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News, 23 October 2003

Staff at the Florida hospice and hospital caring for Mrs Terri Schiavo, 39, were reportedly reluctant to obey Governor Jeb Bush's order to resume feeding her. Woodside hospice claimed there were no medical personnel to re-insert the feeding tube though two doctors who came to perform the procedure were not allowed in. Mrs Schiavo was taken to Morton Plant hospital, Clearwater, where it took perhaps two hours for staff to be persuaded to feed her. They feared litigation from the patient's husband. The hospice had removed religious objects from Mrs Schiavo's room and the hospital have stopped her parents and a priest from visiting her. When the family and the clergyman saw Mrs Schiavo on Tuesday, she was sitting up, laughing and smiling. The account was related to LifeSiteNews.com by Ms Debra Vinnedge of Children of God for Life. [LifeSiteNews.com, 22 October] Mr Schiavo's lawyer has said that his client is troubled and angry that his wife's wishes "have become a political ping-pong". Mr George Felos spoke in terms of her being abducted from her deathbed and her rights and dignity's being trampled. An undated Reuters photograph on the Telegraph website shows Mrs Schiavo with her eyes open smiling at her mother. [Telegraph, 23 October]


Escapees from North Korean prison camps say the authorities are using abortion and infanticide on ethnic grounds. The camps house North Korean refugees expelled from China, some of whom married non-Koreans. Witnesses described the burial of possibly live babies and the smothering of one newborn with a wet towel in front of its mother. [Telegraph, 23 October]


It is expected that the United Nations committee considering a ban on human cloning will vote two weeks from today (6 November). Some 50 countries want a total ban while around 18 want cloning for research to be allowed. [LifeSiteNews, 22 October]


A 17-year-old from Pennsylvania has successfully sued an abortion provider for not warning her of the procedure's physical and emotional dangers. The Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer say that the matter on which they campaign was material to the case. The National Cancer Institute says that under-18s double their risk of getting breast cancer by having an abortion. Happily, the plaintiff has not developed the disease. [LifeSiteNews.com, 22 October]


Genetic screening of IVF embryos could be made easier after a team at Leeds university, England, grew large numbers of cells from a mouse embryo. Professor Alan Handyside wants to use the technique to produce human trophectoderm cells. It is suggested that the method allows cells to be taken from embryos without destroying them. [New Scientist, 22 October] Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis characteristically results in the destruction of many of the human beings involved.


There have been objections to the term "unborn child" in a draft brochure to be compulsorily given to women requesting abortion in Texas. The state's legislature is requiring the department of health to ensure the information is provided 24 hours before the procedure. Ms Kimberly Carter of the Texas medical association said the authors of the document had a pro-life agenda. The correct term was "foetus". The printed and web-based material, in English and Spanish, must be ready by 1 December and will show pictures of developing unborn children as well as containing a list of possible health-risks from abortion. A witness told a hearing that depression could sometimes only emerge 10 or 15 years after the termination. [AP on Corpus Christi Caller-Times, 21 October]


Experiments on mice at California university, Los Angeles, suggest that the differences between male and female brains emerge half-way through gestation rather than at birth as was previously thought. [Guardian, 23 October] The study's conclusions could affect our understanding of the human brain.


Cells from dead people's eyes which were injected into mice's eyes have generated tissue which could cure blindness, according to Toronto, Canada, university scientists. [Scotsman, 23 October]


The pro-abortion head of the Young Women's Christian Association has been dismissed after she refused to resign. Ms Patricia Ireland had been head of the National Organization of Women. [LifeSiteNews.com, 22 October] The reason for her dismissal is not known.

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, 2012