Roe: Twenty-Five Years Later
First ThingsThe editors of First Things make a well-informed,
even dramatic, statement against the tide of Roe v. Wade. They
firmly defy the "culture of death" legacy that the Supreme Court
spawned with this most infamous decision.
Medicalizing Abortion Decisions
Thomas Murpy GoodwinThe author, a physician himself, argues that the medical community has
a crucial bias with regard to the abortion
issue. More specifically, this bias
consists in bringing political aspects
of the abortion issue into the medical
decision-making process. To build his
case, he points out the scarcity of cases
in which pregnancy poses a genuine health
risk to the mother. He also uses five case
studies, taken from his own experience, in
which abortions were unnecessarily
recommended by other doctors as a
The Abortion Cocktail
Bernard N NathansonA former abortionist (who is now a pro-life doctor) reviews the
history of chemical abortafacients. He also
describes a current drug that is used for
the same purpose. Will the removal of
surgery from this procedure ultimately
bring about the end of the political and
legal battle over abortion?
Picture Perfect: The Politics of Prenatal Testing
Elizabeth KristolThis article addresses the issues involved in prenatal screening.
Abortion, Breast Cancer, and Ideology
Joel BrindMany studies over the decades have linked induced abortion to an
increased risk of breast cancer in women.
In spite of their substantial statistical
evidence, however, these studies have been
ignored and criticized by the medical
establishment. On what basis do they
attempt to undermine these consistent
Infanticide for Beginners
James NuechterleinPro-lifers have long argued that the line between abortion
and infanticide is merely an arbitrary one--the moment of birth. This
essay reviews an article, recently appearing in a well-known
publication, in which an abortion proponent makes an argument along
these same lines. In an ironic twist of rhetoric, that author turns
the concern of the abortion/infanticide distinction into an argument
to exclude newborns from the protection of murder laws.
The Public Policy of Casey v. Planned Parenthood
Michael G. SmithThis article considers the abortion issue by examining the central
argument in the Supreme Court's 1992 Casey v. Planned Parenthood
decision. Points of consideration in this examination include:
feminism, abortion as murder, sexual revolution, and violence in
society. The author's argument, written from a legal point of view,
rejects the notion that abortion is simply a matter of individual
Robert BorkRobert Bork re-examines the abortion question in this sweeping
biological and philosophical discussion.
He expresses concern with the current
protected status of abortion on demand, as
well as the broader cultural implications
of such acceptance.
Abortion Before Roe
Russell HittingerWould abortion soon have become legalized across the board in state
legislatures if Roe v. Wade had left the questions to the states?
The author answers this question by considering the political and
legal climate regarding abortion prior to this landmark decision.
The America We Seek: A Statement of Pro-Life Principle and Concern
A group of authors, professors and organization leaders state their
united concern in this document for
America's unborn children. They describe
the many problems with the current status
of abortion on demand. They also address
possible solutions to this tragedy.
with some personal stories dealing with
Facing Up to Infanticide
J. BottumEven abortion advocates are beginning to admit that abortion, although
it should remain legal, is actually the
killing of a child. The attempt to
reconcile a belief in legalized killing
with liberal "compassion" is most
difficult. The author describes the
philosophical framework of both pro-life
and pro-choice positions.
Killing As Caring
Richard RotondiRichard Rotondi discusses the false charity of euthanasia. Along with
the growing acceptance, even welcoming, of euthanasia and
physician-assisted suicide, have come
increasingly dire warnings about the
practice from ethicists and thinkers. The
"mercy" offered by euthanasia can only be
offered by those who, logically and
emotionally, hold to a conception of the
human person radically different from that
of traditional medicine: the price of
accepting euthanasia's "compassion" is
denying that humans have any inherent
worth apart from their productivity or
Debriefing the Philosophers
J. BottumThere is only one genuine school of philosophy that is
distinctlyAmerican. Its pedigree consists of
empiricist, utilitarian, pragmatist and
liberal philosophical traditions. The
preeminent heirs to this school of thought
recently issued a brief to the Supreme
Court in favor of constitutional
protection for physician-assisted suicide.
This "Philosopher's Brief" advocates
legalization of the procedure based on the
Supreme Court's Casey decision which
strongly reaffirmed abortion rights.
Seduced by Death: Doctors, Patients, and the Dutch Cure
Eric ChevlenUnlike the United States, Holland has legal avenues for euthanasia
and physician assisted suicide (PAS). A report
commissioned by the Dutch government found
that successful PAS procedures were
completed without the patient's consent in
half of the cases. Would the same be true
if PAS was legally availabe in the U.S.?
Such concerns are expressed in the book
"Seduced by Death: Doctors, Patients, and
the Dutch Cure" by Herbert Hendin. Eric
Chevlen provides this review.
Euthanasia: a Biblical Appraisal
Kerby AndersonLooks at euthanasia in the Netherlands as well as attempts to
legalize euthanasia. Also describes various forms
of euthanasia and provides a biblical
Euthanasia: The Battle for Life
Dr. Raymond G. BohlinA discussion of four kinds of euthanasia: voluntary passive,
voluntary active, involuntary passive, and
involuntary active, from a biblical
The Legal Logic of Euthanasia
Michael M. UhlmannCritics of abortion on demand have long maintained that the logic
justifying this heinous procedure could
also be used to rationlize other forms of
medical killing. Abortion advocates, on
the other hand, have dismissed this
assertion as an example of demagoguery.
But in March 1996, the opinion by the U.S.
Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in
Compassion in Dying v. State of Washington
hinged explicitly on the matter of
abortion and assisted suicide sharing a
Mock Medicine, Mock Law
Eric M. ChevlenThe author discusses different points regarding the recent career of
the infamous Jack Kevorkian. He asserts that
most of this doctor's "patients" needed
treatment for pain or depression, not
assisted suicide. Further, he contends the
cases brought against Kevorkian have been
tried in a manner that made a mockery of
Leon R. KassWhat effect would the legalization of assisted suicide and euthanasia
really have on America? The author claims
that it would essentially give doctors a
license to kill patients even without
their consent. Holland has already has
legalized assisted suicide. What have been
the effects there? A recent study by the
Dutch goverment is most revealing on this
The Sanctity of Human Life: Harvesting Human Fetal Parts
Dr. Ray BohlinOnce a sanctity of human life standard is abandoned for a quality of
life ethic, a slippery ethical slope leads to
horrors undreamed of even 20 years ago.
Legalized abortion has led to the sale of
fetal tissue and eventually to legalized
Paul CoxIn this Monograph Paul Cox will do three things: (1) place
biomedicalethics within the more general discipline
of ethics; (2) give the reader an idea of
how biomedical ethics developed as a
separate discipline under the rubric of
ethics and; (3) survey some of the current
concerns of biomedical ethics and within
that survey explicate the central issues
involved in each of those concerns.
Human Cloning: Have Human Beings Been Cloned?
Dr. Ray BohlinRecent claims to have cloned human beings are exaggerated. George
Washington University researchers Stillman and Hale more
correctly achieved artificial twinning of human embryos. True
human cloning is still a far-off possibility with
many ethical pitfalls.
Population and the Wealth of Nations
William McGurnIn the 1950's and 1960's there was a trend in academia to write and
speak out against the dangers of
overpopulation. The power of this argument
was rooted in the alleged scarcity of
resources, particularly in the Third
World. There are, however, events in
recent history which may be used to
challenge these widely held assertions.
Swearing to Life
John RoddenJustice Harry Blackmun found it necessary to render the verbiage of
the Hippocratice Oath an historical artifact
as he launched the modern abortion age.
Shortly thereafter, this traditional
physician's oath was either significantly
altered or completely abandoned by medical
schools. Attempts to build a consensus on
an alternative ethical standard for the
medical profession have proven to be less
What Happened at Beijing
Mary Ann GlendonThe UN's 1994 Conference on Population and Development was not
supposed to have been fertile ground for
abortion and population control
proponents. And yet, feminists and
anti-Catholics cleverly sought to advance
their radical sexual and abortion agendas
throughtout the duration of the
conference. They even tried to remove the
concepts of motherhood, traditional family
and parental rights from UN documents.
The Sanctity of Life Seduced: A Symposium on Medical Ethics
Various authors discuss Medical Ethics.
The Inhuman Use of Human Beings
A group of scientists and ethicists address the issue of
using human embryos in scientific research.
Babies and Body Parts
Paul C. FoxKilling a baby for the purpose of an organ transplant is the chilling
story behind the scenario the author describes.