Saturday links: Muslim women mountain climbers, aborted fetus mothers, infant terrorists, and more

Posted by Sappho on August 20th, 2005 filed in Blogwatch

Twisty, guest blogging for Bitch Ph.D., on My Mother the Aborted Embryo.

The story so far: some dudes in Israel are–or at least they were in 2003; for all I know they could be running a sports bar by now– working on a method to harvest ovarian tissue from aborted human fetuses for the purpose of sprouting eggs for in vitro fertilization. The goal is to eliminate the middleman, i.e. the sentient egg donor–or as some sentimentalists may euphemize, the “woman”– who can cause problems down the line, in favor of an aborted fetus egg “donor” with no pesky legal standing. Pro-life hijinks ensue.

Count me creeped out by the thought of having an aborted fetus for a “mother.”

Unqualified Offerings has an interesting series of posts on suicide attacks.

Amanda fisks Jennifer Roback Morse on contraception. But I only care to comment on a few sentences of Morse’s original article:

These cases did indeed, allow people to change the probability of a live baby resulting from any sexual act. It would be a defensible intellectual position to claim that people are entitled to use new technologies to change these probabilities.

Good. Since that actually is my position on contraception, I’m fine.

But under feminist tutelage, the social norms and constitutional interpretation around sex and conception have morphed into a much stronger demand: We now believe that we are entitled to have sex without having a live baby result.

Obviously, such an absolute right can’t exist. Your right not to have a live baby result from having sex ends where my womb begins. But the more qualified right – the right to adjust your probabilities as far as you can without intruding on someone else’s rights – remains.

Thinking Anglicans links to an appreciation of Brother Roger Schutz, founder of the Taize community in the Tablet.

The success story of this Protestant “monastery” is the unlikely story of a determined man, Roger Schutz, and of his impossible dream: the reconciliation of Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox Christians. How did his little community of companions, both Protestant and Catholic, who settled in a small village in Burgundy in 1940, become the European ecumenical pastoral youth centre which it is today, visited by 6,000 adolescents each week and 100,000 pilgrims every year, from every part of the world? The programme is austere – worship three times a day in the hangar-like church (built by young volunteers), Bible study and discussion groups – and the lifestyle spartan – sleeping rough in tents or barracks, simple food hastily consumed after queuing at length to be served.

Cute magazine cover by Wendy Cooper.

Nathan responds to me with a very helpful explanation of how lay ministry works in the Catholic Church.

Since I have a sister who has climbed mountains, I have to link Al Muhajabah on more Muslim women mountain climbers.

Bruce Schneier on the problem of Infants on the Terrorist Watch List:

Whether the rules are being followed or ignored is besides my point. The screener is detaining babies because he thinks that’s what the rules require. He’s not permitted to exercise his own common sense.

Security works best when well-trained people have the authority to make decisions, not when poorly-trained people are slaves to the rules (whether real or imaginary). Rules provide CYA security, but not security against terrorism.

allAfrica.com reports on the lack of legal status for women in Swaziland:

Thandi had built a four-bedroom home in the suburb of Fairview on the hills overlooking Manzini, where it was the largest structure at the time, and financed it with the profits from apartment blocks she had developed and various other enterprises.

Returning to Swaziland from a trip abroad, Thandi found she was locked out of her house. The new owner explained that her husband had forfeited the property to pay off a gambling debt.

The house had been registered in her husband’s name as, by law, a Swazi woman cannot own property; without the sponsorship of a male relative, neither can she enter into a contract or secure a bank loan.

“My aunt loved that house. She died of heart failure a short time later,” said Cynthia.

Via the Librarians’ Index to the Internet, here’s a site for 11-15-year-olds to explore different careers.