LifeZine No. 697: 16th Jul 09
New Threat to Ireland’s Unborn Babies from Swedish Politicians
A Swedish political party has described Ireland’s baby-protecting abortion laws as “medieval” and “terrifying” and will try to use the Lisbon Treaty to enshrine abortion as a human right throughout the EU. Birgitta Ohlsson of the Swedish Liberal Party, who belongs to her country’s coalition government, has launched a group called “Make Noise for Free Choice”. It hopes to obtain the one million signatures required for its demands to receive consideration by the European Commission under the terms of the “citizens’ initiative” that the new EU treaty proposes. The campaign, which began last month, aims to complete its online petition by October, 2010. The Lisbon Treaty says any proposal that gains a million signatures from a significant number of EU countries must receive consideration and debate by the European Commission. The number of countries has yet to be finalised. If successful, the move would focus attention on Ireland’s laws, under which a mother may not have her baby killed unless there is (an alleged) a risk to her life. Ohlsson, who hopes to give women across Europe the so-called right to free abortion, sharply criticised Ireland’s laws. She said her campaign is an effort to encourage countries such as Ireland to start a dialogue that would put pressure on national governments. “EU countries treat this like it’s a health issue, so we want to change attitudes towards it and have it recognised as a human right”, she stated. “The different European countries need to change their laws to support people. We are going to encourage people in these countries to put pressure on their countries to change the laws”. To date, just 3,120 people have signed the petition and Ohlsson concedes that the campaign has yet to gain momentum. She accuses countries such as Ireland, Malta and Poland of denying women their human rights by banning abortion and asserts that Europe’s women can “no longer be ignored”. “Powerful forces”, her website claims, are “counteracting women’s struggle” for their right to so-called safe abortion. The Irish government said its independence to decide its own abortion law is now secured by legal guarantees agreed with other EU countries ahead of the second Lisbon referendum in October. Irish pro-life campaigners reacted angrily this weekend to Ohlsson’s campaign and insisted it will fail to change Ireland’s pro-life laws. Patricia Casey, a professor of psychiatry at University College Dublin, commented, “It’s ironic for a country like Sweden, with such a track record of protecting human rights, that campaigners from there are campaigning for the killing of unborn children. There is certainly a contradiction”. Irish laws are “progressive” and “recognise all humans at all stages of life”, said Prof Casey, who predicted most Irish people will oppose the Swedish campaign. She said it was “highly unlikely” there will be any change in Irish laws because of it and added, “Since when has it been progressive to allow people to take a life?” John O’Reilly of the Irish Pro-Life Campaign noted that Irish abortion laws were reinforced by the legal guarantees surrounding the Lisbon treaty, “unless the guarantees mean nothing at all”. The Times. July 12.
Improved Care at Life’s End Will Help Fight Euthanasia
In a recent opinion piece in The Irish Times, on caring for the dying, the editor suggested that “As we plan for life, we should plan for death”. That’s because although dying is part of life, people often see it as a peripheral event. And as such it has been treated as a poor relation within our health services and by the wider public as little more than a passing theme, generally ignored till the inevitable happens. But, the editorial noted, there are encouraging signs of change. Among them is the endorsement by the Health Information and Quality Authority of the work of the Hospice Friendly Hospitals Programme to develop standards for end-of-life care in hospitals. A new consultation document has set a benchmark for best practice for providing end-of-life care, letting families—and those who are dying—know what they can reasonably expect from hospitals in terms of services, support and quality of care. Most importantly, those who run hospitals and long-stay institutions—where 75 percent of Irish people die—will know and, hopefully, will be trained to adhere to the standards and to respond to the needs of those who are dying and to their families. The challenges are immense but surmountable. As the draft document states, there is no national end-of-life care strategy and no standardised measurement of whether there has been a “good death”. Among many other gaps, pressure on emergency departments is excessive and palliative care services are insufficient. Advanced care directives or “living wills”, competency to make decisions, resuscitation, clinically assisted nutrition and hydration, organ donation and transplantation are all critical issues, according to the editorial. They deserve proper public debate, and although the document has taken shape in the context of Irish law, professional ethical responsibilities, and every person’s right to life under the European Convention on Human Rights, the debate cannot expect to be untouched by calls for the legalisation of assisted euthanasia. No doubt the palliative care movement will prepare a trenchant rebuttal. With these issues in mind, the public is being encouraged to give its views on all aspects of end of life at a series of public meetings throughout the country. They are run by the Irish Hospice Foundation’s Forum on End of Life, which is garnering the views of citizens on dying and death. It deserves success. The Irish Times. June 25. F&L Comment: It is of great importance that people improve end-of-life care in Ireland. Any shortcomings in this area will be seized upon by the advocates of euthanasia/assisted suicide, who have been pushing their lethal cause with increased vigour in the past two years (not least in the pages of The Irish Times). Top-quality palliative care based on a fundamental respect for the enduring value of every human life is the best answer to the euthanasia lobby. On the question of advance care directives, Family & Life made a detailed submission to the Law Reform Commission earlier this year.
Scandal of Abortions for UK Girls As Young As 12
Scores of girls as young as 12 undergo abortions every year in the UK, new Government figures show. More than 450 children under 14 aborted babies between 2005 and 2008, including 23 children aged 12, according to Department of Health statistics. In the same period, 52 girls aborted four or more babies before they were 18. Across all age groups, there were 64,715 repeat abortions last year, the most on record. The figure included 46 women who had killed eight or more preborn babies. Research this year found that abortions on teenagers who had already had at least one abortion had risen by almost 70 percent since 1991. Daily Mail. June 29.
UK Judge Says Family Breakdowns Ravaging Children
Our children are the losers in the game of “pass the partner”, according to Mr Justice Sir Paul Coleridge, an English High Court judge in the family division. In a speech to the Family Holiday Association, of which he is a trustee, he said, “When we talk about the modern family, the same argument is often made. Yes, things are different nowadays—but aren’t we all having to learn to adapt to a new definition of family, and a new way of life? In due course, won’t we all learn to live with it”? He continued: “It is a seductive argument. But as a family judge, I have witnessed the damage done by the endless game of ‘musical relationships’, or ‘pass the partner’, in which a significant portion of the population is engaged. Recently, I was approached by the BBC, with a view to making a documentary about family breakdown. I suggested the researcher start by spending the day with me in court, to watch a run-of-the-mill High Court case. She was stunned into silence and remained speechless when I told her that within the Royal Courts of Justice, there were 20 or so other judges engaged in similar cases. Across inner London, well over 100 family courts were dealing with family breakdown that day, in one guise or another. Multiply that across the rest of the country, and you get some feel for the scale of the epidemic. Unfortunately, the BBC, the most important opinion-former in the land, wishes to avoid engaging in a debate on this vital issue. The two programmes that resulted, presented by the respected journalist John Ware, have been moved from a 9pm slot to 11.20pm. Those in charge considered them to be ‘too dark’. That, however, may be a symptom of a wider problem. Yes, what goes on within broken families is dark—very dark. But we won’t throw any light on it if we refuse to acknowledge it and open it up to debate. There is a tendency, especially among the chattering classes, to assume that we have attained a social utopia, in which we are entirely and happily free from taboos, stigmas and other constraints on behaviour. It sounds so beguiling: let us all do what we want, when we want and sort out any mess as we go along. But surely the test of any social change is whether it enhances people’s lives or makes them more miserable. And this is where I take issue with the modern view of the family. If it is so successful, why are the statistics for separation so large? More significantly, why are the family courts overwhelmed with cases involving damaged, miserable or disturbed children? How do other children, caught up in less serious separations, really feel? Do they relish the endless changes of partner, or adapting to a new step-parent and step-siblings? I fear that the current state of the family represents change for the worse—and those most affected, the children, are not considered in the maelstrom that surrounds them. In the end, however, it is the behaviour of individuals that has driven us here, and it is only changes in behaviour that can make a radical difference. The time has come for a major examination of all the issues surrounding family life, so that we can stand back and remould our behaviour for the benefit of us all—especially our children”. The Telegraph. June 17.
Spain’s Catholic Church Fights Socialists’ Abortion Law Proposal
The Catholic Church in Spain has launched a new offensive in the battle over plans by the ruling Socialists to change radically the country’s abortion law. The Spanish Bishops’ Conference (CEE) urged all Catholic MPs in the Lower House to vote against a Bill to allow abortion on demand. Bishop Juan Antonio Martínez Camino noted that “strict church doctrine says no true Catholic believer can agree with or support this move”. He said those who take part in abortions would excommunicate themselves. Under the proposed changes, abortion on demand would be available up to the baby’s 14th week. The new law would also permit killing a baby up to 22 weeks if a doctor asserted that the pregnancy threatened the mother’s health or that the baby might be malformed. Killing a baby after 22 weeks would be legal when doctors said there was foetal malformation that they deemed incompatible with life. The most controversial part of the Bill would let girls aged 16 abort their babies without consulting their parents. Spain’s parliament, the Cortes, is expected to resume debating the Bill next month, but the it might not become law until October. Last week the Government survived an attempt by the opposition Popular Party, which opposes the Bill, to halt the process. Despite the Government’s determination to bring its abortion law in line with those of the most permissive countries such as Britain, it faces widespread opposition. Three recent opinion polls found that most Spaniards opposed weakening the law. A total of 64 percent of those surveyed in a poll for the daily El País opposed the measure. A poll for the conservative daily ABC found 57 percent of Spaniards “totally” or “relatively” opposed to the measure. A third survey, published in La Vanguardia, put opposition at 71 percent. The Church and human rights groups have launched a strong media campaign. Abortion is the most highly charged in a series of battles between Church and Government over new laws introduced since Mr Zapatero came to power in 2004, including the legalisation of homosexual “marriage”, changes to divorce law and the promotion of embryo-killing stem-cell experiments. The Times. June 22.
US Bishops Approve Special Mass for Human Life
A text for a Mass in “Thanksgiving for the Gift of Human Life” has gained overwhelming approval from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, which voted to include it in the Roman Missal. A news release from the Conference reported that the Mass received 183 votes, with only three voting against the text and three abstaining, at a bi-annual Conference meeting in San Antonio. The addition of the text to the missal won the support of 179 bishops, with one voting no and one abstaining. The communiqué said these items were part of the ongoing adaptation of a new English translation of the Roman Missal. The conclusions of the meeting will go to the Vatican for final approval. The Mass in Thanksgiving for Life was first proposed in 1990 by John Cardinal O’Connor of New York, who also founded the Sisters of Life. He died in 2000. Zenit. June. USCCB. June.