• G.I.F.T. & Tubal Ovum Transfer
• Church teaching on G.I.F.T.
• "Reproductive Technology: A GIFT for Catholics?" an essay by John Wagner which does a good job explaining the G.I.F.T. procedure and providing pro and con views about its morality from a Catholic perspective

• Ad placed in the student newspapers of Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, University of Pennsylavania, and Yale offering $50,000 for an egg donor
• the popularity of college women serving as egg donors
• The Florida Center for Reproductive Medicine is making advances in the freezing of eggs
• Extend Fertility: a company formed, as the name implies, to extend women's fertility through egg freezing
• Ovary freezing to help women being treated for cancer

• Snowflakes: An Embryonic Adoption Program: a rather unique adoption service that places embryos left over from infertility procedures with adoptive parents

• "The Problem of Multiple Births" by Fr. Richard Sparks
• The story of the McCaughey septuplets with photos
• The Fetal Reduction Procedure: This procedure, also called selective reduction, is sometimes performed when a woman is carrying too many fetuses for her to bear safely.

• Pamela Schaeffer, "Many Oppose Human Cloning": an October 22, 1999 article in the National Catholic Reporter that does an excellent job surveying the recent history of cloning while putting its ethical and theological issues in a helpful context
• Human cloning: 'One shouldn't do this': ethical objections to cloning
• "Scientists make human embryo clones": a story from January, 2008, about making cloned human embryos from skin cells in the attempt to derive stem cells
• Creating babies so that they could serve as stem-cell donors for sick brothers and sisters
• An interactive timeline of developments in cloning
• "The Perils of Cloning": an assessment from July, 2006 on the 10-year anniversary of the first cloned sheep
• More information on cloning
• "Cloning is no way to operate a civilized society": an Observer column by Prof. Charles Rice from December 4, 2001
• Possible benefits of cloning
• Letters from people who want to be cloned
• The potential for abuse
• human cloning experiment via parthenogenesis a success
• The Report of the Pontifical Academy for Life on cloning
• Christians for the Cloning of Jesus: Why wait for the Second Coming when you have the Shroud of Turin and a little DNA from the Savior?
• President Bush presses the Senate to ban all cloning: a report from April, 2002.
• State human cloning laws

• President Bush vetoes embryonic stem-cell bill
• Adult and umbilical cord stem cells are already being used to treat more than 70 disorders: See the list here.
• South Korean University claims Dr. Hwang's research, which was initially billed as a major breakthrough in cloning a human embryo to harvest its stem cells was faked.
• Researchers at Harvard University said they have started efforts to clone human embryos as a source of valued stem cells, using only private money to bypass federal restrictions on such work.
• Stem cells: Fact sheets and testimonies & letters to Congress: from a United States Council of Catholic Bishops' site
• Creating babies so that they could serve as stem-cell donors for sick brothers and sisters
• President Bush's remarks about stem cell research: August 9, 2001
• President Bush's interview with Claire Shipman of ABC News on the stem cell decision
• Religious perspectives on stem cell research
• Petition to Georgetown University to stop research using stem cells from aborted fetuses
• Leon Kass on alternate sources of stem cells besides those involving the destruction of embryos. See also "Production of Pluripotent Stem Cells by Oocyte Assisted Reprogramming", which is a proposal for producing pluripotent stem cells without creating and destroying embryos. In addition, there was a report from January, 2007 about stem cells being discovered in amniotic fluid.
• "The Vaccination Question" by Timothy P. Collins, MD: An interesting analogy to the use of stem cells from aborted fetuses is the use of vaccines whose virus was grown in cultures of cells obtained from aborted fetuses. Collins argues that there is no moral difference here. For the Church's teaching on this matter, see the Vatican's "Moral Reflections on Vaccines Prepared From Stem Cells Derived From Aborted Human Fetuses" and the United States Bishops' statement about the use of cell-lines derived from aborted fetuses.

• Sex selection procedures from the Fertility Institutes of Los Angeles

• the aftermath of the Jaycee case
• Surrogacy laws by state: nice colored map which tells you the laws in each state
• Legal overview of surrogacy

• Download Adobe Acrobat Reader: You'll need this to view the living wills. If you're on a networked lab computer, chances are high that this is already installed on the machine and so you won't need to download. By the way, many of the state forms give you what's called a 'power of attorney for health care' form and then the living will form. I'm mostly interested in the latter for now, but you're welcome to fill everything out.
  
  

When I hear from you, I'll send you a response to what you've said that will also indicate where I think you currently are in terms of participation, postings, etc. Thanks very much, and have a great (and safe) break.

• Information about living wills
• Guide to living wills from Nolo.com legal encyclopedia
• Living will registry: an innovative free service to register living wills online and provide the information to hospitals

• Background on the Cruzan case
• Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Department of Health (1990): The U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the Cruzan case
• The case of Nancy Cruzan: a brief summary
• Traumatic brain injury: a helpful introduction to a range of brain injury
• Description of PVS
• Medical aspects of the Persistent Vegetative State: You'll first have to register for a free account at New England Journal of Medicine.

• "At the End of Life: Are Feeding Tubes Now Obligatory?": a very recent article by Thomas Shannon which analyzes the Church's 2007 ruling on feeding tubes in light of the 1980 Vatican Declaration on Euthanasia (1980).
• The Vatican has ruled against the removal of feeding tubes.
• Q&A from the USCCB Committee on Doctrine and Committee on Pro-Life Activities regarding the Vatican's new teaching about feeding tubes
• "Preserving Life? The Vatican & PVS" by Daniel P. Sulmasy: a very good essay from the December 7, 2007 Commonweal analyzing the latest Vatican statement about feeding tubes and explaining what it means for the use of feeding tubes by both PVS and non-PVS patients
• The impact of this new teaching on Catholic hospitals
• "Nutrition and Hydration: Moral and Pastoral Reflections": a 1992 document by the U.S. Catholic Bishops
• "Pope Says Patients Must Receive Nutrition, Hydration". Feel free, also to take a look at John Paul II's statement itself from March 2004, "Care for Patients in 'Permanent' Vegetative State," Address to the Participants in the International Congress on "Life-Sustaining Treatments and Vegetative State: Scientific Advances and Ethical Dilemmas"
• "Pope John Paul II Affirms Obligation to Feed Patients in the 'Vegetative' State": a good background piece by Richard Doerflinger
• "Pope reprimands 'euthanasia by omission'"
• "Pope: Keep feeding tubes"
• "Pope decries care shutdowns"
• "Catholic Stance on Tube-Feeding is Evolving": an essay by Manuel Roig-Franzia from the March 27, 2005 Washington Post, which talks about the disagreements still present in light of John Paul II's 2004 allocution about feeding tubes and shows how what the pope was saying seems in tension with centuries of Catholic tradition about these matters.

• the case of Terry Schiavo: a Florida woman in a PVS whose husband and family were at odds over disconnecting her from her feeding tube (final developments).
• "Shiavo case highlights divisions in Catholic views on treatment"
• Terri Schiavo died from dehydration
• Bishops' statements on Terri Schiavo
• "Truncating Catholic tradition: Catholic bishops avoid full consideration of ethical issues in Schiavo case

• State and federal programs targeted at those who are poor
  • Foodstamp eligibility and benefit amounts in Indiana
  • TANF eligibility and benefits amounts in Indiana. Additional information can be found in this report.
  • Medicaid and Medicaid eligibility in Indiana
• A site containing several statements on poverty from religious sources, facts about poverty, literature on poverty and welfare, links to several different organizations working for justice for the poor
• The Poverty Line
• How the government arrives at the poverty line. See also the official poverty measure.
• U.S. Census Figures on Poverty: who's poor? how many are poor? where do they live? This is a very nice resource with tables and graphs.
• Household Income in the United States: several graphs which break down income by race, gender, education, etc.
• Frequently asked questions about children in poverty
• Life expectancy by poverty and race: an animated chart going from 1900-1980. See also Life expectancy by sex and race, 1940-1999.

• median annual earnings of full-time workers by gender
• median annual income by level of education
• median annual earnings by race
• poverty rates by race and ethnicity
• Income distribution in the United States

• the application process for TANF, food stamps, Medicaid, and SCHIP
• A summary of the Welfare Reform Act of 1996
• An introduction to TANF
• Facts & Myths on Welfare and who's on it
• Fact sheet on Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF): from the Department of Health and Human Services. See the Indiana version of TANF.

• Becoming homeless: one family's story

• U.S. Catholic Bishops, "A Decade after Economic Justice for All
• A chart comparing Charity & Justice
• Notable statements on the themes of charity and justice
• Key documents of Catholic social teaching: collection of major papal and episcopal documents relating to the Church's social teaching
• The Busy Christian's Guide to Catholic Social Teaching: an online timeline with helpful summaries of all of the Church's major social teachings from Rerum Novarum in 1891 to Centesimus Annus in 1991
• Answers to 25 questions about Catholic social teaching: very brief but helpful renderings of key concepts and documents arranged in Q & A form
• Key themes from Catholic social teaching: brief definitions with links to quotations relating to the specific concepts
• An excellent summary of the main points in the Church's social teaching and links to other social justice sites
• The trinity: a brief definition

• A history of El Salvador from colonial times to post-civil war
• "Suffering Continues in El Salvador": an update on conditions since the death of Romero

• The Internet Movie Database on the film Romero: extensive information about characters, plot, significant lines from the movie, as well as links to other reviews
• Reviews of Romero

• Wikipedia on liberation theology
• Liberation theology: brief background on what it is and the theology behind it.
• A related site presents gives a more expansive presentation of liberationist views of God, Jesus Christ, sin, Church, and salvation.
• Instruction on Certain Aspects of "Theology of Liberation": the 1984 statement by the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith

• Pope Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum
• Pope Pius XI, Quadragesimo Anno
• Pope John Paul II, Laborem Exercens
• Pope John Paul II, Centesimus Annus

• What is meant by a just wage?: a good definition of the notion of a living wage (see question #20)
• Catholic social thought on the living wage: a good page from Le Moyne College which argues for the adoption of a living wage policy and features lots of additional links to other sites about the living wage
• Living wage facts
• Reflections on the concept of a living wage: helpful discussion of what a living wage is and its roots in the Church's social teachings. See also living wage facts.
• The Living Wage Resource Center offers news about the living wage and organizing efforts.
• Interfaith Worker Justice is about faith-based organizing and solidarity with low-wage workers. It seeks to improve wages and benefits, as well as working conditions, for workers, especially low-income workers.
• Minimum wage information
• the federal minimum wage A[ro;

• The Economics of Immigration and Catholic Social Teaching
• The Economics of Immigration
• Catholic Social Teaching and Immigration
• The Current Policy Debate

• Health care and homelessness
• The role of money in who gets organ transplants
• "Black-white life expectancy gap shrinking"
• Life expectancy by race and gender. See also "Life Expectancy at Birth by Race and Sec, 1930-2004".
• Medicaid: an overview of the program, with information on eligibility.
• the application process for TANF, food stamps, Medicaid, and SCHIP
• State health insurance programs & Health statistics for the state of Indiana: click Indiana on the map for additional information. Now go to Does your family qualify for free or low-cost insurance? and follow the directions to see the support different states provide for health insurance through their Children's Health Insurance Program.
• Eligibility criteria for Hoosier Healthwise, Indiana's health care program for children, pregnant women, and low-income working families
• In Massachusetts, Health Care for All?: an innovative and bipartisan Massachusetts plan to provide almost universal health coverage
• State innovations in health care
• "Uninsured are the Young": Young adults between the ages of 19 and 29 are the largest and fastest-growing segment of the U.S. population lacking health insurance, according to a report released in May, 2006.
• The United States has the 2nd worst newborn death rate in the modern world
• State health data

• Papal Infallibility: a primer on Catholic teaching
• "This Teaching Cannot be Infallible": response by the National Coalition of American Nuns to Ordinatio Sacerdotalis
• Response by WomenPriest group to claim of infallibity. A response with a slightly lighter tone appears here.
• Women called to be Catholic priests: examples and stories from the past and present
• Does anyone have the right to be ordained?
• Ten Frequently Asked Questions About the Reservation of Priestly Ordination to Men: an October, 1998 pastoral response by the Committee on Doctrine of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops in Q & A format
• The Case for Women Priests, including a nice summary of the arguments given for or against the ordination of women.
• Women clergy: priests, pastors, ministers, rabbis: overview of the status of women serving in ministerial capacities in branches of Christianity
• Women's Ordination Conference: a voice for women in the Roman Catholic Church. This site gives a great background to the official teaching of the Church and summarizes recent developments including women apparently ordained Catholic priests during the Communist era to keep the Church alive.

• The Bible on the death penalty: extensive excerpts and citations from both the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures. See the crimes punishable by death in the Bible, as well as additional verses from the Bible in favor of the death penalty. "Is Capital Punishment Biblical?" is another good source.
• "The Pope's Executioner": a fascinating profile of Giovanni Battista Bugatti, nicknamed "Mastro Titta," who supervised and carried out several hundred executions at the Vatican in the 19th century under the direct orders of the pope. His story shows that the current Catholic position on the death penalty represents more fundamental changes than mere development of doctrine. See also an interview with a modern-day executioner
• "The Purposes of Punishment" by R. Michael Dunningham: an essay in favor of capital punishment from a Catholic perspective
• Speech by Justice Antonin Scalia on the death penalty: A Pew Forum-sponsored event on "Religion, Politics, and the Death Penalty" from January 25, 2002 in which Associate Justice Scalie defended capital punishment and voiced his disagreement with official Catholic teaching.

• Catechism of the Catholic Church on capital punishment: see sections 2266 & 2267
• Revisions of the Catechism in light of Evangelium Vitae
• Recent papal statements about capital punishment
• "A Culture of Life and the Penalty of Death": a 2005 statement by the U.S. Catholic Bishops
• Christians and the death penalty: a series of reflections, including Mother Teresa's visit to death row inmates
• "Witness to Life: The Catholic Church and the Death Penalty": a May 2000 address by Cardinal Roger Mahoney of Los Angeles

• The Death Penalty Information Center: resources on death row and executions, as well as information about various issues relating to capital punishment like cost and deterrence
• The death penalty and race
• Women and the death penalty: statistics, history, and links
• Women on death row.
• Women executed in the U.S. since 1900
• The death penalty and children: see Wasted Youth.
• Roper v. Simmons (2004): the ruling from 2004 in which the Supreme Court abolished the death penalty for those who committed their crimes before they were 18 years old
• The death penalty in other countries
• United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• Ernest van den Haag, "The Ultimate Punishment: A Defense"
• Governor George Ryan commutes all death sentences in Illinois: On one of his last few days in office in Jan. 2002, Gov. Ryan of Illinois effectively brought the death row population in the state of Illinois down to 0.
• Death Penalty talking points: helpful debate points for those arguing against the death penalty
• Racial discrimination in implementing the death penalty: gives a number of areas in the justice process where race makes a difference for being sentenced to death
• Discrimination and the death penalty: features a chart comparing the race of the victim with the race of the defendant

• State-by-State Information on the Death Penalty: Just click a state, and up comes whether it has a death penalty, how many executions it's had since 1976, how many are on its death row (including the number of women, various laws relating to the death penalty, and the method that state uses to execute)
• Death Penalty Information Center: a massive online library about capital punishment in the United States
• Supreme Court allows appeal about lethal injection: A unanimous U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June 2006 that a death row inmate can bring a challenge under a federal civil rights law to the method of execution that uses a lethal three-chemical cocktail. See also "Lethal Injection Under Attack" and news that California and Florida have suspended executions. The Court reached a decision on April 16, 2008. See "Court Rejects Lethal Injection Challenge". For the full decision in this case of Baze v. Rees, see here.
• "What Does the Future of Death Penalty Look Like?": This article addresses what's next if the 3-drug cocktail for lethal injections is ruled unconstitutional.
• Hanging in the United States: information about this form of execution and which states continue to permit it
• Executions in 2006.
• States with and without the death penalty
• Crimes punishable in the United States by the death penalty
• Death penalty worldwide in 2003
• Equal Justice USA/Quixote Center: works state-by-state for a moratorium on executions
• State laws on capital punishment: click a state and get the details
• State methods of capital punishment
• "So Long as They Die: Lethal Injections in the United States": a Human Rights Watch Report from April, 2006, this site describes the development of lethal injection protocols, the drugs used in lethal injection, lethal injection procedures, physician participation in executions, and botched executions. New Jersey bans the death penalty
• Statistics on death row population by state
• Address of male and female death row prisons in the United States
• Take a virtual tour of a Florida death row cell: also links to frequently asked questions about the daily routine of death row inmates, a list of inmates currently on death row in Florida, and links to the Florida death row prisons
• Women and the death penalty: statistics, history, and links
• Women on death row.
• Women executed in the U.S. since 1900
• Discrimination and the death penalty: features charts comparing the race of the victim with the race of the defendant
• Pro Death Penalty Pages

• A brief overview of the Catholic just war tradition: from the United States Catholic bishops
• Just War and the Catholic Church: discussion of catechism passages about war, summary of just war criteria, and analysis of ethical reasoning behind the just war norms (with an especially good discussion of the deficits behind consequentialism), and an interesting debate at the end between a pacifist and just war thinker
• Resources on Just War Theory: excellent set of links to web resources on Catholic teaching, Christian peacemaking, and the War with Iraq

• U.S. Nuclear Forces in the year 2007. See also a picture and description of each of these weapons in the United States nuclear arsenal.
• Russian Nuclear Forces in the year 2007
• The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty: Signed in 1970, it was meant to make the world a safer place by holding fixed the membership in the nuclear club.
• Nuclear Q & A: basic background on nuclear weapons, including who invented the atomic bomb and how an atomic bomb works
• Loose Nukes: a PBS Frontline report on the threat of nuclear smuggling. This site has lots of good links pertaining to nuclear nonproliferation.
• Where the bombs are: an article about which states house nuclear weapons
• Nuclear Blast Mapper: an interactive site that will let you explode various sizes of nuclear weapons and see their damage on particular cities and surrounding areas