Obama re-elected. What will it mean for beginning of life policy?

The man whom pro-life leaders have called ‘the most pro-abortion president in US history’ has been re-elected.

Obama snagged the race after taking key swing states, including Virginia, Ohio, and New Hampshire.

Obama’s support for liberal abortion has already been well documented (see here, here and full list of all his actions here).

But what will his re-election mean more generally with respect to issues at the beginning of life? The Hastings Centre in Washington DC has compiled a useful summary.

Cloning

“[W]e will ensure that our government never opens the door to the use of cloning for human reproduction. It is dangerous, profoundly wrong and has no place in our society, or any society.”

Source: The White House website

Abortion

President Obama believes a woman’s health care choices are personal decisions, best made with her doctor—without interference from politicians. He continues to support a woman’s right to choose under Roe v Wade.

Source: Campaign website

Conscience Clauses, Contraception, and Family Planning

The Obama Administration’s Department of Health and Human Services has issued an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that “guarantees women access to recommended preventive services including contraception without cost sharing, while ensuring that non-profit religious organizations are not forced to pay for, provide, or facilitate the provision of any contraceptive service they object to on religious grounds.”

Source: Department of Health and Human Services website

Stem Cell Research

“Today, with the Executive Order I am about to sign… we will lift the ban on federal funding for promising embryonic stem cell research. We will vigorously support scientists who pursue this research. And we will aim for America to lead the world in the discoveries it one day may yield…Medical miracles do not happen simply by accident. They result from painstaking and costly research – from years of lonely trial and error, much of which never bears fruit – and from a government willing to support that work… As a person of faith, I believe we are called to care for each other and work to ease human suffering. I believe we have been given the capacity and will to pursue this research – and the humanity and conscience to do so responsibly."

Source: Executive Order Signing

Whatever we may think of Obama’s policy in other areas there is no doubt that his re-election does not bode well for human embryos, pre-born babies and Christian conscience.

Expect this to have an impact not just in the US but also with international funding and policy pushed by American delegates to the UN through groups like IPPF and UNFPA.

Defeat for pro-euthanasia lobby as Massachusetts rejects assisted suicide on ballot

The US state of Massachusetts voted 51%-49% in a referendum last night to reject the legalisation of assisted suicide. The final vote was 1,516,584 to 1,453,742, a margin of over 62,000.

The proponents of the change conceded defeat after only 93% of votes had been counted when the margin was 38,000 votes (see statement here).

The question considered read ‘Should a doctor be legally allowed to prescribe medication, at a terminally ill patient's request, to end that patient's life?’

More background is available here and here.

This was a hugely significant vote given the influence and prominence of Massachusetts itself and despite the small margin it is a huge defeat for the pro-euthanasia movement given that the strongly Democrat state has a reputation for being one of the most liberal in the country.

The measure was defeated after a strong campaign by a diverse coalition called ‘No On Question 2’ comprised of disability rights organizations, doctors, nurses, community leaders, faith based groups and patient rights advocates (more detail here and also in Wesley Smith's excellent analysis of how the campaign was won).

Currently only two US states, Oregon and Washington, have legalised assisted suicide, each on the basis of a referendum. This has led to an annual increase of assisted suicide in each state as I have previously documented on this blog.

By contrast whenever a bill has been brought before a US state parliament it has been defeated. This has happened over 120 times in the last 20 years.

Thirty-four states prohibit assisted suicide outright. Massachusetts and six other states have banned it through legal precedent.

It is often argued by the pro-euthanasia lobby that opposition to the legalisation of assisted suicide is largely faith-based. But this is not true.

In Massachusetts, as in the United Kingdom, the opposition of doctors and disabled people has been very significant indeed.

This is because one of the most powerful arguments against it is public safety – any change in the law will put pressure on vulnerable people to end their lives and no law can be adequately safeguarded against abuse.

The Massachusetts Medical Society issued a statement saying it was opposed to Question 2 for the following reasons:

* The proposed safeguards against abuse are insufficient. Enforcement provisions, investigation authority, oversight, or data verification are not included in the act. A witness to the patient’s signed request could also be an heir.

* Assisted suicide is not necessary to improve the quality of life at the end of life. Current law gives every patient the right to refuse lifesaving treatment, and to have adequate pain relief, including hospice and palliative sedation.

* Predicting the end of life within six months is difficult; sometimes the prediction is not accurate. From time to time, patients expected to be within months of their death have gone on to live many more months — or years. In one study, 17 percent of patients outlived their prognosis.

* Doctors should not participate in assisted suicide. The chief policy making body of the Massachusetts Medical Society has voted to oppose physician assisted suicide.

The Massachusetts Medical Society had also reaffirmed its commitment to provide physicians treating terminally ill patients with the ethical, medical, social, and legal education, training, and resources to enable them to contribute to the comfort and dignity of the patient and the patient’s family.

Lynda M. Young, MD, MMS past president, testified about the MMS policy at a hearing of the House Judiciary Committee on 6 March 6, 2012:

‘Allowing physicians to participate in assisted suicide would cause more harm than good. Physician assisted suicide is fundamentally incompatible with the physician’s role as healer. Instead of participating in assisted suicide, physicians must aggressively respond to the needs of patients at the end of life. ... Patients must continue to receive emotional support, comfort care, adequate pain control, respect for patient autonomy, and good communication.’

More recently they were backed by a group of disability rights organisations including: American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today (ADAPT), Association of Programs for Rural Independent Living (APRIL), Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN), Boston Center for Independent Living, Cambridge Commission for Persons with Disabilities, Disability Policy Consortium, Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF), Justice For All (JFA), MetroWest Center for Independent Living, National Council on Disability (NCD), National Council on Independent Living (NCIL), National Spinal Cord Injury Association, Not Dead Yet (NDY), TASH, The World Association of Persons with Disabilities (WAPD), The World Institute on Disability (WID).

John Kelly, Executive Director of Second Thoughts and former Chair of the Advisory Board to the Boston Disability Commission, said:

‘Ballot question 2 contains a number of problematic issues that raise red flags with progressive voters.‘

‘We already have seen serious cost cutting pressures. We constantly hear about the costs of caring for people in the last year of their lives. We can point to examples in Oregon and Washington, where assisted suicide is legal of these implicit and explicit cost pressures. Ballot question 2 legalizes a $100 lethal prescription and that sends a terrible message to people living with serious illness or disability.’

Investigation into Liverpool Care Pathway is most welcome

The investigation into the Liverpool Care Pathway announced by Health Minister Norman Lamb is most welcome.

The Liverpool Care Pathway was developed at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital and the city's Marie Curie hospice to relieve suffering in dying patients, setting out principles for their treatment in their final days and hours.

But it has been dogged by controversy with claims that patients who were not imminently dying have been placed on it and that patients’ families were not fully consulted and informed.

A series of changes to the NHS Constitution to be announced by the Government today, as part of a twelve week consultation, will include giving patients and relatives an explicit right to be consulted at every stage of end-of-life treatment, where possible.

Mr Lamb has also called for a meeting of doctors and patients to discuss worries about the pathway by the end of this month. The Association for Palliative Medicine will be carrying out its own parallel inquiry.

The latest proposals for changes to the NHS Constitution would open the way for hospitals which depart from guidelines to face legal challenges on behalf of patients.

Under the proposals being outlined today, a section of the NHS constitution which says that patients have a right to a general say in their care will be toughened up to make clear they should be ‘involved fully’ in ‘all discussions and decisions’ about their care, adding: ‘including in your end of life care’.

It adds that people should be given special support to help them take it in makes clear: ‘Where appropriate this right includes your family and carers.’

Mr Lamb said shortcomings could potentially be challenged in the courts under new powers for the new Clinical Commissioning Groups.

Personally I welcome these investigations and strengthening of the NHS Constitution aimed at improving care for those in the last hours or days of life.

When used appropriately by skilled staff the Liverpool Care Pathway is a useful clinical tool which has improved the care of thousands of dying patients. But case reports of it being used with patients who are not imminently dying or without families being fully informed have fuelled concerns and need to be fully investigated.

I hope that this inquiry will, lead to better care for dying patients and improved confidence amongst the general public.

The care of the dying needs to be in the hands of people who are fully trained and adequately supervised with regular careful audit to ensure that all patients receive the best care possible and that abuses do not occur.

My recent interview on the pathway for the Daily Telegraph can be accessed here and my previous blogs on the subject are linked below.

Past blogs on Liverpool Care Pathway

1. Is the NHS really killing 130,000 patients a year with the Liverpool Care Pathway?

2. The Liverpool Care Pathway – consensus statement from 22 organisations

3. Palliative Medicine specialists to investigate Liverpool Care Pathway

4. Specialists in Palliative Medicine need to act swiftly to respond to these five key concerns about the LCP

5. Government ministers and MPs wade in on Liverpool Care Pathway

Robert Winston lends his support to families grieving miscarriages

Robert Winston is an English professor, medical doctor, scientist, television presenter and politician who was an early pioneer in developing treatments for infertility.

He has recently become an ambassador for a new charity called ‘Saying Goodbye’ which has just launched a series of remembrance services in Britain’s cathedrals for families who have had miscarriages.

These have generated huge interest and I gather that hundreds of people are attending to remember the babies they have lost.

The organisers, Zoe and Andy Clark-Coates, have over 11,000 followers on twitter and over 1,400 followers on facebook.

I was interested to see a lengthy quote from Robert Winston on the ‘Saying Goodbye’ website which acknowledges in very strong terms the humanity of the baby in the womb.

I guess this is not surprising as many mothers I know who have had a miscarriage talk about ‘losing a baby’ in the same way that pregnant mothers generally talk about ‘my baby’.

I don’t think I have ever heard a pregnant woman talking about ‘my fetus’ or ‘my embryo’ although arguably this is the more correct medical term.

In like manner I have never heard an obstetrician saying ‘your fetus’ when referring to a woman’s pregnancy in an antenatal clinic. It is always ‘your baby’.

There are about 80,000 miscarriages every year in England and Wales and few families have not been touched by this kind of loss.

As one who has personally lost both siblings and a daughter in this way I welcome and applaud Lord Winston's backing for this valuable initiative.

Here is his full quote from the ‘Saying Goodbye’ website. The emphasis is mine.

‘Miscarriage is often something that’s not acknowledged or talked about in the UK, and people certainly do not appreciate how utterly distressing it is for women, and indeed their extended families.

It’s a loss of a precious life, and whether the loss happens in early or late pregnancy it’s traumatic, and a natural grief process must be allowed to happen.

Sadly a lot of doctors and nurses see miscarriage on such a regular basis, the right support and follow up advice is just not offered, which results in the vast amount of women never coming to terms with losing their baby, and sadly they are not able to move forward with their lives as they become stuck in a cycle of grief.

I am delighted to be an ambassador for a marvellous new organisation called 'Saying Goodbye'. Following losing five babies themselves, Zoe and Andrew Clark-Coates, the directors of CCEM, decided to launch the first national set of commemorative services, which will allow families to come together to mourn their babies.

I hope that these services will be a turning point in the nation, and through this new organisation miscarriage will become more widely understood, and families will know that their pain and loss has been heard and recognized.’

The real meaning of the Tarot – 'The Lovers'

Many people use tarot cards for divination, but this is to miss their true significance and meaning.

It is far better to seek to understand their symbolism and the ancient wisdom that lies behind it because it tells us how to make sense of the world and live in it.

The Rider-Waite tarot deck is the most popular Tarot deck in use today in the English-speaking world.

I have already explained the rich symbolism behind the ‘Wheel of Fortune’ card and now move to ‘The Lovers’.

In this card we see two human figures, two trees and a third suspended figure with the sun shining behind its face.

We have already introduced in the first card the concept of the creator God – denoted by the Hebrew tetragrammatton YHWH – who stands outside the world distinct from it and is represented by a host of different symbols each of which tell us something about his character and purposes.

In the wheel of fortune card he is represented by the lion, bull, eagle and man. He is further depicted there as a lion bearing a two-edged sword – known as the Lion of Judah.

In this card we see him, in keeping with elements of this earlier symbolism, with the face of a man but bearing the wings of an eagle.

On this occasion he is seated not outside the world but is entering into it in order to enjoy a relationship with human beings.

The scene is one of perfect harmony. The human figures, male and female, are naked but not ashamed and enjoy close relationship with both each other and God.

There are two trees in the background, one bearing fruit with a serpent wrapped around its trunk, and the other bearing leaves.

As with the wheel of fortune card, in order to understand the symbolism we need to go to the symbolism in the Old and New Testaments that make up the Bible.

In Genesis 2 we learn that God placed human beings in a garden in which the two most important trees were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

They were allowed to eat the fruit of any tree except for that from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. For their knowledge of good and evil they were to rely directly on the word of God himself.

Genesis 3 (read the whole account here) tells us that the serpent (identified in Revelation 12:9 with the Devil) deceived the woman and the man into doubting the word of God and rejecting him by eating the fruit.

This led to their ejection from the garden and broke their relationship with God. This breaking of this key relationship also led to a breaking of relationships between the man and woman and between humans and creation.

But the symbolism in the card also carries signs of hope and a rescue not just for the alienated humans but also for creation itself.

The eagles’ wings point to the fact that God will initiate a rescue plan by calling out Israel into a special relationship with himself.

Exodus 19:4,5 and Deuteronomy 32:9-12 describe how God will rescue the nation of Israel (Jacob) by carrying them and protecting them with eagle’s wings. He would thereby keep his people safe out of the reach of the Devil (Revelation 12:14) and through a human descendant of Israel bring rescue to others.

The sun behind the human face is a reference to the fact that God himself will visit the planet again in the form of this human descendant with ‘a face like the sun’ (Matthew 17:2 and Revelation 1:16).

The outstretched arms point to the way in which this man will die and the clouds on which he is seated are a sign that he will later come in judgement (Daniel 7:13; Matthew 24:30).

Finally the leaves of the tree of life, depicted on the right of the picture, symbolise the healing of the nations that will arise as a result of this cosmic rescue (Revelation 22:2).

The Apostles' Creed – another take on Beethoven’s 9th symphony

‘Ode to Joy’ was written in 1785 by the German poet, playwright and historian Friedrich Schiller.

The ode is best known for its musical setting by Ludwig van Beethoven in the final movement of his Ninth Symphony (completed in 1824), a choral symphony for orchestra, four solo voices and choir.

Over recent years there has been an explosion of musical interpretations of Ode to Joy of which many are available on the internet.

Some of the most popular are those by the Melbourne Gospel Choir, ACM Gospel Choir, London Community Gospel Choir and of course Lauryn Hill’s memorable rendition in the Whoopi Goldberg film Sister Act 2.

It has been done by flash mobs and even the Muppets have got in on the act. Then of course there are numerous more traditional classical versions.

But I have searched long and hard, without success, for a version of the Apostles’ creed set to Beethoven’s ninth which we learned in New Zealand back in the late 1970s.

The Apostles' creed is one of the most succinct and beautiful statements of Christian belief ever written and has been set to a variety of tunes.

So here, from memory (and quite possibly not word perfect!), are the words which have been adapted from the original creeed. You know the tune already.

Maybe you could try it in your Sunday worship or like I have just make an addition to your own personal devotional repertoire.

The Apostles’ Creed

We believe in God the Father
We believe in God the Son
We believe in God the Sprit
Each is God yet God is one
We believe that God came to us
Born as the Virgin Mary’s child
Jesus Christ who died to save us
Man and God has reconciled

We believe that Christ died for us
Then rose living from the grave
And to those men he had chosen
All his power as God he gave
We believe that God has spoken
Through his church whose word is true
Always she proclaims his Gospel
Ever old yet ever new

We believe that in His Gospel
Way and truth and life are found
Power to live and love each other
If our lives to him are bound
We believe in his forgiveness
And in life that has no end
While in joy we wait here for him
As we sing this great Amen

If you prefer something a little truer to the original words then here is a more classical alternative version I nabbed off a church songsheet.

I’d love to see some Christian musicians having as much fun with the Apostles' creed set to Beethoven’s 9th as they have with ‘Ode to Joy’.

If anyone posts one on you tube then let me know.

Alternative version

I believe in God the Father, Maker of the heav’ns and earth
And in Jesus Christ, our Savior, God’s own Son, of human birth.
Virgin born, the Lord incarnate, Whom the Spirit did conceive;
Suffered under Pon us Pilate; He’s the God whom I believe.

Crucified, was dead and buried, Down to hell in victory;
From the dead he rose the third day; Up to heav’n triumphantly.
There at God’s right hand he’s ruling, By his will the world is led.
He will come to judge the na ons. Both the living and the dead.

I believe in God the Spirit, In his church, his chosen band.
They are joined in sweet communion, Holy in his sight they stand.
I believe in sins forgiven; That the dead will rise again;
I believe in life eternal. Amen! Amen! Amen!

One in three human deaths in England and Wales is that of a preborn baby

Last month I posted a blog titled ‘27% of all human deaths in England and Wales are due to abortion’.

It was prompted by an article on the Guardian website titled ‘Mortality statistics: every cause of death in England and Wales, visualised’ which claimed to give ‘a full listing of “all” deaths in England and Wales in 2010.

They used the graphic above left to illustrate it with the largest circles representing the 158,084 deaths from circulatory diseases, 141,446 from cancers and neoplasms and 67,276 from respiratory diseases.

I pointed out that it did not include the 189,574 induced abortions that took place in England and Wales that year and that, if one reworked the figures, these actually constituted 27% of all deaths – over one in four.

Another blogger, Mark Whalley, told me that he had earlier reworked the graphic to include abortions and posted it on his own website.

I have reproduced Mark’s revision here showing abortions (blue circles on right) as the biggest cause of death.

Mark made the point on my blog that I should also include miscarriages and another correspondent suggested that if I did so it would make my figures ‘less polemic’.

It is impossible to know the actual numbers of very early miscarriages or chemical abortions, those occurring without a lost menstrual period, and estimates vary widely based largely on guesswork. At best we could have only a very rough estimate.

In addition there are no national statistics for Britain are published on ‘miscarriages’ but a BMJ article has calculated them at 70,000-90,000 per year in England and Wales. So let’s say approximately 80,000.

If we include these 80,000 and add them to the 189,574 induced abortions and 493,242 deaths from all other causes we get to a total of just under 763,000 human deaths in England and Wales in 2010.

So of all human deaths this year induced abortions constituted roughly 24.8% and miscarriages 10.5%.

So in total 35.3% of all human deaths – over one in three - were preborn babies.

Now this is where it gets interesting.

Professor Lord Robert Winston (left) has recently given his support to a new charity running remembrance services in Britain’s cathedrals for families who have had miscarriages. He writes:

‘Miscarriage is often something that’s not acknowledged or talked about in the UK, and people certainly do not appreciate how utterly distressing it is for women, and indeed their extended families. It’s a loss of a precious life, and whether the loss happens in early or late pregnancy it’s traumatic, and a natural grief process must be allowed to happen.’

I agree with him that miscarriage is not talked about enough and that it involves the loss of a precious life.

But if the baby who miscarries is precious then doesn’t the same also follow for those babies who die as a result of abortion?

Or have I missed something?