Watch my talk tomorrow live at Family Resource Council

Follow this link to the live webcast at 12 noon EST. Please pray for me as I discuss Down syndrome; Disaster or Divine Smile?

Museum of Motherhood Talk on "Genetic Diversity"

The talk where I introduced my concept of "genetic diversity" to a conference on multicultural motherhood, given Monday at the Museum of Motherhood in Manhattan was well received. Attendees were very enthusiastic about the idea of a new paradigm of perfection, one not based on flawlessness, but on wholeness, of fulfilling one's purpose in life, as introduced by Amy Julia Becker at her keynote address for the Down Syndrome Conference at Princeton University.
You can see my chatty talk here. 

Upcoming talk at the Family Research Council

If you are in the Washington DC area, and would like to increase your awareness of the gifts offered by those with Down syndrome, please consider registering for a talk that I will be giving with Mark Bradford, Executive Vice President of the National Catholic Bioethics Center.
 We will address the new pre-natal test, MaterniT21 which is now available to expectant mothers and how it has the potential to eliminate people with Down syndrome from our society. Mr Bradford works with the Jerome Lejeune Foundation which supports promising research projects around the world seeking to improve the learning and memory of those with Down syndrome. 
We will share our personal testimonies as parents of children with Down syndrome, and why there's never been a better time in history to have a child with Down syndrome. 


Click here to register for the free event, held at the Family Research Council. 

Holy Angels Respect Life Conference

I gave a talk entitled, "Winning the War for Hearts and Minds of Youth" to encourage pro-life leaders to evangelize the youth in their parishes with the Gospel of Life. It was well attended, and there were many good questions. Afterward I enjoyed a talk given by Fr Brian Mullady, OP of EWTN fame, who gave a good explanation of Pope John Paul II Theology of the Body. the other keynote address was by Dr Marie Hilliard
of the National Catholic Bioethics Center (in the photo with me).
Dr Hilliard spoke about ethical challenges in health care. The most devastating challenge she described is the Groningen Protocol. According to Life Site News it is, "The protocol - the full name of which is The Groningen Protocol for Euthanasia in Newborns - lays out a set of guidelines that must be followed in making and executing the decision to kill a newborn infant."
The excuse to kill the newborn is that they have no quality of life due to a disability, and it is masked by false compassion which says they are alleviating suffering. It is murder, pure and simple. Life Site News states, 

The conditions that would allow babies to be killed in these circumstances include: "progressive paralysis, complete lifelong dependency, and permanent inability to communicate in any way." 

"The whole point of the protocol is to help physicians end the lives of newborns who are so severely afflicted that neither their dying nor their living should be prolonged. That being the case, the pertinent distinction is not between babies who will die and those who could live, but between babies for whom life-ending decisions should be made and those for whom such decisions cannot be morally justified. In bringing within its compass babies who are in no danger of dying - and, indeed, with proper care could live to adulthood - the protocol is even more radical than its critics supposed."

This news is haunting me, and I can't believe that I hadn't heard about it before this. I try to stay abreast of news affecting the disabled, but this one slipped by me. According to Life Site News it was deliberate. Scientists at The Hastings Center, the most prestigious bioethics center in America, where Dr Ezekiel Emmanuel, President Obama's health czar is a member, defends the Groningen Protocol. Don't be surprised when it surfaces in the Obamacare.It does, after all, save the medical establishment millions.
I am increasingly called to study for my Masters in Theology with a concentration in bioethics, available online at Holy Apostles College through a cooperative program with the National Catholic Bioethics Center.
Read more about it at the Vatican Website.

UPDATE Nov 15: here is a very positive post about my talk from the  Roberts Rock Farm.

I am becoming a Culture of Life speaker

Sometimes I have to pinch myself,  God is changing me so much, I hardly recognize myself.  I was the shy girl whose music teacher recommended she learn violin since she was so quiet, and didn't have the wind for a wind instrument. I was the one who dreaded oral presentations in her high school classes. Now, I am embarking on a career which includes getting up in front of large audiences, both in person and in the media, and giving a speech. You know this is the work of  the Holy Spirit. Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined myself speaking in front of a gaggle of cameras on Capitol Hill at an official press conference against Obamacare last September. I participated in a panel discussion of Catholic mothers of children with Down syndrome for the Catholic Speakers Series for the Joint Parish Respect Life Committee and the Faith Formation Office of the Diocese of Brooklyn this spring which included a short TV interview for Currents, a program of Net TV, the diocesan TV station. View the video here.

Here are some of the speaking engagements I have been planned for this year.
I am speaking this Saturday at St Mary's Church in Coventry, CT after the 9AM Mass for the Gospel of Life Society about my founding of Keep Infants with Down Syndrome and my upcoming book "A Special Mother is Born".
 I will be interviewing for Catholic TV in Boston about my book sometime this summer.

Now, I have a major speaking engagement on October 30, 2010. I will be speaking alonside Fr Brian Mullady, OP, author and  popular EWTN show host.
I will be moderating a workshop titled WINNING THE WAR FOR HEARTS AND MINDS OF YOUTH at our Respect Life Conference scheduled for Saturday, October 30, 2010. The Conference will open at 9:00 a.m. and the workshops will start at 9:30 a.m.
I hope to have my book available to purchase at this venue.
See you there!