LifeZine No. 811: 2nd Sep 10
Irish Senator Critical of EU Funding for Gay Adoption Conference
The European Union is funding a conference in Dublin organised by a group campaigning for the legalisation of same-sex ‘marriage’. The conference, to be held in the offices of Dublin City Council on September 8 is entitled “Voices of Children”, and is organised by the group Marriage Equality. This group was set up to promote a change in Irish law to recognise same-sex civil ‘marriage’. The recently enacted Civil Partnership Act, the group says, does not go far enough to meet their demands. The Dublin conference is being held to promote the legalisation of adoption of children by same-sex couples. The opening address will be given by Fergus Finlay, the head of children’s charity Barnardos. In its report of the conference, the Catholic Voice newspaper noted that Rónán Mullen, the Independent senator, who was one of only four senators who spoke against the enactment of the Civil Partnership Act last month, points out that European Union and Irish Government officials have repeatedly claimed that social and ethical issues, including laws on marriage and the family, are matters for member states and are outside the competence of the EU. Senator Mullen continued: “The funding of this conference highlights an issue that caused many Irish voters to reject the Lisbon Treaty—the problem of “competence creep” in the European Union. This happens when European institutions such as the European Commission and the European Court of Justice (ECJ) extend their policy and decision-making into areas that are supposed to be matters for individual member states.” “It is indeed a very sad and serious state of affairs,” stated the Catholic Voice, “when a government such as the Irish Government overrides the stated wishes of the people and steamrolls the agenda of a minority but powerful group whose stated aim it is to destroy the family.” Other sponsors of the conference include the taxpayer-funded Equality Authority, the British Council, and the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Catholic Voice. August 15. European Life Network. August 17.
Seán Dublin Bay Loftus, Veteran Pro-Lifer Dies
Seán Dublin Bay Rockall Loftus (1927-2010) was a crusading politician who involved himself in a number of high-profile campaigns during the 1970s and 80s. He was steadfast in his defence of human life and the family based on marriage. His unusual name was acquired as a result of a tactic he adopted to circumvent obstacles to registering his Christian Democrat party. During a lecture tour in the United States, he met Eduardo Frei, a future president of Chile, who sparked his interest in Christian Democracy. Frei convinced him that Ireland could be a model of Christian social principles in practice. On his return to Ireland in 1961, he founded the Christian Democrat movement. He served for 25 years as a member of Dublin City Council, during which time he proved a prodigious vote-catcher. His campaign for the European elections in 1979, despite being run on a shoestring budget, saw him garner a phenomenal 21,000 first preference votes. He also served as a TD in the short-lived Dáil of 1981 and as Lord Mayor of Dublin in 1995. He entered politics because he believed in the social teaching of the Catholic Church. “The social encyclicals apply to all humanity, not just to Catholics”, he once said. He established a Christian Democrat Party, but, despite being a barrister, he was unable to get the new party registered as a recognised political party. His solution to this problem was to change his own name by deed poll. Thus he became Seán D Christian Democrat Dublin Bay Loftus, the first of a number of such transformations. He played a prominent role in the Pro-Life Amendment Campaign of 1982-1983, which resulted in the Eighth Amendment (Article 40.3.3) giving explicit constitutional protection to the life of the unborn. After the infamous X Case in 1992, Seán was active in reviving Pro-Life activity in Dublin North-Central and he stood in the 1992 general election. He vigorously opposed divorce in the successful Anti-Divorce campaign of 1986 and again in 1995, when the ban on divorce was removed from the Constitution by the tiniest of margins. He died in the Mater Hospital, Dublin, on July 10 at the age of 82, leaving a wife and three adult children. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam. Personal Update. September. CLICK TO READ MORE.....
Ray Gosling Charged With Wasting Police Time in ‘Mercy Killing’ Case
Ray Gosling, a BBC presenter, faces prosecution for wasting police time over claims that he had killed a man in a ‘mercy killing’. Gosling claimed in two BBC programmes, East Midlands Inside Story and The Today Programme broadcast in February 2010 that he killed his lover, an AIDS victim, by smothering him to death. According to the Director of Public Prosecutions, Keir Starmer, Gosling has been uncooperative in giving details, and there is therefore no way to substantiate his claim. The DPP has recommended that criminal proceedings for wasting police time should be brought against Gosling. The Pro Life Alliance has accused the BBC of promoting euthanasia and assisted suicide. In a statement, the pro-life group said the case “yet again highlights the successful tactics of the assisted suicide lobby, and the role of the BBC in all of this needs thorough investigation. The original Ray Gosling programme was broadcast a week before the DPP was due to issue new guidelines on prosecution for assisting a suicide. It generated much media attention in favour of ‘mercy killing’. The same BBC had earlier shown (1/2/10) a very biased Panorama programme on Kay Gilderdale’s assisted suicide of her daughter. Both The Times and Daily Telegraph ask why the BBC did not verify their facts before these programmes were broadcast. Alarmingly, nor did they report Ray Gosling to the police in the two months before the film was shown. These actions show a complete lack of judgement regarding an apparent criminal act. We assume they would report a confession of paedophilia; but not murder? In the Today Programme, Ray Gosling said “if it happens to a lover or friend of yours, a husband, a wife, … you have to do brave things and you have to say—to use Nottingham language—bugger the law.”” Rebecca Ng of the ProLife Alliance welcomed the DPP’s decision to prosecute Ray Gosling. “If everybody took Ray Gosling’s attitude to the law,” she said, “there would be little way to defend helpless patients.” Pro Life Alliance. August 20.
‘Dr Death’ Wants Assisted Suicide for All
A new group campaigning for the legalisation of assisted suicide, believes it should not be limited to those who are terminally ill. The Society for Old Age Rational Suicide (SOARS), led by former GP Michael Irwin, says that pensioners should have the right to declare “enough is enough” and die with dignity. Irwin, known as “Dr Death,” says he knows of an elderly English woman who is considering taking her life through Dignitas, the notorious Swiss company that helps people to kill themselves. She is suffering from progressive arthritis and worsening eyesight. He believes that many more will want to take the same course of action as Britain’s population ages. The new group has commissioned a poll that found 67 per cent of those questioned agreed that very elderly and mentally competent individuals should be allowed to receive assistance to kill themselves, if they are suffering from health problems but not terminally ill. Only 19 per cent of the 1,009 adults questioned by ICM said they were opposed, while 14 per cent were uncertain. This is the latest move in the war to create a ‘right to die’ in England and Wales. In recent years campaigners have focused on the alleged ‘right’ of terminally ill or disabled people to kill themselves with the help of loved ones, either at home or in countries such as Switzerland where the law permits it. Attempts have also been made to legalise euthanasia, in which a doctor delivers the fatal dose. Last year a landmark court case won by Debbie Purdy, who has multiple sclerosis, forced the Director of Public Prosecutions, Keir Starmer, to set out exactly when prosecutions would be brought against people who assist another’s suicide. But the new campaign group, SOARS, wants to legalise assisted suicide with the help of a doctor for those who are merely tired of life because of their age and health problems rather than a terminal disease. The new campaign will be fiercely resisted by pro-life/human rights groups, religious groups and charities representing elderly and disabled people, who fear a ‘right’ to die will be seen by many as a duty to die. They believe any suggestion that society agrees some people’s lives are not worth living will be taken by the vulnerable as a sign that they should kill themselves to relieve the burden on carers. Catholic Families/CF News. August 22.
Bogus Claims of “Thousands” of Poles Travelling for Abortion
Statistics from the UK’s Department of Health disprove claims made by a Polish abortion lobby group that 10,000 Polish women a year are travelling to Britain to abort their children. A pro-life spokesman says the claims are nothing more than “propaganda in a campaign to loosen abortion restrictions in Poland”. In March, the Polish Federation for Women and Family Planning came under heavy criticism in Britain when it ran an ad campaign in Poland encouraging women to seek abortions in the UK. The ads were intended to promote the idea that women are being unfairly treated by Poland’s laws restricting abortion to cases in which the mother’s “life or health” is threatened by pregnancy. The group claims that “thousands” of women travel to Britain to abort their children each year because such “health services” are not easily available in Poland. While no official estimate for the number of abortions committed on Polish women for the whole of the UK exists, Department of Health statistics show that only 20 Polish residents had abortions at public expense in England and Wales in 2009. This accounts for 0.3 per cent of all abortions on non-resident women. Family & Life’s Polish partner, Lech Kowalewski of the Polish Federation of Pro-Life Movements, pointed out that there is absolutely no solid evidence for the pro-abortion group’s claim. He highlighted the fact that in 2009 there were a total of 6,643 abortions performed in England & Wales on non-residents, the lowest since 1969. According to Mr Kowalewski, the pro-abortion group’s figures are “pure speculation and scaremongering.” Reuters. August 26. Family & Life. August 30. UK Life League.
Chilean Bishop Urges Defence of Life to End Culture of Death
Bishop Fernando Chomali of Santiago in Chile, an expert in bioethics, has stressed the urgent need to defend life, marriage and the family, both in pastoral work and in the political world. The bishop was speaking in Mexico while attending an event organised by the Latin American Bishops’ Conference. He said that in science and medicine, “the centrality of the human person, and not economic, political or social interests, must be prioritised”. Also important is “the unrestricted defence of human life, which involves the prohibition of any attack against life, health care and access to it for all human beings according to their needs. The right to health care must include access to basic care and must not be understood as permitting euthanasia or abortion, according to the logic that the quality of life should prevail over the sacredness of life,” the bishop said. After referring to the need to promote a more humane culture, Bishop Chomali said the proclamation of the Gospel of Life is needed at the pastoral level. “This requires that we recognise each attack on life as a sin against God. This implies bringing all men to recognise God as the only owner of life and death and that men merely exercise … a service towards it.” Regarding action in the political sphere, Bishop Chomali underscored the urgency of “inviting Catholic politicians to obey God first before men” and demanding that the State not impose a particular ethical or anthropological understanding on the country. Politicians must promote a policy that assures the common good through the recognition and defense of the fundamental rights of the person, “beginning with the right to life,” he said. CAN. August 16.