In this episode of the Open Door, panelists Jim Hanink, Mario Ramos-Reyes, and Christopher Zehnder discuss the Supreme Court of the United States and promising challenges to abortion in Texas and Mississippi. Then we will turn to the pressing issues of “designer babies,” criteria for brain death, and hospital consolidation. Our welcome guests are Professor of Law Teresa Collett and Associate Professor of Philosophy Mary Hayden Lemmons, both of the University of St. Thomas (Minnesota). Prof. Collett has been invited to visit Chile this spring as a Fulbright Specialist by the Universidad de los Andes in Santiago. Her visit coincides with Chile’s landmark convention to rewrite its constitution. Prof. Lemmons, a returning guest, is the President of the University Faculty for Life.

1. Prof. Collett, Teresa if we may, you have submitted three briefs to SCOTUS related to the Texas and Mississippi cases. Could you please outline your arguments in these briefs. We’ll ask you questions along the way!

2. Prof. Lemmons, Mary if we may, we have a shortlist of relatively new prolife issues. Could you sketch each of them in turn?

a. Let’s begin with gene splicing and the broad acceptance of in vitro fertilization. How are they driving interest into research of “designer babies”?

b. What’s happening with changing criteria for brain death, and what do they mean for people with severe brain injuries?

c. How is hospital consolidation threatening the authenticity of faith-based health care?

3. Are there ways that prolife advocates can reclaim the moral imagination that has been weakened by the mass media?

4. Do you see any promising realignments in prolife politics? What about Democrats for Life and the American Solidarity Party?

5. What information can you share about the 2022 UFFL annual conference?