I will be at my home congregation, First Ev. Lutheran Church in Lake Geneva, WI this Sunday, January 18, 2015 to preach for the 8am and 10:30am worship services. The congregation is observing “Life Celebration Sunday” and I will also conduct Bible Class between the worship services on “Life and Family Issues and the Christian Witness.”
The congregation is located at: 1101 Logan Street, Lake Geneva, WI
I will be preaching this Thursday (1/8/2015) evening (6:30pm) and Sunday (1/11/2015) (7:45am & 10:30am) at St. Paul Evangelical Lutheran Church in Slinger, WI. I will use the Festival of our Lord’s Baptism to focus the sermon on “Why Baptize?”
I also will conduct the Sunday morning Bible Class at beginning at 9am at St. Paul on the topic, “How We Got the Bible.”
Google Map showing St. Paul location.
I heard about this pro-life video entitled, “Motosis,” through an online World Magazine article you can read here.
Normally I find such media perspectives of the pro-life side overly preachy or sappy. This is neither. It is subtle and yet very clear in addressing the “What if” question of abortion – namely, “What if a child were not aborted – what impact might he have on the world?”
See the video here. It was very well done.
I have had a few people ask me why I have not written anything yet on the Brittany Maynard suicide. Being busy is perhaps the primary reason. I also hate fanning a flame that should not be lit.
Nevertheless, a lot is being written about the case and not all of it very good. An exception, however, comes from my friend Wesley Smith. He has tackled that tiresome and overused phrase of “death with dignity” in a way that exposes it for the fallacy that it is. Check it out here.
Scientists believe they have found the causes for both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. Finding the cause is the first major step towards healing the malady. See: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/11046958/Diabetes-could-be-cured-as-scientists-find-cause-of-disease.html
They have a name for it in Switzerland: Suicide Tourism. A recent report has indicated that the number of outsiders coming to Switzerland for assistance in being killed has doubled since 2009. See: http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/20/health/suicide-tourism-switzerland/index.html
In an earlier blog I reported about the Boston College ethicists who argued that single women should not be permitted to undergo in-vitro fertilization (IVF) because we have too many people. (ref: http://www.robertfleischmann.com/archives/145).
 Now, consider the story of the effectiveness of giving away free birth control to teenagers in reducing pregnancy on the one hand (regardless of the potential abortifacient nature of a form of birth control) [see story here: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-28693239] and the outlawing of permanent birth control in Iran to boost population [see story here: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/11/iran-ban-permanent-contraception-population-growth].
In discussions like this there is a lot of talk about “fertility rates.â€Â The fertility rate is the measurement of the number of children to be born to each woman in the country. In the United States and most developed countries the optimum fertility rate is around 2.1. That means for every woman there should be a little over two children born. Those two children replace the parents when they die. The “.1†covers those who do not have children and the children that have died. You will see that since legalized abortion the United States has not maintained a replacement fertility rate (see: http://www.prb.org/Publications/Datasheets/2012/world-population-data-sheet/fact-sheet-us-population.aspx). Population growth in the United States primarily comes from immigration, which is partially why that topic is such a political hot potato.
The world of in-vitro fertilization (IVF) and surrogate parenting has enough ethical challenges just in the procedure. Consider this new twist in which embryos were placed in the wrong mothers: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2720056/Judge-decide-legal-parents-IVF-twins-one-couple-s-embryos-implanted-wrong-mother-Rome-hospital-mix-up.html
Since 1823 (according to Wikipedia) the organ and tissue transplant industry has blossomed. Yet, there are never enough organs to meet the need. Part of the problem has been location. Under the present system the country is divided into 11 regions. Each region matches available organs within that region to available patients, also within that region. Some regions have more and some have less organs available.
There is an attempt underway to balance the supply and need of organs nationwide. As you might expect, in some areas the proposal is controversial. Read more at: http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014/08/14/339579923/who-gets-first-dibs-on-transplanted-liver-rules-may-change?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=news
Forbes had an excellent article on quality hospice care. Check it out at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/carolynmcclanahan/2014/08/01/nuts-and-bolts-of-end-of-life-care/
But, for every positive there is a negative – or so it would seem. Check out the way the Washington Post perspective hospice care: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/storyline/wp/2014/08/21/end-of-life-care-an-industry-with-soaring-profits-funded-by-taxpayers/
