Wednesday, 9 October 2013

Must-read pro-life news-stories, Wed 9 Oct

Top stories:

SPUC criticises new reason for non-prosecution of sex-selective abortion
SPUC has criticised the new reason put forward today for the non-prosecution of sex-selective abortion. SPUC was responding to the statement issued by Keir Starmer, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for England & Wales. Paul Tully, SPUC's general secretary, commented: "Keir Starmer, the DPP, has now contradicted the earlier announcement by Jenny Hopkins of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) which said that the decision not to prosecute was reached on the basis of the CPS public interest test. Now the DPP has said that it is essentially for lack of evidence that they are not going to proceed with any prosecution. The issue has clearly embarrassed the prosecuting authority. That embarrassment arises ultimately because the Department of Health under successive Secretaries of State not only refuses to ensure that doctors implement the grounds in the Abortion Act - providing abortions only when the grounds are met - but actually encourages doctors to offer abortion to any woman who says she wants one." [SPUC, 7 October]
Related stories:
Blind Dutch woman granted euthanasia
A blind Dutch woman has been granted her request for euthanasia in The Netherlands. The Daily Mail newspaper reported that: "Medics have killed a woman by lethal injection because she could not cope with becoming blind. In one of the first cases of euthanasia for a disability, the 70-year-old was deemed by doctors to be ‘suffering unbearably’. Anthony Ozimic of SPUC told the Mail: "It is medical negligence of a high order for the doctors in this case to have gone along with her suicidal ideas, rather than find effective means of managing whatever psychological issues may have been causing her to consider suicide. The Netherlands is a wealthy country which can  support people with blindness. Wherever euthanasia or assisted suicide has been allowed, so-called 'exceptional circumstances' are quickly becoming the norm and the criteria for death are expanding. Millions of people around the world are blind, yet these doctors in their callous arrogance have deemed that at least some blind people should be killed rather than treated. This is what is in store for the UK if Lord Falconer and Margo Macdonald get their bills through parliament." [Mail, 8 October]

Other stories:

Abortion and pregnancy
  • Remarkable new 3D images of unborn children [Mail, 8 October]
  • Marie Stopes International head-hunts top salesman to repeat its abortion business successes [SPUC youth blog, 8 October]
  • Babies born to smoking mums 'have smaller brains and are more anxious and moody than other children', suggests study [Mail, 7 October]
  • Pro-life Catholic vigils this month in Maidstone and Stratford [John Smeaton, 4 October]
Embryology
Euthanasia
  • European rights court to rule on assisted suicide [Expatica, 8 October]
  • Hans Kung, renowned dissident theologian, considering suicide for Parkinson’s [LifeSiteNews.com, 3 October] Anthony Ozimic of SPUC commented: "It is one of the tragedies of modern Church history that Hans Kung did not become a great defender of life as his fellow peritusat the Second Vatican Council, Joseph Ratzinger. Unlike Kung, Ratzinger saw that the Western cultural revolution which started in the late 1960s was an anarchic rebellion against the principles which safeguard civilisation. Voluntary self-destruction is also a form of rebellion against such principles. However, it is not too late for Kung to see the light of the Gospel of Life, as the testimony of many repentant former abortionists will attest."
  • St Thérèse and the victory over assisted suicide [John Smeaton, 3 October]
Population
Sexual ethics
General
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