3 Whitacre Mews, Stannary Street
London, SE11 4AB, United Kingdom
Telephone: (020) 7091 7091
Fax: (020) 7820 3131
Email: information@spuc.org.uk
News, 12 October 2006
The United States Supreme Court has rejected an attempt by a
former plaintiff to overturn a landmark abortion ruling of 1973. Ms Sandra Cano
was the unidentified plaintiff in the Doe
v. Bolton case which, along with the better-known Roe v. Wade, established a legal right to abortion in America.
"What I received was something I never requested - the legal right to
abort my child," Ms Cano said in an affidavit. Her attorney, Allan Parker,
commented: "We're very disappointed that the Supreme Court has not decided
to protect women and children from the harm of abortion. "An Appeals Court has ruled that neither a Court of Appeals
nor District Court can overturn the Supreme Court's rejection of the case. [The
Guardian, 10 October]
Australian Catholic bishops have spoken out
against a bill that proposes the creation of human embryos specifically for
embryonic stem cell research. Passage of
the bill would reverse a 2002 decision which allowed embryonic stem cell lines
to be extracted only from embryos "left over" from the IVF process, but prevented
the creation of embryos for research.
The bishops said that while everyone wants to find cures for disease and
to alleviate suffering this cannot be done "by creating and then killing human
life." They stressed that the Catholic
church is a strong supporter of adult stem cell research and treatments as well
as those derived from umbilical cord blood. [EWTN News 11 October]
A boy who had been diagnosed as being in a so-called
permanent vegetative state (PVS) has regained consciousness and is continuing
to recover. Devon Rivers collapsed and became comatose 22 months ago and
doctors considered his case hopeless. His mother, Carla Rivers, continued to
visit and care for him and, in August 2006, he began to show signs of
consciousness. Devon is to receive occupational therapy
to recover motor skills, and is able to play with his siblings. A 1996 study
published by the British Medical Journal found
that 43% of PVS patients are wrongly diagnosed. [LifeSite, 10 October]
Members of the Silent No More Awareness Campaign have
accused American women's magazine Ms of
ignoring their voices. Ms has
recently run a campaign to collect the names of women who have had abortions,
but Mrs Georgette Forney of Silent No More said that numerous letters from
their members, all of whom are women prepared to speak publicly about their
regret for having aborted, were ignored. [EWTN News, 10
October] Mrs Forney was in Northern Ireland this week, attending a public
gathering of Londonderry and Belfast
women who have had abortions. The women walked through the streets carrying
signs reading 'I regret my abortion'. Addressing the demonstration, Mrs Forney
said: "I have traveled from America
to stand alongside women from Northern Ireland
because I want other women who can relate to our pain to hear about the hope
and help we have found." [LifeSite, 10 October]
The national examination board in India
is about to introduce a curriculum which
includes sex education. Topics covered will include, as well as nutrition and
drug abuse, puberty, HIV/AIDS, and other sexually transmitted diseases. The
curriculum will be taught to children as young as five. [Scotsman News, 11th
October] The Scotsman cites a Reuters
New Delhi report which in turn quotes the Times of India as its source for this
story.
A mother convicted of leaving her newborn baby in a dustbin in
a pub has been given a two-year community service order. Ms Angeli Whitehead
admitted having concealed the birth of her daughter, Ann-Louisa, whose body was
found by the landlady of the pub. It is unclear whether the baby's death was
deliberately caused. High Court Judge Mr Justice Openshaw said Ms Whitehead was
to be "more pitied than condemned". [The
Mirror, 11 October]
Mrs. Donna Zammit, whose eight year old son
Jamie was diagnosed last year as having Fanconi anaemia is considering having a
child by IVF so its stem cells can save her son's life. Her embryos, conceived by IVF would be
examined in the laboratory, and one which was found not to carry the faulty
Fanconi gene would be implanted in her womb.
This embryo would also be tested to try to ensure he or she was a tissue
match for Jamie. [Bucks
Free Press 11 October] Alison Davis, of SPUC's disability rights group No
Less Human, said "The creation of a child specifically for the purpose of
treating a sibling is unethical.
Children should be welcomed and loved for themselves, not for what they
can offer to someone else. In addition,
the process of testing embryos and discarding those who have a disabling
condition, or who are not a perfect match for their sibling is not compatible
with the absolute right to life of all human beings."
Canadian disability rights advocate Mr.
Norman Kunc has produced a music video warning of the threat of euthanasia to
elderly people, those who are ill, and disabled people. Mr. Kunc, who has cerebral palsy writes the
songs himself, and focuses on the inevitable deadly consequences of legalized
euthanasia and assisted suicide. Not
Dead Yet, a disability rights organisation opposed to physician assisted
suicide and euthanasia says "Though often described as compassionate, legalized
medical killing is really about a deadly double standard for people with severe
disabilities ... This is not compassion, it's contempt." [LifeSiteNews 11
October]
Researchers at Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts led
by Ms Fei Xue have warned that eating large quantities of fish may increase the
risk giving birth prematurely. Health
advisers have previous warned women to avoid the types of fish which have
higher concentrations of mercury, which has been linked to problems of the
nervous system in newborns. A study of
1000 pregnant women found those who gave birth prematurely were three times
more likely to have double the average mercury level in hair samples. The authors stressed, however that only 44 of
the women in their study gave birth prematurely and further investigations were
needed. [Daily
Telegraph 12 October]
Jaroslav Flegr of Charles University in Prague has found that women infected with the cat parasite toxoplasma give birth to more sons that daughters, says the Guardian. In most populations the birth rate is around 51% boys but women infected with toxoplasma have up to a 72% chance of a boy. Toxoplasma is known to trigger miscarriages by causing congenital anomalies, but Flegr suggests it may also interfere with the maternal immune system to stop boy-embryos implanting I the womb. The research was published in Naturwissenschaften. [Guardian 12 October]
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
