Sanctity of Human Life – Page 209

40 Days for Life Saves Baby from Abortion in Little Rock

May 3, 2019Jerry CoxAbortion40 Days for Life, Abortion, Life, Pro-life, Sanctity of Human Life

40 Days for Life recently wrapped up its spring prayer campaign.

For 40 days each spring and fall pro-life volunteers gather outside abortion facilities worldwide to pray that abortion will end.

In March volunteers praying outside Arkansas’ only surgical abortion facility reported that at least one child had been saved from abortion while they were there.

40 Days for Life writes,

“Praise the Lord! We have a CONFIRMED baby save this morning!” said Toni in Little Rock. “Parents came out of the clinic and told the sidewalk helpers that they changed their minds.”

40 Days for Life also says that according to former abortion facility workers,
the “no-show” rate for abortion appointments can go to as high as 75% when someone prays in front of an abortion facility.

Arkansans are working successfully to end abortion one life at a time.

Teen Suicides Went Up Following Controversial Netflix Drama, Study Finds

May 1, 2019Jerry CoxEntertainment, Pro-Life13 Reasons Why, Life, Netflix, Pro-life, Sanctity of Human Life, Suicide

A new study published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychology indicates that youth suicides spiked following the release of the controversial Netflix series “13 Reasons Why.”

The study found monthly suicides among youths ages 10 – 17 increased by nearly one-third following the release of the series.

“13 Reasons Why” is a Netflix show about a high school girl who takes her own life, leaving behind cassette tapes to explain the reasons she decided to commit suicide.

The series was based on a novel by the same name.

Both the novel and the Netflix series have been blamed for an uptick in teen suicides — a phenomenon known as “suicide contagion.”

When teenagers see suicide depicted onscreen, they become more susceptible to suicide themselves — especially if they feel a connection to the character.

Needless to say, Netflix has taken a lot of flak for continuing to run the show, but CEO Reed Hastings defended the decision last year, telling shareholders, “13 Reasons Why has been enormously popular and successful. It’s engaging content. It is controversial. But nobody has to watch it.”

This latest study seems to confirm what many have suspected: That “13 Reasons Why” has contributed to the suicide epidemic among our young people. However, some are trying to downplay the study’s findings.

A different study published a few days ago in the journal Social Science & Medicine found young adults, ages 18-29, were less likely to commit suicide after watching all of the second season of “13 Reasons Why.”

There’s a critical difference between these two studies, however: One looked at pre-teens and teenagers while the other apparently looked at older teens and young adults.

Taken together, the studies seem to indicate that children who watch “13 Reasons Why” may be more likely to take their own lives; young adults might not.

That’s hardly reassuring.

Study: Youth suicides increased after release of ’13 Reasons Why’ on Netflix

Netflix teen suicide drama preceded dramatic increase in youths killing themselves

’13 Reasons Why’ and young adults’ risk of suicide

BreakPoint: The Hopeless World of “13 Reasons”

Photo Credit: Brian Cantoni (https://www.flickr.com/photos/cantoni/10715878456) [CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Buying a Baby

Apr 24, 2019Jerry CoxBioethics, LifeBioethics, Commercial Surrogacy, Life, Pro-life, Sanctity of Human Life

Our friends at the Colson Center for Christian Worldview recently released a pointed commentary underscoring the issue of people buying and selling of children through commercial surrogacy.

John Stonestreet writes,

According to a recent ABC headline, “2020 [presidential] hopeful Pete Buttigieg says he and his husband are planning to have a child soon.” But that’s simply a misleading choice of words.
A more accurate way to put it would be how our sharp-tongued BreakPoint writer Shane Morris did on Facebook: “2020 hopeful Pete Buttigieg planning to buy an egg and hire a woman to serve as an incubator so he and partner can go on playing house together and turn another human being into their prop. There,” Shane said, “I fixed your headline.”
I wouldn’t have said it quite that way, but Shane has a point. Same-sex couples don’t have children together. They’ve chosen an intentionally sterile relationship, but then borrow from God’s design to bring children into existence before denying them a mother or a father.

When Stonestreet and Morris refer to people buying human eggs and hiring women to carry children, they’re talking about commercial surrogacy, where companies and wealthy couples pay women thousands of dollars for their eggs or to have children for them.

Family Council opposes commercial surrogacy, in part, because we believe it amounts to buying and selling babies. Commercial surrogacy and egg harvesting also carry a number of health risks for women.

Arkansas law currently lets companies harvest women’s eggs for profit. That’s why we supported H.B. 1761 by Rep. Cindy Crawford (R – Fort Smith) and Sen. Missy Irvin (R – Mountain View) this year. This good bill would have regulated the buying and selling of human eggs. It would have prohibited companies from paying women for their eggs, but it contained exceptions for free egg donations and for fertility treatments.

The bill passed in the Arkansas House, but unfortunately failed to make it through the senate before the session adjourned.

Photo by Filip Mroz on Unsplash