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News, weekly update, 30 March to 5 April 2006
The Pope has told parliamentarians from the European Popular Party
that the first principle of all politicians should be "protection of
life in all its stages, from the first moment of conception to natural
death." Speaking on 30 March in Rome, Benedict XVI named three
principles that all politicians should uphold: protection of life,
recognition of the family and parents rights to educate their children.
He said, "These principles ... are inscribed in human nature itself and
therefore they are common to all humanity." These issues were not
negotiable, he said, because the dignity of the human person was at
stake. [Zenit, 30 March]
Premature babies experience genuine pain, according to a study
published in the Journal of Neuroscience. Researchers at University
College London analysed brain scans of babies aged between 25 and 45
weeks from conception that were taken during blood tests. Professor
Maria Fitzgerald, who led the research said: "We have shown for the
first time that the information about pain reaches the brain in
premature babies. Beforehand, although we could assume it, we did not
know for sure that these babies could feel pain." [BBC News, 4 April]
Dr John Fleming, bioethical consultant to the Society for the
Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) commented: "If premature babies
can feel pain, then so can unborn children, at least those of the same
gestational age. It is extraordinary that anyone, let alone scientists,
ever assumes that any human being cannot feel pain. The onus is on
those who inflict injury, either in the name of therapy or in the case
of abortion, to prove that in doing so they inflict no pain. Those who
promote a right to abortion must confront the reality of what abortion
does to unborn children."
An Indian doctor and his assistant have been jailed for offering to
abort an unborn girl on the basis that she was female. Dr Anil Sabhani
and his technician Katar Singh were captured on video telling a woman
that her baby was a girl and saying that this could be "taken care of".
The men were caught in a sting operation carried out by a team of
government officials, who sent three pregnant women to his clinic in
Fariabad on the edge of Delhi. The use of technology to determine the
sex of an unborn child and abortion on the grounds of gender are
illegal but continue to be widespread practice in India. This is the
first time that doctors convicted of it have been given a jail
sentence. [The Times, 30 March]
An Australian doctor who is campaigning for voluntary euthanasia has
said that increasing numbers of people are coming to him for
information about assisted suicide, although assisting suicide is
currently illegal in Australia. Speaking to a meeting of 200 people in
Queensland on 27 March, Dr Philip Nitschke admitted telling people how
to kill themselves using drugs and where to purchase these drugs but
claimed that his advice was non-directional. [Sunshine Coast Daily, 28 March]
A Chinese man
who has been campaigning against abuses in the one-child policy has now been
missing for more than 20 days. Chen Guangcheng, who is blind, had been collecting
evidence of forced abortions and sterilisations in Shandong Province and
had been planning a lawsuit against the Chinese government. He was arrested on
11 March and has not been heard of since. Two of his brothers, Chen Guangyu and
Chen Guangjun have also been arrested but their families have been told where
they are being held. The whereabouts of Chen Guangcheng is still unknown. The
Chinese authorities have begun a campaign of intimidation in Guangcheng's home
village, urging the villagers through a loudspeaker to "expose and denounce"
Chen Guancheng and keeping a close surveillance on members of his family,
especially his wife, Yuan Weijing. They have allegedly told his mother that he
is being tortured. [The Epoch Times, 2
April]
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
