Committee voted 6-0 that the benefits ofthe RU-486/ misoprostol regimen for terminating early pregnancies outweigh its risks. Two members of the panel abstained. R U-486, also known by its generic name mifepristone, is taken first and causes the uterine lining to break down and slough off. Misoprostol, a prostaglandin that stimulates uterine contractions, is taken two days later. The procedure requires several medical vis-
its, precise drug dosage and monitoring. An editorial in the July 22 issue of L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, condemned the abortion pill as "the pill of Cain, the monster that cynically kills one's brother." The editorial, signed by Father Gino Concetti, a moral theologian, said the pill's anticipated approval in the United States was an important victory for what it termed the "abortion party" led by the Population Council and the International Planned Parenthood Federation. At the hearing, the Population Council, a New York-based research organization that holds the U.S. patent rights to RU-486, presented clinical data from two French trials involving ~,480 wo-
men and preliminary safety data from U. S. trials involving 2, 100 women. More than 30 individuals also testified during the open portion of the meeting. The French data showed the medical abortion procedure to be 95 percent effective. However, panelists also heard that women participating in the clinical trials experienced painful contractions of the uterus as well as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, pelvic pain and spasm, and headache. In some cases where the chemical combination failed to produce an abortion, women then had surgical abortions; others completed their pregnancies and delivered babies with deformities. Turn to Page !3