LifeZine No. 556: 10th Jan 08
The Irish Government, Marriage and the Family in 2008
“All across the Western world the family is in serious trouble”, according to an “Irish Catholic” newspaper editorial. Editor, Garry O’Sullivan, noted that “here in Ireland, for example, cohabitation has risen four-fold in just 10 years and marital breakdown has risen five-fold. A quarter of children are raised outside the marital family.” He said that all “good research shows that the family based on marriage is the best environment for children. A pro-child society must therefore be a pro-marriage one.” He noted that in 2008 the Irish Government is “set to make two major decisions concerning marriage and the family”. He pointed out that in the ten years it has been in office “it has shown no recognition of the fact that marriage is the form of family of most benefit to children and has instead been giving every impression that it believes marriage is of no particular benefit thereby making it worthy of special support”. It is time, he said, “we saw some policies that actually strengthen marriage rather than weaken it”. The Irish Catholic. January 3. CLICK TO READ MORE.....
Assassination of Benazir Bhutto—Loss of a ‘Powerful Champion’ of the Unborn
According to Michelle Nanasi, writing in the “Irish Times” on the recent assassination of Bheazir Bhutto, “While many people will remember Benazir Bhutto as a champion in the struggle for democracy in Pakistan, she should also be remembered as an international advocate for women and children, be they born or unborn.” “While only time will show the impact of her assassination on the future of her country”, she noted, “one thing is certainly clear: born and unborn women and children of the world, and in particular Asia, have lost a powerful champion.” Details: CLICK TO READ MORE.....
UK Teenage Pregnancy Figures Still Climbing
UK teenage pregnancy figures have rocketed under the government's supposed crackdown of the past 10 years, statistics have shown. The Department of Health, which set a target of halving the number of teenage pregnancies by 2010, has admitted, "progress needs to accelerate" following the news that the UK now has the highest teenage birth rate in Europe. Mr Norman Wells of the Family Education Trust said: "The problems associated with teenage pregnancy will never be solved so long as the Government persists with its reliance on yet more contraception and sex education. What we need is a radical change away from a culture which has reduced sex to a casual recreational activity." The Telegraph. CLICK TO READ MORE.....
British Doctors Reject Government Proposals to Allow Abortions to Take Place in Surgeries
According to a recent survey, four fifths of British doctors are unhappy with government proposals to allow GPs to provide abortions in their own surgeries. Dr Tim Ringrose, medical director at Doctors.Net, said that such developments could seriously damage doctors' relationships with their patients. He said: "Any proposals could be potentially damaging to GPs and an insult to the ladies concerned." “What about the baby”, a pro-life spokeswoman queried. A final decision on government policy has not yet been reached. The Telegraph. END.
Seven More People Arrested in Spain in Illegal Late-Term Abortion Sting
Officials in Spain have arrested seven more people in connection with a sting operation that has closed four abortion facilities and netted six people already. The case involves abortion businesses that were allegedly doing illegal late-term abortions that were promoted as far away as Britain and the Netherlands. Spain has legalised most abortions, but physicians must sign off on those done later in pregnancy supposedly because of health concerns to the mother. Last month, Spanish authorities started the raids after a pro-life group called E-Cristians filed a complaint following a Danish television report featuring an undercover investigation showing Carlos Morin, who runs the four abortion businesses, offering an abortion to a reporter who was seven-months pregnant at the time. Morin gave the journalist a form she could use to falsely claim she had a mental disorder that allowed her to have the late-term abortion. He also said he would inject a poison that would kill the baby and the woman would give birth to a stillborn child. LifeNews.com. CLICK TO READ MORE.....
More Successes in Adult Stem Cell Research
The great promise of medical treatments involving adult stem cells has been demonstrated in research where a blood disease has been reversed in a lab mouse. A team in the US effectively cured a mouse of sickle cell anaemia without using embryos as a stem cell source, so without the ethical concerns associated with embryo experiments. Scientists at centres in Massachusetts and Alabama reprogrammed ordinary mouse skin cells to become stem cells. The achievement is hugely important given it is the first demonstration of what this new type of non-embryonic cell can do in terms of treating disease, the authors note in their report in “Science Express”, the online version of the journal “Science”. Ethical problems over the destruction of embryos in order to harvest their stem cells have dogged this research over the past decade. Now these ethical concerns may be satisfied as no embryos are needed using this reprogramming method. The Irish Times. CLICK TO READ MORE.....