Lords should reject 3-parent embryo regulations

House of Lords

SPUC has called on members of the House of Lords is to reject the so-called "three-parent" embryo regulations being debated in the upper chamber today. The procedure is said to be necessary to help families affected by rare mitochondrial diseases.

These regulations (the Human Fertilisation and Embryology (Mitochondrial Donation) Regulations) are designed to usher in the cloning of human embryos. The manipulation of the human germ line would be permitted for the first time, contrary to modern international biomedicine agreements and long-standing ethical principles.

Commenting on the background to today's debate, Paul Tully, SPUC's general secretary, told the media today:

"The 1990 Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act was not intended to permit human cloning, and so the alteration of germ-line genetic material was forbidden. The restrictions have been repeatedly weakened, however, and this is a further stage in dismantling the so-called safeguards of the embryology law.

It is often supposed that the objection to germ-line modification is that it will lead to the creation of either 'monsters' or super-humans. Neither outcome is likely. Instead, many embryos will die in the efforts to restructure their genetic make-up.

The reality is that we know far too little about mitochondria to know what impact the cloning process would have on mitochondrial disease. It is true that the mitochondria carry very few genes but scores of other genes needed by mitochondria are stored in the cell nucleus. Transferring the nucleus of an ovum or an embryo to another cell cannot be predicted to have any certain benefit.

The proponents of embryo research have repeatedly held out promises of cures and medical advances in the field of inherited conditions. But the benefits have always failed to materialise, and we suspect that the same is happening again here. The parents of children affected by mitochondrial disease are being exploited to support unethical experiments, based on the false hope that their children will benefit.

Legislators have been consistently misled in the past about the prospects of success and the future intentions of those who want to use the tiniest humans - human embryos - for experiments. They should reject today's proposals."

Comments on this blog? Email them to johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk
Sign up for alerts to new blog-posts and/or for SPUC's other email services
Follow SPUC on Twitter
Like SPUC's Facebook Page
Please support SPUC. Please donate, join, and/or leave a legacy

No pro-life leader will match Dr Jack Willke's worldwide educational impact: May he rest in peace!

Pictured above left to right in September 2009 at SPUC's London office are:

• William Saunders, then senior vice president of legal affairs, Americans United to Life
• Francisco "Kit" Tatad, former senate majority leader, Philippines
• Dr Talmir Rodrigues, paediatrician, member of the Brazilian federal parliament
• Pat Buckley, one of SPUC's lobbyists at the United Nations
• Dr Jack Willke, IRTLF president and president of Life Issues Institute
• Mrs Fenny Tatad, executive director, Bishops-Legislators Caucus of the Philippines
• Peter Smith, another of SPUC's lobbyist at the United Nations
• myself
• Jim Hughes, national president, Campaign Life Coalition, Canada
• Chiang Lim, then chief executive officer, NSW (New South Wales) Right to Life

Dr Jack Willke, the father of the worldwide pro-life movement, who died last Friday, has been a friend and collaborator of SPUC's for over 40 years. He was 89. May he rest in peace.

To understand something of the full significance of Jack's life and work - shared by Barbara his beloved wife - read the obituaries in the National Review Online, and the Washington Post.

No other pro-life leader or organisation will match the solid educational work done by Jack and Barbara Willke through their books and lectures. And for virtually the whole of their active pro-life service, they did it without the aid of the worldwide web.

Their title Handbook on Abortion, the New York Times tells us, sold a million and a half copies - and there were so many other titles besides ... Other significant publications included: Abortion and Slavery, History Repeats and Assisted Suicide & Euthanasia, Past & Present and they co-authored six other books on human sexuality which have been translated into 30 languages. Five years ago they had clocked up 87 countries in which they had lectured ... and rising ... He also broadcast on 400 radio stations - one-minute pro-life messages in a programme entitled "Life Jewels". Jack was a pro-life marketing genius. Brad Mattes, his successor (see below) has kept up this remarkable broadcasting output since Jack stepped back a few years ago. His legacy is alive and very well.

SPUC's presentation in schools, albeit updated with the latest research and delivered with the aid of all that modern technology provides, is fundamentally based on the Willke slide presentation which I personally watched them present in The Philippines, in the UK, in Kenya and elsewhere.

I had the honour of serving as joint vice-president of International Right to Life Federation, with Jim Hughes, Canada's Campaign Life Coalition national president, during the final years of Jack's presidency - now succeeded by Brad Mattes who also succeeded Jack as president of Life Issues Institute.

During Jack's visit to the UK in September 2009 (see picture above), Jack delivered a message of hope to SPUC's national conference in which he said: “We must keep doing what we’re doing. It’s slow but we shall win in the end.” One could not lose the argument, he said, when one advanced the case that abortion killed babies.

On behalf of my colleagues in SPUC, and our thousands of supporters, I sent heartfelt condolences and a promise of prayers to Jack's family, his six children and 22 grandchildren. May he rest in peace.

Comments on this blog? Email them to johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk
Sign up for alerts to new blog-posts and/or for SPUC's other email services
Follow SPUC on Twitter
Like SPUC's Facebook Page
Please support SPUC. Please donate, join, and/or leave a legacy

Surgery no cure for “gender confusion”

I am grateful, once again, to the excellent Family Education Trust's January bulletin, which reports on a Wall Street Journal article about another deeply negative dimension of sex  education and its potential disastrous impact on our children's lives.

A top psychiatrist, writing in the Wall Street Journal, has written of the dangers arising from an “everything is normal” sex education. He writes of school “diversity counsellors” who promote transgender surgery as a means of banishing psycho-social problems, and who (“rather like cult leaders”) encourage youngsters to distance themselves from families advising against such drastic actions. Paul McHugh’s article was entitled TransgenderSurgery Isn’t the Solution.

If you are concerned about what is happening in schools in the name of sex education, please contact SPUC at politics@spuc.org.uk to find out how you can challenge parliamentary candidates in the forthcoming general election on this issue and on other vital pro-life issues.

Comments on this blog? Email them to johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk
Sign up for alerts to new blog-posts and/or for SPUC's other email services
Follow SPUC on Twitter
Like SPUC's Facebook Page
Please support SPUC. Please donate, join, and/or leave a legacy

Department for Education promotes “traffic light” tool that condones under-age sex

In a fact-packed January bulletin, the excellent Family Education Trust carries a compelling story on its front page showing how guidance backed by the Department for Education is encouraging unlawful sexual activity. (The Family Education Trust is a charity committed to researching the causes and consequences of family breakdown and promoting the welfare of children and young people.)

The UK law is clear that sexual activity under the age of 16 is unlawful. Nevertheless, the Department for Education has funded[1] and recommended as a useful resource a Brook “traffic light” system that condones underage sex. The system has been adopted by at least one County Council[2]. (Brook Advisory Service is one of Britain's leading abortion referral organisations, specialising in advising young people - including those under 16 - about abortion, sex, STIs etc). 

The traffic light system is not distributed to young people but is intended to “inform” teachers and other professionals working with children and young people.

The tool identifies green, amber and red behaviours. Green behaviours – according to Brook – “reflect safe and healthy sexual development”[3], and “provide opportunities to give positive feedback”. Those behaviours include “consenting oral and/or penetrative sex with others of the same or opposite gender who are of similar age and developmental ability” – even where those engaged in the activities are in the 13-15 age group.

Activities classified as amber rather than red include “following others into toilets or changing rooms to look at them or touch them” and “pulling other children’s pants down/skirts up/trousers down against their will”. These behaviours, according to Brook, merely “have the potential”[4] to be unsafe and unhealthy behaviour.

Brook have denied that the tool condones any particular sexual behaviours, but Norman Wells, director of the Family Education Trust, comments that “if giving positive feedback to sexually active children aged 13, 14 and 15 isn’t condoning and encouraging underage sex, then I don’t know what is!”.

If you are concerned about what is happening in schools in the name of sex education, please contact SPUC at politics@spuc.org.uk to find out how you can challenge parliamentary candidates in the forthcoming general election on this issue and on other vital pro-life issues.

---

[1] The funding is confirmed at http://www.foundationpsa.org.uk/page.asp?ID=16

[2] Cornwall County Council – March 2014 – see http://www.cllrandrewwallis.co.uk/cornwall-council-launches-traffic-light-tool-for-positive-relationships-and-healthy-sexual-development/

[3] See http://www.brook.org.uk/old/index.php/guidance?tid=6

[4] See http://www.brook.org.uk/old/index.php/traffic-light-tool-0-to-5

Comments on this blog? Email them to johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk
Sign up for alerts to new blog-posts and/or for SPUC's other email services
Follow SPUC on Twitter
Like SPUC's Facebook Page
Please support SPUC. Please donate, join, and/or leave a legacy

Parents must be at the centre of sex education, says Safe at School

Antonia Tully

SPUC's Safe at School campaign has said that parents must be at the centre of sex education, in response to the report from the House of Commons Education Committee on PSHE and SRE in schools.

Antonia Tully of Safe at School told the media this morning:

"Parents constantly find themselves having to battle with schools in order to protect their children from inappropriate sex education. The recommendation from the Education Committee that parents can continue to withdraw their children from sex education, isn't addressing this problem."

We don't need new sex education guidelines either. We already have guidelines for schools which repeatedly stress that parents must be involved. What is missing is a robust mechanism to ensure that schools really do engage with parents.
Parents are the primary educators of their children, they are natural sex educators of their children and they are the experts on their own children."

Comments on this blog? Email them to johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk
Sign up for alerts to new blog-posts and/or for SPUC's other email services
Follow SPUC on Twitter
Like SPUC's Facebook Page
Please support SPUC. Please donate, join, and/or leave a legacy

Both you and I are incompatible with life, Ms Daly

Clare Daly TD

Last Tuesday, a pro-abortion private member's bill was defeated in the Dáil (the Irish Parliament) by 104 votes to 20.

The Bill, introduced by Clare Daly TD (pictured), of the Socialist Party, was defeated by 104 votes to 20. The bill was designed to allow abortion in the cases of babies with life limiting conditions i.e. babies who are expected to die at birth or soon after.

Patrick Buckley, Director of European Life Network Ireland and one of SPUC's UN consultants, says:

"There has been a persistent attempt by Clare Daly and her pro-abortion colleagues to legalise abortion of children with life limiting conditions, such as anencephaly and Trisomy 18 or 13 - children who are being callously described by Daly ond others as being ‘incompatible with life’.

"This most inhumane attack on the most vulnerable members of our society was perpetrated under the guise of women’s rights and it must be resisted at all costs. Disabled babies have a right to life, the most fundamental right, shared by all members of the human family."

In the event, the bill was deemed to be unconstitutional, due to clause 40.3.3. (the Eighth Amendment) of the Irish constitution which states:

“The State acknowledges the right to life of the unborn and, with due regard to the equal right to life of the mother, guarantees in its laws to respect, and, as far as practicable, by its laws to defend and vindicate that right.”

Enda Kenny, the Prime Minister, had been briefed by the Irish Attorney General that the bill was unconstitutional and the cabinet as well as all Labour TDs were told to vote against the bill for this reason.

Clare Daly during the Dáil debate disputed the unconstitutionality of the bill and has called for a referendum to repeal the Eight Amendment.

Pat Buckley warns:

“It would be foolish to take comfort from the result on the basis that the government could not have voted in favour of a bill they had been advised was unconstitutional. There is no doubt that Daly mounted a strong campaign judging by the fact that many of those who voted against the bill expressed sympathy with its objectives, including the Minister for Health Leo Varadkar. Three members of the Fianna Fail party also voted for it, including the health and justice spokesmen. Daly’s approach ignores the hundreds of women who decide to give life a chance and allow their babies to live as long as they possibly can. It is also very hurtful to such women when Daly and her colleagues describe their babies as ‘non-viable’ and ‘incompatible with life’.”

I would add: "Incompatible with life", in this context, means a person will die, as does "non-viable". Just in case you don't know, Ms Daly, if you must use such language, both you and I are "incompatible with life" and "non-viable".

Comments on this blog? Email them to johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk
Sign up for alerts to new blog-posts and/or for SPUC's other email services
Follow SPUC on Twitter
Like SPUC's Facebook Page
Please support SPUC. Please donate, join, and/or leave a legacy

Cardinal Burke visits England in March

SPUC is pleased to announce a talk by Cardinal Raymond Burke, patron of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta Remaining in the truth of Christ on holy matrimony on Friday, 6^th March, 2015, at 7 pm, at Abbey Suite, Doubletree by Hilton Hotel, Warrington Road, Chester, CH2 3PD. All are welcome. Admission free.  

Cardinal Burke is also speaking at SPUC’s youth conference. The SPUC Youth Conference will take place from the 6-8^th of March 2015 at the Ramada Plaza Hotel in Southport. It is a unique opportunity to motivate the pro-life youth to go out and spread the pro-life message. The price of the youth conference is £100, including all meals and accommodation. Contact rhoslynthomas@spuc.org.uk A few sponsored places are available.

Comments on this blog? Email them to johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk
Sign up for alerts to new blog-posts and/or for SPUC's other email services
Follow SPUC on Twitter
Like SPUC's Facebook Page
Please support SPUC. Please donate, join, and/or leave a legacy

See how SPUC's youth conference forms the next pro-life generation

Rhoslyn Thomas, head of the Youth & Students division, has sent me the following report on last year's Youth Conference in Telford. Rhoslyn hopes to spread the word about the upcoming Youth Conference in Southport (6-8 March) where another excellent line-up of speakers will help to form the next generation of pro-life activists. The talks given at that conference will be published on this blog over the coming weeks.

Below are the recordings of two talks delivered at last year’s International Youth Conference 2014, held in Telford. The conference was very well received with a top range of speakers, as can be seen from the YouTube videos.

The first video shows a debate between Dr. Helen Watt of the Anscombe Centre and Dr. Anthony McCarthy of SPUC. The debate is designed to be an example of arguments used for and against abortion from a philosophical position, with Dr. McCarthy playing devil’s advocate and Dr. Helen Watt putting forward the pro-life position.

Example debate between Dr. Helen Watt of the Anscombe Centre 

and Dr. Anthony McCarthy of SPUC

The following video is of a talk delivered by Dr. William Newton, Associate Professor of Theology at the Franciscan University of Steubenville, Austria Progam. Dr. Newton’s talk points out with great clarity the relationship between a contraceptive culture and abortion. He examines the practical consequences of society’s changing views on sex and how practically abortions flows from such changes in attitude.

Relationship between a contraceptive culture and abortion
Dr William Newton

This year, the SPUC Youth Conference will take place from the 6-8th of March 2015 at the Ramada Plaza Hotel in Southport. The line-up of speakers will include Cardinal Burke, the newly appointed patron of the Sovereign Order of Malta. The title of Cardinal Burke’s talk will be: The New Evangelisation of the Fallen Christian West.

The Youth Conference is a unique opportunity to unite and motivate the pro-life youth to go out and spread the pro-life message amongst their peers, as well as in their families and communities. Amongst young people, some are enthusiastic but lack proper up-to-date information, others are well-informed but need to be inspired to carry on the pro-life fight. The youth conference serves both groups: simultaneously educating and motivating the youth of today.

Comments on this blog? Email them to johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk
Sign up for alerts to new blog-posts and/or for SPUC's other email services
Follow SPUC on Twitter
Like SPUC's Facebook Page
Please support SPUC. Please donate, join, and/or leave a legacy

Albert Gibson's love poem to Betty Gibson, my friend and great pro-life figure

Yesterday I had the pleasure of visiting Albert Gibson in Belfast - with whom I'm pictured (right). Albert is the patriarch of the Gibson family, a family which has provided truly great pro-life leadership in Northern Ireland for 35 years.

At 93, Albert is full of life. He gets the bus into town every day to go to Mass. He meets Gerard, his eldest son every week in town to play chess. Albert has won awards for his poetry and he has plans to publish his latest work Requiem sans Musique in the near future.

Above all he lives for love - love of his family and love of Betty, who died on 4th August 2009, for whom he goes to Mass to pray daily. May she rest in peace.

As well as making and serving the dinners in the local primary school, Betty raised her family and led the pro-life battle in Northern Ireland for 30 years. She was one of the most well-informed pro-lifers I've ever met and politicians of all parties and faiths in Northern Ireland held her in the highest respect. My personal friendship with Betty and her family has been a joy and anchor for me for over three decades.

Albert's Requiem without Music begins with some verses which speak of the love they shared. He has

kindly given me permission to reproduce these verses, entitled "Lovely Days":

Lovely are my gentle hills
in the sun of summer bathing.
Across the sky fleeced and white,
Heaven's sheep are grazing.
And I, and I with no regrets
feel young in Love and happy.

Gentle are my lovely hills,
precious autumn falling,
rich and golden from on high
on this land so blessed.
And I, and I more grateful yet
for Love is poured out on me.

Shrouded now my silent hills
in mists and rains that curtain
and slowly trail 'mid quiet trees
in streams, Joys not forgotten.
And I, and I can speak of Love,
the fountain, pure, eternal.

Green, green my Antrim hills,
alive, awake, a'stirring
with strong new growth
and birds in Love
with the world renewing.
And I, and I, sweet reverie
those lovely days recalling,
regretting none, relive each one
my life of Joy with Betty.

That my eyes should see
on Belfast Lough,
'neath a sky bruised red and bleeding
as the dying sun leaves us both alone,
the lough's last horizon
And you, and I, our arms entwined
shall stroll to Love's Beginning.

Comments on this blog? Email them to johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk
Sign up for alerts to new blog-posts and/or for SPUC's other email services
Follow SPUC on Twitter
Like SPUC's Facebook Page
Please support SPUC. Please donate, join, and/or leave a legacy

Canada’s top court rules doctors can help kill patients; overturns assisted suicide law

John-Henry Westen (pictured, the editor of LifeSite news, has just issued the following statement. It contains news of a truly shocking development in Canada which has, as he puts it, "significant international ramifications":

In a decision that has significant international ramifications, Canada's Supreme Court today legalized assisted suicide. This heart-breaking decision will not only affect our Canadian readers, but will inevitably set an unofficial precedent for courts in the U.S. and elsewhere. Our readers in those countries need to be aware of this decision, in order to be better prepared to oppose this encroaching element of the Culture of Death. Read our breaking news report on the decision here, or below.

On a practical note for supporters in Britain, there is growing pressure on Parliament to make time for Lord Falconer's Assisted Dying bill, after the general election, so that it becomes a law. We must strenuously oppose any such move.It is essential that we elect people to Parliament who will vote to spare the elderly and the vulnerable from the threat of being killed by assisted suicide. Please contact me to find out how you can help SPUC's general election campaign.

Comments on this blog? Email them to johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk
Sign up for alerts to new blog-posts and/or for SPUC's other email services
Follow SPUC on Twitter
Like SPUC's Facebook Page
Please support SPUC. Please donate, join, and/or leave a legacy

Cloning regulations: UK "are the pioneers of abuses of unborn children"

Paul Tully, SPUC general secretary

SPUC has issued the following statement today on the House of Commons debate today on cloning regulations:

SPUC is calling on MPs to reject the so-called "three-parent" embryo regulations designed to allow the cloning of embryos. The regulations would permit human germ-line manipulation for the first time.

The Society is appealing to MPs to oppose the regulations being debated in the House of Commons today which would allow cloned human embryos to be created and implanted in a woman.

Commenting on the background to today's debate, Paul Tully (pictured, above), General Secretary of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, said:

"The 1990 Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act was not intended to permit human cloning, and so the alteration of germ-line genetic material was forbidden.

"However, the proponents of the 1990 Act held out promises of cures and medical advances for children with inherited diseases if they were allowed to use some embryos as guinea-pigs. These benefits failed to materialise.

"In 2001 Parliament was asked to amend the embryology law to allow limited genetic manipulation and the wider use of embryos as guinea-pigs. On that occasion MPs were again misled with false claims about how regenerative medicine could not advance without cannibalising embryos for their embryonic stem cells (ESCs). As we in SPUC predicted at the time, this technique also failed, because embryo stem cells were carcinogenic. Ethical techniques using stem-cells from adults have proved successful.

"In 2008, wider amendments to the 1990 Act were put forward to pave the way for human cloning, and mitochondrial disease was for the first time the centre of concerns.

"The creation of cloning entails destroying some embryos in an attempt to create others. It discriminates against those with undesired genetic traits.

"It sets a precedent for wider cloning of human beings, not in a sinister dictatorship or science fiction world, but here in the UK. We are the pioneers of abuses of unborn children like legalised abortion, IVF and genetic screening, and we are in danger of losing all feeling for the victims of such medicalised exploitation.

"MPs have been consistently misled in the past about the prospects of success and the future intentions of those who want to use the tiniest humans - human embryos - for experiments. They should reject today's proposals," concluded Mr Tully.

Comments on this blog? Email them to johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk
Sign up for alerts to new blog-posts and/or for SPUC's other email services
Follow SPUC on Twitter
Like SPUC's Facebook Page
Please support SPUC. Please donate, join, and/or leave a legacy

Scandalous omissions, ambiguities and confusion in Family Synod final report must be redressed

Matthew McCusker of
SPUC and Voice of the Family

Three members of SPUC's staff attended the Pontifical Council for the Family (PCF) conference on the Family Synod last month.

They were also representing Voice of the Family, an initiative of Catholic laity from 23 major pro-life/pro-family organisations worldwide, co-founded and funded by the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children. Last week Voice of the Family issued a statement criticising Cardinal Baldiserri, the organizer of the Synod on the Family, for further undermining Catholic teaching on the indissolubility of marriage.

Now in an new development, Voice of the Family has submitted proposals, (drafted by Matthew McCusker, pictured above) to the Pontifical Council for the Family's Family Synod consultation - proposals which strongly criticise the final report of the Extraordinary Synod for failing to refer to more than "one billion unborn human lives", at a conservative estimate, killed by abortion "since the proliferation of permissive abortion legislation around the world".

Voice of the Family's submission states:

Abortion is the gravest attack on the family because it attacks the relationship between a mother and father and their child. The profound love that should exist between parent and child is instead replaced by betrayal and death.

There was no reference to this deliberate killing in the final relatio of the Extraordinary Synod. Nor was there any mention of the destruction of human life caused by in vitro fertilisation or abortifacient forms of contraception.

It is perhaps even more scandalous that the only indirect mention of abortion was a reference to a “decline in population” partly due to “a mentality against having children promoted by the world politics of reproductive health” (No. 10) Here cardinals and bishops adopt the euphemism of the pro-abortion lobby and do nothing to explain what “reproductive health” really involves, namely, the killing of unborn children or the prevention of their conception.

The Ordinary Synod needs to face the reality of abortion – to call things by their proper name – and to call all Catholics and people of good will to combat the greatest violation of human rights in human history.

As well as destroying innocent life abortion wounds all other members of the family. Families marked by abortion are truly ‘wounded families.’ Pastoral care for these families, based on the truth about abortion, needs proposing with urgency (my emphasis).

Voice of the Family is equally strong in its criticism of omissions and ambiguities in the Extraordinary Synod final report's treatment of marriage, contraception, euthanasia and assisted suicide, natural law, homosexuality, gender theory, sex education and parents as primary educators, and calls for clear, unambiguous teaching on these issues.

The Voice of the Family submission concludes:

Concern is growing across the Catholic world. Parents fear that their children will grow up in a world where they will have to endure suffering and persecution if they strive to live according to the natural moral law and the teaching of the Church. This problem must be dealt with by the Ordinary Synod.

Matthew McCusker, SPUC and Voice of the Family researcher and writer, comments; "The scandalous omissions, ambiguities and confusion which characterise the final report of the Extraordinary Synod must be fully redressed in the Ordinary Synod later this year. Concerned laypeople wishing to help through prayer and action should contact enquiry@voiceofthefamily.info"

Comments on this blog? Email them to johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk
Sign up for alerts to new blog-posts and/or for SPUC's other email services
Follow SPUC on Twitter
Like SPUC's Facebook Page
Please support SPUC. Please donate, join, and/or leave a legacy

Snail embryos learn from experiences in the egg – just as unborn children learn in the womb

A remarkable piece of research provides evidence of the ability of a snail embryo to learn information that will be used in later life. The ability of snail embryos has parallels in human development, the research points out.

The researchers, from three UK universities, published their report before Christmas in the journal Freshwater Biology. It showed that snails exposed to the smell of predators during the embryonic development stage were better able to avoid those predators after the snails had hatched. They did this both by developing shells that were more protective and by crawling out of dangerous waters.

The question of whether or not to leave the water is an important one for a snail, as it may save it from a predator but carries the risk of desiccation, so getting it right may be literally a matter of life or death. Lead author of the report, Dr Sarah Dalesman of the University of Aberystwyth, expressed surprise at just how well the embryonic snails were able to learn, concluding that this ability might be extremely important in improving the survival chances of the young snails after hatching.

The report also found that embryonic snails that were exposed to a predator smell hatched out smaller, on average, than others that were kept in predator-free conditions. As the report itself notes, this mirrors the effects of stress in the development of mammals, including humans, where foetuses of stressed mothers typically have lower birth weights than others.

One of the key conclusions drawn by the authors is that “embryonic experience may therefore be extremely important in allowing populations to persist”. The opening words of the report, presenting a summary of the key findings, similarly comment that the biology in the very early life stages may – in terms of influencing the dynamics and survival of the population – be as important as, or even more important than, later stages.

So much for snails. What do we know about the ability of unborn humans to learn?

Plenty of studies have demonstrated that memories can be set down before birth, and that these can influence behaviour after birth. One such study (reported in The Independent and Daily Telegraph on 4 April 1995) was carried out by Dr Peter Hepper, then professor of psychology at Queen’s University in Belfast. Dr Hepper was no pro-life advocate, as he was suggesting that his studies could help mothers to make a choice as to whether or not to abort children with Down’s syndrome. His report, though, found that:

• an unborn child can start to learn and remember during the second trimester of the mother’s pregnancy, so between 4 and 6 months;
• from 24 weeks, unborn babies can recognise and remember sounds, and distinguish between those that are important to them and those that are not;
• the unborn baby can recognise his or her mother’s voice from around 30 weeks.

A second report of Dr Hepper’s, this time reported in The Lancet on 11 June 1998, found that babies stopped crying and became more alert when played the theme tune from the Australian soap Neighbours if their mothers had watched the programme during pregnancy.

Two other researchers, from Keele University, found that unborn children could lay down musical memories from the 30th week of pregnancy, and possibly as early as the 20th week, before the cerebral cortex is fully functional .

In 2013, the University of Washington reported that unborn babies start to learn language and, within just hours of birth, can differentiate between sounds from languages to which they have been exposed in the womb and the sounds of other languages .

Moving from sound to smell, a French report, published in 2001, showed that the babies of mothers who ate anise during pregnancy were attracted to the odour after birth, whereas other young babies were either neutral or repelled by the smell .

If snails can learn life-saving skills at the embryonic state, it is hardly surprising that young humans can also start to learn matters of importance before birth. Any internet search will quickly demonstrate a wealth of evidence that the unborn baby can learn – whether speech, music, other sounds, or smell. These studies collectively demonstrate yet again the scientific fact that human development is a continuous process that starts at conception.

Comments on this blog? Email them to johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk
Sign up for alerts to new blog-posts and/or for SPUC's other email services
Follow SPUC on Twitter
Like SPUC's Facebook Page
Please support SPUC. Please donate, join, and/or leave a legacy

US Agency for International Development linked to forced sterilisation camps in India

Fiorella Nash, an SPUC political researcher, has sent me the following harrowing report:

The Population Research Institute (PRI) has published a damning report exposing India’s forced sterilisation camps. In the name of reaching family planning quotas, women in the most populous parts of India have been sterilised in filthy and dangerous conditions. Cases reported by PRI include:

• Doctors using bicycle pumps to inflate women’s wombs

• Repeated use of unsterilized needles and other equipment

• Operations performed without adequate anaesthesia

• Old school buildings lacking electricity and running water used as operating theatres

• Little or no aftercare

• Antibiotics contaminated with rat poison

• One doctor performing over 80 operations in a couple of hours.

The victims of this aggressive sterilisation campaign were reportedly bribed with small amounts of money while others were forced or deceived, with some only discovering that the operation would leave them infertile when it was too late. Women have died and hundreds of survivors left traumatised and disabled for life by these procedures, but outside India the story continues to be underreported.

USAID has denied any connection with coercive policies, but documents have been unearthed linking USAID with programmes going back as far as the 1990s. According to PRI, USAID not only helped to fund population programmes but offered technical support. The scale of USAID’s underhand dealings includes the setting up of what PRI has described as “an unaccountable agency to operate away from public view and outside the democratic process.” It is hard to see how an organisation that has gone to such lengths to cover its tracks could possibly have acted in innocence.

I will return to this matter in future blogposts - with suggestions for action on the part of concerned readers.

Comments on this blog? Email them to johnsmeaton@spuc.org.ukSign up for alerts to new blog-posts and/or for SPUC's other email services
Follow SPUC on Twitter
Like SPUC's Facebook Page
Please support SPUC. Please donate, join, and/or leave a legacy

Cardinal Baldisseri is undermining Catholic teaching

Patrick Buckley, SPUC's international
envoy, speaks out at Vatican conference

Voice of the Family*, a coalition of leaders of 23 pro-family and pro-life groups worldwide, has issued a statement criticising Cardinal Baldisseri, the organizer of the forthcoming Synod on the Family, saying that his comments last week have further undermined Catholic teaching on the indissolubility of marriage. SPUC is co-founder of Voice of the Family.

The cardinal was speaking at an international conference in Rome organized by the Pontifical Council for the Family.

Voice of the Family reports:

[Cardinal] Baldisseri defended the right of Walter Cardinal Kasper to assert that divorced persons living in unions not recognised by the Church should be permitted to receive Holy Communion. Baldisseri, in response to a concerned pro-family advocate, told delegates that we should not be 'shocked' by theologians contradicting Church teaching.

The Cardinal said that dogmas can evolve and that there would be no point holding a Synod if we were simply to repeat what had always been said. He also suggested that just because a particular understanding was held 2,000 years ago does not mean that it cannot be challenged.

Patrick Buckley (pictured), international envoy for the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, commented: “The Church teaching on the indissolubility of marriage is founded on the words of Jesus Christ. These words may have been spoken 2,000 years ago but for Catholics they remain nothing other than the unchanging commands of God.”

Patrick Buckley and Philomena, his wife, are the parents of seven children and they have twenty grandchildren.

*Voice of the Family is an initiative of Catholic laity formed in support of the Synod on the Family 2014 - 2015.

Comments on this blog? Email them to johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk
Sign up for alerts to new blog-posts and/or for SPUC's other email services
Follow SPUC on Twitter
Like SPUC's Facebook Page
Please support SPUC. Please donate, join, and/or leave a legacy

First speech by Head of Russian Orthodox Church in Duma calls for nationwide abortion ban

First speech by Head of Russian Orthodox Church in Duma – calls on MPs to campaign against abortion
In the first ever speech by a head of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Russian parliament (the Duma) Patriarch Kirill of Moscow has called for state funding of abortion to end and action towards a complete nationwide ban. The Patriarch said, “The argument that a ban would cause an increase in the number of underground abortions is pure nonsense.”  He called for abortion to be excluded from the list of services covered by mandatory medical insurance. He also said that banning abortion would help address concerns over population in Russia. [23 January, Orthodoxmag]

Pro-lifers march in Washington D.C.
The 42^nd annual March For Life took place in Washington D.C. on Thursday 22 January 2015. The march began with Benediction led by Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville, Kentucky. The march attracted hundreds of thousands of people who were addressed by Congressman Chris Smith, March for Life President Jeanne Monahan Mancini and Congresswoman Kathy McMorris-Rogers, who is the head of the House Down syndrome caucus and mother of a son with Down’s Syndrome. Pope Francis sent a message via Twitter to show his support for the march - “Every life is a gift.  #MarchForLife”. [22 January, LifeSiteNews]

House of Representatives passes bill to ban state funding for abortion
As the March for Life was passing through Washington D.C., a bill was passed the House of Representatives which would ban state funding for abortion, including tax credits offered through ‘Obamacare’. The bill was approved by 242-179 although President Obama has said he will veto the legislation. [22 January, BBC News]

Adoption by same-sex couples debated in Portuguese Parliament
This week the Portuguese parliament debated three bills which would mean a change in the law allowing adoption and ‘equality’ in “medically assisted procreation” for same-sex couples. A spokesman for the Party for Animals and Nature (PAN) said, “An adult’s sexual orientation has no impact on his or her parental abilities nor does it interfere with the development of children’s personalities”. In a survey conducted on the subject of same-sex adoption, 41.5% of respondents said that the President of Portugal should call a referendum to decide the matter. [22 January, The Portugal News]

Abortion
China has the most serious gender imbalance in the world [21 January, Financial Times]
Bill banning abortion after 20 weeks fails in the House of Representatives [22 January, The Federalist]

Methodist human rights lobbyist mocks March For Life [23 January, First Things] 

Comments on this blog? Email them to johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk
Sign up for alerts to new blog-posts and/or for SPUC's other email services
Follow SPUC on Twitter
Like SPUC's Facebook Page
Please support SPUC. Please donate, join, and/or leave a legacy

Alison Davis would have been 60 today

Alison Davis, who ran SPUC's work for the disabled for three decades and who was a worldwide public figure through her personal witness to the sanctity of human life, would have been 60 today.

Alison, in the lives she saved, and in the lives she turned around, changed history. May she rest in peace.

Without her work, the most defenceless of all human beings - anencephalic babies, for example - would have been deprived of their greatest champion. Her powerful writings and her talks on anencephalic babies and on other people with disabilities (who are so often completely rejected, not least by people of power, particularly before birth and/or at the end of their lives) will be read, I believe, in centuries to come.

To mark the occasion, Colin Harte, her full-time carer for 24 years, has published a moving blogpost.

Celebrate Alison's birth by reading it.

Comments on this blog? Email them to johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk
Sign up for alerts to new blog-posts and/or for SPUC's other email services
Follow SPUC on Twitter
Like SPUC's Facebook Page
Please support SPUC. Please donate, join, and/or leave a legacy

Catholic laypeople must have maturity to speak up about bad things happening at highest levels in the church

This morning, I spoke during Mass in the parish church of St Theresa of the Child Jesus, in north west London, about the Extraordinary Synod on the Family in Rome last October.

Interestingly, my talk was very well received ... Interesting, because I spoke very directly about the teaching of Jesus Christ on the indissolubility of marriage and on the church's unchanging, unchangeable teaching on contraception and on homosexual acts. I have never had so many parishioners approach with me to express their appreciation after a talk. Even though I was speaking as a Catholic, I made it clear that these issues are profoundly related to the battle against the culture of death. I also emphasised that Catholics must be mature enough to speak up when there are clearly serious problems at the highest levels of the Church.

Here's what I said - just after Cardinal Nichols's pastoral letter on the Synod had been presented by Fr Richard Parsons, the parish priest ...

Fr Richard has kindly invited me to say a few words about Voice of the Family, an international initiative of the Catholic laity involving 23 pro-life and pro-family organizations from five continents around the world. We formed Voice of the Family in order to offer to our bishops our expertise and resources before, during and after the Extraordinary Synod on the Family, throughout most of October in Rome - a process which will culminate in the Ordinary Synod on the Family in October 2015. A team of us spent much of October in Rome, meeting and briefing many of the Synod Fathers, and writing reports on what was happening, both the good and the bad, and a team of us will be going to Rome for virtually the whole of October next year, doing the same job.

The following unchanging truths lie at the heart of the work of Voice of the Family:

• Sacramental marriage, binding parents together in an indissoluble union, is the greatest protector of children both born and unborn.
• The artificial separation of the unitive and procreative dimensions of the sexual act, in other words contraception and in vitro fertilisation, is a major cause of the culture of death.
• Parents are the primary educators of their children and it is through the education and formation of parents, and future parents, that the culture of life will be built.

Why do Catholic laymen and laywomen consider they have the right to go to Rome to advise their bishops on family issues, or advise them at all for that matter? Surely it’s the exclusive job of the Holy Spirit to guide the Church over the centuries?

Like Fr Richard, I want to make three points, but time is short so I will just make two!

Firstly, the Holy Spirit, Who guides the Church, guides the Church through people - through Fr Richard’s homilies, for example, and, according to Blessed John Henry Newman, through all sorts of people in the Church and in all sorts of ways: In July 1859, Blessed John Henry Newman, one of the patrons of St Theresa’s parish, wrote in an article in The Rambler: "I think I am right in saying that the tradition of the Apostles, committed to the whole Church in its various constituents and functions ... manifests itself variously at various times: sometimes by the mouth of the [bishops], sometimes by the doctors, sometimes by the people,sometimes by liturgies, rites, ceremonies, and customs, by events, disputes, movements, and all those other phenomena which are comprised under the name of history. It follows", Blessed John Henry Newman said, "that none of those channels of tradition may be treated with disrespect ...”

Secondly, how many Catholic lay men and women are there, worldwide, who are not acutely aware, in their own family lives of the crisis in family life? We Catholic parents and Catholic grandparents really are experts in this field because of the many crises we ourselves experience in our own families. In this connection, it was good to see in the final report of last October’s Extraordinary Synod on the Family, a section which clearly links this crisis in family life to a “crisis of faith” throughout the Church.

I have referred to a good aspect of the final report of the Extraordinary Synod on the Family. Unfortunately there are bad aspects too: Cardinal Raymond Burke said the interim report was “a gravely flawed document and does not express adequately the teaching and discipline of the Church and, in some aspects, propagates doctrinal error and a false pastoral approach”, a view shared by many other leading cardinals and archbishops. I am very sorry to share with you that some of these elements remain in the final report.

Catholic laypeople, in the light of the worldwide crisis of faith, must be mature enough to recognize that bad things can happen even at the highest levels of the Church, and we must be confident in speaking out when that's the situation.

In addition, it is striking that the final report of a synod purportedly on the theme, “The Pastoral Challenges of the Family in the Context of Evangelization”, fails to mention abortion, in-vitro fertilisation, embryo experimentation, gender theory, euthanasia, assisted suicide and threats to the freedom to live according to the moral law and the teaching of the Catholic Church.

Another grave omission is that there is no mention of the severity of the threat currently faced by parents. The most pressing threats, which vary from nation to nation, include:

- The denial of the right of parents to control what their children are taught in schools i.e.
through the imposition by the state of compulsory anti-life, anti-family sex education.
- The provision of access to abortion and contraception in schools without parental knowledge or consent, including in Catholic schools
- The requirement for teachers to instruct children in the new definition of ‘marriage’ in
countries where ‘same-sex marriage’ has been legalised - a policy being enacted in some Catholic primary schools in London

The failure of the final document to address these issues is a grave betrayal of families.

The threats to freedom outlined above are not the only threats faced by families. Cases are multiplying all over the world of individuals who have seen their livelihoods destroyed or threatened by a vigorous and intolerant homosexual lobby which demands complete approval and compliance. Cases include attempts to force Bed and Breakfast owners to accept homosexual couples sharing beds on their premises and to force bakers to bake cakes celebrating ‘same-sex marriages’. We have also seen employees punished for expressing their views on ‘same-sex marriage’ and homosexuality and religious ministers and street preachers arrested for sharing their traditional Christian views. Most seriously of all we see children being indoctrinated into the same-sex rights agenda in their schools. All of this has developed against a longer term background of threats to the right to conscientious objection to involvement in grave moral offences such as abortion.

Concern is growing across the Catholic world. Parents fear that their children will grow up in a world where they will have to face great hardships if they strive to live according to the natural moral law and the teaching of the Church. Yet the authors of the Family Synod final report, in Section 6, merely refer to the “general feeling of powerlessness” felt by families without any discussion of these realities.

Whilst in Rome, our Voice of the Family, which included Josephine, my wife, and myself, had the privilege of meeting outstanding, courageous bishops from Australasia and Oceania, Africa, north America and Europe - men who were prepared to insist on the unchanging and unchangeable teachings of Jesus Christ on marriage, and on the unchanging unchangeable doctrine of the church on intrinsic evil of homosexual acts, on contraceptive drugs and devices, and on parents as the primary educators of their children. These good pastors need our prayers since they are up against powerful forces within church structures.

For a fuller analysis of the problems do check out the Voice of the Family website details of which I am happy to share with you after Mass as well as tell you how you can help.

Comments on this blog? Email them to johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk
Sign up for alerts to new blog-posts and/or for SPUC's other email services
Follow SPUC on Twitter
Like SPUC's Facebook Page
Please support SPUC. Please donate, join, and/or leave a legacy

Voice of the Family, a worldwide lay Catholic initiative, backs Cardinal Burke's clarion call to promote truth on marriage

The final report of last October's family synod at the Vatican is seriously flawed and contains grave omissions which represent a serious danger to our families, to the sanctity of human life, and to the pro-life movement worldwide, according to an analysis produced by Voice of the Family, a lay Catholic initiative.

This final report forms part of the "Lineamenta" - that is the text written for next October's general synod (2015) - on which there will be worldwide consultation.

Voice of the Family - an initiative of Catholic laity from 23 major pro-life/pro-family organisations on 6 continents - has produced an in-depth analysis of the final report (relatio synodi), which looks at the serious philosophical problems underlying the approach adopted in the report. It also considers the grave omissions. It is striking that the final report of a synod purportedly on the theme, “The Pastoral Challenges of the Family in the Context of Evangelization”, fails to mention abortion, in-vitro fertilisation, embryo experimentation, gender theory, euthanasia, assisted suicide and threats to the freedom to live according to the moral law and the teaching of the Catholic Church.

Meanwhile, since the 2014 October Synod, Cardinal Burke has been tireless in his defence and explanation of Catholic doctrine on marriage. In an interview last week (19th December) in Le Figaro magazine, His Eminence says:

"I am ... very worried, and I call upon all Catholics, laymen, priests, and bishops, to involve themselves, from now up to the upcoming Synodal assembly, in order to highlight the truth on marriage."

Here is an extract from Le Figaro interview:

Were you shocked with what took place in the Synod?

The synod was a difficult experience. There was a line, that of Cardinal Kasper, we might say, behind which lined up those who had in their hands the direction of the synod. In fact, the intermediate document [relatio post disceptationem] seemed to have had already been written before the interventions of the Synodal Fathers! And according to a single line, in favor of the position of Cardinal Kasper... The homosexual question was also introduced, which has no relation with the question of marriage, by looking for positive elements in it. Another highly troubling point: the intermediate text made no reference to Scripture, nor to the Tradition of the Church, nor to the teaching of John Paul II on conjugal love. It was therefore highly off-putting. As also the fact that in the final report were kept paragraphs on homosexuality and the remarried divorcees that had not however been adopted by the requisite majority of bishops.

What are the stakes in what has become a controversy?

In an age filled with confusion, as we see with Gender Theory, we need the teaching of the Church on marriage. Yet, we are on the contrary pushed towards a direction for the admission to communion of divorced and remarried persons. Without mentioning this obsession with lightening the procedures of annulment of the marital bond. All this will lead de facto to a kind of "Catholic divorce", and to the weakening of the indissolubility of marriage, whose principle is nonetheless reaffirmed. However, the Church must defend marriage, and not weaken it. The indissolubility of marriage is not a penance, nor a suffering. It is a great beauty for those who live it, it is a source of joy. I am therefore very worried, and I call upon all Catholics, laymen, priests, and bishops, to involve themselves, from now up to the upcoming Synodal assembly, in order to highlight the truth on marriage.

Inspired by Cardinal Burke's clarion call to all Catholics to promote the truth about marriage, I urge you to read and act upon the Voice of the Family report - which concludes:

Action points

• Please join the Voice of the Family prayer campaign for the Cardinals and Bishops attending the Ordinary Synod in 2015; may they reaffirm the Catholic faith as taught by the Magisterium for twenty centuries
• Please write to your bishops and parish clergy and make them aware of the problems with the approach being adopted at the Synod and ask them reaffirm the Catholic faith

Comments on this blog? Email them to johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk
Sign up for alerts to new blog-posts and/or for SPUC's other email services
Follow SPUC on Twitter
Like SPUC's Facebook Page
Please support SPUC. Please donate, join, and/or leave a legacy

SPUC branch puts the unborn child at centre of Christmas celebration

The Rutland and Melton branch of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children has, for many years, entered a tree in their town's Christmas Tree festival at St. Mary's C of E Church.

Frances Levett, SPUC's local leader in Melton, tells me:

"The festival, as usual, was supported by hundreds of local organisations and individuals who entered almost 1,000 trees in total, about 300 of which were large themed trees like our own.

"It is always a challenge to put anything pro-life in a public showcase without attracting accusations that we are causing offence. Round the tree was a ribbon asking visitors to question themselves, "When does life begin?"

"All credit must go to a new member, Ruth Escreet
Ruth also made silver bows with a tiny baby in the centre waving at us, and Sandra Ford made black and white baby photos. I hope you will agree that the result was elegant and tasteful, while making our pro-life point effectively. Perhaps a tribute to this may be found in the fact that the church included our tree as one in their children's quiz: "Find the tree with the baby on top". It's  interesting that they did not say, "The one with the foetus on top!"

Comments on this blog? Email them to johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk
Sign up for alerts to new blog-posts and/or for SPUC's other email services
Follow SPUC on Twitter
Like SPUC's Facebook Page
Please support SPUC. Please donate, join, and/or leave a legacy

Glasgow midwives lose fight for conscientious objection

The Supreme Court has rejected the opportunity to uphold the right of conscientious objection for senior midwives who refuse to supervise abortions performed on a labour ward. Today's decision issued in the Supreme Court has been condemned by those who backed the Glasgow midwives' fight for their right to work in the NHS without being involved in abortions.

The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) which paid the midwives’ legal expenses throughout the case has said that senior midwives who refuse to kill babies could be forced to leave the profession.

Mary Doogan and Connie Wood (pictured right), the midwives in the case, commented on the judgment:

“We are both saddened and extremely disappointed with today's verdict from the Supreme Court and can only imagine the subsequent detrimental consequences that will result from today's decision on staff of conscience throughout the UK.

“Despite it having been recognised that the number of abortions on the labour ward at our hospital is in fact a tiny percentage of the workload, which in turn could allow the accommodation of conscientious objection with minimal effort, this judgment, with its constraints and narrow interpretation, has resulted in the provision of a conscience clause which now in practice is meaningless for senior midwives on a labour ward.”

Paul Tully, general secretary of SPUC said:

“The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children acknowledges the great debt that the whole pro-life community owes to Mary Doogan and Connie Wood for fighting this battle over the past seven years. They have fought not only for their own careers, but for all current and future members of the profession who uphold the right to life of everyone, from the time of conception, without discrimination. We are bitterly disappointed for them.

“Today's decision sadly makes it likely that senior midwives who refuse to kill babies will be forced to leave the profession. Junior midwives might still be able to work in labour wards where abortions are performed but they will be restricted to 'staff midwife' status at best. They could easily be placed in an impossible situation by pro-abortion superiors, and would be unable to receive promotion to a more senior role without fear of being required to violate their consciences. This will affect anyone who objects to abortion, of any religion or none. It will create a second-class status in midwifery for those who only deliver babies and don't kill them.

“Furthermore, the court has used the opportunity of this case to decide that the conscience clause in the Abortion Act does not apply to General Practitioners and that hospital doctors asked to prescribe abortion drugs will not be covered by the conscience clause. We anticipate that this will lead to renewed efforts by health officials to force doctors who have a conscientious objection to abortion either to compromise their respect for human life or to leave the profession. SPUC will support and encourage doctors to resist any such bullying approach.

“The pro-abortion lobby has long argued that conscientious objectors should be required to refer women seeking legal abortion to other practitioners. Bodies such as the Department of Health have qualified this by saying that this only applies when the statutory grounds for a legal abortion apply, but the Supreme Court has said that any medical professional who refuses to provide an abortion should arrange for a referral to someone else who will do so. This seems to go far beyond the scope of the Abortion Act, and furthermore is not even an issue there was any need for the Court to decide in this case.

“The Court has nevertheless said that midwives and doctors with conscientious objections are obliged to refer abortion patients to colleagues who don't object to abortion. This goes further than the General Medical Council, for instance, whose current guidance Personal Belief and Medical Practice says that doctors should refer patients to another doctor, but does not require them to check their colleague's pro-abortion credentials.”

Comments on this blog? Email them to johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk
Sign up for alerts to new blog-posts and/or for SPUC's other email services
Follow SPUC on Twitter
Like SPUC's Facebook Page
Please support SPUC. Please donate, join, and/or leave a legacy

Joseph, SPUC's much-loved dispatch officer, retires after 24 years' service

Joseph Chiang, SPUC's dispatch officer, retired yesterday after nearly 25 years' loyal service to unborn children. Much loved by the Society's staff and volunteers, we gathered to celebrate this great servant and friend of the most vulnerable members of the community. Joseph is pictured in the centre, wearing a crucifix, standing in front of our youngest and tallest member of staff, Isaac Spencer.

Liz Foody, SPUC's dispatch manager and Joseph's line manager throughout most of that time, paid a lovely tribute to Joseph. Here's part of what she said:

"Joseph was born and raised in Uganda. In 1968, just three years before Idi Amin came to power, his grandmother, father and mother and 8 brothers and sisters moved to Birmingham where they lived with an aunt and uncle and their four children.

"He joined SPUC's staff in 1990 and has worked for us ever since.

"Joseph has travelled the world on many pilgrimages. Many a time he would leave work, travel overnight on Friday night to visit a Holy Shrine travelling back on the Sunday night and go straight into work on Monday morning.

"Joseph was always a very good time-keeper: First in, in the mornings, always on the dot of 8:15.

"Joseph, on behalf SPUC, I thank you most sincerely and wish many you year of retirement to spend with your family in Birmingham and of course happy birthday from us all."

Comments on this blog? Email them to johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk
Sign up for alerts to new blog-posts and/or for SPUC's other email services
Follow SPUC on Twitter
Like SPUC's Facebook Page
Please support SPUC. Please donate, join, and/or leave a legacy

Foetal alcohol judgment is anti-rational

The Court of Appeal's judgment today in the foetal alcohol syndrome case is anti-rational. SPUC has responded to the judgment in the case of CP v CICA http://www.judiciary.gov.uk/judgments/cp-v-cica/

The judges said that they thought babies who are victims of violence should not be compensated by the state in the way that other victims of violence are. Previously, children affected by FAS have received compensation. In today's judgment in the 'CP' case, the court has upheld cost-cutting changes in the Criminal Injury Compensation Authority practices and prioritised finance above welfare of children and expectant mothers.

Paul Tully, SPUC's general secretary, told the media earlier today:

"This cruel judgment not only leaves disabled children without just recompense, it flies in the face of common knowledge about when life begins and - it is anti-rational.

The judges use complex legal argument to explain why 80 children and babies whose lives are blighted by their mother's extremely heavy drinking in pregnancy will not receive compensation.

There is no need to prosecute any mother in order for the Criminal Injury Compensation Authority to award compensation to the babies who have been injured. Indeed, no-one, so far as we know, has even suggested that this is necessary.

In order to reach its decision the court relied on arcane legal rules which say that although unborn babies are distinct from their mother from the time of conception, they are not in law 'other' people or 'human persons'. This approach is anti-rational: it denies the known facts about human life and how babies develop.

The judges noted that children who die after birth because of injuries inflicted before they are born can be regarded as victims of crime. But the judges said that damage inflicted during pregnancy (such as alcohol poisoning) cannot be regarded as causing harm to the baby after birth because all the damage is done in the womb. According to the judges, the post-natal effects of fetal alcohol syndrome, which can include heart problems, learning difficulties, musculo-skeletal abnormalities and epilepsy, do not count as additional damage caused after birth.

This kind of argument seeks to find a difference where there is no distinction. It has no place in a legal judgment.

English law remains in denial about biology by refusing to recognise the human person in the womb. People start in life as embryos who grow into fetuses, who are called 'babies' when they are born and 'adults' when they are fully grown. Our judges are some of the most intelligent people in society, yet they deny the facts of human biology that children know."

Comments on this blog? Email them to johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk
Sign up for alerts to new blog-posts and/or for SPUC's other email services
Follow SPUC on Twitter
Like SPUC's Facebook Page
Please support SPUC. Please donate, join, and/or leave a legacy