LifeZine No. 780: 17th May 10
Doctors Start Rallying to Defence of Dr Phil Boyle
Dr Ruairi Hanley, writing in the Irish Medical Times, has defended Dr Phil Boyle, who the Medical Council recently grilled for his conscientious belief in marriage. “I fear I am now becoming a member of a tolerant minority. Modern Ireland regards medical independence as an anachronism that must be crushed”. Dr Boyle, who runs a Catholic fertility clinic in Galway, had to appear before a Medical Council Fitness to Practice inquiry. His alleged wrongdoing was to refuse to give fertility treatment to an unmarried couple. He was cleared because the couple never became his patients. Dr Hanley says, “Whether you agree with Dr Boyle or not, it appears that a medical practitioner, who has placed no patient at risk, can now be threatened with crucifixion for practicing medicine according to his conscience. Will those opposed to social abortion, under a future government regime, find themselves facing potential career destruction for refusing to support such a procedure? The Medical Practitioners Act potentially opens to door to this type of scenario. Under the new legislation, the lay-dominated Council can be subjected to the direct policy orders of the Minister of the day. I fully recognise that there are those anti-Catholic readers of this column who are probably delighted that doctors can now be persecuted for following the strictures of their faith. These people might remember that in the 1970s, when contraception was restricted to married couples, many colleagues blatantly flouted the rules and ensured that single young women obtained the pill. They acted according to their conscience and the independence of our profession allowed them to do so. Now that the shoe is on the other foot, we should not be celebrating the potential destruction of this same independence. Please swallow your intolerance for Catholicism. Suppress your anger and your left-wing desire for state control of medicine. The independence of our profession must never be abandoned. And that fundamental principle will always include the right to practice medicine according to your conscience”. Irish Medical Times. May 5.
Producing Human Embryos in Labs Causes Problems
Sr Anne Maher IBVM, writing in The Irish Catholic about embryo experiments, highlighted the “deeper question” that arises concerning stem cell research: “what is the moral aspect of the production of human embryos in a lab?” She questions whether human life should begin in this way rather than in natural procreation. Sr Anne continues, “Apart from the method there are serious negative results: 1. The question of how to deal with surplus embryos. Currently in some countries many thousands are trashed after a certain period of time in the freezer; 2. The matter of the right of a person to know his/her biological origins, almost impossible where IVF is done on a big scale and the donors are anonymous; 3. The possibility arising from the above that marriage between siblings and half siblings would become common.” She stresses that “we cannot afford to muddle along on an ad hoc basis in these fundamental matters”. The Irish Catholic. April 29.
Ethical Stem Cell Breakthrough Raises Hope for MS Patients
Thousands of Multiple Sclerosis sufferers could benefit from a revolutionary treatment that injects them with stem cells taken from their own bone marrow. Researchers have long believed that stem cells could halt and even reverse the effects of the disease by patching up the damaged parts of the brain and spinal cord. Now British scientists who are conducting one of the first trials into the procedure believe they have proved it works. The research team, led by Professor Neil Scolding at the University of Bristol and North Bristol NHS Trust, believe the treatment has stabilised the condition and shown some benefits: “We are encouraged by the results of this early study. We believe that stem cells mobilised from the marrow to the blood are responsible, and that they help improve disease in several ways”. MS is an incurable disease that affects some 85,000 people in Britain, slowly attacking the central nervous system and eventually leaving many sufferers wheelchair-bound. For some reason the immune system attacks healthy nerve cells and damages them. The study, published in Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, took place at Frenchay Hospital in Bristol and avoids the ethical controversy that surrounds many stem cell experiments because it does not use human embryos. Researchers found that patients suffered “no serious adverse effects” from the treatment. Tests suggested the disease was stable and the effectiveness of damaged nerve cells had improved. Prof Scolding said, “The safety data are reassuring and the suggestion of benefit tantalising”. Dr Claire Rice, the study’s co-author, added, “The results are very encouraging. We would have expected these pathways to get worse but they have actually got better. It is exciting because the treatment is relatively pain-free and patients do not need to stay overnight in hospital”. The Daily Telegraph. May 5.
Council of Europe Urges Investment in Families
The Assembly of the Council of Europe recently adopted a resolution entitled “Investing in family cohesion as a development factor in times of crisis”. The Assembly also adopted a Resolution proposed by Swiss Socialist MP Andreas Gross on “sexual orientation discrimination”. But this proposal was amended amid concerns that it might damage member states’ autonomy concerning family law, and reduce religious freedom. CARE, a UK human rights charity, and other NGOs had asked for and attained the rejection of two amendments seeking to reinstate references to homosexuals’ “right” to adopt or “found a family”, which had been removed at Committee stage. CARE also asked that eight paragraphs of the tabled document be amended or deleted, but met success only with four of them. These four wins mean that references to the recognition of homosexual relationships and parental responsibilities are now set within the context of national legislation and the best interests of the child, and that the scope for conscience exemptions for religious institutions is no longer limited to narrowly religious activities only. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe is a consultative body and can only recommend policy proposals to the Committee of Ministers. CARE believes “it is important that these are not used to seek to promote a single secular interpretation of sexual morality and family definition as a European norm to which states and religious institutions must conform at pain of legal sanction”. CARE. May 5.
Spanish Lessons Are “Totalitarian Indoctrination”, Says Cuban Immigrant
A Cuban immigrant living in Spain has protested that the Socialist government’s mandatory “Education for the Citizenry” reminds him of the indoctrination of students in Cuba under Castro’s Communist regime. Omar Rubio Garcia, who objects to his daughter being forced to attend the class, said it was unbelievable that 20 years after leaving Cuba he has had to confront totalitarian indoctrination once again: “Now I have to defend my daughter from indoctrination in the radical fascist culture of the left”. He wants to ensure it does not “undermine, manipulate or cast doubt on” the love, belief in God and upbringing he has worked to provide for her. Garcia recounted the harassment he and his daughter have received from school officials for being the only family to resist the course. He criticised the content of “Education for the Citizenry” as “provocative, morbid, anti-democratic and totalitarian”, adding that the course “divides parents and children”. He urged parents to resist the efforts by “ideological mercenaries and left-wing ‘fascists’ to manipulate without any moral or ethical scruples the relationship of love and formation between parents and children”. Experience has taught him, he warned, that failing to resist “these left-wing, fascist ideologues can be very costly, as our children will question us first because of our ignorance and later they will judge us for our lack of action”. CAN. April 30.
Mexican Law Would Propose Abortions to ALL Pregnant Mothers
Doctors who do not tell their pregnant patients they have the legal right to abort their babies—or who refuse to refer these mothers to doctors who perform abortions—could go to jail for up to four years, if the dominant political party in Mexico City’s legislature has its way. The capital city’s Health Committee chairwoman and another leading legislator have introduced a bill that would force doctors to inform all pregnant women in Mexico City that they may legally abort their babies in their first three months. The bill, which is expected to pass, has the support of more than a dozen members of Mexico City’s ruling Democratic Revolution Party—the same party that passed the 2007 law that legalised abortion in the Mexican capital. If it becomes law, doctors who do not discuss abortion with their pregnant patients will face penalties that include one to four years in prison, heavy fines and the loss of their medical licences. Legal analysts in Mexico say the bill is the pro-abortionist activists’ latest weapon in Mexico’s increasingly contentious battle over abortion. The lawmaker who introduced the bill, Beatriz Rojas, says it is needed because “moral or religious concepts influence the decision of the woman, misinforming her or deceiving her, regarding the decision to interrupt the pregnancy”. “This is absurd and stupid”, counters Patricia Lopez Mancera, director of the Centre for Women’s Studies and Comprehensive Formation in Cancun. “They say doctors should tell the pregnant women about it and recommend abortion—can you imagine? This is from the Nazi feminists in Mexico who are looking for a culture of death”. John Ackerman, a legal analyst and professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, said the bill shows how fierce the abortion debate has become in the city in the three years since the law was passed. He added that it symbolises an increasing cultural divide in Mexico, whose population was 88 percent Roman Catholic in 2000, according to census figures, but which historically has been more secular than the USA. The country’s religious right was prevented, both by public opinion and the law, from taking part in politics before 2007—but that all changed when abortion was legalised, Ackerman continued. After Mexico City legalised abortion, 17 of the country’s 32 states amended their constitutions to include a clause that protects human life from the moment of conception. “Mexico City took these steps and there’s been a real strong backlash by the religious right in Mexico in a way we’ve never seen before”, Ackerman noted. “The culture wars have arrived in Mexico”. Fox News. April 29.