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Pro-Life Times: March 2005
Human rights alarm over euthanasia bill
by ANTHONY OZIMIC
A prominent parliamentary committee has warned that the government's pro-euthanasia Mental Capacity Bill could violate vulnerable patients' basic human rights.
The Joint Committee on Human Rights said that it was "particularly concerned that lay people may not be aware that ANH [artificial nutrition & hydration] is regarded as "treatment" and that an advance refusal of life-sustaining treatment may therefore be treated as authorising the withholding of food and water leading to death by starvation/dehydration."
The Committee's report said it was not satisfied that the Bill conformed with the European Convention on Human Rights. The Committee pointed to the need for the Government to ensure that various rights are upheld, including the right to life and the right to freedom from degrading treatment.
At the same time, both the Committee and legal experts have condemned as ineffective a government amendment, promised to Catholic Archbishop Peter Smith which, it is claimed, would prevent euthanasia by omission. Veteran pro-lifer and eminent constitutional lawyer Lord St John of Fawsley told the House of Lords that it was "a delusion" to think the amendment would protect vulnerable people from the effects of the Bill.
Former leader of the Opposition and Catholic pro-life MP Iain Duncan Smith has said that Archbishop Smith has been "cynically manipulated by the Government" and warned that "in any discussions that the Catholic Church has with the Government it has a real duty to stick firm to the principles that underscore its objections."
The Bill passed through its Committee stage in the House of Lords mostly unamended but further amendments were due to be debated in the Lords early this month.
The test of love
Emma Stevenson carries a bowel cancer gene, but when she conceived her baby daughter she was quite clear that she did not want a test for her unborn baby. Emma, of Bolton, made her views public in The Times newspaper following a ruling by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority that people with inherited forms of cancer can select embryos which do not have the genes which might trigger the disease.
"I love Katie no matter what," Emma told the Pro-Life Times. "I would never want her to think I had her because she didn't have the cancer gene. I think it's wrong to pick and choose babies."
COMMENT
Anna Hudson lives and works in Plymouth. She is a member of the local and regional SPUC branch. She has just finished studying for a degree in geography and intends to start a PGCE in Primary Education next September.
My introduction to pro-life issues was through my mother, who is founder and secretary of the Plymouth SPUC branch. Because of this, from a young age I have understood the implications of the anti-life mentality that is so prevalent in the UK today and which is encouraged and developed in schools and higher education establishments. Having just finished university, I know that it is much easier for young people to find out how to obtain an abortion than it is to hear anything supporting the pro-life position
I feel the main way to encourage a more pro-life attitude within society is to educate young people on pro-life issues. We have to show the fallacy of the government's sex education policies. These only encourage greater sexual activity, leading to more crisis pregnancies, increased abortion and secret abortions for underage girls.
Although along with many people of my generation I sometimes feel powerless to change the strong anti-life culture in which we live, I believe that in supporting SPUC in their campaigns I will be able to contribute positively and make my voice heard on this important issue.
Prayer
Almighty God and Father,
Grant that we may lovingly and charitably seek to save the unborn child through
spirited campaigning, education and counselling across our nation.
We look forward to the day when each and every life is lovingly welcomed and nurtured from birth until death, as your Son was, by Mary and Joseph.
We ask this through Christ Our Lord.
Amen.
Malta - a gallant country
by John Smeaton, National Director, SPUC
In 1565, a tiny island in the Mediterranean stood firm against the might of the Ottoman Empire and won against incredible odds. In the twentieth century, the very same island resisted the might of Nazi Germany and remained unconquered after 1000 air raids and near starvation. Today, Malta's hard-won sovereignty is being threatened once again by the culture of death, in the form of the ironically named United Nations Human Rights Committee. Malta is one of a number of countries including Chile and Morocco that is being pressurised to legalise abortion on certain grounds, in direct contravention of the largely Catholic country's pro-life constitution.
The Maltese response to the UNHRC's bullying has been an inspiration to pro-life campaigners around the world. The head of the Prime Minister's Secretariat stated, "We consider that abortion is in complete contradiction with one of the main tenets of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, namely that "the best interests of children are paramount." The Catholic Bishops stated in a press release, "The United Nations Committee's pressure on the Maltese State to legalise abortion in certain circumstances is objectionable and unacceptable. We regret very much the United Nations Committee's decision to put such unfortunate pressure on our country." They went on to urge the Maltese people "to remain steadfast in their appreciation and defence of human life from its conception, and in their total rejection of abortion" and called upon Malta's political leaders "not only to reject abortion without any reservations, but also never to stop pronouncing themselves in defence of life and against the killing, through abortion, of persons totally unable to defend themselves." An editorial in The Times of Malta, entitled 'In Defence of Life' described the global loss of life through abortion as 'abhorrent', calling upon Malta's political parties to unite in opposition to the UN's 'legislative interference.'
There is no room for complacency, however. As we are all aware, the abortion lobby is wealthy, aggressive and powerful on the world stage and the Maltese people face a difficult task to defend their principles against such adversaries. If you believe in prayer, please pray for this embattled country, that it will continue to provide a strong pro-life witness to the world and embrace the culture of life.
Baby survives dutch euthanasia doctors - 26 years ago
By staff reporter
Claire Baldwin is alive today because her parents refused to accept the doctors' verdict that she was brain damaged and should be left to die. Her parents Linda and Geoff were living in Holland at the time. Linda has made her story public following further calls from Dutch doctors to legalise child euthanasia. The Pro-Life Times reported last year that as many as 100 babies with disabilities are killed by doctors in Holland every year.
When Claire was born at 29 weeks, the Dutch doctors took her away from Linda and told her to forget about her daughter. It was Claire's father who found his newborn baby girl in a room of dirty laundry lying in a kidney dish. He insisted the baby was put in an incubator.
Claire's parents took her home two days after she was born and coaxed her to feed. A week later they took her back to the hospital for tests and were told to leave her there to die.
Linda said, "A paediatrician said she was so brain damaged she would be a vegetable if she lived. I was hysterical. If I had not been so well informed, thanks to my nursing career, we might have believed those Dutch doctors and left her to die."
Young mum unable to go through with abortion
by Staff Reporter
A little boy is alive today because two years ago his 24 year old mother could not face completing the abortion process once she felt her baby moving inside her, as reported recently in the Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. The youmg mother from the Salford area, who only discovered she was pregnant at 22 weeks, already had a 19-month toddler and felt she couldn't cope with another child. She was on her way home from a private clinic, where she had been given a series of drugs to end the baby's life, when she felt her baby move and decided she wanted to keep her child.
She went into labour that afternoon and was admitted to hospital, where she asked doctors to do everything they could to save the child. Four days later, at only 24 weeks gestation, the baby was born, weighing just 1.5lb, but crying and breathing.
Doctors at the Hope Hospital Salford, were astounded that the child had survived the attempted abortion. However, Margaret Cuthill of British Victims of Abortion was not surprised that the mother changed her mind. "So many women panic about having a baby they feel they can't cope with. This panic keeps in place the denial of what they are actually doing. This young woman was lucky that her denial was broken while there was still a chance she could have her baby.
"Even in the earliest stages of pregnancy women need reassurance and positive affirmation about their situation, so they are not left wanting their baby back after it's too late."
Abortion among UN's Millennium Development Goals
An advisory committee to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, says that sexual and reproductive health is a key to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). This is linked to a demand for abortion in a report issued by Mr Annan's advisors.
The Millennium Project Report states that "ensuring universal access to sexual and reproductive health ... is essential to the attainment of many" MDGs. The MDGs are an initiative by wealthier countries to address poverty in the developing world.
Thirteen documents accompany the report, including one from the Task Force on Gender Equality, stating: "at a minimum, national public health systems must provide quality family planning, safe abortion and emergency obstetric services."
Anthony Ozimic, SPUC's political secretary, commented: "This is one of the clearest indications yet that the Millennium Development Goals will be used to try to foist abortion on developing countries."
NEWS IN BRIEF
· Poland - The Polish parliament has voted not to consider a controversial bill, which would have allowed abortion up to 12 weeks into pregnancy. It would also have made sex education a separate subject in primary schools and allowed young people to seek abortions without parental consent. The Catholic Church and pro-life groups, widely supported by public opinion, opposed the bill, which had been proposed by the ruling Democratic Left Alliance. Consideration of the bill was defeated in parliament by 199 votes to 183.
· Samoa - The pro-abortion UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) is pushing the government of Samoa to legalize abortion and force more women out of their traditional family roles and into work and political life. CEDAW recently complained that, despite having set up a Ministry for Women's Affairs, the role of married women in Samoan society was still too traditional and mostly oriented towards family life. In order to meet the goal of westernising and modernising the Samoan way of life CEDAW stated that, "Samoa needed to target measures at both women and men to combat deeply entrenched stereotypical attitudes."
· ITALY - An Italian woman died last month having chosen not to have treatment for her cancer which would have meant the death of her unborn baby. Rita Fedrizzi, 41, gave birth to a baby boy and then died three months later. She had two older sons aged 10 and 12 years. Her husband said, "Rita's choice, which I always shared, was a choice of faith. Whenever someone recommended abortion as the way to escape (death), she would say, 'It's as if they're asking me to kill one of my other two children to save my skin.'"
· UK - Members of the North-East of England business community have claimed that a campaign against embryo research in the area could harm the local economy. The Lawyers' Christian Fellowship have applied for a judicial review of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority's decision to grant the Newcastle Centre for Life a licence to clone human embryos for research purposes.
· USA - Researchers from the University of California have discovered that cardiac progenitor cells, found primarily in the pumping chambers of the heart, can regenerate the heart after injury. The progenitor cells taken from animals produced cardiac-muscle cells, and can potentially be used to repair heart damage in humans.
Good science and good medicine helping couples to have a baby
By ANTONIA TULLY
"This is good news for everyone," are the first words of young Irish GP turned fertility specialist Dr Phil Boyle, when talking about Natural Procreative - NaPro - Technology.
Dr Boyle runs a clinic in Galway which offers this new system of gynaecological and reproductive healthcare. These are some of the reasons for his enthusiasm: "NaProTechnology is good news for infertile couples who have failed to achieve a successful pregnancy using other methods - we can often find problems that were previously undiagnosed. It's good news for couples who have repeated miscarriages. And it's good news for couples who want to understand their fertility potential.
In England, Dr Kevin McCarthy, who runs the London Centre for NaProTechnology, echoes these words, "NaProTechnology is very good science and very good medicine. This is safe, very carefully monitored treatment which has none of the complications of in vitro fertilisation. It's also ethically sound."
NaProTechnology teaches women how to observe and record specific biological markers of fertility in a precise and methodical fashion. Many couples end up in Dr Boyle's consulting room after everything else on offer for fertility treatment has failed and the successes do seem remarkable. 30% of couples for whom IVF has not been successful achieve a pregnancy and 50% of those who stopped short of IVF get the baby they have been longing for.
"I treated one couple who were infertile for 12 years," said Dr Boyle. "During this time they had 12 failed attempts at artificial insemination, and underwent seven failed IVF treatments. After following our programme they had a baby in December 2003 and the 39 year-old mother is currently expecting a second child. This was a stunning result."
Couples have to go on a waiting list to be seen by Dr Boyle, which fluctuates between two months and a year. NaProTechnology is very labour intensive. Patients are seen for about 45 minutes at each consultation and will be seen every three months for up to seven sessions. In between times Dr Boyle reviews progress with the couple by phone. "Our aim here is to turn each couple into their own fertility experts. This is not invasive either physically or emotionally. With this system couples are no longer helpless victims."
When Dr McCarthy was working as a GP, he saw awful effects of IVF on couples, as well as on their babies, who were often born very prematurely with major health complications. It was this that prompted him to look into NaProTechnology as well as his long-standing interest in helping couples with infertility.
"I used to see infertile couples start with their GP, where they would be given a few basic blood tests. The next step was referral to an infertility clinic and from there they would move very quickly onto a waiting list for IVF. After that a very long wait followed before the IVF treatment started. This was hugely stressful on the couple," said Dr McCarthy.
He continued, "But more than that it was often an ineffective way to treat them.
"Knowing now what NaProTechnology has to offer these couples, I realise that very often the attempts to identify the underlying causes of their infertility were too superficial. This is not surprising when you understand that the artificial reproductive technologies like IVF don't actually need to find the causes, as all that has to be done is to bypass them. I now believe that, in the majority of cases, IVF was in fact unnecessary for these couples to achieve a pregnancy."
According to the HFEA (Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority) UK, 42% of couples who try IVF are told they have "unexplained infertility". By the time NaProTechnology has painstakingly investigated each case, there are very few couples whose infertility remains unexplained.
"Another area where NaProTechnolgy offers enormous hope to couples is in cases of repeated miscarriage - up to eight or nine miscarriages," said Dr McCarthy. "With careful assessment before conception, miscarriage can be predicted. Through correcting hormones before conception and monitoring hormones in early pregnancy very carefully, couples will frequently achieve and hold onto a pregnancy."
Of course, even with this treatment some couples do not get the baby they are longing for. "In my experience," said Dr McCarthy, "NaProTechnology helps couples cope very well in cases where they finally have to accept involuntary childlessness. Because this system is something they have to work on together, they actually become more united even if it does not achieve the desired outcome. I have not seen any couple separate when they did not get a baby from our treatment."
Dr McCarthy is deeply committed to NaProTechnology. "I see this as being revolutionary, both medically and culturally. This is an option couples have a right to know about and a right to choose. NaProTechnology gets to the roots of the problem and restores the couple's health and fertility."
Dr Boyle has a larger vision for this science extending beyond infertility treatment. " This is a way of getting people to understand their fertility and appreciate it as a wonderful aspect of health. Fertility is not a "disease" which needs to be controlled."
"This can help societies make the cultural shift away from anti-life technologies such as IVF and abortifacient oral contraceptives and help people to reconnect sex with its true purpose, which is to have babies."
Dr Phil Boyle can be reached at: Suite 11, The Galway Clinic, Doughiska,
Co Galway Ireland. +353 (0)91 720055.
Email: mail@FertilityCare.net
Internet www.fertilitycare.net
Dr Kevin McCarthy can be reached at:
20 Hoxton Square, London N1 6NT 077296 17480 or 01342 717497.
Email: info@naprotechnology.co.uk
Internet www.naprotechnology.co.uk
... from the desk of Joanna Bogle
Lesson from the Lords
Baroness Chapman sits up in her wheelchair in the House of Lords, a diminutive but commanding presence. With brittle bones - 50 were broken when she was born - difficulties with sight, and other grave health problems, she was a frail baby whose parents were told she would be a "vegetable". She has faced huge challenges all her life - but she has overcome them to have a brilliant career and to be appointed the first 'people's peer', a tribute not just to her achievements but to her active concern for others and desire to contribute to the common good. Now she is fighting in defence of the vulnerable, with her opposition to the Mental Capacity Bill.
Her story is witness to the message that life is precious and that we must value every human being. Had she not been helped to live, so many people would have been the poorer - not just her family but all the other people whose lives she has touched, and in due course the nation itself which she now serves in Parliament. The big lesson here is that we just don't know - and shouldn't try to establish - the precise value of each human life. We should just say, "Welcome! Let's all help each other".
Problems in schools
We're hearing a lot about the impossibility of maintaining any sort of normal community life or classroom discipline in some schools. Day after day, teachers are faced with awkward and intransigent behaviour by pupils - low level disruption. Talk of "zero tolerance" can sound a bit empty in such a situation. Some places exude a tangible sense of fear. Others provide their own sense of reassurance - I think of the routine metal detector that greeted me on entrance to one school.
But, in examining the causes for wild behaviour in teens and pre-teens, could we not ask if an early introduction to sexual knowledge - often presented in the crudest of forms through officially-mandated "sex ed" - might not be part of the picture? Destroying children's natural reticence in such matters, having video shows and loud presentations on things once considered intimate, encouraging crude and vulgar language on the grounds that "it's the best way to reach them" - might not all of this have contributed to an atmosphere of classroom chaos? And could we not also ask about the role played by the media? Can you think of a soap opera where there are cheerful, humorous, affectionate families where adventure and achievement are prized, and great things sought and worked for?
Common sense from Scotland
Which leads me to Scotland, where Archbishop Keith Patrick O'Brien has pointed out that funding for sexual health strategies "appears to be inversely proportional to their success". Decades of schemes based on promoting abortion and contraception have proved to be a "complete and utter failure". A draft programme for pre-school children as young as four dismissed the idea of abstinence and suggested a widening of access to abortion and contraception for pupils without parental consent. I have to say that the Archbishop's description of this as "state sponsored sexual abuse of children" is accurate. He has said that parents are right to oppose this and to "preserve their children's innocence and to protect their childhood."
Abortion bill will bring "tragedy far greater than the tsunami"
By AMANDA LOGAN
An international appeal for action to pro-lifers has been launched in Sri Lanka for support to defeat a bill on women's rights which will legalise abortion. Predicting the devastation that this bill would bring to Sri Lanka, Dr Eshan Dias, who is leading the campaign, said, "This country is being faced with a tragedy far greater than the tsunami."
Dr Dias said, "The rights ... that the Bill on Women's Rights has as its objectives to implement, include mandatory sex education and provision of birth control drugs and devices for children ... in addition to unrestricted abortion."
The bill, which will soon be tabled in the Sri Lankan Parliament, has been prepared by the Ministry of Women's Empowerment in conjunction with the CEDAW Committee of the United Nations. CEDAW (the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women) was adopted in 1979 by the UN General Assembly, defines what constitutes discrimination against women and sets up an agenda for national action. For example, CEDAW requires changing the traditional family, reducing care for mothers and pregnant women.
Dr Dias would like pro-lifers to write to Sri Lankan newspapers as well as parliamentary ministers. Readers who would like to support this campaign should contact the Pro-Life Times 020 7222 5845 or email pro-life-times@spuc.org.uk
Pro-life warning to Make Poverty History campaign
By FIORELLA SULTANA DE MARIA
The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children is alerting organisations involved in the Make Poverty History campaign to the hidden pro-abortion agenda behind it. Make Poverty History is supporting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), set up by the world's richest countries to combat poverty in the developing world but which are being used to promote abortion on demand around the world.
Over 200 charities and campaigning organisations are involved with Make Poverty History, with groups that normally take a pro-life stance signing up alongside the International Planned Parenthood Federation, the world's largest provider of abortions.
Paul Tully, SPUC General Secretary said, "A central aim of the Make Poverty History campaign is to further the progress of the MDGs. The goodwill of charities and individuals involved must not be abused by pro-abortion agencies and governments seeking to further their own agendas."
The British Government has shown its support for abortion on demand by helping to fund the legalisation of abortion in Nepal under the banner of 'Safe Motherhood'. The Department for International Development has said that "Universal access to reproductive health" - which includes abortion on demand - is "central to attainment of the MDGs". In addition, the director of the Western Hemisphere region of the International Planned Parenthood Federation, Carmen Barroso, also said, "Sexual and reproductive health is therefore fundamental to meeting the Millennium Development Goals agreed to by all our governments in 2001."
Landmine survivor attacks EU euthanasia bid in UN disability convention
By Joe Kingston
A landmine survivor has spoken out at a UN meeting against proposals to deny medical care to disabled people. A new convention intended to enhance the rights of disabled people is being used by the EU to argue for a ban on "forced medical interventions", which could include life-saving medical care for people who cannot consent to treatment because they are unconscious or disabled.
Wayne Cockfield, who lost both his legs in a landmine explosion, described how most of the 32 operations he has undergone have been with his consent, but many took place when he was unconscious. He pointed out that the proposals would prevent doctors from acting in a person's best interests, forcing them to rely instead on advance directives or court rulings.
Mr Cockfield said, "If ... a court had the power to decide whether I should live or die there is every chance I would be dead because of the severity of my injuries. My quality of life, as judged by others, would have been taken into account and I would have been considered better off dead."
The UK government, which is represented at the meetings as part of the EU delegation, may have been responsible for drafting the measure. It mirrors key aspects of the Mental Capacity Bill, currently before the UK parliament. The UN proposal also has the support of some EU-backed disability groups.
Peter Smith, Chief Administrative Officer to the UN for SPUC and the International Right to Life Federation said, "The proposals put forward at the convention on disability rights seek to abandon the traditional way in which doctors and family would act in the best interests of an incapacitated person. Under these proposals a disabled person would be at the mercy of a legally binding advance directive, if one was available, and if there is no directive, the courts intervene. This places a disabled people, whose quality of life will often be deemed poor, at the risk of euthanasia by neglect."
Mr Smith added, "These issues will be discussed again, later this year. Huge pressure will be put on all countries to ratify the outcome of this convention."
