“Gary Glenn, director of the American Family Association of Michigan, told the Michigan Messenger: ‘The ideal that’s in every child’s best interests is to have both a mother and a father. Selfishly denying a child one or the other on purpose, by whatever means, is obviously not in the child’s best interest. Obviously, being able to harvest male sperm cells from a woman’s bone marrow doesn’t make her a father, which every boy needs and deserves, any more than harvesting unfertilized eggs from a man’s bone marrow will make him the mother that every little girl needs.’”

MICHIGAN MESSENGER
Lansing, Michigan
February 28, 2008

New stem cell controversy: Harvest
sperm from woman, eggs from man
by Ed Brayton

Just when new developments hold out the promise of doing embryonic stem cell research without any destruction of embryos, a new research study has rekindled another fierce controversy over the ethical uses of such research.

Researchers in the UK and Brazil have announced that they believe it will be possible in the future to use adult stem cells from a woman to produce sperm cells and to use adult stem cells from a man to produce eggs with their own DNA. If that becomes a reality, it would allow gay or lesbian couples to produce their own 100 percent biological offspring. Currently, it is possible for a female couple to reproduce using an egg from one of them and sperm from another male, or for male couples to reproduce by inseminating a surrogate mother, but only one of the couple in each case is a biological parent to the child.

This announcement has caused something of an uproar, particularly in conservative Christian circles. Gary Glenn, director of the American Family Association of Michigan, told the Michigan Messenger: “The ideal that’s in every child’s best interests is to have both a mother and a father. Selfishly denying a child one or the other on purpose, by whatever means, is obviously not in the child’s best interest. Obviously, being able to harvest male sperm cells from a woman’s bone marrow doesn’t make her a father, which every boy needs and deserves, any more than harvesting unfertilized eggs from a man’s bone marrow will make him the mother that every little girl needs.”

Ed Rivet of Right to Life of Michigan argues that such research is evidence that scientists must be restrained by society, saying: “We can’t as a society presume that science will properly monitor itself or regulate itself. There will always be scientists that will cross whatever ethical lines we draw. We as a society do have an important obligation to provide oversight to the scientific community.”

But in this case, the scientific community seems highly skeptical of the feasibility of such research even before getting to the ethical questions.

The research team at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the UK has so far managed to coax stem cells from mouse embryos to become sperm stem cells, or spermatogonium. These cells contain two sets of chromosomes, not one, and have to go through a complex series of cell divisions in order to become actual sperm cells capable of fertilizing an ovum. So far the researchers have only managed to use a combination of vitamins and chemicals to induce the first two divisions, not all the other divisions needed.

Reed Cartwright, a Ph.D. geneticist at North Carolina State University, told the Michigan Messenger that he has doubts that they will even be able to reach the point of a viable sperm cell:

I don’t think it will be feasible at all with cell culture technology. It’s wishful thinking to propose that a solution of “chemicals and vitamins” will be enough to replicate the complex adaptations that our bodies have to produce and nurture perfectly healthy, mature sperm and eggs. This technology will probably become feasible only after “artificial organ” technology is functional, but it will still have difficulties even then.

And even if they do manage to overcome those difficulties, Cartwright points out, the real problems come after fertilization and implantation, where the interaction of mother and father genomes has been finely honed by millions of years of evolution to work in concert with one another:

“The major problem in my opinion is getting the genes of the artificial gamete to properly imprint. Our reproductive biology is the result of millions of years of evolution to balance the different needs of fathers and mothers while maintaining compatibility and offspring viability. There are hundreds of genes in a human body that get turned off or on based on whether they are inherited from Dad or Mom; this is called imprinting. Failures in getting the correct imprinting pattern have been linked to diseases such as cancer, schizophrenia, and autism. You may be able to produce mature sperm from a female cell line, but you might be unable to set the correct “Dad” imprinting on the sperm cell, and any resulting child will have two “Mom” imprinting patterns, which is not healthy. This is probably the major reason why the mice in the Newcastle experiment have health problems.”

The genetics of reproduction is enormously complex, as is the crucial interplay of different genes. There are genes in the maternal DNA that must be turned off or on by other genes in the paternal DNA, and vice versa. Absent those regulatory genes, the whole process of recombination and imprinting may become hopelessly distorted. Cartwright notes that the unique danger here is that the researchers “are trying to turn those adult cells into something that runs counter to their biology and evolutionary history.”

http://www.michiganmessenger.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=924

Please continue to stand with us to meet the challenges ahead, and we’ll trust God together for the results.

Gary Glenn, President
American Family Association of Michigan

ASSOCIATED PRESS
New York, New York – November 17, 2006

Liberals aim to ram measures past Congress: Hate-crime legislation, reproductive and gay rights top wish list
Reproductive rights are high on the liberals’ wish list now that Democrats control both houses of Congress.

by Nati Harnik

NEW YORK – After years of playing defense, liberal advocacy groups see the Democrats’ takeover of Congress as a long-awaited chance to convert some of their goals into law. Their wish lists include workplace protections for gays, a broader hate-crimes law, and a multi-pronged push to reduce unplanned pregnancies.

A Republican president remains in the White House, armed with veto power, and Democratic control of the Senate is as slim as could be. Yet gay-rights, feminist and abortion-rights groups are nonetheless pleased by their brightest prospects for legislative victories since 1994.

“It’s exciting to get off the defensive,” said Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. She hopes the new Congress will stay away from debate on abortion restrictions and instead work on a bipartisan basis to curtail unintended pregnancies.

“Common sense” initiatives
Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, said “common sense” initiatives might include requiring health insurance companies to cover birth control, requiring that emergency contraception be available at hospitals for rape victims, and ensuring that sex education for young people includes accurate information about contraceptives.
The president of the largest national gay-rights group, Joe Solmonese of the Human Rights Campaign, said he has high hopes for two long-pending proposals that failed to get through the GOP-controlled Congress. One would outlaw employment discrimination against gays, lesbians and transgender people; another would include them among the groups protected in federal hate-crimes legislation.

Gay activists also would like to see Congress repeal the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that prohibits gay members of the military from being open about their sexual orientation – but a push for this may come somewhere down the road. “Everyone remembers the fight President Clinton had when he made this his first major political issue in 1993,” said Aaron Belkin, director of a University of California, Santa Barbara think tank that studies gays and the military. “While opinion on letting gays serve has moved leaps and bounds since then, the new Democratic Congress is not likely to come out strongly on this one from the get-go,” Belkin said.

Solmonese indicated that leading gay-rights groups will be patient with the new Democratic leadership, not pushing to have their issues be at the very top of the 2007 agenda. “What we’ve got is a new and respectful Congress that’s open to our community, to learning the specifics of our issues,” he said. “To stress right now – ‘This is what we want and this is when we want it’ – would be premature.”

Women’s rights
Feminist groups such as the National Organization for Women were generally at odds with the GOP leadership in Congress and have welcomed the power switch, which will include Rep. Nancy Pelosi serving as the first female speaker of the House.
NOW President Kim Gandy said her organization’s legislative wish list includes adding gender to the existing federal hate-crimes law, tightening controls over silicone breast implants, and improving options for working mothers through enhanced family leave policies and child care options.

Some conservatives have expressed hope that – on abortion issues, at least – Democratic stances in Congress might be moderated by the election of several anti-abortion candidates. But other leaders on the right, such as Family Research Council president Tony Perkins, doubt these Democratic newcomers will sway policy.

“Instead, anticipate the fiercest assault of our time against abstinence, marriage, life, good judges, and religious freedom,” Perkins wrote this week in the National Review. “Pro-life Democrats are likely to be marginalized in positions where they have little influence.” Another conservative leader, the Rev. Louis Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition, asserted that the gay-rights bills likely to advance next year will infringe on the rights of those who condemn homosexuality.

“All Americans must be prepared to endure serious threats to their freedom of speech, their right to make employment decisions as business owners, and their religious freedom in the business world,” Sheldon said.

—-

Liberal’s Wish List

Some measures that liberal advocacy groups would like to see passed by the new, Democratic-controlled Congress.
Gay Rights

• Prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. According to gay-rights groups, it is now legal in 34 states to fire someone based on their sexual orientation.
• Add sexual orientation and gender identity to the list of categories covered by the federal hate-crimes law, which now covers crimes based on race, religion and national origin. About 14 percent of the 7,163 hate crimes reported nationwide in 2005 involved sexual orientation, according to the FBI.
• Replace “don’t ask, don’t tell” – the military’s policy prohibiting openly gay people from serving – with a policy prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

Click here to view the Granholm ad.

(requires free quicktime to view)

Join AFA-Michigan in supporting two important 2006 ballot measures:

Prenatal Child Protection Amendment
Will protect the lives of prenatal children by guaranteeing equal protection and due process of law to all persons from the point of conception.

Stop OverSpending Initiative
Will relieve the future tax burden on Michigan families by limiting the growth of our state government budget each year to no more than inflation plus the percentage increase in Michigan’s population.

Click here to receive copies of these petitions

Nationally renowned legal scholar and abortion
foe calls amendment “prudent, timely, and positive”

Notre Dame law professor backs Michigan’s
Prenatal Child Protection Amendment

Endorsement lauded by Michigan family values group

SOUTH BEND, Indiana — Professor Charles E. Rice of Notre Dame University, a nationally renowned legal scholar and abortion foe, Wednesday endorsed a proposed amendment to the Michigan constitution to ban nearly all abortions by extending the state constitution’s guarantee of due process and equal protection of the law to all persons from the moment of conception.
(more…)

This commerical is perhaps the most effective mainstream marketing of the pro-life message of all time:

http://www.gemedicalsystems.com/rad/us/video/4d-100k.rm

Gary

PLEASE READ THE “ACTION ALERT” BELOW AND CONTACT AMERICAN GIRL DOLLS.
THEN, PLEASE FORWARD THIS MESSAGE TO YOUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS NATIONWIDE.

Gary Glenn, president of the American Family Association of Michigan will discuss American Girl Dolls’ disappointing financial support of Girls Inc., a pro-abortion, pro-homosexual lifestyle advocacy organization.

Friday, 9:10 a.m.
The Teresa Tomeo Show
Ave Maria Radio

Listen live online:
http://www.avemariaradio.net/catholic-online-radio.php

Or here in Michigan,
listen on the radio:

WDEO 990 AM
Detroit-Ann Arbor

WMAX 1440 AM
Midland, Bay City, Saginaw
__________________

(more…)

(AgapePress) Many pro-life and pro-family Protestants are adding their voices to those in the Catholic community who look forward with hope to the papacy of Benedict XVI. The American Family Association of Michigan, a statewide family values group supported by both Roman Catholics and other Christians, enthusiastically welcomed the new pontiff’s election.

AFA of Michigan president Gary Glenn notes that Cardinal Ratzinger’s service to the Catholic Church has been comparable to the motto of the U.S. Marines — that is, “semper fidelis” or, in other words, “‘always faithful’ in defense of traditional Christian doctrine regarding marriage, morality, the family and protection of prenatal life.”

Praising the new pope’s record of leadership as a cardinal, Glenn notes that Ratzinger issued publications upholding marriage as exclusively between one man and one woman and reaffirming the church’s staunch opposition to homosexual behavior and abortion.

Also, the Michigan activist points out that Cardinal Ratzinger was outspoken about family values during the 2004 U.S. presidential campaign and even authored a memorandum saying Catholic politicians who support legal abortion — like Senator John Kerry and Michigan’s Governor Jennifer Granholm — should be denied communion, along with Catholics who vote for such politicians.

Ratzinger’s stances on these issues caused many pro-abortion and pro-homosexual advocates to label him as an adversary. Advocate, a homosexual news magazine, called the new pope “anti-gay” and “a hardline guardian of conservative doctrine,” while Reuters reported that many homosexual Catholics have expressed disappointment over his election.

Also, the group Soulforce has condemned Ratzinger for refusing to meet with its representatives back in 2000 when they were in Rome, saying his refusal “indicates his unwillingness to even acknowledge the Spirit evident in the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.” In a news release, Soulforce denounced the former cardinal, stating that he now “brings the inquisition to his appointment as pope.”

In light of such reports, AFA-Michigan’s Glenn comments, “If a good man is known by those who condemn him as much as by those who support him, certainly faithful Catholics and all who stand for traditional family values … have all the more reason to welcome Cardinal Ratzinger’s selection.”
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/4/202005a.asp