#Volume5Issue4

Jan 25, 2017
5 min

Physician-Assisted Suicide and Therapeutic Ideation

Physician-assisted suicide proponents have been calling in favors to get in the media a lot recently, using sympathetic stories of disease to build goodwill towards their agenda. Rarely do they mention the failures and the bitter mechanics of the process, the gross lapses in oversight, or the threats to the disabled, elder adult, and depressed/suicide-minded communities. Neither do they discuss the danger posed by assisted suicide to the healthcare community, those we all rel

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Jan 25, 2017
7 min

Lengthening Limits to Liberty for Life: The Pursuit of Freedom of Conscience within the Military

Maria Santelli is the executive director of the Center on Conscience & War, a 76 year-old organization dedicated to extending and defending the rights of conscientious objectors to war. Thad Crouch is the National Program Coordinator for the Consistent Life Network and a U.S. Army veteran. He assisted the Military Law Task Force of the National Lawyers Guild with CO cases from 2009 to 2012 and served on the 2010 Truth Commission on Conscience and War. “I was told it was nece

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Jan 25, 2017
5 min

Election: 2016: No Conscientious Objection Allowed

There has been a lot of media attention recently on conscientious objection, mostly due to HR 4828, the Conscience Protection Act of 2016. This bill protects healthcare providers and health insurance companies from facing discrimination or fines for being pro-life. It states that the government cannot force healthcare providers (like churches and universities) to cover abortions through their insurance plans, nor can the government force healthcare professionals to perform or

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Jan 25, 2017
8 min

The Killing Game: Part 1

It was during year 60 of The World Government that Pip was stolen away by the secret police. They were the same group that took her grandma to the retirement community—they called it Senior Paradise—one year prior. The real story began while Pip was "working" at the electric dump with her mom, scavenging for loose electrical parts to sell to the junk collectors. Her mom was too busy to notice Pip searching deep in a pile of long-forgotten electronics. Suddenly a beep sounded,

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Jan 25, 2017
6 min

Can We Hyde War Taxes? Conscientious Objection to Military Taxation

by Thad Crouch — Financial self-help author Vicki Robin says “Money is something we choose to trade our life energy for” when we work. She further explains that the use of our money is a use of our life energy. This implies that our use of money impacts our own human dignity. Currently governments and employers around the world violate the consciences of a portion of their citizens and workers by coercing them to use their life energy to directly work to kill human beings. S

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Jan 25, 2017
7 min

Refusing to Practice Lethal Medicine: Conscientious Objection and Abortion

There has been a lot of media attention recently on conscientious objection (CO), mostly due to a bill currently being considered by the US Congress: HR 4828, the Conscience Protection Act of 2016. The bill protects all health care providers and health care insurance companies from facing discrimination or fines for being pro-life. It states that the government cannot force health care providers (such as churches and universities) to cover abortions through their insurance p

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Sep 13, 2011
6 min

What is the Consistent Life Ethic?

BY NICHOLAS NEAL We often hear partisan pundits criticize their opponents for the opponents' inconsistencies about killing people. We hear that pro-life advocates do not respect the sanctity of life in war zones. We hear that peace advocates are not so peaceful when it comes to unborn children. What is the answer to this inconsistency? The simple answer is being consistent. This ideological position is known as the consistent life ethic. The foundation for this ethic is

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Sep 13, 2011
2 min

The Rebels Storming Tripoli

BY NICHOLAS NEAL & AIMEE BEDOY On Tuesday, August 23rd, the rebel forces in Libya stormed Gadhafi's capital of Tripoli, thus declaring victory over the tyrannical leader who had once imposed unjust and inhumane purification laws against his own people. After 42 years in power as an autocratic dictator in Libya, Muammar Gadhafi has been removed from power by rebels within his own borders. Gadhafi is currently out of power and in hiding from NATO forces, but in an effort to k

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Sep 13, 2011
4 min

A Terse Nonpartisan Assessment of Our Political Prospects

BY JULIA SMUCKER It's that time of year again -- or has been, since sometime last year. The mud is flying left and right as a motley crew of politicians competes for our nation's volatile confidence. And who are they trying to appeal to? For a myriad of confounding reasons, our national political discourse has become so polemicized that most prominent candidates, as well as many commentators, seem able to do little more than preach to particular choirs within their own par

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Sep 13, 2011
2 min

The Abolition of Capital Punishment in Illinois

BY NICHOLAS NEAL The abolition of the death penalty in Illinois began when Governor George Ryan placed a moratorium on capital punishment in the state in 2000, after seeing an alarming number of death row inmates being exonerated. Eleven years later, the Illinois General Assembly passed a bill officially abolishing capital punishment in Illinois. It was then up to Pat Quinn to sign it. Now, although Governor Quinn is a Democrat, he had previously spoken in favor of capital

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Sep 13, 2011
6 min

Family Planning Freedom is Pro-Life

BY MARY KRANE DERR The right to access the full range of voluntary family planning methods is often neglected or actively undermined in the name of prolife, especially but not exclusively in the United States. Yet there are nine good reasons -- at least -- why fostering this right is essential to respect in practical deed for all human lives, already born and unborn. 1. Family planning freedom prevents millions of human deaths every year. Voluntary access to modern methods o

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Sep 13, 2011
8 min

Just War, Just Peace, Or What?

BY BILL SAMUEL What should our attitude -- as individuals, social movements and nations -- be toward war? When, if ever, is war justifiable either as to our own participation or as a decision of a nation or social movement? How do we get to a meaningful peace? These questions have been discussed and debated for millennia, and may be even more vital in this day of advanced weaponry. They have been discussed by people from many different religious traditions, and from none.

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Sep 13, 2011
13 min

Justice in the Face of Unknowing

BY AIMEE BEDOY & STEVEN OETJEN A quandary of major proportions faces our nation in this day and age. It could be a matter of life and death for countless persons -- we cannot truly be sure. This paper seeks to examine abortion through the lens of Constitutional law, science, and justice, and lastly to apply these faculties to the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act recently passed in Nebraska. In brief, our recommendation is always to stand for justice and ultimately

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Sep 13, 2011
1 min

Sonnet -- At 40 Weeks

BY LILIANNA SERBICKI Swollen, a dream on its way to fruition; Nothing romantic. Lense (soft-focus) gone. Real fruit bruises; a real fruit stays the motion We make ourselves. Our unkempt pieces drawn Into alignment; some beings are too real To smudge with soft words. Some beings delight In waking up the small pith in the chest With beating limbs. It is a sudden sleight Of soul, not hand; the itch will soon persuade Myself to love my stippled skin far more Than when it held jus

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Sep 13, 2011
1 min

Mother to Child

BY OLIVIA MELDRUM While I am mistress of my mind, You will sleep safely every hour. No morning will you wake to find My warmth turned cold, or sweetness sour. A fragile burden do I bear (O precious visitor; flesh brand-new) - I forget my face and clothes and hair In pain and consciousness of you. My little one, your mama hurts. She shakes at every strange man's gaze. You've joined the Dance - this you deserve; But our dance, dear, limps through a maze. I am not mistress of my

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Sep 13, 2011
5 min

Ten Years Later

BY AIMEE BEDOY I am writing this ten years to the day that those towers fell. And ten years later, I want us to discuss what we have learned from September 11, 2001, and where we as a nation must continue to grow. I am speaking as someone who grew up in this culture, immersed in it wholly from the time I was 12 years old. Perhaps I am not the wisest, or the most sage member of society to speak on these points, but this is what I have learned from my childhood to the present

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