LifeZine No. 747: 21st Jan 10
Warning: Supreme Court Ruling “Devalues Every Human Life”
“[J]udgement has been issued” on the fate of frozen embryonic humans in Ireland, warns Fr Kevin Doran of the Archdiocese of Dublin’s Committee for Bioethics. Commenting after the Supreme Court rejected the appeal in the case of Roche v. Roche, in which a separated couple disputed what should happen to their frozen embryos, the priest noted that “the embryos had more to lose than anyone else, but they were not represented in court. The court found that the husband could not be forced to become a father against his wishes. But anyone who provides sperm for IVF is already the father of any embryos which come into existence as a result. Unfortunately, our culture has, to a large extent, lost touch with the essential connection between procreation and parenthood. The Court found that only embryos which have already been implanted in the mother’s womb enjoy the protection of Article 40.3.3 of the Irish Constitution (the Pro-Life Amendment). This means, in effect, that the value of an embryo is determined by whether or not it is wanted, and not on what it clearly is, a distinct individual human being at an early stage in its development. This free-market valuation has problems even when applied to commodities. But when applied to human procreation it devalues every human life. The problem of the Roche embryos arose because, in the absence of legislation, clinics and hospitals in Ireland have begun to keep embryos in frozen storage. Legislation is required to ensure that clinics which perform IVF only generate the number of embryos which can be safely transferred to the mother’s womb in one treatment cycle. Better still, research funding should be diverted to programmes which seek to prevent or to treat infertility, rather than simply trying to get around it”. Alive! January.
Children in Lone-Parent Families Suffer Greater Problems, Irish Study Finds
A major Irish Government-backed study of childhood has found that children living in single-parent households have significant disadvantages compared to those in two-parent families. The National Longitudinal Study of Children, recently published in part, focused on nine-year-olds. A total of 8,500 children, plus their parents and teachers, took part in the study. It reported that single-parent families, especially those with three or more children, “were much more likely to have only one income and be in lower-income groups”. Children in lone-parent families were also much more likely to be in a highly conflicted relationship with their mother than if they lived in a two-parent family. The study said there were slightly more than 56,400 nine-year-olds in Ireland, 82 per cent of them living in two-parent families. Almost one-fifth of these children (18 per cent) lived in single-parent families, with 11 per cent living in single-parent families with one other child, and seven per cent in single-parent families with two or more other children. Almost half of all nine-year-olds lived in households with two or more other children. Just under 54 per cent of mothers and 91 per cent of fathers worked outside the home, but almost 39 per cent of mothers defined themselves as being in “home duties”, i.e., being full-time carers. This was true of only 1.6 per cent of fathers. Asked about religion, the overwhelming majority of mothers (85 per cent) described themselves as Catholic. The mothers were given six options about their religion, including an open-ended option simply called “other”. Nine per cent were listed as having no denominational affiliation. A higher proportion of nine-year-olds in the study (87 per cent) were baptised Catholic. The proportion listed as having no denomination (7 per cent) was slightly lower than among mothers. Catholic Ireland. December 2009.
Adult Stem-Cell Treatment Restores Sight to Partially Blind Man
A man partially blinded when ammonia was squirted into his eye during an attack 15 years ago has regained his sight after receiving a pioneering stem-cell treatment. Russell Turnbull, 38, suffered massive damage to his right eye when he was caught in a scuffle after a night out in Newcastle in 1994. The chemical severely scarred his cornea, the clear membrane that covers the front of the eye, and destroyed stem cells that usually help keep the cornea healthy. Turnbull was left with “limbal stem cell deficiency” (LSCD), a condition that seriously impairs sight, and was in pain whenever he blinked or saw bright lights. In an experimental treatment devised by doctors at the North East England Stem Cell Institute in Newcastle, stem cells from his healthy eye were grown on a layer of amniotic tissue, which is routinely used as a burn dressing. (The NHS banks amniotic sacs donated by women who have Caesarean sections.) When the cells had covered the membrane, doctors transplanted a piece the size of a postage stamp onto Turnbull’s damaged eye. Two months later the membrane had broken down, leaving his damaged eye with a fresh supply of healthy stem cells that repaired the cornea. Tests six months after surgery showed his vision was nearly as good as before the attack. Doctors led by Majlinda Lako and Francisco Figueiredo also treated seven other patients, all of whom had LSCD in one eye. Sajjad Ahmad, a member of the team, said 25 more patients will receive treatment before the results go to Britain’s National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, which could approve the procedure for use in the NHS next year. The Guardian. December 22.
“Nobody in Their Right Mind” Could Support Abortion Law, Spanish Bishops Reiterate
A spokesman for the Spanish Bishops’ Conference, Isidro Catela Marcos, has written a letter on behalf of the bishops reiterating that Catholic politicians may not support abortion. The letter rebuts pro-abortion statements by Jose Bone, a Catholic who heads Spain’s Congress. In a January 3 interview with the Spanish daily El Mundo, Bono twisted the words of Pope John Paul II’s pro-life encyclical Evangelium Vitae to justify his pro-abortion stance. The bishops rejected Bono’s reasoning and insisted that Catholic politicians may not vote for pro-abortion policies. The prelates also commented on the country’s new abortion law that is now in the hands of the Senate. In December, the House of Representatives voted 184 to 158 to amend the abortion law to allow abortions up to the 14th week of pregnancy and to limit the conscientious-objection rights of medical professionals. The bishops also criticised the law for treating abortion “as a woman’s right, and because women’s health is understood to be ‘social well-being,’ in addition to ‘physical and psychological well-being’. It should also be condemned because it imposes abortion propaganda on the educational system”. For this reason, the bishops’ letter recalled, “nobody in their right mind could support this law; Catholics cannot do so either in virtue of coherence with their own faith”. The bishops said their letter was an expression of their duty to “explain the teachings of the Church on these matters, which are valid all over the world for every Catholic regardless of political affiliation”. CNA. January 6.
Chinese Men Face Bride Shortage Due to Sex-Based Abortions
More than 24 million Chinese men of marrying age could find themselves without spouses by 2020, warns the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. The sex imbalance among newborns is the most serious demographic problem for the country’s population of 1.3 billion, says the Academy. It cites sex-specific abortions as a major factor, due to China’s traditional bias towards male children. The Academy reports that sex-selection abortions are “extremely common”. This is especially true in rural areas, and ultrasound scans, first introduced in the late 1980s, have increased the practice. The latest figures show that for every 100 girls born in China, 119 boys are born. Researcher Wang Guangzhou, quoted by the Global Times newspaper, said men in poorer parts of China might remain single throughout their life: “The chance of getting married will be rare if a man is more than 40 years old in the countryside. They will be more dependent on social security as they age and have fewer household resources to rely on”. The growing imbalance means that forced prostitution and human trafficking have become “rampant” in some parts of the country, the researchers report. Global Times. January 11.
Pro-Lifers Protest Opening of USA’s Largest Abortion Centre
Thousands of pro-lifers and religious leaders gathered in Houston, Texas, on January 18 to oppose what is expected to be the largest abortion centre in the country. Planned Parenthood is renovating a former bank, turning it into a 78,000-square-foot facility that will include an area equipped to kill babies in late-term abortions. “It’s an abortion super centre”, warned Lou Engle, founder of the pro-life group The Call to Conscience, which organised the “prayer march”. Joining Engle at the event were Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, and Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference. Religious leaders who took part included Bishop Harry Jackson, senior pastor of Hope Christian Church; Richard Land, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention; Star Parker, president of the Coalition for Urban Renewal and Education; and Abby Johnson, former director of a Planned Parenthood centre. Engle compared the fight for the rights of unborn babies to another crucial movement in American history: “As Martin Luther King, Jr., said, ‘It is time to subpoena the conscience of America’”. Engle believes Planned Parenthood strategically located the centre in a part of Houston that is surrounded by black and Hispanic neighbourhoods. “We want to say that it’s not right to have an abortion super centre that targets the minority community”, he declared. He says Planned Parenthood actively markets its “services”, including abortions, to low-income women from ethnic minorities. CNS. January 6.