Donald DeMarco
Written on 16 Apr, 2001 at 9:16 in
Donald DeMarco | Author:
Donald DeMarco It did not happen. But it could have happened. It is a matter of historical record that Plato was born in ancient Greece, Aquinas in the Middle Ages, and Jean-Paul Sartre in the Twentieth Century. Yet it was not impossible, in the lottery of life, for all three of these talented thinkers to have been conceived by the same woman and, to strain the outer edge of imagination, to have been united as fraternal triplets during the ... (Continue reading)
Written on 14 Mar, 2001 at 14:07 in
Donald DeMarco, Motherhood | Author:
Donald DeMarco Women who sell or donate their eggs and giving away a whole lot more
Donating motherhood
"Is this egg worth $50,000?" is the provocative title of an article in Self magazine (Nov. 2000) that takes a close look at the new world of "egg donation." According to its author, Sheila Weller, close to 4,500 American women "donate" their eggs every year. Receiving $50,000 in exchange for a "donation" is obviously disingenuous. Federal law prohibits the selling of human organs, and although ova may ... (Continue reading)
Written on 14 Mar, 2001 at 13:51 in
Donald DeMarco, Politics | Author:
The new liberalism cut itself off from universal principles and focused on choice itself
Once upon a time, there was a parsimonious parson who, to save money, tried to brighten the exterior of his place of worship with watered down paint. After he finished his job and saw the paint cascading down the chapel walls, he called upon God for guidance. According to the tale, the Deity adjured the penitent parson to "Repaint and thin no more!"
Christ's first public miracle was ... (Continue reading)
Written on 22 Oct, 1999 at 9:48 in
Abortion, Donald DeMarco | Author:
By Donald DeMarco The Interim
Stephen Leacock, Canada's most honoured humourist, once proclaimed: "When I state that my lectures were followed almost immediately by the union of South Africa, the banana riots in Trinidad and the Turco-Italian war, I think the reader can form some opinion of their importance."
Leacock, of course, was being facetious. But his audience could not have been receptive of his humour if they were not already appreciative of a principle ... (Continue reading)
Written on 22 Oct, 1999 at 9:22 in
Bioethics, Donald DeMarco | Author:
By Donald DeMarco The Interim
The 1973 science-fiction film, Soylent Green, horrified audiences when they realized just what went into the manufacture of the food product from which the film gets its name. In the story, food has become so scarce in the year 2022 that the government decided to feed its citizenry re-processed human corpses.
The protagonist, played by Charlton Heston, discovered what this curious food was made from. He was at considerable pains, however, ... (Continue reading)
Written on 12 Sep, 1998 at 13:37 in
Donald DeMarco, Religion | Author:
Donald DeMarco Even as far back as the 1970s, leading Roman Catholics had pronounced Pope Paul VI's Humanae vitae a "dead letter." Truth, however, has a way of burying its undertakers—and Fate, if not Divine Providence itself, has an ingenious capacity for dramatizing Truth's triumphant return.
n July 29, 1998, exactly 30 years after the appearance of the famous document restating the Church's opposition to contraception, the timeless message of the "birth-control encyclical" reappeared on the front page of the ... (Continue reading)
Written on 7 Mar, 1991 at 7:27 in
Abortion, Donald DeMarco, Politics, Society & Culture | Author:
Donald DeMarco The French pharmaceutical giant Roussel-Uclaf produces RU-486, a steroid whose sole purpose is to bring about an abortion. It does so by destroying the lining of the uterus, thereby dislodging the already attached fetus (baby) who dies and is then expelled.
In the summer of 1990, the French government sold its 40 per cent share of Roussel-Uclaf to Rhone-Poulenc, a leading French pharmaceutical company. Rhone-Poulenc has since completed a merger with Rorer, a major U.S. drug company. Hoechst A.G. of Frankfurt, ... (Continue reading)
Written on 5 Mar, 1991 at 9:47 in
Donald DeMarco, Euthanasia, Pro-Life, Society & Culture | Author:
Donald DeMarco Professor William E. May, moral theologian at the Catholic University of America has written a lucid and important article on the controversial subject of withdrawing or withholding medical treatment (Linacre, August 1990).
Moralists
Professor May takes strong issue with two highly influential Catholic moralists, Richard McCormick, S.J. (see below) and Kevin O’Rourke, O.P. He regards their position on the withdrawal or withholding of medical treatment as deficient and dangerous. He remains consistent with Catholic teaching on the matter and affirms the body/soul ... (Continue reading)
Written on 5 Feb, 1991 at 7:21 in
Bioethics, Donald DeMarco | Author:
Donald DeMarco The British Medical Journal reports that "More patients have probably been harmed than helped so far" by the treatment of Parkinson's disease that involves the transplanting of cells, including cells taken from aborted fetuses.
In an article dated August 11, 1990, Adrian Williams, Professor of Clinical Neurology at the University of Birmingham thinks the treatment is still experimental.
Technical problems
When cells from aborted fetuses (babies) are used, there are technical as well as ethical problems. The cells have to be tested for ... (Continue reading)
Written on 31 Jan, 1991 at 13:16 in
Bioethics, Donald DeMarco, Society & Culture | Author:
Don DeMarco Dr. Donald Demarco presented a brief to the Royal Commission on New Reproductive Technologies in Toronto on November 20, 1990. Because of time restrictions on that occasion, he has been given space in The Interim to expand and clarify his remarks to two of the Commissioners, Maureen McTeer and Grace Jantzen.
Disease and desire
Ms. McTeer stated that one of the chief issues the Commission faces is deciding on the extent to which the state should involve itself in so personal a ... (Continue reading)
