Hidden Treasure

For you formed my inward parts, You covered me in my mother's womb. Psalms 139:13

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Warning: Current Healthcare Bill Could Mean You Lose Your Beloved Physician


The 16,000-member Christian Medical Association, the nation’s largest faith-based association of physicians, today said that the 2,000-page healthcare overhaul bill (HR 3962) introduced in the House of Representatives last week far exceeds the need for targeted reforms, instead injecting massive government intervention that threatens the patient-physician relationship.

CMA CEO Dr. David Stevens, "This legislation is an overdose. With this massive legislation, we are getting much more than is actually needed to fix our healthcare system. What we need is a targeted reformation of areas needing reform, but this legislation is an attempt to totally transform our healthcare system into a government-run system that dictates what healthcare treatment each patient will receive.

“The legislation introduced last week is coming to a vote way too fast. We have one chance to get this right, and leaders in Congress are trying to push a bill through in a few days that will impact one-sixth of our economy. It is bitter medicine that most people don't want, and taking it fast will not change that.

“The legislation is also ineffective and will increase costs rather than lower costs. It will hurt efficiency and increase bureaucracy. It will interfere with the physician-patient relationship and lead to the delay and denial of healthcare based solely on cost.

“The legislation also has serious side effects. In a radical shift in U.S. policy, under this legislation the government will suddenly be funding abortion on demand. And if abortion advocates prevail, the government ultimately will force health care professionals to participate in abortions.

“Physicians are so upset about this takeover of healthcare that hundreds of thousands have threatened to leave medicine if it passes. Forty-five percent of all physicians polled say they’re ready to leave medicine if healthcare overhaul passes. Ninety-five percent of faith-based healthcare professionals are ready to leave medicine if their conscience rights are weakened. The bottom line for patients under this legislation is that they are much more likely to lose their physician.”

news source
MEDIA RELEASE

Embargo: Immediate Release

Date: 12 November 2009

Enquiries: Dr Eva Seobi

Tel: 082 575 6278

CRISIS AS HEALTH CARE WORKERS REFUSE TO DO ABORTIONS

According to the latest Annual Report by the Western Cape Department of Health, the unwillingness of staff to perform abortions has resulted in unmanageable increases at facilities where staff are prepared to perform the procedure. Prior to the legalisation of abortion-on-demand, Doctors For Life International warned that this would happen. Health care professionals are fully aware that abortion ends the life a human being and many will therefore not participate in abortion-on-demand.

Health department head Prof Craig Househam said while the trend was worrying, it was also complex because the department could not compel staff to perform the procedure. All health care workers have a constitutional right to refuse to participate in the abortion procedure. According to him it’s even more worrying that younger staff are unwilling to perform abortions, as this could result in major problems when the older staff retired or left.

The provincial Department of Health has since raised concerns, saying that some institutions were increasingly becoming deserted due to staff refusing to perform abortions.

In a survey conducted by the South Africa Medical Journal in 1996, 82.49% of doctors said that they would refuse to perform abortion-on-demand. Of doctors in full-time government service, 94,69% said that they would refuse to perform the procedure. In another survey conducted in the Western Cape only 31.5% of doctors said that they would be prepared to do abortion-on-demand.

Sound medical science is clear that the life of a human being starts at fertilisation, when the reproductive cells of the male and female merge. The foetus’ heart begins to beat between 18 and 24 days after fertilization and brain waves can already be detected at six weeks after conception. Due to the development of the nervous system, a foetus is likely to feel pain as early as 8 weeks after conception. Doctors and nurses are acutely aware of these facts and will consequently always feel that it is morally and ethically wrong to do an abortion-on-demand.

Doctors For Life International therefore calls on the government to review the law on abortion, taking cognisance of the reality that the life of a human being starts at fertilization. No amount of political manoeuvring or efforts of governments will change these scientific facts.

Doctors for Life International, represents more than 1600 medical doctors and specialists. For more information visit Doctors For Life

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

The Face of Child Abuse


What does child abuse look like?

When I worked at Newton General some years ago, the most dreaded film we could look at through the lighted box was a child's x-ray that showed signs of abuse-either current or previous. Current abuse was easy to spot-usually in the form of a broken bone. Previous abuse was sometimes harder to spot, but just as real. The little bone would grow back twisted sometimes from an overzealous grab that actually twisted the child's arm/bone. Or a fracture or break that grew back somewhat misaligned. Talk about anger.....if you think health care providers don't get involved with patients be present when a tech views a film of a child abuse victim. You are liable to hear words you've never heard before, spouted with a venom you'll likely never forget.

It amazed me that the same tech who was obviously angered while looking at the film documenting child abuse would proudly state at some point that they were pro-choice. Visible signs of a broken arm would outrage them but the thought of a child being dismembered and put back together in a bucket following an abortion didn't faze them.

A greater abuse is occurring right now-this very second as I type this and likely while you are reading this-all over the country. Babies are being ripped from the warmth and security of the womb by those that claim they have a choice to do so. Since when is murder a viable choice? Since when is injecting a heart with medication to make it stop beating acceptable? Or why can a human being, fully developed with arms, legs, a brain and all of it's organs be partially born only to have it's brain sucked from it's skull and it be acceptable? That is what "choice" is about. Too graphic? Too emotional? Would you rather I say it's tissue and a tiny vacuum just sucks it out and you go on your merry way? That's a lie. One the pro-choice movement wants you to believe.

Want to know what abortion is really like told from the clinic workers that perform them? It's not as benign as the media and government leaders or Planned Parenthood want you and I to believe.

So while those techs stand around the lit box complaining about the scum that twisted the 4 year olds arm, I want to complain about the scum that is pulling live, perfect babies from a safe environment and killing them. Which is the greater evil-a broken arm or a heart that is stopped?

Monday, January 4, 2010

Why Abortion Should Be Illegal


Abortion is a form of murder and demeans the value of human life. When a pregnant women feels a kick in her belly, she doesn't say "Oh, the fetus kicked" or "Oh, the mass of cells that hasn't become a person kicked", she says "The baby kicked." Yes, after conception you have a real human being waiting to enter the world. Why should taking someone's life when they're in the womb be any different than taking their life when they're a baby in the crib? Pro-choice advocates claim this isn't a real baby only to justify their wrong acts in their own minds. Even if you don't believe abortion is murder, it still demeans the value of human life, since women can so callously stomp out a living being simply because they're inconvenienced.

Other birth control is readily available; thus, abortion shouldn't be a form of birth control. There are dozens of birth control methods that can keep you from becoming pregnant, including the 100 percent effective one: abstinence. Maybe if abortion wasn't available, people wouldn't be so careless in the first place.

The societal contributions of a potentially valuable human being are wiped out. What would the world be like if the mothers of Abe Lincoln, George Washington, or Thomas Edison had had an abortion? Just maybe a woman has become pregnant despite all birth control attempts because the child is destined to do something great.

Women who have abortions often suffer major psychological damage from the experience along with, in some cases, the father of the child. Many women who have abortion in their younger years end up living the rest of their lives in perpetual guilt. Even if that women doesn't consider it murder at the time, that may change as she matures. Even Jane Roe (not her real name), the original woman behind the famous court decision, has completely changed her mind on abortion. She filed a petition to have the decision overturned to help relieve the guilt of hundreds of thousands of needless deaths she blames on herself. Also, let's not forget that there are two parents of every aborted child. The father may feel just as guilty. The father may even want the child, but he has no choice if the mother chooses abortion.

The advances of genetic testing may prompt more abortions (to avoid having the non-ideal child). All of us who have or want kids imagine them growing up to be doctors, senators, sports stars, or whatever. But what would you do if you knew the child would have Down's Syndrome? What would you do if you knew the child would have an intelligence level lower than that required to enter public school? What if the child had a strong risk of schizophrenia? Would you still have the child or would you want an abortion? As genetic knowledge continues to grow, we are able to determine more and more about what a child will be like as an adult. Legalized abortion could turn babies into science experiments.

There are many couples who spend years on waiting lists trying to adopt a child. The number of couples out there who cannot have a child of their own for physical reasons are too numerous to count. The waiting list for adopting babies can be 5-10 years or more. Young women in their teens are right to be concerned that they're not ready to effectively raise a child. However, if that is the case, there are plenty of wonderful people out there who are. Not only would you be bringing a valuable life into the world, you'd also be making the dream of a childless couple come true.

The abortion decision is often made by minors or young adults, who don't have the maturity and life experiences to make good decisions. There's a good reason why we don't allow people to drink alcohol, smoke, or drive until they're a certain age. It's because they haven't matured enough to make good, sound decisions. We've all made bad decisions in our younger years that provide us with life experience to make sounder judgment in the future. The one skill that seems to take the longest time to develop is the ability to consider the feelings and needs of someone besides ourselves. Why should such a life or death decision as abortion be made by a person who probably hasn't developed that capacity?

People have the right not to see their tax dollars go to something they find immoral. Abortion is a medical procedure that must be performed by a doctor. The government contributes to many health care institutions such as Healthcare for the Homeless, Planned Parenthood, free clinics, etc. All of us who pay taxes have the right to prevent that money from going to something we consider murder.

Abortion eliminates legal rights of the unborn child. The documents of our founding fathers state that we are all entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. By legalizing abortion, we take those rights away from a future American citizen. Just because the babies can't speak for themselves doesn't mean they have no rights. If a 1-month old is murdered, it that really different than abortion as far as protecting an American's life? If a person shoots and kills a pregnant woman, shouldn't the punishment be more severe? If you legalize abortion, it would tell the courts there is no difference.

Abortion is against doctors' Hippocratic Oath. Every American doctor must take this fundamental oath, which says "First, do no harm". It threatens the very fabric of the entire medical field if doctors start using their own personal philosophies on life to decide who should or shouldn't be harmed. Whether or not you think abortion should be allowed, it cannot be disputed that a doctor is harming a living organism. Killing a human being doesn't serve any higher medical purpose and is therefore a violation of the oath.

Taken from Balanced Politics.org

The Korea Herald-"Doctors Declare War on Abortion"


Read complete text here

Early this month a group of young doctors declared a war against abortion, which is illegal but rampant here.

Consisting of some 600 obstetricians in their 30s and 40s, the group tentatively named "Gynob" resolved not to comply with any abortion request that is not based on medical validity.

"Despite the huge gap between law and reality, our society has left the issue of illegal abortions long unsettled. Most abortions in Korea occur because of social and economic reasons. And all of them are illegal," they said in a statement issued on Nov. 1.

Over the resolution of doctors, the first of its kind in Korea, the Korean Catholic Church immediately issued a message welcoming the announcement while the Korean Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists with a membership of 4,000 doctors underplayed it as a minority opinion of radical doctors.

"Regardless of culture and system, it is widely considered that illegal abortion should be eradicated. However, the issue cannot be solved by making some obstetricians criminals," said KAOG in a statement.

Choi said the group had tried but failed to reach an agreement with KAOG before announcing the declaration on its own. Within Gynob, the number of members also decreased from 680 to 650 in the process of discussions.

"We know doctors would feel humiliated as they have to confess their past wrong-doings. And abortion has already been an important source of profit," Choi said.

She admitted their efforts could be meaningless without the participation of all doctors.

"If some doctors quit performing abortions, others would do more. That's why we are considering criminal charges against illegal abortions," she said.

"Yes, some of us are criminals too. If necessary, we are ready to be investigated first. We think this might be the last chance to make a change."

Returning to my first love with a BANG!


After a long hiatus, in which I questioned the direction I wanted to take Hidden Treasure in, I am back to blog about and make a difference in Pro-life issues. Advocate? Maybe. Whistle blower? You bet.

You see, my heart has always been with those that society deemed worthless and I have no tolerance nor compassion on those that steamroll their way over the less fortunate. I don't waste my passion or compassion there, choosing instead to be the one to pick up the pieces, apply the healing balm, and then find ways to prevent this from happening again. I've never been accused of being a trail blazer. Not sure I know how to think like they do enough to stay a step ahead. However, if you hurt or kill an innocent child, disabled person, or one of a race you consider inferior, be assured, I will be in the dust and one of the first ones you will answer to.

That said, I was enthused to see most physicians still prefer to stand by their conscientious right to refuse to do an abortion. ".....many physicians may still feel pressured to violate their own ethical integrity by referring patients
to other doctors who will perform morally objectionable practices. We need
laws that protect physicians' rights of conscience, and we need education
to encourage doctors to stand firm on strong moral and ethical principles.

"A professional has the right and even the duty to stand firm on
ethical standards. A professional by definition is someone who has
professed an oath that binds him or her to clearly stated, objective
ethical standards. When doctors hold themselves to those standards,
patients are protected. Before doctors began to swear the 'do no harm'
principles inherent in the Hippocratic Oath, patients never knew whether
their doctor would heal them, kill them or sexually abuse them.

"If it is morally wrong to perform an abortion or euthanasia, it is
morally wrong to facilitate abortion or euthanasia with a referral. Our
society has always recognized this ethical principle. It's why, for
example, we prosecute accomplices who drive the getaway car in a robbery."

Dr. Al Weir, who directs CMA's Campus and Community Ministries that
reaches students on nearly every medical school campus in the United
States, emphasizes the need for strong ethical standards and education in
medicine.

Dr. Weir noted, "Patients would be alarmed to discover that many
medical schools have quietly stopped administering oaths in which doctors
profess to upholding the Hippocratic standards that protect patients. We
seem to have gone backward in ethical history.

"Many medical students today are taught that there are no moral
absolutes, and that a doctor's role basically is to accommodate whatever
the patient wants. These students need to realize that being a professional
means holding to moral standards that are above the doctor and above the
patient.

"Ethics and morals by definition draw bright lines that you must not
cross, even if someone else is pressuring you to violate those standards.
We need more doctors who have the courage to stand by the life-honoring
convictions that have protected patients for millennia."


Read complete text here

Monday, July 6, 2009

When a Celebrity Dies the Nation Mourns, But When a Baby Dies From Abortion....


Recently the nation has seen a wave of deaths of celebrities — Ed McMann, Michael Jackson, Farah Fawcett and Billy Mays. Very few people in the general public had personal relationships with these departed public icons. Yet, the intensity level of mourning that the nation has exhibited upon the news of these deaths shows that millions of people identified with these celebrities in a very personal way.

The public mourning for the death of Michael Jackson has been particularly intense. For several days after his death the news concentrated on both the details of his death and of his life. His music was replayed on both television and radio broadcasts and video images of him dancing to his music were shown over and over again to a grieving public. Likewise, the deaths of Farah Fawcett, Ed McMann and Billy Mays brought forth many special broadcasts on television to commemorate their lives.

Indeed, when a cultural icon passes away we all feel sadness. We all feel that even a part of our lives has also died, and the grieving families of these celebrities should be recipients of our prayers and compassion.

If we contrast, however, the public show of grief to these celebrity deaths with the public response to the deaths of 3,300 unborn children that occur from abortion every day we will have to make a disturbing observation about our nation.

It appears that when a celebrity dies the entire nation mourns but when 50 million unborn children die the nation pretends it didn't happen.

Abortion has since 1973 taken the lives of over 50 million unborn children. Abortion today takes the lives of 1.3 million unborn children every year. 3,300 every day. One every 25 seconds.

Where is the public mourning for these lives?

Each life taken by abortion was a unique person made in the image of God. Abortion has destroyed the lives of future doctors, lawyers, artists, authors, missionaries and others who could have contributed greatly to the quality of life we all enjoy.

Where is the public mourning for these lives?

Abortion has not only taken the lives of 50 million children but also ends the generational lines that would have followed such children had they been allowed to live. Millions of human beings who would have loved and been loved and provided so much joy and fulfillment to others will never exist because of abortion.

Where is the public mourning for these lives?

As a nation we mourn the passing of celebrities whom most of us did not know personally. But we ignore the deaths of millions because the manner in which they died is a topic that is not politically correct to bring up in social circles.

I suspect that the topic of abortion is to most Americans an uncomfortable topic that one does not enjoy discussing. Certainly, the passion of people on both sides of this issue makes for stress at your everyday dinner party. Yet, continued silence about this issue will not hide the fact that innocent lives are being taken every day.

Who is to mourn for the lives of the innocent taken by abortion everyday?

Until true public awareness of abortion and its ramifications is achieved then there will be no mourning for the deaths of these little ones. Only continued public silence will ensue.

Let us work for an America where this public silence is ended and is replaced by an outcry that will usher in a time period where every human life, born and unborn, is respected and the death of every person, whether a celebrity or an unborn baby, is mourned.

as it appears in its original format
 
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