From Rome to My Inbox

November 18, 2008

Dear Suzanne

We write with a message of hope, even as the pro-life movement faces the radical pro-abortion and pro-destructive human embryo laws and policies planned by the upcoming administration.

· Within 24 hours of the Presidential election, Bioethics Defense Fund lawyers Nikolas Nikas and Dorinda Bordlee were in Rome sharing BDF’s strategic legal initiatives with Mary Ann Glendon, the current U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See.

Prior to her appointment, Glendon was the Learned Hand Professor of Law at Harvard University and was appointed an original member of the President's Council on Bioethics. She played a crucial role as head of the Holy See's delegation in defeating Clinton administration-led U.S. efforts to have abortion recognized as a "fundamental human right" at the 1995 U.N. Conference on Women in Beijing.

Bioethics Defense Fund plans to keep you involved and informed of our legal strategies as we proceed in 2009.

· Nikas and Bordlee also gave two addresses to Catholic obstetricians and gynecologists at the Matercare International Conference. BDF is committed to assisting Catholic hospitals and all pro-life physicians in the United States who could soon face the same kind of discrimination long experienced by other health care professionals in other nations where health care rights of conscience are not legally protected.

Bioethics Defense Fund renews it commitment to defend the rights of medical professionals who object to using their vocation to serve in any way that intentionally destroys human lives.

In this relatively “Young Battle for Life,” Bioethics Defense Fund will stand with you to fully utilize the power of litigation, legislation and education in the service of defending the dignity of human life.

And that leads to the message of hope.

While in Rome, our conference was blessed to have an audience with Pope Benedict XVI in the Sala Clementine room of the papal apartments. This brought to mind the Pope’s wisdom from his first encyclical Deus Caritas Est, 35:

“There are times when the burden of need and our own limitations might tempt us to become discouraged. But precisely then we are helped by the knowledge that, in the end, we are only instruments in the Lord’s hands; and this knowledge frees us from the presumption of thinking that we alone are personally responsible for building a better world. In all humility we will do what we can, and in all humility we will entrust the rest to the Lord.”

With your help, Bioethics Defense Fund will continue to “Witness” to the fundamental human right to life. Together, we are hope in action. Together, we will be their voice.

Nikolas T. Nikas

Dorinda C. Bordlee

P.S. We need your help. Please consider standing with us by making a tax-deductible year-end donation to the unique life-protective legal work of the Bioethics Defense Fund.

· Via internet: www.BDFund.org/contribute.asp

· Via U.S. Mail:

Bioethics Defense Fund
3312 Cleary Avenue
Metairie, LA 70002

Or contact us at 504-231-7234 or dbordlee@BDFund.org

Bioethics Defense Fund is a non-profit 501(c)3 legal and educational organization. All donations are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.

Bioethics Defense Fund
Human Rights from Beginning to End
www.BDFund.org