Pro-Life Times: September 2000

Relatives in jail after saving boy

Relatives of a disabled boy are serving jail sentences after they saved his life. They stopped doctors giving him a diamorphine drip which was administered so that he would "slip away".

Raymond Davies, Julie Hodgson and Diane Wild, uncle and aunts of David Glass, now 14, were imprisoned earlier this year for their part in altercations with medical staff in October 1998.

When David, who had a chest infection, fell into a coma and began to turn blue, relatives helped sustain his breathing and Carol Glass, his mother, removed the diamorphine line. Doctors have admitted that the withdrawal of the drip saved the boy's life.

The family had been told that it was in David's "best interests to allow him to die without distress or pain".

The family's GP has praised the quality of home-based care given to David by his mother and other relatives. The family regards David's quality of life as good and, while he can only communicate in a limited way, he never lacks love and attention.

David's relatives were charged with causing actual bodily harm and violent disorder. In June Ms Wild was sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment and Mr Davies and Ms Hodgson were each sentenced to six months. The sentences reflected Department of Health policy--actually intended to deter drunken violence in casualty departments--of demanding maximum penalties for assaults on staff.

In July the appeal court reduced the sentences so that the relatives could resume their care for David when his sisters return to school later this month.

Carol Glass is now deeply resentful of medical and legal institutions which, instead of helping the weak, tried to end her son's life and then severely punished members of his family.

All you need is love

Five little girls, left to die on rubbish tips in Beijing, have found a family. Mr Lao Ye and Chen Rong his wife, who scrape a living by scavenging on the dumps of China's capital city, rescued the first of the girls from a festering dustbin six years ago. These children are victims of China's one-child policy. Social pressures to have a boy drive many people to abandon baby girls so they can try again for a son.

"Love is something that does still exist in human society," says Mr Lao. "We bring these children up as our own and just live from one day to the next. Who knows what will happen tomorrow?"

Comment

The stories above about two very different families from China and England speak for themselves. Both stories can be summed up in the words of Mr Lao Ye that love does still exist in human society.

Both stories remind us what love truly is. In spite of China's one-child-per-family policy, Lao Ye and his wife Chen Rong did not hesitate to welcome into their family five little girls abandoned on Beijing rubbish tips. The couple are not rich or even averagely well-off. Rather their home has been described by The Sunday Telegraph which originally reported the story as a "two-room hovel". A stained cardboard mattress is all they have as a bed for the five girls. Their motivation was nothing other than a recognition of the dignity of human beings. When he found the first of the girls, Simeng, Lao Ye knew that she would die if they did not help her. "She was a living person. How could I possibly have left her there?" he asks.

Just as the five girls would not be alive today had it not been for Lao Ye and Chen Rong, similarly 14 year old David Glass would not be alive today if his mother, aunts and uncle had had any doubts about the value of his life. The events which nearly led to David's death in October 1998 are profoundly disturbing. Was it really in his best interests to receive diamorphine? Would David have received the same treatment if he were not disabled?

David's two aunts and uncle intervened strenuously and insisted that the administration of diamorphine be stopped. Their action indisputably saved David's life, yet they are in prison today convicted of hurting doctors and causing a rumpus. Although they believe the conviction is unjust, they say that giving up part of their lives to save David's is worth it.

What value do we put on human beings? These two stories show that the value we put on human beings is demonstrated by the love we have for them. And that love does still exist in human society.

What you can do

The campaign targeting the abortion-inducing morning-after pill at schoolchildren is wicked. The government and MPs of all parties who back this project should be ashamed of themselves, particularly when they misleadingly use the phrase "emergency contraception".

This campaign will not reduce teenage pregnancies. These will increase, just as the number of surgical abortions have increased over the past 10 years while prescriptions for the morning-after pill have grown to around a million a year. Young people will be placed under even greater pressure to engage in casual sex with all its dangers.

Trained teachers and school nurses will be enlisted in this pro-abortion campaign and 130 area co-ordinators are to be appointed at the taxpayer's expense throughout the UK.

There is something you can do. However young or old you are, your love and care for young people can make a significant difference. As the new school year begins, you can help us to alert teachers and tell young people the truth about the abortion dangers of the morning-after pill.

Contact John Smeaton at the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children for our Facts on the MAP pack. Letters should be to Facts on the MAP, SPUC, 5 St Matthew Street, London, SW1P 2JT, or email map@spuc.org.uk.

Abortion rules--US style

The pro-abortion campaign in the USA has shown its true colours in pressing for a Supreme Court decision scrapping a ban on partial-birth abortion. But a separate decision in the US Congress stopping the execution of pregnant women on death row tempered the disappointment of pro-lifers.

Partial-birth abortion, which British abortionists deny using here, is employed in the US late in pregnancy (up to 32 weeks) with the whole of the baby delivered bar its head. The skull is then pierced with a pair of scissors and the baby's brain is sucked out.

The process had been banned by the state of Nebraska but this was overturned by US Supreme Court judges by a vote of five to four.

"This ruling demonstrates how obsessive the pro-abortion lobby has become in the USA. They will tolerate no restriction on abortion whatsoever," said Paul Tully SPUC general secretary.

Pro-life US campaigners suggest that pro-abortionists may have overplayed their hand. "This could be the high water mark for the pro-abortion lobby," said Jack Willke MD, director of the influential Life Issues Institute.

He added, "Public opinion has been moving our way in the last 15 years."

Dr Willke said both the partial birth abortion case and the congress vote about pregnant women had brought home the issues to a wider public through nationwide TV news coverage.

Cloning double-speak

The Government's approval of human cloning for research has been presented as a ban on cloned babies. Despite reports, parliament has been promised no chance to vote for an outright ban on human cloning.

The Secretary of State spelt out plans in response to last month's cloning report by Professor Liam Donaldson.

Changes to regulations enabling new kinds of research on cloned embryos will be put forward by the department of health, and MPs will have a free vote. The department has also said it will introduce legislation to ensure that no cloned embryo is allowed to develop and be born. There is no promise of a free vote on this measure.

John Smeaton, national director of SPUC, said: "We fear that the proposed legislation, while presented as a ban, will in effect allow the manufacture of carbon-copy embryos for use as guinea-pigs and for spare-part surgery. One of the key reasons for opposing the creation of clones is that they may be treated as inferior to other human beings, and this is exactly what the government is suggesting for embryonic clones."

Dr Liam Fox, opposition front-bench spokesman on health, has issued a statement declaring his personal opposition to any research involving embryos.

News in brief

FLORIDA--Women who undergo abortions double their chances of mental health problems in later years, claims a long-term study presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Society, in Miami Beach, Florida. Dr David Reardon, director of the Elliot Institute, Illinois, and co-author of the report, said the study did not have the deficiencies of many other post-abortion surveys, such as a small sample. (EWTN)
LONDON--Increasing doses of painkillers to ease the agony of terminally ill patients does not shorten their lives, according to research by doctors at St Christopher's Hospice, London, published in The Lancet medical journal. Dr Nigel Sykes, co-author, said: "This study dispels the myth that good pain control at the end of life means killing the patient. People should not fear that taking morphine for pain need shorten life, and any doctor with such a worry about one of their patients should seek specialist palliative care advice." (Excite)
SEATTLE--Bill Gates, founder of the Microsoft computer software empire, is coming under increasing pressure from American pro-lifers over his charitable donations to UN population programmes and abortion providers such as the International Planned Parenthood Federation. US pro-life campaigners have placed adverts in Seattle newspapers suggesting that the downturn in his company's fortunes is the result of a prayer campaign over the past year. The adverts read: "In the name of God, Bill, haven't you had enough?" (EWTN)
OXFORD--The local health authority has removed advertisements for Life, the charity which gives pro-life counselling to women, from John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford. The adverts offering women support, accommodation and post-abortion advice were approved in May, but have now been taken down. (Catholic Herald)
PARIS--The French government has proposed a liberalisation of the country's abortion laws, including the extension of the legal abortion time limit from 10 to 12 weeks from conception. (Agence France Presse)

Feature: heartache to happiness

Life was going well for Sophia. At the age of 23 she had a circle of friends and a good job working in a department store in Amsterdam. While there, she met George, a good-looking man from Tunisia who was deeply attracted to her. He was gentlemanly, friendly and polite. Although he was married, Sophia felt confident enough to accept his friendly offer to show her the sights of Paris on a special weekend.

On the first night he seduced Sophia. They made love and Sophia soon realised she was pregnant. At first, George was delighted with the news. He wanted Sophia to have the baby and said he was willing to leave his wife to start a new family with Sophia. Two months later George changed his mind. He couldn't get out of his marriage quite as easily as he had anticipated, and advised Sophia to have an abortion. Sophia's first instincts were against abortion, but she couldn't see any other way out. By the time she made it back to England, Sophia was four months pregnant. George paid for the abortion and then disappeared from her life.

Sophia felt betrayed by George. While she needed to talk through her growing guilt and anger, everyone told her there wasn't a problem to deal with. She soon felt depressed, turned to alcohol and became increasingly promiscuous.

Sophia says: "All love had died. There was a horrible dead feeling inside me. I didn't think I could ever be a good mother because I had killed my own child. Eventually, through a good marriage and having two beautiful children, I began to deal with the trauma of the abortion so many years before."

Once she acknowledged what she had done, Sophia was able to find the forgiveness and peace which she was seeking. Sophia sums it up: "Abortion ended the life of my unborn child, but it also hurt me. For 10 years I carried a burden of guilt and pain."

Sophia now plays a crucial role in supervising and supporting the befrienders of British Victims of Abortion. Befrienders are not counsellors but active listeners who look after an individual woman through her post-abortion crisis as it is happening. By talking regularly to the befrienders, Sophia eases their burden of sharing the painful experiences of these women.

Factsheet: British Victims of Abortion

Becoming pregnant is the most life-changing event that many women ever undergo. Few women would naturally choose to have an abortion, but the circumstances of an unplanned pregnancy can make them believe there is no alternative.

Today's society sends women the message that, after an abortion, their lives can carry on as before. In fact, countless women find, to their emotional cost, that life is never the same again. However early in pregnancy the abortion takes place, a woman still loses her baby. This is at the heart of her grief and guilt.

British Victims of Abortion (BVA) was started in 1987 by the SPUC Educational Research Trust, to help women cope with the emotional aftermath of abortion. The organisation was founded in response to hundreds of requests for help from women who had had abortions and were experiencing emotional difficulties which severely affected their quality of life. The founding members and many of the trained counsellors and befrienders have had abortions. They understand how the women feel and want to help them.

BVA offers:

support for those suffering from post abortion trauma
free, confidential, one-to-one telephone counselling
support group counselling (where possible)
educational study days on post abortion trauma.

BVA works with, and refers clients to, relevant professional bodies where appropriate, and is conducting a survey of the long-term impact of abortion.

The BVA helpline is on 0845 603 8501 (in the UK). It operates every day of the year from 7 pm to 10 pm and all calls are charged at local rates.

Comment: from the desk of Joanna Bogle

Highlight of my summer

One of the best days of my summer this year was a wonderful garden party at Hatfield House, given by Lady Salisbury in aid of pro-life charities. Best day? Not from the point of view of the weather, certainly. It simply poured with rain all day long. But Hatfield House has been entertaining guests for hundreds of years and has seen many, many English summers. We all simply decamped to a magnificent marquee and carried on from there. Children ran about, there was a raffle with an array of lovely prizes, friends met and talked. Then there was a splendid tea for all of us in the Great Hall under the stags' heads and ancestral portraits. It was an extremely happy day: the SPUC Educational Trust, LIFE, the Anna Fund, the Medical Education Trust and other pro-life charities were all there, with stalls selling cakes, jams, balloons, books, pictures, antiques and lots more. I was at the SPUC stall and it was a delight to be right next door to Jack and Nuala Scarisbrick of LIFE. I'm glad to say we all did a brisk trade. Above all, we really did feel we were welcome guests and, as one friend put it: "we feel terribly elegant having tea with a real marchioness in an ancestral home".

A date for the autumn (fall)

I'll be at another great event this autumn: Saturday 11 November at Westminster Cathedral Hall, when again the main pro-life groups will be having stalls at a festival with the theme Towards Advent. This is a church-sponsored event and there will be bookstalls from lots of Christian publishers, workshops on Gregorian chant and on Christian art, and singing from the Westminster Cathedral Choir and Cardinal Vaughan School Choir. Entry is free, the festival opens at 10.00 am and lasts all day.

David Alton

Pro-life parliamentarian Lord Alton will be speaking at an open meeting in October in London and all are invited. He has been a campaigner in the pro-life cause for many years and is an excellent speaker with an upbeat approach. The meeting is on Wednesday 18 October at St Vincent's, Carlisle Place, London SW1, at 7.00 pm.

Women affirming life

At an international conference in Switzerland a while ago, I met a delightful team from an American group called Women Affirming Life. Their idea is to emphasise that the feminists who see killing unborn babies as a form of female liberation have got it all wrong. The message from Women Affirming Life is that the modern young woman takes a different approach and has every reason to be thoroughly pro-life. They sent me a batch of cards giving more information about their work, which includes a rather charming prayer reflecting their particular approach. Send me a stamped addressed envelope c/o the Pro-Life Times at 5 St Matthew Street, London, SW1P 2JT, if you'd like one.

Shopping

With Christmas glittering on the far horizon, it's not too early to order your Christmas cards. SPUC has a beautiful range of cards and small gifts at reasonable prices. Call 01772 258580 for a catalogue.

Abortion pills for schoolgirls

The Government's policy of promoting the morning-after pill among schoolgirls is based on a massive deception, says John Smeaton, national director of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children. "Young people are not being told about the side-effects of the morning-after pill and about the fact that it is an abortifacient," said Mr Smeaton.

His comments came as it was announced that more than 100 under-16s had requested the pill under the recent over-the-counter trials. Proponents hailed the trials as a great success. At the same time, it was revealed that two- thirds of the official safety panel which has recommended over-the-counter distribution have drug company investments.

"Parents must now fear that pharmacists will be providing powerful abortifacient drugs to under-age girls who are especially vulnerable," added Mr Smeaton.

His comments came as Ms Yvette Cooper, the health minister, claimed that the morning-after-pill was a: "safe and effective way of preventing pregnancy".

Replying to a question from Mr John Gummer, MP, former environment secretary, Ms Cooper cited "reducing the rate of teenage pregnancy" as one of the objectives. However, over the past 10 years surgical abortions have increased, despite a rapid increase in prescriptions for the morning-after pill.

SPUC is to send an information pack giving the true facts about the morning-after pill to every school in the country.

Schools will also receive details of the first Robin McNair Prize competition, where teenagers will be able to win cash prizes for essays on the sanctity of life.

Making childbirth safer worldwide

"Mothers are experiencing unimaginable suffering," Professor Robert Walley of MaterCare International told the Pro-Life Times. His organisation addresses the critical lack of emergency care for mothers in childbirth. In poor countries many thousands die annually from haemorrhage, obstructed labour, infection or hypertension. "Millions more suffer long term damage to their health, many of them through obstetric fistula," Professor Walley said.

"This is one of the most neglected tragedies of our times, particularly because most of these deaths and injuries are preventable with proper care."

MaterCare establishes or upgrades obstetric services in the poorest and most critical locations. Professor Walley's organisation, based in Newfoundland, Canada, has launched a project in partnership with the Catholic Church, the Portuguese government and private funding agencies to provide essential care at San Antonio Motael clinic in troubled East Timor.

International bureaucrats at the UN are not pleased, however. "The United Nations is not happy with us because they want to push their agenda of 'reproductive health' which means abortion and contraception," said Professor Walley, who is no stranger to such pressures. In the early 1970s, he left England because as a young obstetrician his pro-life views were not palatable to National Health Service officials keen to embrace the Abortion Act.

Part of the mission of MaterCare is to ensure that pro-life obstetricians can train and practise in the future.

MaterCare International receives sponsorship every time a supporter clicks the life-saver emblem at their website.

Muslims join Irish fight for life

The baby in the womb has a right-to-life, Ireland's Muslim community has told the country's hearing on the constitution.

Speaking at the public hearings, the Islamic delegation said a provision banning abortion should be included in the constitution.

Delegation member Sheikh Halawa, from Egypt, told the joint Oireachtas committee, that the abortion rate was low for Muslims because: "Islam considers the doctor who helps to carry out abortion as a criminal."

Asked about the rare instance of a baby born without a brain with only 24 hours to live, he responded: "If the doctors say that he will live only 24 hours he still has the right to those 24 hours."

Responding to the rape issue he said: "The child is very much an innocent and is supposed to be treated equally and on the same footing as other children, because he has not committed any sin."