News, 14 January 2008

An Orthodox Jewish man in Canada, whose family is fighting to prevent his respirator being turned off to hasten his death, has regained consciousness and appears to be improving. Mr Samuel Golubchuk, 84, is at the centre of a legal dispute over whether doctors have the right to disconnect his respirator. Mr Golubchuk, who was said to be "imminently dying", is now awake, has interacted with people and made purposeful movements. His family say that the hospital did not immediately disclose the fact that he had woken and that they were trying to make him appear to be dying, and with minimal brain function. [Jerusalem Post, 6 January]

Fifteen states in America have refused money to fund abstinence-only sex education. The Department of Health and Human Services have $50million for abstinence programmes. Most recently, Virginia and New Mexico have said that they will not use the money to which they are entitled. Judith Vogtli, director of ProjecTruth, an abstinence-only programme, said: "It's a crime. We are constantly under attack." [LifeSite, 9 January]

A British IVF scheme is excluding smokers. Health chiefs in Shropshire have drawn up the policy, which stipulates that patients must have stopped smoking at least four weeks before referral and must continue to refrain from smoking throughout the treatment. [Whitchurch Herald, 10 January]

A new campaign from the pro-abortion Catholics for a Free Choice (CFFC) has been criticised for obscuring the church's position on abortion. The Prevention Not Prohibition campaign urges voters in the US presidential primary elections to vote for candidates who support the reduction of abortion rates through contraception provision, sex education and access to childcare. The initiative has been countered by the group the Catholic Association, which said in a press release: "The new campaign tries to confuse voters ...They are trying to sway Catholics to vote for candidates who support abortion on demand but support other policies that may reduce the need for abortion. Catholics and people of good conscience can not tolerate or cooperate with the evil of abortion. Other policy initiatives do not mitigate a candidate's support for abortion on demand." [CNA on EWTN, 9 January]

This month's Vogue magazine contains an article sympathetic to partial birth abortion. A woman called Lori Campbell describes her decision to have such an abortion as "one born out of love" and complains that the term "partial birth abortion" is "inherently judgemental." She wrote: "How can I agree to a partial-birth abortion and not feel like a bad person? It preys on women in a weakened state - women who already likely believe they are 'bad' because they have failed as mothers." [LifeSite, 10 January]

Friday (11 January) was the 41^st anniversary of SPUC's foundation. John Smeaton, SPUC's national director, used the occasion to launch a blog:

http://spuc-director.blogspot.com/

To subscribe to SPUC's email information services, please visit www.spuc.org.uk/em-signup. The reliability of the news herein is dependent on that of the cited sources, which are paraphrased rather than quoted. Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the society. © Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, 2008