Pro-Life Times: September 2001

US cloning vote isolates Blair

by Dominic Baster

The British government has been further isolated in its support for so-called therapeutic cloning after the US House of Representatives voted decisively to ban the practice. The U.S. Human Cloning Prohibition Bill, which would outlaw the creation of cloned human embryos for any purpose whatsoever and ban imports of any medical treatments derived from clones, was passed by 251 votes to 176 on 31 July. Under the law, all human cloning, including so-called therapeutic cloning, would become a federal crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison. The legislation will now move to the Senate, which is also expected to pass it.

The vote by congressmen won the praise of President Bush, pro-life groups, the Vatican and the U.S. Catholic bishops. Cardinal William Keeler, archbishop of Washington D.C., echoed the words of Pope John Paul II in describing the vote as "an important first step on the path to a truly humane future, in which man remains the master, not the product, of his technology".

The American vote is a blow to Tony Blair's government, which has unequivocally supported destructive research on cloned human embryos and pushed it through parliament. It also exposes the government's hypocrisy in promising a ban on the birth of cloned babies while supporting the creation of clones for research purposes. Last year the European Parliament noted that this distinction between reproductive and so-called therapeutic cloning was an attempt "to use linguistic sleight of hand to erode the moral significance of human cloning".

The British decision to authorise research on cloned embryos is being challenged by the ProLife Alliance in a judicial review hearing scheduled for 31 October. Mr Bruno Quintavalle, leader of the ProLife Alliance, told the Pro-Life Times: "We are very optimistic. After our judicial review, the pressure really will be on the government to come into line with the rest of Europe and ban all forms of cloning. In fact, the Council of Europe has already banned it, but our government is seeking to disregard the moral and ethical consensus across the continent."

My good life

"Many people might think that my life is full of pain and misery and that I'd be better off dead," Ann Savory told the Pro-Life Times, when we asked her what she thought of euthanasia. "But my life is good. There is no such thing as a useless person and everyone should be treated with dignity until natural death."

Ann lives in Cardiff and has a hereditary wasting disease, CMT syndrome. She said, "I lead an active life. I teach at evening classes and give many pro-life talks on disability issues in schools."

Comment

Rev Jack Lamb

"You knit me together in my mother's womb... Your eyes saw my unformed body..." (Psalm 139:13 & 16). So sang one of the psalmists to God.

And God said to Jeremiah, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you..." (Jeremiah 1:5).

Every child conceived is precious because he or she is precious to God and made in His image (see Genesis 1:26 & 27). The shortest verse in the Bible is two words "Jesus wept" (John 11:35). Jesus weeps over each of the more than 500 babies who, every day in the United Kingdom, have their lives terminated in their mothers' wombs.

It is our privilege as well as our duty to pray for women who have experienced the trauma of abortion, those women who feel under pressure to have one and all unborn babies whose lives are at risk.

Almighty God, You have granted us the mysterious and wonderful gift of life. Please guide us today and every day in ways which will help all those people who are in danger in our society, especially mothers-to-be and their precious unborn babies. Amen.

From time to time the Shankill Road in Belfast is spoken of in news reports. The next time you hear Belfast mentioned in the news perhaps you would pray for me. I have served the Lord in a Presbyterian Church beside the peace line fence, near the Shankill Road, since September 1995.

I am a life member of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children and I believe the pro-life campaign to be one of major importance. The attitude we have towards unborn children strongly influences the way we treat one another. Jesus gave us the golden rule - "Do to others as you would have them do to you." (Luke 6:31) J.L.

Birth control pills which kill

by John Smeaton, National Director, SPUC

Nearly five and a half million unborn children have been aborted under the Abortion Act 1967. However, to add to that figure, countless human embryos have been destroyed by birth control pills, combined pills, mini-pills and devices such as the IUD, which fail to prevent conception in a small minority of cases. Instead they can prevent an embryo from implanting in the lining of the mother's womb.

In layman's language, a unique human person is destroyed in the first few days of his or her life.The rate of early abortions is even higher with the so-called morning-after pill, or "emergency contraception". Its manufacturers, Scherings, have stated that it is "primarily aimed to prevent implantation of the fertilised ovum in the endometrium". None of these early abortions are recorded under the Abortion Act which is why SPUC went to the high court to challenge government policy on the morning-after pill.

It is also why SPUC is writing to every secondary school in Britain with newly-revised teachers' notes on the morning-after pill. Girls as young as 11 are being targeted in schools for free provision of the morning-after pill without parental knowledge or consent. This too is government policy and it may apply to schools in your area. The dehumanisation of the early human embryo before he or she has even implanted in the lining of the womb has undoubtedly led to the hidden destruction of countless human lives by so-called contraceptive pills. Now this anti-life philosophy is threatening to overwhelm our children in their classrooms.

Please help by promoting SPUC's petition against the provision in schools of morning-after pills. Also, please check whether local teachers would like to receive further copies of SPUC's revised notes on the morning-after pill.

Contact SPUC for petition forms and teachers' notes on the morning-after pill. Help us to protect children from birth control pills which kill.

Death by starvation

by Lucas Goodman

Medical watchdog's guidance for doctorsGuidance which may allow incapacitated patients to be starved to death has been drafted by the body responsible for doctors' professional standards.

The General Medical Council (GMC) recently held a consultation on its draft guidance Withholding and Withdrawing Life-Prolonging Treatments. The guidance appears to approve denying assisted feeding to patients who are not dying, stating that doctors must do this if instructed by a patient's representative or an advance directive.

Leading doctors and medical lawyers wrote a letter published in the Daily Telegraph last month, criticising the consultation as inadequate. The letter also stated that many concerned parties were excluded from a conference held as part of the consultation process.

To add to the controversy, the Official Solicitor (who represents children and incapacitated adults in England & Wales) has denied a reported claim by the GMC that he has approved the legal accuracy of the draft guidance.

The new guidance has been described as part of a concerted push by euthanasia supporters in powerful medical bodies with the aim of extending "euthanasia by omission".

Keeping a culture of life in N.Ireland

by Dominic Baster

SPUC Northern Ireland is launching a new publication in September. Affirming a pro-life culture in Northern Ireland presents the case for maintaining a culture of life and rejecting abortion. The 1967 Abortion Act does not apply in Northern Ireland and, despite all the sectarian troubles, it has a reputation as the safest place in the UK to bear children.

The publication defends the right to life in the context of Northern Ireland's distinct culture, with its deeply committed - if deeply divided - communities. Upholding the right to life of the unborn child unites people across the religious divisions.

Accusations that Northern Ireland is reactionary and out of touch on the abortion issue are met with evidence and arguments for protecting the unborn - and their mothers - from abortion, and the case for the right of Northern Ireland to be different.

Mr Liam Gibson, a spokesman for SPUC Northern Ireland, said: "The book aims to promote our protective abortion law in Northern Ireland and to warn that there are many forces both at home and abroad seeking to undermine our culture. It is a positive affirmation of a pro-life culture, presenting with clarity and authority why a society which defends the vulnerable is infinitely superior and more civilised than one which resorts to abortion and euthanasia."

12-year olds to get abortion pill

by Staff reporter

Nurses are set to give the abortion-inducing morning-after pill to girls as young as 12 as part of a pilot-scheme at a youth centre in Derby, England.

The health authority running the scheme hopes it will cut teenage pregnancies, despite many years of widespread availability of the morning-after pill failing to achieve this. Pro-life groups condemned the move, saying that it would aid and abet under-age sex, leading to greater promiscuity and thereby increase the already rocketing incidence of sexually-transmitted diseases among teenagers. The government has admitted that no thorough clinical trials have been conducted among under-16s to assess the safety of the powerful drug.

In August last year, Parliament approved government regulations to allow the morning-after pill to be supplied by school nurses to girls as young as eleven. In December Parliament also approved regulations to allow the prescription-free sale of the morning-after pill to 16-year olds in pharmacies. As we reported previously in the Pro-Life Times, SPUC has launched a nation-wide petition against the supply of the morning-after pill in schools. Petition forms can be obtained from SPUC HQ.

News In Brief

PARIS - French Health Minister Bernard Kouchner has admitted practising euthanasia in the Vietnam and Lebanese wars and on terminally ill patients during his career as a doctor. A founding member of Médecins sans Frontières, Kouchner, whilst describing euthanasia as "contrary to medical ethics", has called for a debate on its legislation. (Source: BBC Online, CWNews.com)

LONDON - A pro-life Catholic MP has been blocked from becoming chairman of the British House of Commons International Development select committee. Conservative MP for Gainsborough Edward Leigh, the preferred candidate of both government and opposition whips, was denied the post by Labour backbenchers who alleged he would follow the "Vatican line" on abortion and contraception if elected. (The Catholic Herald)

NEW YORK - The United Nations Human Rights Committee has criticised the Netherlands for its new law on euthanasia and the committee's rapporteur, Eckart Klein, said the growing number of assisted suicides could lead to routine euthanasia. The committee is worried about figures, supplied by the government, which show that more than 2,000 cases of euthanasia were carried out last year and is also alarmed by reports that medical personnel have ended the lives of new-born handicapped babies. (BBC, Zenit)

LOS ANGELES - Fifties singing star Pat Boone undertook a speaking engagement at the USA National Right To Life Convention despite a recent tragedy when his grandson was left in a coma after a fall. "We're for life in every form. Not just for little kids but certainly for those folks protesting against us..." he said. (Pro Life Infonet)

Life for the dying

by Antonia Tully

What is the most compassionate way to treat a sick, dying person? Surely, an early death is the kindest way to end this pain and misery. This is the popular argument in favour of euthanasia. Yet Dr Richard Lamerton believes that the surest way for people to die in pain and despair is to kill them. Dr Lamerton is the medical director of the Hospice of the Valleys which serves North Gwent and the valley communities of South Wales. Few doctors in the world have been working with the dying, in the hospice movement, longer than Dr Lamerton. His view is that one of the richest stages of life is when a person is dying - a time of real fulfillment and peace. The palliative care offered by the hospice movement makes this possible. "Kindness" and "compassion" are not words to describe the loneliness of euthanasia.

When the BBC approached Dr Lamerton recently to comment on euthanasia, he asked the 6 members of the team he works with how many requests for euthanasia had been made to them in the last year. From over 100 patients, there had been only 2 requests, both from relatives, not the patients. "People in despair ask for euthanasia," Dr Lamerton told me. "When the hospice team starts to care for them and they receive proper pain relief and the other therapies we can offer, people do change their minds." "We offer people four types of care - spiritual, emotional, social and physical," continued Dr Lamerton. "Pain control won't be very effective without the other three elements. When people are at peace with themselves it's almost as if they've given the drugs the permission they need to work."

The Hospice of the Valleys cares for most of its patients in their own homes. The fact that people do not have to go into hospital makes a big difference to them and their families. Under the care of the hospice team about two thirds of people are able to die in their own homes. Skilled nurses are backed up by doctors and social workers, and the patients have the security of knowing that there is a 24 hour on-call service. This is a really effective and dignified way for dying people to spend the last days of their life. Dr Lamerton has spent his medical career working with dying people. "For so many people, this period in their lives becomes the most important to them. For many it's the first time they truly grow up. It's the first time they have a serious discussion with their husband or wife. It's a time when they pay attention to what's inside themselves, when the external world is not so important. It's when they see how much they are valued by others."

Once you've got euthanasia," said Dr Lamerton, "doctors will say to their patients, 'Are you lonely, in pain and suffering? I can alleviate all that. I'll kill you'. This is absolutely inhumane. And we must not lose our sense that this is an utterly inhumane way to treat people." "Our basic trust in doctors will be lost if we legalise euthanasia. Vulnerable people will feel that this is something they have to ask for. What most people want when they are dying is not only pain relief, but also not wanting to be a burden to others. The hospice care we offer means this does not need to happen. In a culture of euthanasia people will feel a burden to their relatives.

Euthanasia is now legal for Dutch doctors. "There are more euthanasia deaths on Friday afternoons and evenings in Holland," said Dr Lamerton. "The doctors want a quiet weekend. Yet sixty years ago Dutch doctors were being deported and murdered for their defence of human life. They were among the most courageous under Hitler's regime and died for the principles their country has now abandoned. "What is striking about Holland is how rudimentary the hospice system is over there. I have visited hospices around the world, and those in Zimbabwe are better." A working lifetime spent with the dying has fuelled Dr Lamerton's passionate opposition to euthanasia. "Euthanasia brings despair to people. Hospice care makes the last days of life fruitful," he said.

Euthanasia - some questions and answers

QShould people be allowed to choose death to end their suffering?
ANo. If we create the right for some people to choose death it has repercussions for many others. Patients may feel under pressure to ask for it, doctors and nurses would be turned from carers into killers and families could be in conflict among themselves or medical staff.
QShould people have a right to die?
ANo. We cannot create a "right to die" without adversely affecting the whole moral and medical climate.
QShould doctors be allowed to practise euthanasia?
ANo. Euthanasia is contrary to medical ethics. It puts doctors in the role of killers and, as Dr Lamerton points out in the article above, it destroys the trust between patients and their doctors.
QHow does euthanasia undermine the value of human life?
AIt assumes that the lives of the gravely ill and disabled are of less value than the lives of others. When people think about euthanasia they always envisage the elderly and incapacitated, not the fit, young and able-bodied. There is an implicit discrimination in this that says that the sick and elderly would be better off dead.
QWhy is it so important to campaign against euthanasia now?
AThe past decade has seen a series of concerted efforts within the legal and medical professions to advance the cause of euthanasia. Although many in these professions are against euthanasia, there are both doctors and lawyers in key positions, and able to influence government, who are persistently promoting it. Ordinary people can spread and reinforce the sense that it is, in the words of Dr Lamerton, "an utterly inhumane way to treat people".
QWhat is the legal status of euthanasia?
AEuthanasia is allowed in England & Wales and Northern Ireland for patients in a so-called permanent vegetative state, when a court has ruled that the patient may be starved to death. In Scotland the Adults with Incapacity Act (2000) allows euthanasia for such people and - when the regulations for the act are finalised - possibly others too.

From the desk of Joanna Bogle

Tragically confused thinking

You might imagine that all Christian women's groups would unite to voice opposition to any attempt to deny basic care, including food and water, to the gravely ill. Alas, you would be wrong. The National Board of Catholic Women seems confused on the issue, saying that feeding someone by tube is "regarded by some as basic nursing care, but by others (and in law) as medical treatment and therefore able to be withdrawn or withheld if inappropriate." It is sad that the Board feels unable to make its own position clear. Food and water are not medical treatment and it is wrong to claim that they come into the category of "treatments which are futile". The Board makes these comments in a publication called Catholic Woman, which it sends to churches. It most certainly does not speak for all Catholic women. I hope an apology is forthcoming.

Mark the date!

An event coming up this autumn - "Towards Advent" - is a festival at Westminster Cathedral hall, Saturday 17 November, all day from 10 am. There will be music, talks on topics from art and architecture to bioethics along with activities for children. All the major pro-life groups will be there. Peter Garrett of LIFE will talk on "Reproductive technology and the death of natural procreation." Entry is free - don't miss it, and tell your friends.

Excellent booklets

A new series of pocket-sized, readable, fact-filled booklets on life issues including cloning, organ transplants and gene therapy, has just been published. In a project sponsored partly by the Linacre Centre - a London-based study centre specialising in health care ethics - these booklets aim to explore topics at the cutting edge of the pro-life debate. Local pro-life groups, schools, women's organisations, doctors and healthcare workers will find them invaluable. Contact: CTS, 40-46 Harleyford Road, London SE11 5AY.

Competition

A Pro-Life Times reader has launched a competition to celebrate and honour the sanctity of the life of the unborn child. She is inviting people to write a prayer, a hymn with music, poem or piece of choral music. Winning ideas will be put together in a book. For information please send an SAE to: Penny Burton, 5 Parkstone Grove, Hatfield, nr Doncaster DN7 6SN

China Olympic shame

by Anthony Ozimic

The Sunday Telegraph reported on the "insanitary conditions" at the Huaiji county hospital where most of the abortions take place, in the massive drive to perform 20,000 operations in 6 months.

It also reported that the local county leadership in Huaiji has halved the salaries of its 15,000 employees - including teachers, policemen and clerks - to pay for expensive ultrasound equipment which can be taken by car into remote villages so that Government doctors can detect unauthorised pregnancies and order terminations on the spot.

International condemnation has followed the awarding of the 2008 Olympic Games to China, a country widely regarded as having the world's worst human rights record. Human rights organisations, pro-life groups and the British press have all challenged Chinese government claims that the awarding of the Games will lead to an improvement in China's human rights situation. Amnesty International, which has documented China's coercive one-child policy, claimed that dissidents have been detained or harassed for expressing their opposition to Beijing's Olympic bid.

SPUC warned that the awarding of the Games to Beijing will be used to divert attention from the Chinese régime's destruction of innocent human life, just as the 1936 Berlin games was used as propaganda for Hitler's régime. It was reported last month by the Sunday Telegraph that Guangdong province has ordered 20,000 abortions and sterilisations to be performed within six months in Huaiji, a county with the same number of people as Surrey (c.1 million).

SPUC is supporting parliamentary moves to stop UK government funding for organisations which support China's one-child policy, such as the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF). The Sunday Telegraph report also claimed that many of the abortions performed by the China Family Planning Association (an IPPF member-organisation run by Chinese state officials) are forced on women.

And still they weep

by Staff Reporter

Christian women talk of abortion experiences in new video

Four women, whose lives have been deeply marked by encounters with abortion, have told their stories in a powerful new video, And still they weep, produced by the evangelical division of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children. This initiative is part of a programme of outreach to evangelical Christians (who are a growing sector of the pro-life movement), with a message of compassion for women and a plea for prayer and activism.

The pro-life messages in the video make their impact through the words of the women themselves. Grace and Patricia, who both had abortions, describe their grief and eventual reconciliation over the decision to end the life of their own baby. A grandmother tells the story of the death through abortion of her grandchild and the devastation this caused within her family. And, lastly, Sue recounts the reaction to her resolve not to abort her handicapped daughter.

Designed to inform and provoke discussion groups, the video is in two parts. Following the case histories, a range of commentators, including leading evangelicals, the Rev. Joel Edwards and Elaine Storkey, present the issues from a Christian perspective. Rev. Steven Foster, author of the study guide which accompanies the video and a member of the SPUC evangelicals committee, said, "The video is aimed at those evangelical Christians who are sympathetic to the pro-life cause but are not actively involved, as well as those who need more persuasion. We hope that the video will inspire individuals and groups to engage their church or community in the pro-life movement through prayer and campaigning."

The video will be launched at the Christian Resources Exhibition in Birmingham at the end of this month. Copies of the video are available from: SPUC, 5-6 St Matthew Street, London, SW1P 2JT.


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