Tag Archives: Global: Sanctity of Life

LifeSiteNews: While Prime Minister Stephen Harper and mainstream media have said that Canadians do not want to reopen the abortion debate, MPs have presented the government with more than 70 petitions from constituents since January that say otherwise.

C-FAM: While debates over abortion laws and international norms continue, a stealthy campaign is underway to gain universal acceptance for the tools and training to do abortions, whether legal or not.

LifeSiteNews: Euthanasia is hardening from a medical option into an ideology. Belgium’s euthanasia doctors even believe they are being humane because they are liberating people from their misery. Fundamentalist humanists go further and describe euthanasia as the ultimate act of self-determination. The opinion of the patient’s family has no weight whatsoever.

LifeSiteNews: Nearly 2000 people converged on the Quebec Capital on a brilliant spring Saturday afternoon to March against a government plan to legalise euthanasia in the province.

Irish Times: Abortion legislation is incompatible with the core values of human rights, Prof William Binchy, legal adviser to the anti-abortion campaign, has told the Oireachtas committee. He said those values respected and protected the equal dignity and worth of every human being.

Paul Coleman at Bell Towers: For several decades the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has taken an evolutive approach to the meaning of the European Convention on Human Rights, and the notion that the Convention is “a living instrument” now appears to be uncontested. Nevertheless, the Court’s evolutive approach towards assisted suicide and euthanasia is remarkable.

Paul Coleman at the Christian Post: The United Kingdom’s multitude of “equality” provisions will protect nearly anyone born with a disability, although it is perfectly legal to prevent disabled people from being born, up to the point of birth (simply because they have a disability). The U.K.’s abortion law is therefore an example of the most blatant and basic form of discrimination imaginable.

The Raw Story: “Raising a child today costs millions of dollars,” he told AFP. “In this modern world, people enter into relationships and don’t necessarily want to have a child and so should not be burdened with the costs of raising a child.”

Devex: The legislators called on heads of state gathering at both meetings in June to recognize family planning and sexual and reproductive health rights as “fundamental” to gender equality and development. The All Party Parliamentary Group on Population, Development and Reproductive Health and the European Parliamentary Forum on Population and Development last week gathered over 50 parliamentarians from across the world to show a united voice in making sure the powerful clubs of wealthy countries talk about family planning during their meetings next month.

Life News: A number of Americans have helped plan this event including representatives from Priests for Life, the Pro-Life Secretariat of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, Alliance Defending Freedom, Susan B. Anthony List, Students for Life of America, LiveAction, and Americans United for Life.

Turtle Bay and Beyond: According to the UNFPA, 100% of “unmet need” for contraceptives is attributable to lack of access. But is that really true? The facts say otherwise.

Christian Institute: Two severely disabled men are pushing the courts to legalise euthanasia and assisted suicide, while a ‘carefully timed’ Bill proposing a similar change was tabled in the House of Lords today.

LifeSiteNews: France’s “Terri Schiavo” shall live. A young man left to die of hunger because his doctor decided his quality of life after a car accident would no longer improve is being fed and hydrated again since Saturday, when his father and mother and two of his siblings obtained an emergency ruling. That ruling ordered the hospital where he is staying to restore all normal care.

AP: An elderly Swiss woman who would rather end her life now than decline further in health found sympathy Tuesday from the European Court of Human Rights, which called on the Swiss to clarify their laws on so-called passive assisted suicide. | Gross v. Switzerland, 67810/10

Telegraph: A British schoolgirl was murdered by health workers in India in a failed attempt to harvest her organs, her parents have claimed.

Turtle Bay and Beyond: Family planning agents are investigating China’s most famous film director for reportedly having 7 children with 4 women. If guilty of breaking China’s laws, Zhang Yimou could face $27 million in fines.

Christian Concern: The Court of Appeal is this week hearing the cases of two paralysed men who are seeking to change end of life laws.

LifeSiteNews: Some 40,000 pro-life marchers at the March for Life in Italy received a surprise when Pope Francis joined them — driving down the street in his popemobile where the Marcia per la Vita was taking place.

Global Post: A Conservative MP says anti-abortion activists need to support political candidates who share their views if they want abortion laws changed.

Radio Free Europe: Georgia faces a serious and growing demographic problem. According to the United Nations, the ratio of newborn boys to girls in 1991 was 105 to 100. By 2000, it was nearly 110 to 100. And in 2011, it was almost 114 to 100.

Christian Institute: A Christian-run GP surgery has been criticised for posting a notice saying some of its doctors do not prescribe the morning-after pill on grounds of conscience.

Charles C. Camosy at Washington Post: The church, in part because Catholic institutions would be compelled to do these abortions, has reacted strongly against the measure. The Irish Bishops, for instance, point out that abortion, “is never a remedy for suicidal ideation and therefore should never be cited as a justification for the direct killing of an innocent human being.” There is even talk of excommunication of Irish lawmakers depending on how this all plays out.

C-FAM: Lawyers and doctors last week denounced the highest human rights court in the Americas for meddling with science and failing to protect human life. Last December, the Inter-American Court for Human Rights struck down a Costa Rican ban on in-vitro fertilization, known as IVF. In order to rule that way the court had to weigh in on the law and science of when human life begins. It decided the IVF ban infringed the right to privacy, personal autonomy and sexual and reproductive health.

World Magazine: In the spot, broadcast over major channels in the East African nation during commercial breaks until it was pulled in March, two Kenyan women walk to a market and linger over vegetables, talking about their families. One complains that she is tired of putting up with her alcoholic husband who does not satisfy her sexually. She confesses she has a lover on the side, who even has a name in the ad, Mbugua. Her friend advises her to always use condoms with Mbugua—leading to the campaign slogan “Weka Condom Mpangoni” or “include a condom in your planning” in Swahili.

The Telegraph: Terminaly ill patients will be able to ask their doctor for a lethal dose of drugs to end their lives as part of a major new push to change the laws on assisted suicide.

Piero Tozzi at LifeNews: In sum, a majority of justices ruled as judges should, upholding the law and respecting the principles of legislative deference and federalism. The activists were thwarted in their effort to impose their will on the entire nation. Alliance Defending Freedom submitted an amicus brief in favor of the state amendments.

LifeSiteNews: Euthanasia claimed its most famous victim last Saturday. At the age of 95, Belgian Nobel laureate Christian de Duve was killed with a lethal injection. He died in his home, surrounded by his four children.

BBC: Cardinal Sean Brady has urged 5,500 people at an anti-abortion prayer vigil in the Irish Republic to lobby their politicians over a draft abortion bill.

LifeSiteNews: Almost 60 premature babies are born with cerebral palsy in England and Wales every year because their mothers had previous abortions. This is because 15% of babies born before 28 weeks develop cerebral palsy and 400 premature births before 28 weeks each year are attributable to abortion. 15% of 400 is 60. This calculation is based on the studies below.

Christian Concern: The Irish Cabinet has reached an agreement on the terms of a controversial bill that would permit abortions on the grounds of mental health.

LifeSiteNews: Mexico’s Supreme Court has declared that the state of Queretaro’s pro-life constitutional amendment is “invalid” because lawmakers did not receive the approval of a sufficient number of state municipal governments before announcing its promulgation.

AP: Ireland unveiled a long-awaited bill Wednesday that lays down new rules governing when life-saving abortions can be performed, a point of potentially lethal confusion for women in a country that outlaws terminations.

BBC: The Irish cabinet has reached agreement on a controversial bill on abortion that will include the credible threat of suicide as grounds for a termination.

LifeSiteNews: Progressive think-tank Australia21 has released a report that calls on Australia’s parliaments to embrace euthanasia and assisted suicide.

AP: A paralyzed Irish woman who wants to die cannot legally commit suicide with her partner’s help, Ireland’s Supreme Court ruled Monday in a case that moved some in the courtroom to tears.

AP: A woman desperate for another child forced her 14-year-old daughter to get pregnant using syringes of donor sperm, a British judge said.

AP: Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk has fired his justice minister, who made comments alleging Germans may be experimenting on Polish embryos from in vitro fertilization procedures

Catholic Culture: Health officials in Australia have recommended a heavy government subsidy for the abortifacient drug RU-486.

LifeNews: Delegates from around the word are a the United Nations headquarters in New York City for the latest Commission on Population and Development. At that meeting, the international affiliate of the Planned Parenthood abortion business is threatening the representative from Nigeria.

Law & Religion UK: The matter is set to return to the Europe following a reference by the High Court in International Stem Cell Corporation v Comptroller General of Patents[2013] EWHC 807 (Ch) (17 April 2013)in relation to an appeal by ISCC against a decision that the inventions disclosed in two of its patent applications relating to human stem cells were excluded from patentability. The issues raised by the appeal are summarized in paragraph 3 of the judgement, which states:

C-FAM: European leaders pressing President Obama to fund African abortions argue that a novel interpretation of laws governing war should trump US restrictions on abortion funding. To make their case, they are elevating the views of a few experts from a different body of law—human rights.

Austin Ruse at C-FAM: The proposed code also addresses the outsize influence of the UN bureaucracy and non-governmental organizations on treaty bodies. Over the past fifteen years, the commissions have succumbed to pressure to promote abortion on demand as well as special rights for homosexuals, though no human rights agreement mentions either. The nature of treaty bodies compounds the influence that the UN bureaucracy and nongovernmental organizations exert on human rights monitoring.

Christian Concern: Two Catholic midwives have won the right to be exempt from involvement in abortion procedures following a ruling by an appeal court in Scotland.
Judges in Edinburgh ruled that Mary Doogan (58) and Concepta Wood (52) could lawfully refuse to supervise and assist staff involved in abortions under the conscience clause in the 1967 Abortion Act.

Irish Times: Proposed new abortion laws will go before the Cabinet next week. Minister forf Health James Reilly reported to his ministerial colleagues on the progress of the legislation which is due to be enacted by July. It had been expected Dr Reilly would bring the proposed legislation to Cabinet today.

LifeSiteNews: One of the top researchers in the field of stem cells has said that iPS (induced pluripotent) stem cells, the “embryo-like” cells hailed by many as the answer to the ethical problems presented by embryonic stem cells, are “probably” actually already embryos and have already, with the right conditions and treatment in the lab, developed into “complete animals” in experiments.

Turtle Bay and Beyond: An international abortion advocacy group recently created a questionnaire as a way measure abortion stigma. However, a look at the series of questions reveals it’s not a neutral tool to measure people’s attitudes, but rather an implement of advocacy seeking to redirect stigma onto those who oppose abortion.

Christian Concern: A 57 year old man is seeking a court order that would allow doctors to end his life after joining forces with the family of Tony Nicklinson. The two cases will be heard together in the Court of Appeal on 14 and 15 May.

Wesley J. Smith at NRO: Assisted suicide is not about terminal illness. It is about creating a legal right to be made dead. In the USA, this agenda is more hidden than elsewhere, but anyone with eyes to see can discern that truth.

Christian Institute: Over 1,000 cases of euthanasia were reported in Belgium in 2011 – a 4,620 per cent rise since the practice was legalised in 2002.

The Christian Institute: Fiona Bruce, MP for Congleton, said in the debate on Tuesday that if they are to condemn the gender abortion practices of China and India, they must “be ready to condemn and challenge any suggestion that gendercide is taking place in the UK”.

NPR: More than 23,600 people were victims of human trafficking in Europe during a recent three-year period, according to a new European Union report that says the problem is growing worse. Its authors say the official figures do not come close to describing the crime . . .

Montreal Gazette: Specialists at Akdeniz University Hospital placed an embryo into Sert’s womb earlier this week in hopes she will become the first woman with a uterus transplant to give birth.

LifeNews: After legislators finally caved in to pressure from our president and Western NGOs to pass the anti-life Reproductive Health (RH) Bill, the Filipino people are coming together to make sure that candidates promoting and defending life, faith and family will be elected this May.

LifeSiteNews: In at least three different marches organized in various cities of Peru in recent weeks, as many as 130,000 people have marched to express their support for the right to life and their opposition to the legalization of abortion, which is being heavily promoted in Peru by international organizations.

Iona Institute: The study titled “Does abortion reduce the mental health risks of unwanted or unintended pregnancy? A re-appraisal of the evidence” was published in the April edition of the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry.

Ruth Institute: You may consider the following headline from a leading US newspaper blog last week to be rather extreme: “The British Embryo Authority and the Chamber of Eugenics”. But when it is followed a week later by a news report in a British newspaper saying: “Lord Robert Winston warning over child ‘eugenics’”, should we then take more notice?

New Yorker: Last week, a young man came to the doors of the Seventy-Two, a shelter for migrants in Tenosique, Mexico, to deliver a message from a local offshoot of the Zetas, Mexico’s most vicious organized-crime group. “What we want is the head of the friar who is in charge of all this,” the man said. “We are going to the shelter today to get all of them.”

CNSNews: Chinese civil rights activist Chen Guangcheng, testifying in front of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and a packed crowd Tuesday, held up a list of “corrupt officials” whom he said were responsible for “130,000 forced abortions” in China.

Vatican.va: “Regenerative Medicine: Fundamental Shifts in Science and Culture is the title of an International Conference on adult stem cell research which gets underway gets underway Thursday morning in the Vatican.

Live Action News: Two Australian ethicists created a firestorm of controversy last year when they argued for after-birth abortions. Another Australian ethicist has taken up their torch, gleefully celebrating the idea of designer humans and in vitro eugenics.

Wesley J. Smith at Life News: Centralized control of health care is catastrophic. The classic example is the Liverpool Care Pathway, originally created to ensure that NHS patients receive good pain control, under centralized control it often became a form of connect-the-dots medicine, even, back door involuntary euthanasia.

Guardian: This British doctor specialises in resurrection and insists outdated resuscitation techniques are squandering lives that could be saved.

Washington Post: Filipino Catholic groups launched a campaign Monday to try to muster millions of votes for senatorial candidates who opposed a controversial contraceptives law passed last year and prove that the church remains a force to be reckoned with in Asia’s largest Catholic nation.

Washington Post: Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng appealed to Congress Tuesday to press the Obama administration to release what he said were high-level diplomatic agreements made with China when then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton negotiated his departure from China nearly …

Boston Globe: Speaking before a congressional panel Tuesday, Chen said his nephew has been threatened by Yinan County officials with life imprisonment if he appeals his three-year sentence for assault.

Peter Saunders at CMF Blog: In other words legalised abortion will lead to legalised euthanasia as a cost-saving and population-control measure. The Political blog ‘Turtle Bay and Beyond’ reported last week on an interview with CFAM’s Susan Yoshihara on the population crisis in China. ‘Demographic trends are poised to spoil Beijing’s plans for a Chinese century,’ said Yoshihara, co-editor (along with Douglas A. Sylvia) of the book, ‘Population Decline and the Remaking of Great Power Politics.’

Reuters: Two retired senior Chinese officials are engaged in a battle with one another to sway Beijing’s new leadership over the future of the one-child policy, exposing divisions that have impeded progress in a crucial area of reform.

LifeSiteNews: A mother of two has died after a forced sterilization, which took place against a doctor’s orders, Women’s Rights in China reports.

LifeSiteNews: An English Peer and fertility expert has warned of the growing danger of eugenics in the flourishing artificial procreation industry. Lord Robert Winston, himself a pioneer in the use and “genetic screening” of embryos, has long been a voice of caution, warning successive governments that current legal restrictions are insufficient to regulate, or even keep pace with the rapid growth of the industry.

C-FAM: The Human Rights Council set aside a resolution to protect the family as member states focused instead on a controversial resolution which could expose children to early sexualization and abortion, and would undermine the rights of parents.

Guardian: Slavery in the modern world varies from trafficking for sexual exploitation, to forced labour of children as domestic workers, to forced labour of girls in manufacturing garments for high-street brands in Europe.

LifeSiteNews: A proposal by fertility researchers to “harvest” female gametes, “ova,” from the dead bodies of aborted children to create in vitro embryos in the lab has created a small buzz among the pro-life websites, blogs and Facebook in the last couple of days. But the buzz is over a story that appeared in the Daily Mail nearly ten years ago, about research that has very likely moved along considerably in that time.

LifeSiteNews: Reports that the Swiss bishops have approved the morning after pill in cases of rape are incorrect, according to the Swiss bishops conference.

Jill Staneck at Life News: This baby was still connected to his or her mother by the umbilical cord to the placenta. The baby had not drawn a breath.

LifeSiteNews: Organizers of the annual Czech National March for Life said this year’s demonstration surpassed all expectations as thousands of pro-lifers filled the streets to give witness to the need to end abortion in the Czech Republic.