Politics
Thursday January 25, 2001
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Print- HEALTH CANADA SET TO APPROVE HUMAN EMBRYO EXPERIMENTATION
- JUDGE ALLOWS SUIT AGAINST K-MART FOR FIRING PRO-LIFER OVER MORNING-AFTER-PILL
- EUTHANASIA PREVENTION COALITION URGES ACTION ON LATIMER
- FAMILY ACTION COALITION DEFENDS DAY IN MEDIA FUROR
- PARENTS OF CONJOINED TWINS PLACE PRO-LIFE MEMORIAL ON MARY'S TOMB
- UGANDAN CARDINAL URGES VOTES FOR PRO-LIFE, PRO-FAMILY POLITICIANS
- ARCHBISHOP OF DENVER ON THE NECESSITY OF VOTING PRO-LIFE
HEALTH CANADA SET TO APPROVE HUMAN EMBRYO EXPERIMENTATION
TODAY'S HEADLINES
OTTAWA, Jan. 25, 2001 (LSN.ca) - The situation in Canada regarding the vast moral minefield of new reproductive technologies (NRT) is admittedly a disaster with no formal law in place banning experimentation on unborn babies. With experimentation in the field involving human embryo cloning, animal-human hybrids and the like, Canada's voluntary moratorium on such practices is laughable.
A report in today's National Post reveals that Health Minister Allan Rock is set to release a national policy on NRT which would ban the most grotesque experiments (such as growing embryos in artificial wombs), but give government sanction, and allow funding for destructive experimentation on live human embryos up to 14 days development. As these considerations are still under review there is an urgent need to present objections to the Health Minister.
The arguments to allow destruction of and experimentation on human embryos center around stem cells and the potential they may hold for eventually finding cures to deadly diseases. However such stem cells can be procured from the umbilical cords and placentas of live born babies and can also be extracted from adult human cells.
Concerns may be expressed to:
The Hon. Allan Rock, Minister of Health
minister@http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca
Minister's Office - Health Canada
Brooke Claxton Bldg., Tunney's Pasture
P.L. 0913C
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
K1A 0K9
Fax: 613-952-1154
See the coverage in the National Post at:
http://www.canada.com/cgi-bin/np.asp?f=/news/nationalpost/stories/20010125/45011...
Back to TopJUDGE ALLOWS SUIT AGAINST K-MART FOR FIRING PRO-LIFER OVER MORNING-AFTER-PILL
Judge states "undisputed fact" that birth control pill "prevents implantation"
CINCINNATI, Ohio, Jan. 25, 2001 (LSN.ca) - United States District Court Judge Herman Weber has rejected the argument of K-Mart in their bid to quash a lawsuit filed by a pro-life pharmacist in Hamilton, Ohio. In 1996 K-Mart fired pharmacist Karen Brauer, after she refused to dispense an abortifacient birth control pill called Micronor. Micronor, a progestin-only birth control pill, works in a significant number of cases by preventing the implantation of a fertilized egg and thus it and similar drugs, rather than preventing pregnancy, act sometimes to terminate a human life that has already begun.
The American Center for Law and Justice, an international public interest law firm, filed suit against K-Mart in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati in August 1999. K-Mart went to court in an effort to dismiss the suit. But in an opinion issued Tuesday, federal justice Weber disagreed with K-Mart's narrow reading of the state conscience statute. He said, it "is obviously intended to allow an individual who morally or ethically opposes abortion ... to follow the dictates of her conscience and refuse to participate in such procedures."
The court likewise rejected K-Mart's arguments that the legislature did not intend the conscience law to apply to the dispensing of a drug that sometimes prevents implantation. Judge Weber said: "What is critical ... is the undisputed fact that Micronor does prevent implantation of a fertilized egg in some cases and plaintiff's asserted belief that this process results in abortion and is morally wrong." Francis J. Manion, Senior Counsel for the ACLJ, said the court's decision is an important step in protecting the rights of employees who hold religious beliefs.
See the ACLJ press release at:
http://www.businesswire.com/webbox/bw.012401/210242492.htm
EUTHANASIA PREVENTION COALITION URGES ACTION ON LATIMER
OTTAWA, Jan. 25, 2001 (LSN.ca) - The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition of Ontario (EPCO) has urged pro-lifers to write the Canadian Minister of Justice Anne McLellan, opposing the granting of leniency or clemency to convicted murderer Robert Latimer. Latimer, who killed his 12-year-old daughter in 1993 because she was disabled, is set to ask for mercy from the federal government based on his claim that he acted out of mercy. Alex Schadenberg, EPCO executive director, told LifeSite that reducing Latimer's sentence sends the message to Canadians that killing disabled or vulnerable people is a lesser crime than killing able-bodied people.
The EPCO urges Canadians to demand that the federal government, instead of reducing Latimer's sentence, re-examine the level of care that currently exists for the disabled, elderly, chronically ill, and other vulnerable people.
Concerns may be expressed to:
The Hon. Anne McLellan, Minister of Justice
Parliament Buildings, Ottawa, ON, K1A 0A6
613-992-4524
National Parole Board
Sir Wilfred Laurier Building
410 Laurier Ave. W. , 7th Floor
Ottawa, ON K1A 0R1
613-954-6549
FAMILY ACTION COALITION DEFENDS DAY IN MEDIA FUROR
OTTAWA, Jan. 25, 2001 (LSN.ca) - Roy Beyer, President of the Canada Family Action Coalition, has defended Official Opposition leader Stockwell Day from the media onslaught over his recent court battle regarding a defamation suit. In a CFAC release Beyer notes that "if you are a pro-family Canadian, I would hope you recognise that much of the media attack against Stockwell Day is nothing less than an attack against all people of faith and moral conscience." The following summary of arguments by Beyer and an article by Danielle Smith of the Calgary Herald help to put the debate in focus, providing critical details that have been left out of most news stories.
The controversy involves a situation in Red Deer, Alberta, where a school board trustee (also a criminal lawyer) decided to serve as defence attorney for a previously convicted pedophile charged with child pornography possession. In addition to providing the usual defence for the accused the trustee/lawyer also argued in court that the laws against child pornography possession were unconstitutional and on those grounds the charges against his client should be dropped.
After the case was heard and after the accused was convicted, Day, as Member of the Legislative Assembly for Red Deer North, wrote a letter to the editor of a local newspaper questioning the appropriateness of the trustee's decision to take on the case and to argue against the law forbidding possession of child pornography. As a result, the trustee/lawyer decided to sue Day and the newspaper, asking $600,000 in damages.
Because Mr. Day was being sued in his capacity as an elected public official, he was covered by a defence fund/insurance policy that covers government employees. Day sought to avoid resorting to the policy and wanted to raise his own legal funds for the suit; however the Alberta Ethics Commissioner ruled he could not raise his own funds and must be covered.
Day felt he was forced to abandon the case after Justice Keith Ritter denied him a trial by jury in the case. Legal experts say this was the first time in Canadian history that a trial by jury was denied in a defamation case. The cost of the legal fees was already so high that to go further with the case was deemed imprudent. The out-of-court settlement cost some $60,000 in damages and more than $720,000 in legal fees.
Since the settlement, the media has pounced on Day for daring to question a lawyer's right to defend his clients. They neglected, however, to mention that Day was reacting to a politician/lawyer who had argued before a court that the law against child pornography possession is unconstitutional, while sitting on a school board and working to uphold that same law.
Beyer's and Smith's articles will appear soon at:
http://www.familyaction.org
PARENTS OF CONJOINED TWINS PLACE PRO-LIFE MEMORIAL ON MARY'S TOMB
GOZO, Malta, Jan. 25, 2001 (LSN.ca) - Michaelangelo and Rina Attard, the parents of the conjoined twins Jodie and Mary who were separated in an operation in Britain, informed the media that they would be placing a pro-life plaque on their daughter Mary's grave. The parents, who were against the separation operation since it would inevitably lead to the death of Mary, were overruled when British courts decided to perform the separation operation despite the objection of the Roman Catholic parents and Catholic Church leaders.
Mrs Attard, 29, said in a television interview, "I think it's going to be a respectful grave because it's going to be for the unborn ... the plaque is going to be something written for unborn babies." Her husband added, "When people see something like that, they might think twice and say 'Oh they went through all this' and change their mind about abortion."
See the coverage by Annanova at:
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_184063.html
UGANDAN CARDINAL URGES VOTES FOR PRO-LIFE, PRO-FAMILY POLITICIANS
KAMPALA, Jan. 25, 2001 (LSN.ca) - Emmanuel Cardinal Wamala has issued a pastoral letter to the faithful urging them to vote for pro-life and pro-family politicians. "We deserve leaders who will not condone immorality such as corruption, abortion, homosexuality or any other forms of behaviour which are contrary and offensive both to God's law and to our own culture," he said. "We should give our votes to candidates who we think are serious in their intentions, honest and capable of working for and with us."
See the coverage in The Monitor (Kampala):
http://allafrica.com/stories/200101240109.html
ARCHBISHOP OF DENVER ON THE NECESSITY OF VOTING PRO-LIFE
DENVER, Colorado, Jan. 25, 2001 (LSN.ca) - Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver addressed participants at the Colorado Right to Life March and Rally, held last Saturday on the west steps of Colorado's State Capitol Building, telling them Catholics must vote pro-life. "We can't simultaneously commit ourselves to human rights, while voting for people and policies that attack the weakest among us. Nor can we practice a commitment to the sanctity of human life only as a private piety. People of religious faith must live their pro-life witness courageously, as a matter of public record and civic responsibility - or we'll lose it even as a matter of private principle," he said.
See the Church News coverage at:
http://www.ewtn.com/vnews/getstory.asp?number=11587
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