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1. Only a Few Weeks Left Before Parliament Convenes - September 6, 2006
Your Visit to Your MP Will Help Restore Marriage
Dear Friend of Marriage;
There are only a few weeks left until Parliament convenes for its fall session. We expect that sometime during this session Prime Minister Harper will make good on his campaign pledge to bring a bill before the House to reconsider the vote last year to legalize same-sex marriage in Canada.
Even though this vote would not be directly on the issue of same-sex marriage
itself but merely on whether to consider restoring traditional marriage at some
future date, it is nonetheless critically important to our future. If we lose
this vote to even re-consider the action to legalize same-sex marriage, it is
not clear when, if ever, we will have another chance to restore true marriage
to Canada.
This vote will be that important.
Across Canada, thousands of constituents have been telling their MPs that they want them to vote in favor of this measure. We appreciate all who have already called, written, e-mailed or visited with their MP personally. But it is critical that still more constituents contact their MPs. For contact information for your MP, click here.
During this summer recess, it is easier for constituents to talk with their MPs then it will be when Parliament convenes. If you have not yet made contact with your MP and urged him or her to support the bill to reconsider legalizing same-sex marriage at some future date, please do so in the next couple of weeks. It is important that your MP knows how you stand and why you are concerned about restoring traditional marriage in Canada. On our Web site we provide more background information that you can use.
However, I think your message to your MP can be quite simple. You should let him or her know that you believe that restoring marriage is critical, that the previous government did not allow the full, fair and comprehensive debate and analysis of the significance of legalizing same-sex marriage and that you want them to vote with the government to allow this debate to finally take place. Be sure to ask them to tell you how they plan to vote.
During my years of service in the House, I had countless meetings with my constituents on a wide range of issues. I always paid particular attention to what they told me because I and the vast majority of others who serve in Parliament realize that the reason we are there is to represent them and their values, concerns and goals.
Restoring marriage is vital to our future and contacting your MP is something
important that each Canadian can do to help in that effort.
Please contact your MP today and encourage others you know to do so as well.
Sincerely,
The Hon. Dr. Grant Hill, P.C.
P.S. If you have not yet joined the tens of thousands of Canadians who have signed our National Petition to Restore Marriage, I hope you will take a couple of minutes to do so. Just click here.
Please forward this on to others! To subscribe to this e-newsletter,
click here.
2. CLF - July 2006 E-Newsletter
E-Newsletter Summary - Highlights of July 2006 E-Newsletter:
New: Law & Grace Radio Program -
Faith FM 94.3, Kitchener, ON
Praise: Hugh
Owens Positive Court Of Appeal Result Will Not Be Challenged At Supreme Court
Of Canada
Law Watch
Classified Ads
Prayer & Praise
Executive Director Note
That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that
perishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour
and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: - 1 Peter 1:7 -
Dear CLF Members & Friends:
Feeling the heat? I'm not referring to rising summer temperatures that spur us to draw on air conditioning or fans. I'm thinking of the mental and emotional pressure accompanying increased responsibility and reduced relaxation. Or maybe its unexpected deaths; financial strain or health problems. Have you ever wondered why God allows us to go through times of distress? It is natural to recoil from the pain source but this internal resistance rather than humble surrender to God's purposes often disorients and causes us to stumble in the darkness longer than we should. I am inspired by the words of a paraplegic, Joni Eareckson Tada: "God is more concerned with conforming me to the likeness of His Son than leaving me in my comfort zones. God is more interested in inward qualities than outward circumstances - things like refining my faith, humbling my heart, cleaning up my thought life and strengthening my character."
Indeed He is.
Together in His Service,
Ruth Ross
Executive Director, CLF
What's God Up To?
Praise God for this God-sized development...
New: Law & Grace Radio Program - Faith FM 94.3, Kitchener, ON
Lowell Hunking is hosting a one-hour, weekly radio show called "Law And Grace" on CJTW Faith FM 94.3 in Kitchener. The show can be heard live on webcast at www.faithfm.org every Tuesday evening from 10:00 to 11:00 p.m. In this radio show, Lowell will interview Christian lawyers, by telephone or on site, asking them what it is like to be in their field; what God is doing in their life; how God is moving in their area of law, etc. He will also interview quasi-legal individuals such as members of parliament and people representing organizations with intervenor status in current cases. Periodically there will be a "round-table" discussion with a small group of interviewees featuring issues before the courts and Parliament. CLF is partnering with Lowell on this exciting project. The first show will air on August 1st and Ruth Ross is honoured to be the first guest. Please write CLF with your suggestions or offers, which we will pass along to Lowell.
2006-07 CLF Law Student Directory
CLF's Student Ministry is growing significantly! With a record 108 students, CLF is excited to announce the publication of its third CLF Law Student Directory complete with pictures, personal profiles and contact information of student members. Based on the positive feedback from our members, this has been a very helpful resource for networking, mentoring and career preparations. Plans are quickly progressing to publish the 2006-7 Student Profile Directory this summer. All student members currently attending law school and those who are articling are asked to submit their information for the Student Profile Directory before July 31. Advertising is available as well. Contact Sylvia Wittmaier (sylvia.clf@mts.net) for requirements or more information.
Event Report
CLF Meetings in British Columbia With Tim Stonhouse
Newly appointed Western Director Tim Stonhouse was delighted with the turnout and enthusiasm of CLF members at recent meetings in Vancouver and Victoria as they met to discuss the CLF 2007 National Student Conference (below), mentoring opportunities and ongoing CLF activities. Tim welcomes your comments and suggestions in support of CLF ministry at: tims@telusplanet.net.
Upcoming Events
Date Set: 2007 CLF National Student Conference University of British Columbia - February 15-18, 2007
Plans are steaming ahead for the next national student conference at the University of British Columbia. The confirmed dates are February 15-18, 2007. We encourage students and local lawyers to mark your calendars and plan to join the action. More details will follow.
Postponed: Calgary Church Leadership & the Law September 28, 2007
After prayerful consideration of the potential of hosting a Church Leadership & the Law (CL&L) event in Calgary & an evaluation of the resources available, CLF board and staff have concluded that the timing is not appropriate for hosting this event in 2006 in conjunction with the national conference.
CLIA Training Mini-Academy September 30 - Calgary, AB
The Christian Legal Intervention Academy (CLIA) invites Christian lawyers and upper year law students to attend an intensive, one-day Mini-Academy training event to take place September 30 in Calgary, Alberta in conjunction with the CLF National Conference (see below). CLIA will provide training to practicing lawyers and upper year law students who seek to make a difference in Canadian society by advocating on behalf of truth and life. The day will help participants to proactively prepare for, and provide quality legal representation in important constitutional and human rights cases relating to issues of religious freedom. Click here for more information.
2006 CLF Annual Conference September 28 - October 1
Delta Bow Valley - CLF
2006 National Conference
Here Am I, Use Me: Deciphering the Voice of God - Purposing to Obey -
Don't miss the Calgary action including inspiring speakers, encouraging fellowship,
opportunities to invest in law students and refreshing worship. CLF has arranged
for an optional Friday night Alberta ranch experience in the foothills of the
Rocky Mountains. Many prominent speakers will address CLF guests: Ambassador
Dennis Ignatius, Eugene Meehan, Roger Magnuson, Sam Solomon, Dr. William Bennett
and many more, Click here
to register and see find other conference information, or contact ross.clf@primus.ca.
Interventions
The Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission has decided it will not appeal to the Supreme Court over an ad placed by Hugh Owens in a Saskatoon newspaper in 1997. Mr. Owens placed the ad and printed bumper stickers to express disagreement with the homosexual lifestyle. A commission board of inquiry initially found that the ad violated the Human Rights Code, a decision upheld by Saskatchewan's Court of Queen's Bench in 2002. However, the Court of Appeal overturned that lower court's decision in April, saying while the ad was bluntly presented and upsetting to many, it didn't violate the code. CLF is grateful that an important precedent has been established and expresses gratitude for the quality work of CLF member Tom Shuck who was legal counsel in this case.
Click here
to view CLF Press Release, April 13, 2006.
Click here
to view the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal Decision
Click here
for CLF's case summary and analysis, April 22, 2006.
Three Parent Family Case Update
CLF was granted intervener status in this case as part of the Alliance for
Marriage and Family. The definition and understanding of "parent"
and "family" as well as the rights of children are at issue in this
case which is of grave concern to CLF. There is no precedent for a child to
have three parents (in this case the biological father and two lesbian mothers).
On June 29, the Ontario Children's Lawyer requested and was granted a court
appointment as counsel for the five-year-old child in the proceeding and has
until August 8 to file its factum.
Click
here for more information
Read
the lower court decision here
Read article "How
Many Parents Can A Child Have?"
Don Spratt & Abortion Bubble Zone Appeal Update
CLF is expected to file its intervention factum shortly having been granted intervener status on May 11. On December 17, 1998 Mr. Spratt was convicted under the B.C. Access to Abortion Services Act, on charges of making a "protest" and "sidewalk interference" and given a 30-day sentence. The issue of expression of one's religious beliefs is directly in issue, and therefore one, which is of serious concern to CLF. Legal counsel is Julie Owen of Vancouver.
Click here to view decision of granting intervenor status.
Law Watch
Due to the high volume of cases, we have changed our format to provide headlines
and links. Please let us have your feedback.
Freedom of Speech
· Opposition To Margaret
Somerville's Honorary Doctorate Award From Ryerson University
(Catholic Civil Rights League - 20 June, 06)
Freedom of Religion
· Camp
Closed Over Gay Worker?
(Canadian Press - 20 June, 06)
Traditional Definition of Marriage & Family
· Harper
Promises Marriage Vote This Fall
(Today's Family News - 7 June, 06)
· More
Than 10% Of Canadians Do Not Believe Pedophilia Immoral
(LifeSiteNews - 7 June, 06)
· Federally
Funded National Tourism Agency Encouraging Homosexuals To "Wed" In
Canada
(LifeSiteNews - 16 June, 06)
· Concern
Over New BC Curriculum - Education Or Pushing A Lifestyle?
(Today's Family News - 21 June, 06)
· Marriage
Issue Won't Go Away - By Bishop Fred Henry
(Calgary Sun - 25 June, 06)
· Ontario
Superior Court Rules in Favour of Parental Rights for Four Lesbian Couples
(Can L II - Ontario Superior Court - 6 Jun, 06)
Parental Rights
· Bill 52 Passes
Second Reading In Ontario - Pushing Compulsory School Age In Ontario To 18
(Home School Legal Defence Association of Canada)
· International
Law Increases Threat To Home Schooling (LifeSiteNews.com - 25 May, 06)
Sanctity of Life
· Late
Term Abortion Bill Tabled - Bill C-338
(Evangelical Fellowship of Canada) Islam
· Curb
Donations to Religious Institutions: Muslim Group
(CBC.ca)
Miscellaneous
· Age
Of Consent Bill Introduced
(Evangelical Fellowship of Canada)
International
· Marriage
Amendment Stopped In U.S. Senate
(World Congress On Families - 7 June, 06)
· Australia
Strikes Down Law Recognizing Same-Sex Unions
(World Congress on Families - 15 June, 06)
Articling Recruitment
Carters Professional Corporation in Orangeville, Ontario, is a full service
law firm with a focus on charity and not-for-profit law. The firm has 14 lawyers
and 26 supporting staff, and is looking for 2 articling students for the 2007/2008
articling term, starting (date to be determined) in 2007, or as soon thereafter
as possible. Interested students should forward their resumes, references, undergraduate
and law school academic transcripts by July 30, 2006 to: D. Ann Walters, 211
Broadway, P.O. Box 440, Orangeville, Ontario L9W 1K4; awalters@carters.ca.
Christian Youth Worldview and Leadership (CYWAL) Conference
July 23-28 - Crief Hills Retreat & Conference Centre, Cambridge, ON
Instruction in apologetics, worldview and leadership training for 16-19 year
old Christian youth.
Contact: gbaribeau@on.aibn.com
or 1-519-268-8531.
Praying for the Justice Gate: Ruth Ross Praying at Global Day of Prayer - Air Canada Centre, Toronto
On June 4th, Ruth was honoured to be asked to participate in the largest prayer meeting in history - The Global Day of Prayer. Scheduled on Pentecost Sunday, the core objective of this event was to see our nation and the world transformed by a powerful move of God as believers come together in unity. It was moving experience to join thousands of people in worship and humble prayer before God.
We ask that you now join your hearts in prayer for the following:
· Canada Day - July 1st! It's time to praise God for our freedom
and our nation's prominence in the world. Let's honour those who fought and
died that we might be free. Pause & pray that God will heal our land and
give us a fresh filling of the love of freedom.
· Please pray for CLF members, Rebecca Chan & Peter Cho (&
daughter Annalisa) as they travel to Pohang, South Korea to co-teach a 30-hour
intensive International Business and Trade Law Seminar at Handong International
Law School (HILS) from July 24 - August 4. HILS is Korea's first English-speaking
law school and is part of Handong Global University, a Christian institution
(www.handong.edu).
· Please pray for Ruth Ross and all those who will be taking religious
freedom advocacy training provided by the Alliance
Defence Fund (ADF) July 3-8 in Dana Point, California. ADF is a legal
alliance defending the right to hear and speak the Truth through strategy, training,
funding, and litigation. Uniquely, it empowers allies and recognizes that
together far more can be accomplished than alone.
· Please pray for the critical Law Watch & Intervention
issues herein.
Elizabeth F.C. Davis, J.D.
Director of Communications
Christian Legal Fellowship
l'Alliance des chrétiens en droit
Phone: (519) 641-8850
Fax: (519) 641-8866
www.christianlegalfellowship.org
Copyright 2006 Christian Legal Fellowship. Christian Legal Fellowship shall not be liable for any errors or omissions in the content, or for any actions taken or not taken in reliance upon the content of the Christian Legal Fellowship e-Newsletter.
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The Christian Legal Fellowship, founded in 1978, is a national not-for-profit association of legal professionals in Canada. The association, among other functions, explores the complex interrelationships between the practice and theory of law and Christian faith. The Fellowship, while having no denominational affiliation, has more than 475 active members from several dozen Christian denominations and consists of lawyers, judges, law professors, and law students, working in association with many friends, organizations and lay people, to integrate our Christian faith with law. We would be delighted to have you join us. Just click here to do so. Or click here to download an online application form.
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3. Drug 'Reverses' Vegetative State; Terri Schindler Schiavo's Family Comments
The Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation Center for Health Care Ethics Calls For a Moratorium of Ordinary Care Removal From Persons Diagnosed in a Persistent Vegetative State
ST. PETERSBURG, Florida, May 24 /Christian Newswire/ - Following reports that the drug Zolpidem can temporarily revive people in a permanent vegetative state (PVS) to the point where they are able to speak, The Foundation is calling for a moratorium of all potential ordinary care removal for persons diagnosed in a PVS condition.
Zolpidem is usually used to treat insomnia. However, South African researchers,
writing in the Neuro Rehabilitation, looked at the effects on three patients
of using the drug for up to six years.
They reported that "All patients were aroused transiently every morning
after Zolpidem."
Their conclusion was that Zolpidem appeared to be effective in restoring some
brain function to patients previously determined to be in a persistent vegetative
state.
Terri's family pleaded for years with Terri's guardian, Michael Schiavo, and
the courts to try and use different treatments or medicines that could possibly
help improve Terri's condition, but were denied. The Foundation has been contacted
by dozens of families with similar stories of patients improving significantly
after being wrongly diagnosed in this PVS condition.
In December 2000, Patricia White Bull, after given the drug Amantadine (used
to stimulate people with Parkinson's disease and brain damage) awoke after 16
years of being in what doctors were calling a persistent vegetative state. Sadly,
we will never know if any of any of these drugs or treatments that were available
would have improved Terri's condition.
This recent finding and other studies in the past demonstrate the dangers of
this subjective and often incorrect diagnosis. A report released by the British
Medical Journal in 1996, found that 43% of the diagnosed cases of PVS they studied
were, in fact, misdiagnosed.
"We at the Foundation are seeing that the PVS diagnosis is being commonly
misdiagnosed. Consequently, it has become very obvious we don't know enough
about this so-called diagnosis, and common sense dictates that the removal of
food and water based on this misclassification must end until further studies
can be conducted." Robert Schindler, Sr.
About the Schindler Family: Mary and Robert Schindler as well as Suzanne Schindler
Vitadamo and Bobby Schindler now work for The Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation
Center for Health Care Ethics in St. Petersburg, Florida, an organization dedicated
to ensuring the rights of disabled, elderly and vulnerable citizens against
care rationing, euthanasia and medical killing.
To: National Desk - Contact: Bobby Schindler, The Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation Center for Health Care Ethics, Inc., 727-490-7603, info@terrisfight.org
4. Lifeissues.net Newsletter #283 - July 30, 2006
Greetings from LifeIssues.net (www.lifeissues.net)
Dear Friends for Life,
Believe it or not, some abortions are okay in Columbia. Bowing to the drumbeat of pro-abortion pressure from the United States, the United Nations and other major international organizations, the Constitutional (Supreme) Court of Columbia has partially legalized abortion. By a vote of 5 to 3, it approved the killing of pre-born children who have congenital abnormalities, or if they are conceived by rape or incest. This happened after an intense prolonged and heavily financed campaign to legalize abortion in that country. Defenders of human life had sent a petition to the court with 2-1/2 million signatures. In addition, there were thirty thousand letters sent to them from the children of Columbia and hundreds of pro-life Amicus Briefs were filed with these judges. Human Life International, which lead much of the defense of life stated, "Anti Columbia interests seek to destroy our culture, steal our children, violate our women and plunder our heritage".
Depression? After Abortion. The British Medical Journal has published a study by two researchers at Arizona State University. They report on data from 1,247 women. Their conclusion is that post-abortion women do not suffer more from depression or anxiety than those who carry "unwanted pregnancies" to term. This differs directly from over a dozen other studies in recent years. One large study of 11,000 women, published in 2004 by Patricia Coleman at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, showed exactly the opposite. She reported that those who aborted an unexpected first pregnancy were 30% more likely to experience problems of anxiety than those who carried to term. It is of interest to note that both Arizona authors are longtime radical, feminist, pro-abortion activists.
Kindly remember in your prayers post-abortion women and their suffering!
Jerry Novotny, omi
(OMI = Congregation of Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate)
(Quote) Lex orandi est lex credendi, translates into English as "The law of prayers dictates the law of belief." In other words, the way you pray shows what you believe; what you exhibit externally reflects what you believe internally. As Archbishop Fulton Sheen once said, "If you don't behave as you believe, you will end by believing as you behave."
Lifeissues.net Newsletter #283 - July 30, 2006
Table Of Contents:
1. Cohabitation Ends in Separation 90% of the Time
2. Taiwanese families face up to change
3. If Embryos are Human then Fertility Clinics are Death Camps: Pro-abortion
Columnist
4. Bombings Hit Children Hardest
5. Durex Markets Condoms Designed for 13-16 Year Olds
6. RCMP see violent trends in online child porn
7. Ecuadorians oppose abortion even in cases of rape
8. College Students Walk Across America for 12th Summer in a Row
9. Cut-price fertility treatment for women donating eggs
10. National Academies of Science: Abortion Linked to Premature Birth Problems
11. Abortion: The Legacy
12. "Risk of Promoting the Destruction of Human Embryos"
("New" Articles Posted Recently At http://www.lifeissues.net)
- Betty Wickham: http://www.lifeissues.net/writer.php?ID=wic
- Frank Pavone: http://www.lifeissues.net/writer.php?ID=pav
- Daniel Avila: http://www.lifeissues.net/writer.php?ID=avi
- Steven Mosher: http://www.lifeissues.net/writer.php?ID=mos
- Doug McManaman: http://www.lifeissues.net/writer.php?ID=mcm
- C. Ward Kischer: http://www.lifeissues.net/writer.php?ID=kisc
[Website: Program in Human Rights and Medicine] http://www.phrm.umn.edu/. Over the past twenty years, I have had the privilege and challenge of working with several persons who were presumed to be semi-conscious or in coma. Although days, weeks or even months can go by without clear evidence of response from such a patient, I have personally witnessed or learned about spectacular improvements in certain patients who were wrongly judged "hopeless."
This booklet, based on my experiences and suggestions from others, is intended to help you communicate with an apparently unconscious person. Some patients may not respond as we hope; however, our responses to them continue to matter. The French have a wonderful saying: "There is no love; there are only deeds of love." This small book teaches its reader how to recognize and perform the deeds that constitute love for an unconscious or semi-conscious patient.
Item #1. Cohabitation Ends In Separation 90% Of
The Time
(LifeSiteNews.com)
- A study published by the journal, Demography, has shown that cohabitation
is not the road to happy marriage, or even to a happy relationship, but rather
ends in separation 90 percent of the time.
The study's lead researcher, Daniel Lichter a professor of policy analysis at Cornell University said, "The common view of cohabitation as a steppingstone to marriage needs to be seriously questioned."
"Instead, serial cohabitation may be an emerging norm as cohabiting unions form and break up. If marriage promotion programs hope to target poor cohabiting women, our results seemingly suggest that the likelihood of success is not assured."
The study showed that one-half of all cohabiting unions end within a year and 90 percent within five years. The study showed that the common failure of cohabitation affects poor women more severely since they tend to rely financially on their live-in partners.
In the meantime a court in North Carolina has overturned as unconstitutional a 201 year-old law that prohibited couples living together before they were married. The suit was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union who sued the state on behalf of Deborah Hobbs, 41, a former sheriff's dispatcher who lost job because she wouldn't marry her live-in boyfriend.
The court cited a 2003 Supreme Court ruling that struck down a Texas sodomy law in ruling that the law protecting the state's interest in lawful marriage violated Hobbs' right to liberty.
The law stated, in part: "If any man and woman, not being married to each other, shall lewdly and lasciviously associate, bed and cohabit together, they shall be guilty of a Class 2 misdemeanor."
Item #2. Taiwanese Families Face Up To Change
Western values have been liberating for Taiwan but there is a downside to breaking
with the past.
When East meets West, as it does in Taiwan, collectivism yields to individualism.
Traditions are given up and forgotten, but new values are adopted. In the end,
a new balance must be found.
Taiwanese society is like a sponge that has become saturated with a foreign
culture during its evolution. Since people here had a first taste of western
culture family values have noticeably changed, especially during the past decade
when the island's economy began to expand. A growing appetite for material goods
and other stimulants leads people to spend less time with their family and to
devote themselves to personal pleasures.
"The influence of Western values on Taiwan could be summed up in the word
'individualism'," said Professor Wu Chyi-in, Associate Research Fellow
of the Academia Sinica's Sociology Institute, in an exclusive interview with
MercatorNet. "In the past, children weren't allowed to give an opinion,
no matter how respectfully they expressed it. They could be severely punished.
But now there is no way parents can do that."
View full text at mercator.net: http://www.mercatornet.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=326
Item #3. If Embryos Are Human Then Fertility Clinics
Are Death Camps: Pro-Abortion Columnist
A pro-abortion American columnist has claimed that pro-life campaigners do not
speak out against IVF clinics and are therefore inconsistent in their beliefs.
Michael Kinsley, in his article "Where's the Logic?" published in
the National Post, wrote: "If embryos are human beings with full human
rights, fertility clinics are death camps--with a side order of cold-blooded
eugenics. No one who truly believes in the humanity of embryos could possibly
think otherwise." He alleges that among pro-life activists "no one
objects, or objects very loudly." Pro-life campaigners in America have
pointed out that the pro-life movement has consistently opposed IVF and that
IVF treatment is indeed as destructive as embryonic stem cell research. Judie
Brown, president of American Life League, said, "Playing God by creating
humans in Petri-dishes is simply wrong. The pro-life movement needs to address
the evils of in vitro fertilization with the same diligence with which we denounce
all other forms of abortion."
View full text at LifeSiteNews.com: http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/jul/06072105.html
Item #4. Bombings Hit Children Hardest
About 55 percent of all casualties at the Beirut Government University Hospital
are children of 15 years of age or less, hospital records show.
"This is worse than during the Lebanese civil war," Bilal Masri, assistant director of the hospital, one of Beirut's largest, told IPS Monday.
Not only are most of the patients children, but many of the injured have been brought in serious condition, he said. "Now we have a 30 percent fatality rate here in Beirut. That means that 30 percent of everyone hit by Israeli bombs are dying. It is a catastrophe."
The fatality rate was high, he said, "because the Israelis are using new kinds of bombs which can enter shelters. They are bombing the bomb shelters which are full of refugees."
Masri told IPS that he believed so many children were becoming casualties because of the "widespread and indiscriminate nature of the bombings" and because "children are least able to run away when the bombings commence."
View full text at IPS: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=34075
Item #5. Durex Markets Condoms Designed For 13-16
Year Olds
(LifeSiteNews.com) - A condom
manufacturer has set its sights on British youth, intending to market condoms
designed for young teenagers in the United Kingdom as soon as 2007, provoking
outrage from parents and pro-family organizations, according to the Sun, a British
newspaper.
Durex, the condom manufacturer, intends to market a smaller, 49 mm condom to Britain's youth, which it introduced in Germany just last week. The company claims the condom is also easier to put on for those who are inexperienced. "It is aimed at youths between 13 and 16, where a not insignificant number engage in unprotected sex," said a Durex spokesman.
The specially designed condom has garnered the approval of Britain's Family Planning Association which has said, "All initiatives that promote young people to have safe sex should be encouraged," according to the Sun. The company sees the United Kingdom as a market for the condom, since the UK has the highest teenage pregnancy rate in Europe, and British teens on average engage in sexual intercourse for the first time when they are 15.
However, Matthew O'Gorman, spokesman for the pro-life charity LIFE, blasted the deliberate marketing of the condoms to young teenagers as "sick and irresponsible."
"We know that teenagers engage in risky behaviour. If it's messing around on roads or taking drugs, we teach them not to - because it's bad for them," added O'Gorman. "But when it comes to sex, we do the opposite - by throwing condoms at the problem."
A recent expos of condoms by Human Life International indicates that the failure rate of condoms due to bursting, tearing, and slipping off is 8.08%, or 1 in 12. The rate of pregnancy in women with partners who always use condoms is 15% within the first year, a rate that increases to 80% after ten years. Recent research has also consistently dispelled the myth that condoms are effective at preventing the spread of STDs.
Read the HLI expos at: http://www.hli.org/condom_expose.html
See the Sun's report: Outrage at Durex for kids - http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2006330430,00.html
Item #6. RCMP See Violent Trends In Online Child
Porn
Online sexual abuse has become a worsening problem in Canada, with a frightening
growth in sexually violent images of very young children on illegal pay-for
view websites, the RCMP say.
RCMP Supt. Earla Kim McColl, who runs Canada's National Child Exploitation Coordination Centre (NCECC), said the volume of new images is alarming, and so is the violent trend in the content.
"Probably 80 per cent of the images involve some kind of penetration - oral, anal or vaginal - and a significant number, about 20 per cent, also involving torture and bondage," she said.
Even more disturbing, the parties responsible are usually related to the victim.
"It's almost always somebody within the family," Internet safety expert Paul Gillespie told Canada AM Monday.
Source of article at CTV News:
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060723/child_porn_060723/20060724?hub=TopStories
Item #7. Ecuadorians Oppose Abortion Even In Cases
Of Rape
A poll carried out in Quito and Guayaquil by polling firm, Informe Confidencial,
reveals that the majority of Ecuadorians in both cities oppose abortion in all
cases, including in cases of rape.
Responding to the question, "If your daughter became pregnant through rape, would you prefer to have or not have the child?" 54% of respondents in Quito said they preferred to have the child, while 36% said they would not. In Guayaquil the difference was even greater, with 61% saying they would want their daughter to carry the child to term while 32% saying they would not.
Likewise, in response to the question of whether or not abortion should be allowed, 45% in Quito said the mother should make the choice while 50% said it should be illegal. In Guayaquil 35% said the mother should be allowed to choose while 64% said abortion should be prohibited.
A ruling last May by the country's Constitutional Court that definitively prohibited sale of the morning-after pill because of its abortifacient nature has sparked a new debate on abortion and the use of contraceptives in Ecuador.
Source at CNA: http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=7241
Item #8. College Students Walk Across America For
12th Summer In A Row
Over 45 students from colleges across America are walking 3,000 miles this summer
to promote the dignity and sanctity of all human life, from its very beginning
in the womb until natural death. They are with a group called Crossroads, which
has sponsored pro-life walks across America every summer since 1995.
"We've come to realize through these walks that the majority of Americans are pro-life," said Martha Nolan, National Director of Crossroads.
The three groups started in Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles and will cover over 10,000 miles collectively. They will pass through 31 states, and bring the pro-life message to hundreds of thousands of people - one step at a time.
"If this issue had been in the hands of voters, instead of anti-life judges, unborn children would be protected and defended against the crime of abortion. We are hoping to help build a Culture of Life, where all human life is welcomed into the world." said Mark Spencer, a walker of Ypsilanti, Michigan. "We can see that hearts and minds are changing on this issue, especially among the youth of America. As a country, we are trending towards a solid pro-life majority, as national polls, and even abortion rights advocates, are beginning to concede."
View full article at Christian Newswire: http://www.christiannewswire.com/news/31242616.html
Item #9. Cut-Price Fertility Treatment For Women
Donating Eggs
Women in Britain are to be offered half-price IVF treatment in exchange for
donating some of their eggs for embryonic stem cell research. Researchers in
Durham and Newcastle have been given permission by the Human Fertilization and
Embryology Authority (HFEA) to go ahead with the scheme, which will take a year
to set up. The eggs will be used to create cloned embryos from which stem cells
will be extracted, thereby killing them. Paul Danon of SPUC described the scheme
as "the commercialization of human life for research." He said: "Here
we have money changing hands in a matter of human reproduction. This must surely
degrade the young lives that will be created."
View full article at The Scotsman: http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/health.cfm?id=1093862006
Item #10. National Academies Of Science: Abortion
Linked To Premature Birth Problems
A new report from a committee of the National Academies of Science finds that
a first-trimester abortion, the most common abortion procedure, is linked to
an increasing risk of premature birth. The report comes from the Institute of
Medicine (IOM), a NAS organization.
The IOM published a report this month titled "Preterm Birth: Causes, Consequences, and Prevention."
In the report is a list of "immutable medical risk factors associated with preterm birth" and "prior first-trimester abortion" is listed third among other risk factors that increase the risk of having a subsequent premature birth.
The report has huge consequences for abortion because premature birth can lead to a host problems, including cerebral palsy for the child and breast cancer for the mother.
The IOM reported that premature births before 37 weeks gestation represent 12.5 percent of all U.S. births, a 30% increase since 1981. Abortion became legally accessible in 1973 and the number of abortions peaked in the early 1980s as it became more ingrained in society.
The IOM said premature birth cost U.S. society $26.2 billion in 2005.
This isn't the first time a study has found that abortion increases the risk for premature birth. A 2003 article in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons finds at least sixty significant studies published since 1963 report an abortion-premature birth link.
View full text at LifeNews.com: http://www.lifenews.com/nat2453.html
Item #11. Abortion: The Legacy
Nine women who had abortions have written about their experiences and the effect
that it has had on their lives in a British newspaper. Writing in the Daily
Mail, the women expressed a variety of reactions and most said that they felt
some kind of regret and guilt. Elaine Jowsey, who had an abortion aged 17 because
her boyfriend refused to support her and the child, said, "My decision
to deny a child a future has in many ways been a personal life sentence for
me... I'm still not over my abortion."
Tina Mills-Baldock had an abortion when she found out that her unborn child had heart and kidney defects. She said, "There are no words to describe the mental anguish and terrible emptiness that swallows you in the days after an abortion... I don't think you ever get over an abortion completely. It's especially hard around the time of what would have been my son's birthday. A friend was pregnant at a similar time to me and when I see her little girl I imagine, if things had been different, having a child the same age."
View full article at Daily Mail: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/femail/article.html?in_article_id=397816&in_page_id=1879&in_page_id=1879&expand=true
Item #12. "Risk Of Promoting The Destruction
Of Human Embryos"
In order to complement the agreement reached in the Council of Ministers, the
European Commission added a 12-point declaration which foresees in particular
that the 7th FPR will not fund the destruction of human embryos, but will fund
research on embryonic stems cells resulting from such destruction.
This declaration is most unsatisfactory because European funding of research on embryonic stem cells entails the risk of promoting at the level of the Member States the destruction of human embryos. Therefore the Secretariat of COMECE reiterates its objection to EU funding of research, which implies directly or indirectly the destruction of human embryos. In this respect, it recalls the statement of the Executive Committee of COMECE, May 31, 2006: "Treating the human embryo as an object for research is not compatible with human dignity."
The use of human embryos for research purposes (i.e., their destruction or the research with stem cells derived from these embryos) is not acceptable. Furthermore there is no necessity to undertake this research; according to experts, adult stem cells and stem cells from the umbilical cord, offer an alternative path with interesting and real perspectives for therapy.
The Secretariat of COMECE is perplexed by the contradiction between this decision, which is an attack on human dignity at the beginning of life and the objective of the European Union to promote therapies aiming to save human life. This decision contradicts also the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU, which states in Article 1: "Human dignity is inviolable. It must be respected and protected."
View full text at Zenit: http://www.zenit.org/english/visualizza.phtml?sid=93173
Action:
1. Pray that we all may have the courage to be God's presence in society and
support those who have been deemed "unworthy of life".
2. Stay informed at Lifeissues.net website: http://www.lifeissues.net.
3. Consider participating with a financial donation to help pay travel expenses for Fr. Jerry's Speaking Tours to poorer countries in Asia. (Purpose - Journey for Life into the Heart of Asia. Series of lectures on - The Family at Crossroads: Trends and Challenges.) Remaining 2006 schedule: August - Sri Lanka; October - Philippines; November - China. Thank you for your active participation for making this missionary project possible. Kindly send donations directly to: Fr. Jerry Novotny OMI, LifeIssues.net, Editor, Akebono-cho 1-15-9, Kochi City, Japan, 780-8072.
4. All past issues of LifeIssues.net Newsletter available online. Click here: http://lifeissues.net/newsletters/mojo.cgi?flavor=archive&list=lifenews&start=0. (These newsletters are an extension of the Website.)
Contact Editor: Jerry Novotny OMI, Akebono-cho 1-15-9,
Kochi City, Japan, 780-8072
Tel/Fax: 088-843-0406; E-mail: jerry@lifeissues.net
Websites by Editor:
English site: http://www.lifeissues.net,
Japanese site: http://www.japan-lifeissues.net,
OMI site: http://www.omijapankorea.net/index.html
5. Lifeissues.net Newsletter #284 - August 6, 2006
Greetings from LifeIssues.net (www.lifeissues.net)
Dear Friends for Life,
On Monday the European Commission decided to deny funds to researchers engaged in the destruction of human embryos to obtain stem cells.
The European Commission engaged in vigorous debate late last week where members of the Commission from Germany, Poland, Austria, Malta, Slovakia, Lithuania and other nations proposed that the EU science budget cease funding for all research that directly or indirectly involves the destruction of human embryos. For years, the EU has funded embryo-destructive stem cell research with few restrictions on the use of such funds.
After negotiations ended on Monday, the only position that a majority of the Commission could agree on was that the actual killing of a human embryo, which is necessary for a scientist to then collect that embryo's stem cells, would not be paid for by EU funds. However, the EU will still fund research on these embryonic stem cells as long the embryos were killed with other than government money. The EU will also fund research on embryonic stem cells taken from cloned, as opposed to fertilized, human embryos. The Commission also decided to refuse to fund research into the cloning of human embryos with the intent to bring those cloned embryos to birth.
In the United States, pursuant to executive action taken by President Bush, the Federal Government can pay for neither research that directly involves the killing of human embryos, nor for research on embryonic stem cells taken from embryos killed after Bush's August 9, 2001 speech announcing his stem cell policy. However, laws in various States, such as California, do explicitly authorize that state funding can go towards not only research on embryonic stem cells, but also towards the actual killing of those embryos.
It should be reiterated that the EU will continue to pay for experimentation on stem cell lines derived from human embryos whose killing was paid for by something other than EU money.
God Bless, Jerry Novotny, omi
(Quote) "Light, as a source of heat, also means love. Where there is love, light shines forth in the world; where there is hatred, the world remains in darkness." Benedict XVI
Lifeissues.net NEWSLETTER #284 - August 06, 2006
Table Of Contents:
1. Argentina Mother With Cancer Refused Abortion To Save Her Life, Gets Prayer
2. Flawed Facts On Stem Cells
3. Death Penalty: Japan Needs Public Debate
4. India: Government Says No To Legalizing Euthanasia
5. India Bans Child Domestic Labour
6. British Scientists: Embryonic Stem Cell Research Cures "Years Away"
If Ever
7. Pregnancy And Pot Don't Mix
8. Stem Cells Without Moral Corruption
9. The Battle For Purity
10. The Perils Of Cloning
11. Embryo Is The Beginning Of Life, International Expert Tells Irish Court
12. Survey Shows Women Unaware Of Morning After Pill, How Plan B Works
("New" Articles Posted Recently At http://www.lifeissues.net)
- David Reardon: http://www.lifeissues.net/writer.php?ID=rea
- Barbara Kralis: http://www.lifeissues.net/writer.php?ID=kra
- Betty Wickham: http://www.lifeissues.net/writer.php?ID=wic
- Daniel Avila: http://www.lifeissues.net/writer.php?ID=avi
- Steven Mosher: http://www.lifeissues.net/writer.php?ID=mos
- Doug McManaman: http://www.lifeissues.net/writer.php?ID=mcm
[Website: Natural Family Planning, Richmond Diocese] http://www.richmonddiocese.org/nfp/. The good news is that our loving God has given us the means to exercise prudence in a way that enables us to give our spouse the total gift of ourselves in the marital embrace and still respect His design for our life-giving fertility. The tool God has given us to achieve this is called natural family planning.
Item #1. Argentina Mother With Cancer Refused Abortion
To Save Her Life, Gets Prayer
A prayer campaign has been launched for a mother in Argentina who was stricken
with cancer but refused to have an abortion to spare her life. Laura Figeroa
is in the terminal stage of her illness, a brain metastasis that is considered
irreversible.
Figeroa could have had an abortion so she could obtain chemotherapy to address her cancer, but she refused to take the life of her unborn child to save her own.
Two weeks ago, Figeroa gave birth to her son, Pedro, who was born early at 27 weeks into the pregnancy. Pedro weighed just 2.4 pounds and was immediately placed in intensive care and struggles with kidney and heart problems.
Now the Catholic weekly "Cristo Hoy" in Argentina is launching a prayer campaign for mother and child.
"We are all very united in this struggle and praying hard," Figeroa's mother told the newspaper.
Pedro's grandmother says Figeroa's other children "are anxious to know the newest member of their family and hope to soon have in their hands the picture promised to them by the pediatrician."
Laura Figeroa is 39 and her story has captured the hearts of the people of Argentina.
View full text at LifeNews.com: http://www.lifenews.com/nat2462.html
Item #2. Flawed Facts On Stem Cells
Proponents of H.R. 810, the bill to federally fund more embryonic stem cell
research, made amazing claims in the Senate and House last week.
The statements were amazing not just because they want U.S. taxpayers to pay for research requiring destruction of human embryos. Or their claims that those embryos are only "left over." Anyone who saw pictures of the snowflake babies at the White House can see that "unwanted" embryos need not be discarded or destroyed in research. According to a Rand report, only 2.8 percent of 400,000 frozen embryos are designated for research; the vast majority are wanted by parents for later use. Rand says those embryos could produce at most 275 new cell lines, far fewer than proponents claim, or say they need.
But possibly the most amazing part of the debate was how they addressed the science - and how they deviated from the facts. Some senators parroted the oft-heard complaint that human embryonic stem cell lines currently approved for federal funding are insufficient, because only 22 lines are eligible. Actually, all 78 approved lines are eligible for federal funding, but only 22 different lines are currently being grown and shipped to researchers. The argument continues that current lines are becoming unstable, and that their growth with mouse cells makes them unusable for potential future human therapies.
This contradicts a claim they make about the uniqueness of embryonic stem cells, that they can grow "indefinitely." While any cell cultured long enough will show changes, standard laboratory practice freezes cell samples as a hedge against just such changes. It is inconceivable that those in charge of maintaining cells at National Institutes of Health would not follow good lab practices. NIH noted in 2004 that they had 3,500 samples of approved cells frozen and ready to ship. And fully half (39) of the original 78 have yet even to be thawed and grown for research use.
View full text at Family Research Council: http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=PV06G02
Item #3. Death Penalty: Japan Needs Public Debate
A rare essay posted on the web by a crime victim who does not call for the death
penalty for the culprit has become a potent symbol for activists who face an
uphill battle to abolish Japan's capital punishment laws.
Yumiko Yamaguchi who was slashed on her face by a 16-year-old boy when he went on a rampage on a public bus six years ago is now over 50 and in a contemplative mood. After reflection, Yamaguchi says she does not seek retribution, but an apology.
"While I am not yet an advocate of abolishing capital punishment, what victims of crime deeply wish for is for the criminal to repent what he has done and apologize to the people he has hurt, a process that will stop heinous crimes in the long run. This can not be achieved by sentencing him to death," she wrote on her website.
View full text at IPS: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=34163
Item #4. India: Government Says No To Legalizing
Euthanasia
The government on Monday said it had no plans to give legal status to euthanasia
or "mercy killing" and would not consider any such application.
"Government is not considering to give legal status to euthanasia. Till date law has not permitted it and application for the same cannot be entertained," Minister of State for Law and Justice K Venkatapathy said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha.
View full text at HindustanTimes.com: http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1757248,0008.htm
Item #5. India Bans Child Domestic Labour
The Indian government has announced a ban on children working as domestic servants
or in roadside food stalls.
The order, which applies to children under 14, will come into effect in October, officials say.
It also bans children from teashops, restaurants, hotels, motels, resorts, spas or other recreational centres.
There are estimated to be more than 12.6 million child workers in India, many of whom work as domestic helps or in small roadside restaurants.
View full text at BBC News: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5235614.stm
Item #6. British Scientists: Embryonic Stem Cell
Research Cures "Years Away" If Ever
Two leading British scientists say that any potential cures from embryonic stem
cell research are many years away, if they ever occur. They said that some of
the hoopla created by the media and lawmakers who want to fund the controversial
research has distorted the public view of it.
Professor Colin McGuckin, a specialist in regenerative medicine at the UK's Newcastle University, says the potential for embryonic stem cell research to cure diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease had been exaggerated.
"What we're going to see is one or two patients being helped in some way and people are going to hail it as the end of Parkinson's and Alzheimer's," McGuckin told CNN.
"But it's going to be a slow process. We hear an awful lot of hype about what stem cells can do but in reality there's still a lot of work to do," he added.
McGuckin said that it was more likely that stem cell research would have a beneficial effect for those suffering from disorders affecting major organs, such as those with heart or liver disease. Adult stem cells have already shown some progress in those areas.
Source of article at LifeNews.com: http://www.lifenews.com/bio1682.html
Item #7. Pregnancy And Pot Don't Mix
Using marijuana at the time of conception or in early pregnancy can result in
pregnancy failure, a new study in mice suggests.
"Marijuana exposure may compromise pregnancy outcome," said Sudhansu Dey, the corresponding author of the study, published in the August issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation. Marijuana's active ingredient, THC, can disrupt the body's finely tuned signaling system and interfere with a fertilized egg's ability to implant in the lining of the uterus, the study found.
Source at Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/forbeslife/health/feeds/hscout/2006/08/01/hscout534145.html
Item #8. Stem Cells Without Moral Corruption
Instead of engaging in fraud and cover-up, or conducting experiments that violate
the moral principles of many citizens, we should look to scientific creativity
for an answer. Since the cloning fraud, many scientists - such as Markus Grompe
at Oregon Health & Science University and Rudolf Jaenisch at MIT - have
been doing just that. And others, such as Kevin Eggan at Harvard, may have found
a technique, called "cell fusion," that would create new, versatile,
genetically controlled stem cell lines by fusing existing stem cells and ordinary
DNA. Scientists in Japan just announced that they may have found a way to do
this without even needing an existing stem cell line.
In other words: all the benefits of research cloning without the ethical problems. Looking ahead, it is becoming increasingly likely that reprogramming adult cells to pluripotency, rather than destroying human embryos, will be the future of regenerative medicine. It offers both a more efficient and far more ethical way forward.
View full article at CERC: http://catholiceducation.org/articles/medical_ethics/me0094.htm
Item #9. The Battle For Purity
Our hearts were made to love, but since the Fall, they have been tainted by
a desire to use others. This effect of original sin is seen perhaps most dramatically
in our encounters with the opposite sex, wherein our hearts often are drawn
to the other person more for the emotional or sensual pleasure we may derive
from them than for any true commitment to what is best for them and their true
value as a person. In this reflection, we will see that chastity is so much
bigger than simply saying "no" to certain sexual actions we may commit
in the body. In the end, chastity is a matter of the heart.
View full article at CERC: http://catholiceducation.org/articles/sexuality/se0132.htm
Item #10. National Academies Of Science: Abortion
Linked To Premature Birth Problems
A new report from a committee of the National Academies of Science finds that
a first-trimester abortion, the most common abortion procedure, is linked to
an increasing risk of premature birth. The report comes from the Institute of
Medicine (IOM), a NAS organization.
The IOM published a report this month titled "Preterm Birth: Causes, Consequences, and Prevention."
In the report is a list of "immutable medical risk factors associated with preterm birth" and "prior first-trimester abortion" is listed third among other risk factors that increase the risk of having a subsequent premature birth.
The report has huge consequences for abortion because premature birth can lead to a host problems, including cerebral palsy for the child and breast cancer for the mother.
The IOM reported that premature births before 37 weeks gestation represent 12.5 percent of all U.S. births, a 30% increase since 1981. Abortion became legally accessible in 1973 and the number of abortions peaked in the early 1980s as it became more ingrained in society.
The IOM said premature birth cost U.S. society $26.2 billion in 2005.
This isn't the first time a study has found that abortion increases the risk for premature birth. A 2003 article in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons finds at least sixty significant studies published since 1963 report an abortion-premature birth link.
View full text at LifeNews.com: http://www.lifenews.com/nat2453.html
Item #11. Embryo Is The Beginning Of Life, International
Expert Tells Irish Court
An Italian doctor involved in new developments in IVF treatment has told the
Irish High Court it is "really difficult" to find a scientific reason
to support the destruction of embryos created during such treatment. Dr Eleonora
Porcu said it was her view that an embryo is the beginning of human life and
it was "totally arbitrary" and unacceptable to draw any type of distinction
in the development of an embryo, such as distinctions between a pre-embryo,
an embryo, a foetus, a newborn and an infant. "We should not play with
words."
Giving evidence in the continuing action by a 41-year-old mother of two aimed at having implanted in her uterus three embryos, frozen in a Dublin clinic four years ago, Dr Porcu said that, when a single cell arrived from an egg and sperm, there was a new biological entity. "An embryo is the beginning of human life, no one can say any different. The first cell is the beginning, the first cell of the new individual."
View full article at Family and Life: http://www.familyandlife.org/newsview.php?id=192&cat=8&subcat=18
Item #12. Survey Shows Women Unaware Of Morning
After Pill, How Plan B Works
A new survey of women finds that just a small percentage of women are aware
of the availably of the morning after pill and fewer still know how the mechanism
of the Plan B drug works. The morning after pill may cause an abortion in some
instances and pro-life groups oppose the use of the drug for that and other
reasons.
Conducted by North Carolina-based AllPoints Research, a national Web survey of 300 women found that only 20 percent of women are aware of Plan B, and less than 8 percent really understand how the morning after pill works.
Although the Food and Drug Administration has announced that it will work with the maker of the drug, Barr Laboratories, to make it available over the counter to women over the age of 18, the survey shows most women don't know much about it.
AllPoints reports that most of the 20 percent of women who are aware of the morning after pill understand that it is a high dosage of birth control pills meant to prevent pregnancy.
But the poll found nearly one-third of that group of 20 percent believe the Plan B drug always causes an abortion in the same way as the RU 486 abortion drug, also known as mifepristone. That drug is meant to cause an abortion in an early-term pregnancy.
View full text at LifeNews.com: http://www.lifenews.com/nat2473.html
Action:
1. Pray that we all may have the courage to be God's presence in society and
support those who have been deemed "unworthy of life".
2. Stay informed at Lifeissues.net website: http://www.lifeissues.net.
3. Consider participating with a financial donation to help pay travel expenses for Fr. Jerry's Speaking Tours to poorer countries in Asia. (Purpose - Journey for Life into the Heart of Asia. Series of lectures on - The Family at Crossroads: Trends and Challenges.) Remaining 2006 schedule: August - Sri Lanka; October - Philippines; November - China. Thank you for your active participation for making this missionary project possible. Kindly send donations directly to: Fr. Jerry Novotny OMI; LifeIssues.net, Editor; Akebono-cho 1-15-9; Kochi City, Japan 780-8072.
4. All past issues of LifeIssues.net Newsletter available online. Click here: http://lifeissues.net/newsletters/mojo.cgi?flavor=archive&list=lifenews&start=0. (These newsletters are an extension of the Website.)
Contact Editor:
Jerry Novotny OMI, Akebono-cho 1-15-9, Kochi City, Japan, 780-8072
Tel/Fax: 088-843-0406; E-mail: jerry@lifeissues.net
Websites by Editor:
English site: http://www.lifeissues.net,
Japanese site: http://www.japan-lifeissues.net,
OMI site: http://www.omijapankorea.net/index.html
6. Lifeissues.net Newsletter #285 - August 13, 2006
Greetings from LifeIssues.net (www.lifeissues.net)
Dear Friends for Life,
Next week on the 16th, I will be going to Sri Lanka for a five-day Pro Family / Pro Life Seminar. There I will be joined by two speakers from the Philippines, that is, if their Visas to Sri Lanka are granted. Following the Seminar, I will stay one more week for Post Seminar lectures throughout the Colombo area. I should be back to Japan by the 28th. During this time I have asked my Webmaster to continue sending the weekly newsletter (Issues #286 and #287). Kindly say a prayer for the success of our Pro Life Seminar. Thank you.
God Bless, Jerry Novotny, omi
(Quote) The strength of our faith convictions and the guidance of Scripture are powerful tools that can foster the peace and harmony in our families and communities we aspire to have. - Bishop Ramirez
Lifeissues.net Newsletter #285 - August 13, 2006
Table Of Contents:
1. Aussie Union Leader Calls Human Cloning "Nazi-like" Experiments
2. Ethical Row Over World's First 'Made To Order' Embryos
3. Babies Hit By Binge Drink Brain Damage
4. Daughters At Higher Risk
5. Investment Analyst Recommends Adult Stem Cell Research Firms, Not Embryonic
6. Morning After Pills Given Out In Schools
7. He Died Of Thirst: NHS Accused By Widow Over Care
8. Scientists Call For A Ban On Some Embryo Experiments
9. Catholic Teaching On Embryonic Stem-Cell Research
10. Clinics Use Tissue From Babies Killed In Abortions For Cosmetic Injections
"New" Articles Posted Recently At: http://www.lifeissues.net)
- C. Ward Kischer: http://www.lifeissues.net/writer.php?ID=kisc
- Hank Mattimore: http://www.lifeissues.net/writer.php?ID=mat
- David Reardon: http://www.lifeissues.net/writer.php?ID=rea
- Barbara Kralis: http://www.lifeissues.net/writer.php?ID=kra
- Steven Mosher: http://www.lifeissues.net/writer.php?ID=mos
[Website: BeNotAfraid.net]. http://www.benotafraid.net/. Benotafraid.net is an online outreach to parents who have received a poor or difficult prenatal diagnosis. The family stories, articles, and links within this site are presented as a resource for those who may have been asked to choose between terminating a pregnancy or continuing on despite the diagnosis. The benotafraid.net families faced the same decision and chose not to terminate. By sharing our experiences, we hope to offer encouragement to those who may be afraid to continue on.
Item #1. Aussie Union Leader Calls Human Cloning
"Nazi-Like" Experiments
(LifeSiteNews.com) - A prominent
senior official of Australia's largest trade union has denounced attempts to
legalize human cloning for embryonic stem-cell research and compared the practice
to human experiments made by Germany's Nazi doctors, reports the Australian.
"Therapeutic cloning is the creation of human life for the express purpose of destroying it so you can obtain the stem cells and do research," stated Joe de Bruyn, the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Union secretary. De Bruyn told the Australian, "That's no different to what Hitler's doctors used to do during the last century. They experimented on human life, and that's what this is."
Earlier this week, Australia's Health Minister Tony Abbott had also condemned efforts to pressure the government to lift its ban on human cloning for the sake of stem-cell research, calling it "a bridge too far", and told the National Press Club that there is "very little evidence embryonic stem cell research is the health nirvana".
The Victorian and Queensland premiers have been the principal leaders in pressuring Prime Minister John Howard's Government to reconsider its ban on human embryo research. Both leaders indicated their state governments are considering their options for financing experiments in therapeutic human cloning, despite the federal government's ban.
Next Monday, August 7, members of Howard's coalition government will debate on lifting the ban on human cloning in a special party room meeting before Parliament reconvenes. Howard, speaking ahead of the party room debate, repeated yesterday his conviction that the laws on stem cell research should not change.
Related LifeSite Coverage:
Australian Health Minister Warns Cloning, Embryo Research: "A Bridge Too
Far". Cloning/Embryo research a slippery slope that will only lead to more
and more sordid human experimentation.
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/aug/06080302.html
Item #2. Ethical Row Over World's First 'Made To
Order' Embryos
The world's first human embryo bank has been launched in the US allowing infertile
couples to buy ready-made embryos matched to their requirements for around $5,000.
The embryos are created from eggs and sperm from two donors who have never met.
Couples can choose what eye and hair colour they would like their child to have.
British women are expected to fly to the bank in Texas for treatment. Pro-lifers
said the move was an "absolute commercialization of human life."
View full text at Daily Mail:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/health/healthmain.html?in_article_id=399142&in_page_id=1774
Item #3. Babies Hit By Binge Drink Brain Damage
AT LEAST nine babies are being left permanently brain damaged every year by
their binge-drinking mothers.
Figures obtained by The Sunday Times reveal for the first time the extent of foetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) in Scotland.
The incurable condition - caused by mothers drinking heavily during pregnancy - causes mental retardation, facial deformities, hearing loss, abnormal growth and walking difficulties in children.
It is caused by alcohol disrupting the formation and survival of nerve cells in a developing brain, particularly in the final three months of pregnancy.
View full text at Times Online: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-2301261,00.html
Item #4. Daughters At Higher Risk
The daughters of women who took a common pregnancy drug reportedly face a higher
risk of developing breast cancer.
Researchers in the US say the drug DES increases the risk in the mothers - and their daughters.
The danger increases as the women approach menopause, according to reports in the Daily Mail.
The drug was prescribed to women until 1975 to protect against miscarriage and combat morning sickness.
According to the newspaper, scientists at Boston University said women whose mothers took DES - diethylstilboestrol - had a 40% increased risk of breast cancer.
View full text at Sky. COM: http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1757248,0008.htm
Item #5. Investment Analyst Recommends Adult Stem
Cell Research Firms, Not Embryonic
Though politicians are criticizing pro-life groups and lawmakers for opposing
taxpayer funding of embryonic stem cell research, one investment relations analyst
says investors wanting to put money into biotech firms should focus on those
working with adult stem cells because they show better prospects.
Based in California, SmallCap Sentinel has been issuing investment information for 23 years and analyst D.R. Clark says adult stem cell research firms are a better buy.
"As the headline-grabbing battle regarding embryonic stem cell research rages, adult stem cell sources continue to provide an ever-broadening array of life-improving possibilities," Clark said in a statement LifeNews.com obtained.
"Researchers are using the far less controversial adult stem cells to attack enormous medical problems and are confident enough in their successes thus far to seek the protection of U.S. Patents," he added.
View full text at LifeNews.com: http://www.lifenews.com/bio1693.html
Item #6. Morning After Pills Given Out In Schools
Schoolgirls are being given the morning after pill following lessons as part
of an initiative to reduce the number of unwanted teenage pregnancies.
Pupils at two schools in Norwich and five others in Great Yarmouth are being given access to contraception by family planning workers, even if they are below the age of consent.
Source of article at Evening News24:
http://new.eveningnews24.co.uk/content/news/story.aspx?brand=ENOnline&category=News&tBrand=ENOnline&tCategory=news&itemid=NOED08%20Aug%202006%2010%3A10%3A38%3A810
Item #7. He Died Of Thirst: NHS Accused By Widow
Over Care
A Coroner investigating the death of a woman allegedly starved and deprived
of fluids in hospital has been asked to hold an inquest into the death of a
patient on the same ward.
Relatives of Harold Speed believe that he died of dehydration, not pneumonia as his death certificate says. The 84-year-old former music teacher had been examined by the same doctor who treated Olive Nockels, who died after her drips were removed.
"The whole of my husband's stay in hospital was a nightmare," Kate Speed said. "They put bronchopneumonia on the death certificate, but I believe his death was from the effects of dehydration." She has asked William Armstrong, the coroner, to examine her husband's death.
Source at TimesOnline: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2301896,00.html
Item #8. Scientists Call For A Ban On Some Embryo
Experiments
Instead of engaging in fraud and cover up, or conducting experiments that violate
the moral principles of many citizens, we should look to scientific creativity
for an answer. Since the cloning fraud, many scientists - such as Markus Grompe
at Oregon Health & Science University and Rudolf Jaenisch at MIT - have
been doing just that. And others, such as Kevin Eggan at Harvard, may have found
a technique, called "cell fusion," that would create new, versatile,
genetically controlled stem cell lines by fusing existing stem cells and ordinary
DNA. Scientists in Japan just announced that they may have found a way to do
this without even needing an existing stem cell line.
In other words: all the benefits of research cloning without the ethical problems. Looking ahead, it is becoming increasingly likely that reprogramming adult cells to pluripotency, rather than destroying human embryos, will be the future of regenerative medicine. It offers both a more efficient and far more ethical way forward.
View full article at news.scotsman.com: http://news.scotsman.com/scitech.cfm?id=1147322006
Item #9. Catholic Teaching On Embryonic Stem-Cell
Research
I wish to reaffirm my own statement released in the aftermath of President Bush's
decision on the matter. "Any embryonic stem-cell research is an affront
to human life for those who believe that human life and human personhood begin
at conception. The Catholic teaching is that human life and human personhood
begin at conception. We do not support the funding of research that depends
on the destruction of human embryos."
View full article at The New Catholic Miscellany: http://www.catholic-doc.org/miscellany/2001/0823cell.HTM
Item #10. Clinics Use Tissue From Babies Killed
In Abortions For Cosmetic Injections
Women from around the world are traveling to clinics in various locations that
are now offering face lifts and cosmetic surgery using tissue from babies who
have been killed by abortions.
Pro-life advocates are strongly condemning the practice and saying the taking of human life is never warranted - especially for such a self-serving purpose.
Women like Susan Barrington, a 52-year-old housewife from England, are heading to places such as Barbados, the Dominican Republic, Moscow and Rotterdam to obtain the treatments.
She has been given the final go-ahead form a local clinic to travel abroad for the treatment that promises to make her look 10 years younger and doesn't mind that lives have been sacrificed to enhance her beauty.
To produce the treatments, clinics are using tissue from babies killed in abortions from 6 to 12 weeks into pregnancy and stem cells obtained from destroying human embryos to inject into a client's face. The fetal cells then begin a supposed rejuvenation process that makes the skin look younger.
To obtain the cells, women in underdeveloped nations are paid up to $200 dollars to carry a baby up to the optimum eight to 12 week period when the fetuses are "harvested" for their stem cells which are then sold to exclusive cosmetic clinics.
Both pro-life advocates and scientists who favor stem cell research are upset by the promotion of these injections.
View full text at LifeNews.com: http://www.lifenews.com/nat2486.html
Action:
1. Pray that we all may have the courage to be God's presence in society and
support those who have been deemed "unworthy of life".
2. Stay informed at Lifeissues.net website: http://www.lifeissues.net.
3. Consider participating with a financial donation to help pay travel expenses for Fr. Jerry's Speaking Tours to poorer countries in Asia. (Purpose - Journey for Life into the Heart of Asia. Series of lectures on - The Family at Crossroads: Trends and Challenges.) Remaining 2006 schedule: October - Philippines; November - China. Thank you for your active participation for making this missionary project possible. Kindly send donations directly to: Fr. Jerry Novotny OMI; LifeIssues.net, Editor; Akebono-cho 1-15-9; Kochi City, Japan; 780-8072.
4. All past issues of LifeIssues.net Newsletter available online. Click here: http://lifeissues.net/newsletters/mojo.cgi?flavor=archive&list=lifenews&start=0. (These newsletters are an extension of the Website.)
Contact Editor:
Jerry Novotny OMI; Akebono-cho 1-15-9; Kochi City, Japan 780-8072
Tel/Fax: 088-843-0406; E-mail: jerry@lifeissues.net
Websites by Editor:
English site: http://www.lifeissues.net,
Japanese site: http://www.japan-lifeissues.net,
OMI site: http://www.omijapankorea.net/index.html.
7. MPAA Places Christianity In Same Category As Sex, Violence, Profanity
Be sure to forward this to your friends and family!
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) is now warning parents of movies which contain a reference to the Christian faith, equating Christianity as being on the same level of sex, violence and profanity when it comes to objectionable material.
The MPAA is controlled by Hollywood moguls known for their bitter opposition to Christianity.
A new family film featuring miracles and a pro-God theme has earned the PG rating because it would offend non-believers. The MPAA refuses to give movies which promote the homosexual lifestyle a similar warning. In other words, MPAA warns parents if a movie has Christianity presented in a positive manner but refuses to warn them if homosexuality is presented in a positive manner.
Facing the Giants is the story of a Christian high school football coach who uses his undying faith to battle the giants of fear and failure. Due to the Christian content, the MPAA rated it PG, placing it in the same offensive category as sex, violence and profanity.
Click Here to read a good Scripps Howard News Service article about this issue. http://www.shns.com/shns/g_index2.cfm?action=detail&pk=RELIGION-FAITH-06-07-06
The plot includes several prayers being answered, a medical miracle, and a mystic who delivers a message from God. The scene which MPAA found most offensive was a discussion between the football coach and a boy named Matt. The coach says the boy needs to stop bad-mouthing his father and get right with God.
The boy replies: "You really believe in all that honoring God and following
Jesus stuff? Well, I ain't trying to be disrespectful, but not everybody believes
in that."
The coach responds: "Matt, nobody's forcing anything on you. Following Jesus Christ is the decision that you're going to have to make for yourself. You may not want to accept it, because it will change your life. You will never be the same."
That, says the MPAA, is very objectionable and parents need to be warned.
Take Action
Send an e-mail to the MPAA asking them to stop their anti-Christian bigotry.
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8. National Post Confirms Tories Sank Benoit Bill Over Abortion Issue Fears
Freedom of Information enquiry reveals real reasons unborn victims of violence type bill stopped - By Steve Jalsevac
OTTAWA, August 8, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The National Post, in an article today by Peter O'Neil, confirmed what many had suspected was the real, withheld reason the Conservatives killed Conservative MP Leon Benoit's Bill C-291 in May. The revelation has Campaign Life Coalition's national coordinator Mary Ellen Douglas fuming about what she believes has been Prime Minister Stephen Harper's deviousness in the affair.
C-291 proposed making it a separate offence to kill or injure an unborn child while committing a violent crime against its mother. A Freedom of Information enquiry by the Post revealed that Justice Minister Vic Toews was warned in an unsigned briefing note on C-291 from government bureaucrats that, "Any change to the definition of a 'human being' in the Criminal Code could have the effect of criminalizing abortion."
The note goes on, reports the Post, to state, "The government has no plans to propose any reforms in this area of the law." O'Neil links the latter sentence to Harper's Jan. 17 statement, "I'll use whatever influence I have in Parliament to be sure that such a matter doesn't come to a vote."
Toews' instruction to the parliamentary committee that subsequently declared
the bill unvotable, however, did not mention abortion, despite that being the
real reason the government wanted the bill killed. Instead the Justice Minister's
written advice vaguely stated that the bill "clearly" violated the
Constitution including the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It gave
no indication how the pro
posed
bill violated the Charter.
Benoit's bill was drafted in response to the violent deaths of two pregnant Edmonton women, 19-year-old Olivia Talbot and her unborn child Lane, who were shot and killed when the Edmonton woman was 27 weeks pregnant with baby Lane, and Liana White, who was killed along with her unborn child. In both cases the deliberately murdered babies were treated during sentencing as non-entities by the courts.
Mrs. Mary Talbot, the mother of Olivia Talbot who was six months pregnant when
her assailant shot her once in the head and her child in utero three times,
traveled from Alberta to speak to the committee, but was denied the opportunity
to do so. She was also denied the opportunity to have the committee consider
a powerful photo of her deceased daughter together with her also murdered granddaughter
who appeared as much of a baby as many newborns.
Photo of Olivia Talbot and her baby Lane
together in casket after their murders
Olivia Talbot was six months pregnant when her assailant shot her once in the head and her child in utero three times.
Campaign Life Coalition's Mary Ellen Douglas told the Post's Peter O'Neil that the government's reasons for scuttling the bill were "legally flawed". She also indicated that the Conservatives were acting in a "devious" way in trying to kill C-291 to appease Prime Minister Harper's determination to totally avoid the abortion issue, while also trying not to offend his substantial social conservative base. "It's all Harper pulling strings," Douglas told the Post.
In an interview today with LifeSiteNews.com Douglas emphasized that Leon Benoit had thoroughly done his homework on the bill to make sure it was constitutionally sound. She charged that "Harper was protecting himself and didn't have the courage to say that, in his opinion, this (the bill) is just the social conservatives trying to slip in abortion through the back door."
Douglas emphasized that "C-291 was not about abortion. It was about justice for victims of a crime. This was not about a woman on the way to an abortion clinic. The Alberta murders had absolutely nothing to do with abortion. Olivia Talbot was well on her way to having a baby."
Douglas continued that C-291 was not a "pro-life" bill per se. She emphasized it rather addressed the legal discrimination of unborn murder victims being treated in law as non-entities, thereby denying justice to next of kin over the violent loss of their young relatives.
Vic Toews' parliamentary secretary Rob Moore argued during the one hour debate on C-291 that the law would be ruled as unconstitutional by courts because a killer might be unaware of a woman's pregnancy and, therefore, have no idea he was ending two lives. Douglas responded to LifeSiteNews that in the case of Olivia Talbot and similar murders, the unborn child was in fact clearly targeted. As well, Douglas, noted, "when someone shoots through a door and kills an intended victim and/or others, the killer is charged for every death, regardless of intent. Why should it be so totally different because one of the victims is not yet out of the womb?"
See related LifeSiteNews.com reports:
The Inside Story on the Kibosh of the Canadian Unborn Victims of Violence Bill: http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/jun/06062804.html
Canada Unborn Victims of Violence Bill Loses Appeal to be Declared Votable: http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/jun/06060608.html
Canada Unborn Victims of Violence Bill to be Resurrected in Coming Months Says MP: http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/jun/06061608.html
Canadian Prime Minister Big Improvement Over Liberal PMs But Clearly Not Pro-life: http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/jun/06062702.html
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper Not Pro-Life - The Evidence: http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/jun/060627a.html
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9. Not A 'Mercy' Killing? - August 31, 2006
This how my letter appeared in the Globe and Mail today. - Alex Schadenberg
Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director,
Euthanasia Prevention Coalition
London, Ont. - On Aug. 29, an elderly man shot and killed his wife, who was diagnosed with the early stages of Alzheimer's disease (Alzheimer Patient Shot Dead At Hospital - Aug. 30). Two of your letter-writers (The Real Tragedy - Aug. 31) saw the murder-suicide as a loving act by a husband who did not want his wife to suffer.
The reality is that homicide-suicide deaths are rarely "mercy" killings.
A study published in the March, 2005, issue of the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry by Julie E. Malphurs and Donna Cohen concluded: "In fact, this 'mercy-killing' perception is a myth. The husbands in such cases are often abusers, and the wives are rarely complicit. In many such cases, defence wounds indicate that the wife fought for her life."
The authors of the study indicated that many of these terrible incidents could be avoided by providing good care to both the ailing spouse and the otherwise healthy spouse. Many "healthy" spouses suffer depression and mental breakdown due to the demands and changes related to the care of an ailing partner.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060901.LETTERS01-4/TPStory/Opinion/letters
10. PM Adviser Sees 'Have Nots' As The New 'Haves' In Court System - By Tonda MacCharles
The Toronto Star - May 13, 2006
Most Canadians probably don't know or don't care about Ian Brodie's view of the country's top court. He is not an MP. He is a political scientist, a tenured one at that. But his opinions are far from academic. In fact, they may warrant more attention than any of the musings of MP Maurice Vellacott or others seen as on the fringe of this new Conservative party. Because Ian Brodie is right at the centre. He is on leave from academia, and is chief of staff and top adviser to Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
In writings before he took leave from the University of Western Ontario - he organized the Draft Harper campaign to replace Stockwell Day as Canadian Alliance leader - Brodie showed he is a tough-minded observer not just of the Supreme Court of Canada, but also of the way "traditionally disadvantaged groups - official language minorities, feminists and homosexual rights advocates" - have gotten their way when they appear before it. In a 2003 paper, Brodie wrote with Ted Morton that those "have-nots" are the new "haves" in Canadian society. The two argue that official language minorities, feminist groups and gay rights activists are the ones who acquired the money (courtesy of federal funding) and the political clout to advance their cause. And they say central governments, from Pierre Trudeau on, helped the courts become political actors when it furthered their own political prospects.
Sound familiar? It's not put as indelicately as Harper did when he said Liberal governments pushed gay marriage rights "through back channels" by appointing judges to do it for them. Brodie doesn't say the courts are stacked. But he argues the odds are. And those odds don't favour socially conservative groups or those who dispute liberal interpretations of rights in the Constitution, and its Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
It is a view shared by other political scientists and law professors who think judges go too far, are too "activist" in drawing on principles underlying the law that are not explicitly written in legislation, and using those unwritten principles to overturn or invalidate democratically enacted laws. It is a view popular among the "Calgary School" of conservative academics who mentored Brodie and Harper at the University of Calgary. (It is, however, a view disputed by many who argue that Charter rights litigants are losing far more challenges to government legislation than they win.)
But it's a view Brodie has developed in several publications. In Political Dispute and Judicial Review, a 2000 compendium of essays, Brodie writes that before Trudeau gave the Supreme Court more control over its docket, appointed reform-minded law deans to the bench, and brought in the Charter, "Canadian Supreme Court judges did not think of their role as 'creative.' They did not make new law. They thus avoided having to decide whether government policies were advisable, since they could accept the law as it was established by legislatures or other courts." In the Canadian Journal of Political Science in 2001, Brodie argued Trudeau consciously set about enlisting the courts as allies in his fight to institute bilingualism at a provincial level. In a piece for the Fraser Forum in 2002, Brodie wrote "Pro-life and traditional family groups ... have been consistently denied (federal) funds" to take their arguments before the Supreme Court, calling it "strange" and "unfair."
Now that Brodie is in a position of power, will his theory - about how central governments use the courts or federal funding to advance a political agenda - be put into practice, in this case to advance a conservative one? Brodie declined a request for an interview for this article.
No surprise after last week's furor over the views expressed by Vellacott. On the political left, Vellacott's comments re-awakened suspicions that the Conservative government has its sights on eroding the independence of what it sees as a too-activist, too-liberal judiciary. Vellacott denounced the "God-like powers" judges take upon themselves, attributing the description to Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin - wrongly, as it turned out. He called for "judicial restraint." The federal Liberal party says there's a trend. "The Prime Minister himself has expressed similar disdain for the Supreme Court," MP Anita Neville said in a news release. But in an interview with the Star's Bruce Campion-Smith yesterday, Harper denied having an agenda for the role of the courts beyond the recent introduction of parliamentary scrutiny for judicial appointments.
11. Post-Abortion Images Prompt Outrage - July 26, 2006
Today's Family News
An Ontario pro-life group is making no apologies to people in the Maritimes
who are angry at being forced to view enlarged, graphic pictures of aborted
babies.
"We're called Show the Truth (link contains graphic images that may not be suitable for children) and that's exactly what we're doing. It's the visual truth of abortion," executive member Rosemary Connell told Canadian Press.
"There are no pretty pictures of abortion," she added. "Everyone is into reality television, well this is it. This is what it looks like to murder babies. People should be appalled that stuff like this happens every day."
Fredericton was Show the Truth's first stop on what Connell described as "a mission to go across the Maritimes to show people the reality" of abortion.
For several days, about 60 Show the Truth members and local residents lined
some of Fredericton's main streets holding up large placards so passing motorists
could see for themselves what abortion does to unborn children.
Yet it appeared that more people were upset with the messengers than the message,
including Fredericton Mayor Brad
Woodside. He told CBC
that he had received about two-dozen calls at home and that police had received
hundreds of calls from angry residents demanding that action be taken to halt
the demonstration.
But while conceding that since no laws had been broken, there was nothing anyone could do, Woodside nonetheless told the Daily Gleaner that the images "were not much worse than pornography."
"I don't know what the moral standards are in the community where these people come from, but they've certainly crossed a moral line here," he said. Woodside also told CBC that "it's time for them to get back on their bus and get back to Ontario."
During Show the Truth's stay in Fredericton, the Gleaner also reported, four front windows of the New Brunswick Right to Life Mother and Child Centre were smashed in and a large sticker with the single word "choice" stuck on the door.
Peter Ryan, the centre's executive director, said he believed the vandalism "most likely was triggered by the Show the Truth demonstration."
At a demonstration in Halifax last Friday, the Daily News reported that staff from a women's health centre attempted to block the images from passing motorists by holding "umbrellas, blankets and cardboard signs in front of Show the Truth protesters."
But apart from "a few bad reactions," Connell said she "got a call from a woman who said our sign saved her unborn child's life."
In fact, Connell describes the public reaction as being for the most part positive.
"Many people driving by are honking their horns in support," she
told LifeSiteNews.
"Many are even lining up and waiting until they get their pamphlets, or
stopping on the streets and thanking us."
Canadians prefer stay-at-home childcare
Today's Family News - July
26, 2006
Once again, Canadians have expressed a clear preference for having one parent
stay home to look after his or her pre-school children.
As a new survey done for the Ottawa-based Institute of Marriage and Family Canada discovered, over three-quarters (77.9 per cent) said that was their preferred option. Just one in five (20.5 per cent) said they preferred to let a "competent caregiver" take on that responsibility.
The results were
