Urgent!

A Message For All Michigan Citizens!

Please visit MiCause for extremely important information regarding a monstrous and imminent proposal to change Michigan's Constitution.

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Fr. Frank Pavone Coming To Monroe!!!

Our annual dinner is a benefit for Right to Life of Michigan. 2008 is a critical year for our state and our nation. Your presence and support will make a powerful statement that says, "We are a nation that loves all human life and we will not stand by while a minority leads our country down dark roads. Let's prove that people who love all human life, from conception to natural death, truly make up the majority of the citizens of our great country!!

This year we are honored to have as our keynote speaker, Fr. Frank Pavone, National Director for Priests for Life.

Additionally, our Master of Ceremonies for the evening will be Dr. Monica Migliorino Miller, National Director for Citizens for a Pro-Life Society.

The evening will prove to be highly stimulating and deeply rewarding as we come together for the sake of our precious unborn and to promote a culture of life in Monroe County and beyond!!

This year, let all people know...Life begins in the Light!!

Please download a registration form and join us...Together we can make a difference!!

2008 Monroe County Right to Life Focus on Life Benefit Dinner Registration Form

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Up Coming Events!

Please click on our Calendar of Events link for details of two exciting events planned for 2008!!

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Three Cheers For Our Youth!!

On March 29th, 2008, Andrew J. Jones, a freshman at Dundee High School, was named the winner of our first annual high school oratory contest sponsored by Monroe County Right To Life and Right To Life of Michigan with his speech on stem cell research.

His well researched presentation included reference to the November 20, 2007 report that two independent teams of researchers successfully reprogrammed human skin cells so that they were identical to stem cells derived from embryos. This resolves the ethical and reliability issues encountered in harvesting stem cell from embryos and thus destroying them. He was awarded $100 for first place and will compete in the statewide competition which will be held at St. Matthew's Lutheran Church in Holt, MI on May 3rd.

Nathan Schultz, a junior at Lutheran High School South was awarded $50 as the second place winner. His presentation was a powerful argument against euthanasia.

Elly Netter, a sophomore at Sand Creek High School and a resident of Adrian in neighboring Lenawee County took third place and the $25 award with an insightful poem on abortion.

Kyle Burkardt, a freshman at Saint Mary Catholic Central, and Katie LaVoy, a senior at Erie-Mason High School also participated. All participants received certificates recognizing their achievement and will be recognized at upcoming events.

The panel of judges included Rev. Dr. Michael A. Woroniewicz, D.Min.,Pastor of St. Irene Catholic Church, Dundee, the Honorable Terrence P. Bronson, 1st District Court, and Mr. Larry Feldpausch, biology teacher at Ida High School.

The contest was held at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Monroe, MI.

We are proud of all the participants and inspired by their strong enthusiasm in promoting a culture of life from conception to natural death!!!

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To Be or Not To Be a Human Embryo by: Robert M. Burke, President

The battle line has been drawn. On one side are the advocates for life – Human life. On the other side are advocates for, well, let’s just say – research material - and the profits and fame obtained through its use. The battle line is the human embryo, a person so small that he or she could fit on the head of a pin. But wait! Am I correct in describing the human embryo as a person? Well, ask yourself these questions: “When did I become a person?” “Was it when I received life?” “Was there some point in my existence when I was “not” a person?” “What does it mean to be a person?” “When I was a human embryo, was I a person endowed with self-evident and unalienable rights, such as Life?

The answer to these questions will determine the destiny of many human embryos that scientists want to deliberately penetrate for the extraction of embryonic stem cells. Unfortunately, the current process used by stem cell researchers does more than “damage the embryo”; it kills the embryo.

There are people who say that the human embryo is not a person but just a clump of cells. Where have we heard that argument before? Oh yes, in the fight to end abortion. And while the battles for the rights of babies in the womb rage on, science has been affirming that life begins when the gift of life is given, at conception. If so, then the human embryo who is only 4 – 7 days old is endowed with the self-evident truth of the right to life. Looking at a human embryo and seeing only a clump of cells is like looking at Mt. Rushmore and seeing only the rocks and dirt; or a painting by Rembrandt and seeing only the canvas and paint. If the beauty of these creations exist beyond the raw material that’s visible, how much more beautiful is the person who grows from conception?

Make no mistake about it. In the great human embryonic stem cell research debate that is pulsating through our state and beyond, we will define what kind of people we are. Are we people who believe we should protect those who are the most poor, innocent, and voiceless among us, like zygotes, embryos, blastocysts, fetuses, babies, and people unconscious, in comas, or in persistent vegetative states? When we, as a people, accept definitions of the human person that finds its starting point at some arbitrary moment in time “after” conception, then we will become people that fail to embrace the “human potential;” a potential that begins in mystery and ends in mystery. We become people that fail to see beyond the visible, such as seeing your wife or husband verses just woman or man. When we, as a society, venture down this path, we inaugurate a utilitarian, cold, and monstrous mindset; and that is quite scary. Remember the movie Logan’s Run from the seventy’s?

There are those who want to change our current laws in Michigan to allow stem cell extraction from little human embryos; a process which currently kills him or her. [Oh yes, these same people also support human cloning, (a.k.a. nuclear transfer, somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), therapeutic cloning, or customized stem cell lines) where the end result is a cloned human embryo – which brings us back to the question of when human life truly begins.] But shouldn’t our laws reflect what’s best of human thought and development? Shouldn’t our laws be designed to safeguard the self-evident right to life for all people? I’m all for stem cell research, just not embryonic stem cell research where a human embryo must unwillingly die.

To watch a video on this incredibly important topic, click on:
The Science of Stem Cells: Finding Cures & Protecting Life

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