“Wrongful Life” Lawsuits Become Prevalent in Israel
 
        The October 26, 2011 edition of New Scientist reports that Israeli children with birth defects are increasingly suing medical authorities for allowing them to be born. Parents have brought such suits in the past, and now the trend there is for suits to be brought in the name of the children themselves. These suits target medical professionals who are accused not of causing a disability but rather of failing to diagnose an already-existing disability before birth so that the child could be aborted.
        Rabbi Avraham Steinberg, a medical ethicist from the Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School, said, “I find it very difficult to understand how parents can go on the witness stand and tell their children ‘It would have been better for you not to have been born.’”  Surely the damage to the child of hearing this from parents is far greater than any mere physical disability could ever be.

         Rebecca Taylor has written a good short analysis of the Israeli case; as recently as September 9, 2011, a jury awarded a “wrongful life” finding in Palm Beach, Florida, in the U.S.
 

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The Cold War Nuclear Box
  
         Archbishop Fulton Sheen once commented that the boundaries that kept us from millions of killings of unborn babies were loosened with the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The connections go both ways: the insensitivity to tiny children gives energy to the continued “modernization” of nuclear weapons long after previous justifications for instant mass murder, inadequate as they were, have crumbled. This point is starting to get out into the mainstream media; the November 14, 2011 edition of the Washington Post has an article by Walter Pincus entitled, “Thinking Outside the Cold War Nuclear Box.”
 

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Call to Action
 
        Consistent Life hosted an exhibit table at the Call to Action conference in Milwaukee, Nov. 7 to Nov. 9. It was an occasion to see old friends who have come to expect our presence at the conference, and to have fruitful discussions with attendees, most of whom would identify as progressive Catholics and the majority of whom are CLE, though many are cautious of anything labeled "pro-life" due to the unfortunate stereotypes that still exist. Several visitors were pleasantly surprised to hear about the CLE-friendly statments of traditional pro-lifers like Fr. Frank Pavone, and about the crisis pregnancy center phenomenon. Hot items at the table were our stylish "3 no's" button, our 25h Anniversary Conference announcement (35 were picked up), and our attractive free picture cards (new since the last Call to Action). By a narrow margin, the three most popular personages in terms of cards picked up were Dorothy Day out front, and Gandhi and Dan Berrigan tied for second.
 

Tony Masalonis at CTA table

 
 
Quotation of the Week
Charles J. Chaput
Being Human in an Age of Unbelief, November 8, 2011
  
 
         “The pro-life movement needs to be understood and respected for what it is: part of a much larger, consistent, and morally worthy vision of the dignity of the human person. You don’t need to be Christian or even religious to be “pro-life.” Common sense alone is enough to make a reasonable person uneasy about what actually happens in an abortion. The natural reaction, the sane and healthy response, is repugnance.”