Pro-Life Times: October 2002

The human toll of IVF treatments: 1,200,000 babies frozen or dead

by Paul Tully

1,200,000 babies created for IVF treatments in Britain have been discarded or frozen, died during pregnancy, or failed to survive the freeze/thaw process since the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act came into force in 1991, according to leading researchers in Australia.

Between 1991 and 2002, over 50,000 babies were born in Britain as a result of IVF procedures.

Dr Greg Pike, a spokesman for the Southern Cross Bioethics Institute in Adelaide, South Australia, said: "It has been estimated that from the total number of embryos created, only 4% will come to term as a live birth. Using this figure, and working backwards from 50,000 live births, one comes up with a figure of 1,250,000 embryos created between 1991 and 2002.

"Since 50,000 of these are born, 1,200,000 are frozen or disposed of in some other way, which could include being discarded soon after fertilisation because of defects, being the subject of research resulting in their death, or dying during gestation (miscarriage or abortion), and others would have not survived thawing."

More recent research by the Australian bioethicist, Nicholas Tonti-Filipini, estimates that the lives lost may be even higher, with only 2.1% of IVF embryos surviving to be born.

The researchers' figures are supported by a parliamentary answer from government health minister, Yvette Cooper, who said: "Between 1991 and 1998, more than 750,000 embryos were created through IVF. Some 48,000 were donated for use in research and 237,000 were destroyed. The rest were either used in treatment or held for future use."

"How many of the public, including couples suffering from infertility, are aware of the full cost in human lives involved in IVF procedures?" said John Smeaton, national director of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC). "The plight of couples desperate to have a baby is being used to promote a procedure in which for every baby born, dozens of embryonic babies will die or be destroyed."

Irish constitution breached

Official figures from the Rotunda Hospital, Dublin and Human Assisted Reproduction Ireland (HARI) suggest that hundreds of babies meet the same fate in the Republic of Ireland, in clear breach of the Irish constitution, which protects human life from conception.

Comment

Suzanne Senor describes herself as a pro-life mother bringing up a family in an anti-life society. Suzanne, who comes from California and now lives in Surrey, has 6 children. Her fifth child, Mary Rose, who is 3 years old this month, has Down's Syndrome. Before she was married Suzanne was a business woman. She met her Spanish husband, Juan, at a party in New York hosted by Dr Bernard Nathanson - the abortionist turned pro-lifer. Now Suzanne is a full-time mother.

I love my children. To me their lives are beautiful and precious. Am I no different from most mothers? Don't all women have natural maternal instincts? These days, it may seem not.

Recently a woman at a party told me she had a dozen or so frozen embryos. Preying on her conscience was the dilemma of what to do with them. Does she not realise that she holds in suspension the lives and souls of her own flesh and blood? I advised her to try having the babies, or some of them, but I do not know what she did.

This is where society is at. Science tempts us to fulfil ourselves at the expense of the vulnerable, thus profoundly thwarting our feminine nature. Is there no hope that we can turn from a philosophy of "finding ourselves" to one of "giving ourselves"? There is great reason to hope. I see beacons of hope every day in the people who work with my Down's Syndrome child. Aware of it or not, these and others like them are witnesses to our pro-life nature. I believe that this struggle will ultimately be won by those who don't allow their conscience to be confused with their personal desires.

O Lord, our Lord, How majestic is thy name in all the earth! Thou whose glory above the heaven is chanted By the mouth of babes and infants, Thou hast founded a bulwark because of thy foes, To still the enemy and the avenger. Psalm 8,1-2

No price for human life

by John Smeaton, National Director, SPUC

Last month the Guardian newspaper published an article defending abortion. This was no surprise, nor was the fact that it had several errors - the Guardian is notorious for its mistakes.

"Interestingly, the anti-abortion lobby, manifested as the Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child [that should read 'Unborn Children', of course,] has largely given up on the abortion debate" (Guardian, September 2, 2002). The truth is that SPUC has never been busier in the fight against abortion, with two court battles in 2002, in Britain and in Northern Ireland, which between them have cost the society rising £250,000.

We cannot put a price on human life. We must do everything we can to stop the pro-abortion lobby from extending legalised abortion to Northern Ireland, against the wishes of the people, both Protestant and Catholic, and we must try to stop the government's relentless promotion of the abortion-inducing morning-after pill amongst schoolchildren as young as 11. However, the Guardian did get one key thing right in a mixed-up kind of way. The writer continued: "...But the SPUC has discovered new territory in infertility treatment. In the mid-90s it announced, 'We have expanded our remit to focus more on genetics and reproductive ethics'. It began to talk about the threat of a eugenicist society."

I don't recall that particular mid-90s announcement, and it would seem odd, since we were intensively involved in the IVF issue from the early 1980s. Moreover, SPUC has talked about the threat of a eugenics since our foundation over 35 years ago. However, the Guardian is absolutely right to recognise that the IVF industry, like the abortion industry, is a key concern of SPUC. Both IVF and abortion cost countless thousands of babies' lives, making a profit from the plight of desperate people. Our front page story highlights the human toll of IVF and announces a new SPUC campaign to make the public aware of the facts and the alternatives. Please join us. Find out more about the campaign from me on johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk, or by telephoning SPUC 020 7222 5845 and asking for the IVF campaign desk.

Doctors told "respect life" - but starve some to death

by Joe Kingston

New guidance on when doctors should withhold life-saving treatment, including assisted food and fluids, has been condemned as ill-founded and dangerous.

Paul Tully, SPUC general secretary, said: "Doctors who try to save lives may soon be penalised under this guidance." The document was issued by the General Medical Council (GMC), the statutory body that regulates doctors.

Mr Tully pointed to flaws in the new directive, which he said could cost patients their lives. "The GMC fails to state that doctors should never deliberately cause death. Instead they say that doctors must show "respect for life". However this does not exclude killing in all cases. The GMC has long regarded abortion as acceptable, including abortion up to birth for disabled babies. It also sanctions the starvation of severely incapacitated patients. The GMC's 'respect for life' is a weasel phrase that means little."

The guidelines undermine the position of doctors with a conscientious objection. Helen Watt, of the Catholic bioethics body, the Linacre Centre said, "If the doctor thinks it is wrong to dehydrate the patient to death, he or she should not be expected to find another doctor who is prepared to do this."

In its introduction the document asks the question, "Are there circumstances in which withholding or withdrawing life-prolonging treatment would be unlawful?" It never explicitly answers this question, leaving doctors with poor advice, and patients at risk.

Morning-after pill MP attacks SPUC

by Amanda Logan

An MP, who had 25% of her election expenses paid for by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, has attacked SPUC's campaign against the morning-after pill. Sandra Gidley, Liberal Democrat health spokesman, has launched a scathing attack on SPUC for helping to bring "unwanted" babies into the world, by campaigning to outlaw the morning-after pill.

SPUC national director John Smeaton responded by saying, "Sandra Gidley must be perfectly aware that 35 years of legalised abortion have made no impact on the tragedy of child abuse."

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society has said that it does not fund candidates on the basis of their views and has no links with the pharmaceutical industry. How-ever, as we reported in an earlier issue of the Pro-Life Times, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society changed its code of ethics last year to deny the right of conscientious objection for pharmacists with a moral or personal objection to the morning-after pill.

John Pugh, a fellow Liberal Democrat said, "Sandra appears to confuse two issues: the need for good sex education and support for a morning-after pill. In fact, since the morning-after pill offers an apparent immediate solution to the problems of casual sexual encounters, it may work against a mature approach to sexual behaviour."

News In Brief

UK - Sainsbury's has confirmed that some of its supermarkets are providing the abortion-inducing morning-after pill free of charge to young teenage girls. Just over a month after Tesco agreed to stop giving the drug to underage girls, Sainsbury's confirmed that five of its stores in South Wales, Greater Manchester and Bristol had entered into agreements with local health authorities to give the morning-after pill to those under 16.

VATICAN CITY - Pope John Paul II has appealed to the British government to respect human life. In an address to Kathryn Frances Colvin, the new British ambassador to the Holy See, the Pope lamented attempts to legitimise abortion, embryo experimentation and human cloning.

SCOTLAND - Men in Glasgow are to be offered free supplies of the morning-after pill to keep at home. The - Choices Project - at the Maryhill Health Centre has been criticised by pro-lifers because it will encourage greater use of the abortifacient drug and endanger women's health.

AFGANISTAN - Marie Stopes International, a London-based promoter and provider of abortions, has opened a clinic in the Afghan capital, Kabul. The pro-abortion United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has also announced plans to open an emergency mobile hospital service in the city.

NORTHERN IRELAND - The prior provincial of the Servite's has re-affirmed the order's support for the pro-life cause and apologised for "hurts and misunder-standings" arising from a conference with a pro-abortion slant held in their Northern Ireland conference centre in Benburb. Fr Patrick Ryall explained that he was misinformed of the nature of the conference, and assured pro-life campaigners in Northern Ireland that he would prevent such events in the future. SPUC, which had criticised the event, acknowledged that it was out of character for the Servites.

Our pro-life star

by Antonia Tully

In 1986 when SPUC asked people from the world of entertainment to take a stand for unborn children, singing star Dana was one of the very few who came forward and promised to do whatever she could to help this important cause. After shooting to fame in 1970, when she won the Eurovision Song Contest, Dana has stayed a household name for many in Great Britain and her native Ireland ever since. Now she has a career in politics and for the past 3 years she has been the MEP for Connaught/Ulster. For Dana, being pro-life is all about protecting every vulnerable person from the moment of conception until natural death.

Then Dana ran in the Irish Presidential Election in 1997, she made history. She was the first independent candidate ever to be nominated to run. She scooped up 15% of the national vote and came in in 3rd place. Many, many people had clearly felt that here was a woman who really believed in pro-life, pro-family values and wanted her to have their vote. I can quite see why. Who could listen to her gentle voice, filled with intensity and genuine concern, and not be won over by her?

As with many people, Dana's own pro-life story had a very personal beginning. Twenty two years ago when she was expecting her first baby, she had a threatened miscarriage. At that time ultra-sound scans were still relatively new, and she feels she was very privileged to have had the chance to see her baby growing inside her. It opened her eyes to the miracle of life before birth. Looking back, she can see that until she saw her baby on the scan she had no real relationship with her; bonding in early pregnancy is not automatic. "If my circumstances and my teaching had been different I might easily have aborted that baby and never realised who I had lost," she told me.

In fact, initially, Dana steered well clear of the abortion question. She felt she had no right to tell another woman whether she should or should not have an abortion. She could not bear the thought of adding to woman's pain over this matter. Then in 1984 she was invited to sing at a Right to Life conference in Kansas City. She went along very reluctantly, adamant that she was not going to get caught up in some stern, unforgiving movement. "But when I got there," she remembers, "and actually met women who had had abortions and were still struggling with the devastating aftermath, I changed my mind. At that point, both my husband and I knew that we had to take responsibility for speaking the truth." So to all the demands of a busy career in show business, where her appeal and popularity over the years never waned, and to the demands of her young family of four children, Dana added this commitment of serving the pro-life movement in whatever way she could. Dana has worked, and still does, with many different pro-life groups. Characteristically, she takes a very positive view of the worldwide pro-life movement, emphasising its strengths. While some point to discord and division, she describes the pro-life movement as a diamond with many facets, representing the range of approaches needed to defend all the assaults on life - something bright and precious in an age that needs light and hope. It has to be said that Dana herself is one of the brightest and most famous stars ever to have shown such commitment to the pro-life cause in the UK and to have worked so hard for it.

Then her life took another turn, which opened up even more opportunities to defend the pro-life position. Dana and her family were living in America when she was asked to run in the Irish presidential election. She says that she stood on a very simple platform: to defend the Irish constitution, which is essentially a Christian constitution, and the democratic rights of the Irish people. The constitution enshrines that the family, as the fundamental unit of society, must be supported and protected and that it is founded on marriage, that life should be protected from conception onwards, that parents are the first teachers of their children and that the people have the final decision on any proposed amendments to their constitution. A growing number of people were feeling that all these important things were being eroded and they asked Dana to stand up for them. So she exchanged the theatre stage for an election platform, where, really, she stood alone, with no political party behind her. "It was an extraordinary experience," said Dana. "One that I found personally very humbling - that so many people had put their confidence and their hopes in me. When it was all over I thought I would just return to my career in entertainment, but that wasn't to be." The Irish people weren't going to let her go. She was asked to stand as a candidate in the European elections for a constituency in the west of Ireland. This was a region which had been badly neglected and desperately under-invested. The European elections were yet another overwhelming experience for her. She had not expected to win the seat; indeed, it was earmarked for a junior minister in the government. Again ordinary voters had responded to her and what she stood for.

In many ways a life in politics suits Dana. She loves being with people and helping people. She can draw on all the natural charisma that kept her so long in the singing world. It seems very clear to me that a large part of her appeal to voters is her utter sincerity - she feels things deeply and she only says what she really means. Now she is working in the European Parliament she's right at the coalface of the attack on life and the family. She sees first hand the way in which the EU is trying to force abortion on countries like Poland. She spoke to me of her great concern about the massive destruction of early human embryos in research - with Britain sadly leading the way on this.

When Dana's first pregnancy seemed to be at risk, she and her husband wrote a song called "Little Baby Yet Unborn". "It was really a private song about our feelings for our unborn baby," she said. "But somehow it became public." Being pro-life isn't a private matter.

From the desk of Joanna Bogle

Elderly people at risk

Two letters which appeared in a national newspaper recently (Daily Telegraph 9.8.02) highlighted the plight of sick elderly people left unfed in hospital. "Stroke victims are left without food or water the blind and the disabled have unsuitable meals placed out of reach and then removed by domestic staff," writes one, correspondent. "I feel desperately sorry for any elderly patients without family or friends to fight for them," writes the other. We need to take personal responsibility for this: when someone you know is admitted for treatment, check, and keep asking : Is he/she being given water? How? If he/she can't eat or drink, is tube feeding being given? A dose of drugs to keep a patient drowsy, followed by dehydration and death, is illegal. Everyone, including the sick, has a right to water and food.

We were all embryos onceWhile the Medical Research Council was launching its ghastly idea for an embryonic stem cell bank at a hotel in London on 11 September 2002, young pro-life campaigners demonstrated outside on the pavement to show their opposition. These young people, from the Pro-Life Alliance and Student LifeNet, wore tee-shirts saying "Former Embryo", and held placards pointing out to passers-by that everyone is a former embryo too. "The idea that scientists can just create and destroy as many embryos as possible is really horrendous," said Fiona Pinto of Student LifeNet, emphasising that the protests will continue. As far as we're concerned, this is just the beginning of a really big battle. This is a major issue." You can read more about this on their website: studentlifenet.org.uk

Inspiration in rural England

I spent some days in a Norfolk meadow with some wasps and thistles recently, and it was most inspiring! I must add that there were over 1,000 other people too, and we were all taking part in the magnificent Youth 2000 Festival. This is a marvellous gathering for young people - I was a leader for one of the workshops - and the week was a happy time of prayer, sincere Christian testimonies and good teaching. It had a strong pro-life flavour. LIFE and the Good Counsel Network were among the groups represented, and many of the speakers highlighted the need to protect unborn life and to oppose abortion, to cherish the frail and sick and to fight euthanasia, and to honour marriage and family life. There's a new trend among the young to speak up for chastity, and teams are even going round schools offering this message and sparking off debates and discussions. An idea for a school in your area? Telephone 01937 579700 or email info@youth2000.org

What happened to IPPF at Toronto?

While on the subject of youth, do you recall that the International Planned Parenthood Federation had promised to send huge teams to Canada to bully the young people attending World Youth Day, where the Pope was due to speak? They were going to hand out condoms to the young, insisting that they'd need them as it was presumed they'd be sexually active during their stay. They were going to display massive pro-abortion posters. What happened? IPPF seem to have melted away. The young people, in their thousands, arrived and cheered the Pope, especially when he told them to hold fast to moral values and not to accept the dreary slogans of the modern world. All of Toronto was delighted with the young, who worked at social services projects, held prayer vigils, attended talks on aspects of the Christian faith, took part in inspiring church services, and exuded an atmosphere of happiness and enthusiasm.

British call for abortion rights is defeated at summit

by Anthony Ozimic

A call by British international development secretary Clare Short for abortion to be made a human right was soundly defeated at the World Summit on Sustainable Development held in Johannesburg last month.

Pro-abortionists failed to get the wording they wanted into the document. Instead phrases such as "reproductive health", which is a code word for abortion on demand, were kept out of the human rights section. The phrase was then relegated to the health section of the document where it was neutralised by the statement that the provision of "reproductive health" should be "consistent with national laws and cultural and religious values". This means that countries like Ireland, with pro-life laws, have greater protection.

International Right to Life Federation and SPUC delegate Peter Smith said: "Clare Short still seems stuck in the late 1960s with the myth that population control equals less poverty. Abortion is not a human right but an outdated and unnecessary procedure which is destructive of children, women and society as a whole."

US votes to protect newborn babies

by Staff reporter

The US congress and US president George W Bush have signed a law which gives full legal rights to any baby who shows signs of life after being born at any stage of development, even during an attempted abortion.

During the signing ceremony, President Bush observed that unborn children were also "members of the human family" and were "created in God's own image". He said that the supporters of the law were "affirming a culture of life" and quoted John Paul II by name when he looked forward to a culture in America which was "hospitable and welcoming" to all babies. Speaking to the Pro-Life Times, leading pro-life congressman, Chris Smith, said; "No one has a right to have a dead baby. The Born Alive Infants Protection Act makes it very clear that a born child has rights that cannot be nullified, even if a doctor meant to abort her. Human beings, no matter how small or vulnerable they are, have inherent value and rights.

"Now I hope that the Senate will quickly pass a ban on partial birth abortion so that children will be protected from the horrific partial birth abortion procedure. If a born child has rights and value, why doesn't a partially born child have those same rights?," concluded Mr Smith.

Countries giving some protection to unborn children

COSTA RICA - The Costa Rican president Abel Pacheo rejected the UN human rights high commissioner and former president Mary Robinson's attempt to persuade him to sign pro-abortion language at the Johannesburg summit. President Pacheo, a physician, said that doctors were bound by oath to defend life.

MALTA - The government of Malta has declared its rejection of abortion in a letter to the secretary general of the European parliament.

IRELAND - Many Irish people rejected an amendment to their constitution which would have legalised very early abortions and possible widespread later abortions.

THE PHILIPPINES - The constitution of 1987 provides that the state shall equally protect the life of the mother and the life of the unborn from conception.

POLAND - In 1988 there were over 100,000 abortions in Poland. In 2000 there were 138 legal abortions. Poland has made the transition from having a high abortion rate to becoming a life-loving country with no increase in maternal deaths or still births and no evidence of backstreet abortion. Sadly abortions are carried out on handicapped babies.

Sadly many countries which reject legalised abortion tolerate abortifacient birth control drugs and devices.