Culture of death? What culture of death?

Wesley Smith points out what I have said about the Hobby Lobby part of the law: If left to stand, it would essentially nix conscience.

The denial of conscience has significant implications beyond birth control, and raises the question of whether medical professionals may be required one day to kill.
That’s the subject of my biweekly First Things column. First, I set up the problem.From, “Will Doctors be Forced to Kill?”The wailing and gnashing of teeth in some quarters over the modest Hobby Lobby decision has me worried. Apparently, many on the political port side of the country believe that once a favored public policy has been enacted, it immediately becomes a “right” that can never be altered or denied. More, once such a “right” is established for the individual, others should have the duty to ensure access—even at the cost of violating their own religious consciences.
If such thinking prevails, medical professionals could be forced to participate in the taking of human life, for example in abortion, assisted suicide, and (given the research trends in regenerative medicine) providing treatments derived from the intentional destruction of human embryos or fetuses.
I get into the ACLU trolling for clients to (I believe) bring suit against religious institutions or individuals that have denied the right to interventions and transactions–even those like abortion and assisted suicide that involve killing.
I point out that the RFRA does not protect these conscientious objections from state laws that allow medicalized killing and that the religious left is not about to cooperate in creating any more state laws in this regard because of its potential impact on issues such as gay rights.
And I note that much of the medical establishment is hostile toward medical conscience. I conclude that forcing medical professionals to be complicit in killing could result in a professional culling:

can you say "Death panels" children?

And it goes beyond the obvious: It also includes forced rationing according to guidelines.

Just remember: The Lockerbie Bomber was released from jail as dying, but once he got treatment denied to him by the British rationing board, he lived for over two years.

and if you are handicapped or old, they will browbeat you into signing "end of life" papers to stop treatment.

Did I ever tell you about the woman who was allowed to die in the ER with a food bolus in her trachea because she signed a paper saying no respirator? So the doc would not refer her for a bronchoscopy to remove the food.

After that, we stopped pushing our patients to sign the damn papers.

----------------------------

Title IX is now being used to push colleges to integrate transgenders into their chosen dorm, even when the colleges are Christian. from ann althouse:

"For 123 years, our housing policy has been to house students by their anatomy..."“I think the fact that Jayce is choosing to stay at George Fox shows the university community has been supportive of him during his whole experience here,” [said Rob Felton, a university spokesman.] “We may have a difference of opinion on appropriate housing, but all indications are he has been treated well by his peers, professors and our student life staff.”...
“I want other transgender and L.G.B.T.Q. people to see that they can have a place in faith-based education,” [Jaycen] said. “The fact that I’m here is proof of that.”...
 So, one question is whether Title IX should determine what policy schools can have and another is whether there should be religion-based exemptions.

But the federal government's position says it's sex discrimination in violation of Title IX not to accede to the student's self-identification.

 --------------------------------------

another botched execution.Posted at 8:52 am by Glenn Reynolds   

BYRON YORK: Could Arizona fiasco lead to firing squads for death penalty?

Actually I agree with JP2: If you are able to jail them forever, there is no need to kill them (although I point out in more primitive worlds, there is a good argument that the death penalty is needed to keep society safe).

But this should not be surprising: The "humane" killers know these drugs don't always work well, which is why they include putting a plastic bag over the head of the victim, and keeping him from removing it. If you just overdose, it may take 24 hours and sometimes they wake up and change their mind.

and, like the hemlock given to Socrates, they paralyze the patient so the onlookers don't get upset. But a lot more frightening to the one being killed...

-------------------------------------------------------------

I sing the body electric:

again from instapundit.

 Feds Spending $10 Million to Build Robot Companions for Children. “Just like a good personal trainer, we want the robots to be able to guide the child toward a behavior that we desire.”



excerpt from the twilight zone here.

Stratford Caldecott

Father L has a three part post on his conversion story.

More about how he saw the universe than dogma.

I began to realize that no matter how much grace is present in the other religions, it is only Christianity that knows the secret of how grace enters the world. Without the cross, no ‘religion’ would suffice – were it founded on the Beatitudes themselves. Christ came not primarily to teach, but to do. He came to die for us (as Chesterton points out eloquently in The Everlasting Man).

It was through the Swiss theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar (d. 1988) that I finally came to understand what it was that truly makes Christianity different from any other religion under the sun. Sure enough, it is the sacramental principle – but that only makes sense in connection with the Incarnation, and the Incarnation reveals the Trinity. The fact is that Christianity is not to do with states of consciousness at all, or with liberation to be attained through enlightenment. I had once made the mistake of thinking that that was the only thing a religion could be about. Christianity is about salvation, not enlightenment; an ontological change, a change in the substance of reality itself, brought about by the sacrifice of the Son of God. In fact you might say that the Asian religions would have been correct on all counts, as true as true can be, if Christ had never been born or died on the Cross. They describe with perfect accuracy the nature of reality and of awareness as it would appear to us without the revelation of God’s love.

I'm reading Caldecott's book on Tolkien right now

for later reading

Tielhard and the animals.

animal rights folks and the noosphere.

but hey, what about robots?

for later reading. I've been sick and my attention span is about five seconds

and you know, a lot of this stuff is plagerized from science fiction. HGWells? Frankenstein? Cordwainer Smith anyone?
Hell, Planet of the Apes.

exorcism?

TeaAt Trianon links to an article on exorcism.

For later reading.

GMO crops?

Momjones notes  that Cargill is offering more non GM stuff for their customers.

But despite this, Cargill seems to see the benefit in offering consumers the option of eating unmodified foods. "Despite the many merits of biotechnology, consumer interest in food and beverage products made from non-GM ingredients is growing, creating opportunities and challenges for food manufacturers and food service operators," Ethan Theis, a spokesman for the company, said in a company press release last week. Even the fiercest opponents of GMO labeling are willing to offer non-GMO products when consumers' cash is on the line.

yes, that's how capitalism works.

UN pushing "sustainable agenda" again.

for later reading:

Dr. E has a report on the mini conference in Nairobi

A final outcome report was to be adopted at the closing session, but due to the deletion of a phrase reiterating one of the fundamental principles of international law:"common but differentiated responsibilities" consensus was not achieved. This insistence by one certain western state resulted in discord among member states specifically developing countries. This is an indication of the existing rifts between the north and south. 

The global environment is seriously endangered and requires a strong and unified approach among nations to confront current threats and change unsustainable trends. 

And more HERE.

alled “United Nations Environment Assembly of the United Nations Environment Programme” or UNEA, for short.

Held at UNEP HQ in Nairobi, of course it was an “historic” meeting – albeit only a relatively few days in length – particularly when compared to the much longer gathering that began on June 30 in New York, which will run until July 9.

Assuming that in UN-speak, the length of a meeting/session (and/or its title) is an indicator of “importance”, it may not be unreasonable to assume that the latter, with the rather unwieldy official title of:

“Second meeting of the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF-2) – “Achieving the Millennium Development Goals and charting the way for an ambitious post-2015 development agenda including the Sustainable Development Goals”

must be more important.

The HLPF is given the following intro by the IISD (quasi-official rapporteur of all the gatherings of the great and green):

The second meeting of the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF-2) under the auspices of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) opened on Monday at the UN Headquarters in New York.

Following the opening session, three moderated dialogues took place on: an integrated and universal sustainable development agenda; means of implementation for sustainable development; and the contribution of sustainable consumption and production (SCP) to sustainable development goals (SDGs).

A dialogue with the Chair of the Board of the 10-Year Framework of Programmes [10YFP for short -hro] on SCP also took place.

uh, does this translate into putting the crooked politicians in jail for taking bribes to allow pollution/illegalmining/illegal logging (actually, seeing our local headlines, it means putting them into the hospital: nearly every day another politician discovers he/she has a terrible life threatening medical condition that keeps them out of jail...including our ex mayor who was behind the hit on our nephew).

No, it means giving out free birth control but not paying for free midwives, and legalizing abortion etc. while stopping GM foods that might poison the environment, but actually would help lower the amount of toxic chemicals needed to provide food.

Instant thesaurus