---

SHARE THIS PAGE: E-mail  Print

---

---

POPE: ALLOWING ABORTION TURNS DEMOCRACIES INTO "TOTALITARIAN REGIMES"

Encourages Natural Law as the Basis for Discussion with Non-Believers

VATICAN, February 28, 2002 (LSN.ca) - Pope John Paul II warned Wednesday that the "grave danger that the false interpretation of human rights" which would permit abortion, "can drive democratic regimes to transform themselves into totalitarian regimes." The Pope made his remarks in an address to the Pontifical Academy for Life.

"The church affirms the right to life to every innocent human being at the moment of its existence," he told the participants. The Pope blasted the "distinction sometimes made in certain official documents between a human being and a human person" which would "apply the right to life and physical integrity only to people who are already born," as "an artificial distinction without scientific or philosophical foundation." He continued: "Every human being, from his conception to his natural death, has the inviolable right to life and deserves all respect due to the human person."

The Pope noted that "natural law" is the "only possible basis for a true dialogue and an authentic collaboration between believers and non-believers." Through natural law, "a truth common to all human beings", human reason is able to eliminate "the presumed conflict between the freedom and the nature," said the Pope. "Freedom belongs to the rational nature of man, and with reason it can must be guided."

See the full text of the Pope's address (In Italian):
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/speeches/
2002/february/documents/hf_jp-ii_spe_20020227_pont-acad-life_it.html

 Back to Top

---

SUICIDAL CANADA ECONOMICALLY PUNISHES YOUNG FAMILIES WITH CHILDREN

OTTAWA, February 28, 2002 (LSN.ca) - A study on wealth inequality among Canadian families released last week reports that young couples (25-34) with children have suffered the most economically from 1984 to 1999.

While the net worth (assets minus debts) of families generally rose 10%, the net worth for young couples with children fell 30%. Young families with children, had a median net worth of $44,000 in 1984 but dropped to $30,800 by 1999. The report indicates that an increasing proportion of these same families were even worse off with no net worth - that is, their total assets were less than or equal to their total debts. The proportion of young families with children with no net worth rose from 10% in 1984 to 16% in 1999.

The study showed that the median net worth of Canada's estimated 12.2 million families in 1999 was about $64,600. One-half of all families had net worth more than this figure, and half had less. Median net worth increased 56% to $126,000 among families in which the major income recipient was 65 or older.

Importantly the study found that wealth inequality "increased much more among couples with children and lone-parent families than among unattached individuals or couples with no children."

The study confirms again the intensely anti-child affect of Canadian governments' tax and income policies of the past few decades. Monetary and social support for families with children has drastically declined over the years in favour of one or two or no child, two-income, married or common law or homosexual social arrangements. Ironically, the children of the families that are having children will be the ones asked to pay for the massive social costs of the elderly childless generation. Severe economic and social problems are expected as a result of the government engineered aging of the nation.

See the complete study: "The evolution of wealth inequality in Canada, 1984-1999" at:
http://www.statcan.ca/english/research/11F0019MIE/11F0019MIE01187.pdf

 Back to Top

---

BABY PARTS SCANDAL REVEALS HEARTS REMOVED FROM ABORTED BABIES WITHOUT CONSENT

AUCKLAND, NZ, February 28, 2002 (LSN.ca) - An unfolding scandal at a New Zealand hospital has revealed that hundreds of hearts from aborted babies have been kept in storage after having been cut out of their bodies without consent or notification of their parents. The New Zealand Herald reports "Hundreds of abnormal hearts stored for up to half a century at Auckland's Green Lane Hospital are unlikely to be returned to family members because they were taken from aborted foetuses."

The hospital's clinical director of children's heart surgery, Dr Kirsten Finucane, has revealed "quite a large proportion" of the up to 1300 hearts were from aborted foetuses and most were taken without family knowledge. The move follows a review of the hospital's heart collection and informed consent procedures.

See the report in the New Zealand Herald:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=1090275&thesection=news&thesu...

 Back to Top

---

INTERNATIONAL PRO-LIFE LEADERS CALL FOR "NO" VOTE IN IRISH ABORTION REFERENDUM

LONDON, February 28, 2002 (LSN.ca) - Leading international pro-life leaders have condemned the Irish government's abortion referendum proposals as "a new liberal law that will increase the number, the scope and the types of abortions performed." In a letter to all priests in Ireland, the pro-life leaders say that "Christians cannot in good conscience support either the Bill's specific proposals or the Bill as a whole" and that "the current position of the Irish bishops is based on a misunderstanding of the legal effect of these amendments".

The letter is signed by, among others, Dr Jack Willke, president of the International Right to Life Federation, and John Smeaton, director of Europe's largest pro-life organisation, the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC), UK and Jim Hughes, National President of Campaign Life Coalition Canada. Pro-life leaders from the United States, Australia, Canada, Italy and Kenya also signed the letter. The leaders emphasized Cardinal Connell's statement that the Irish bishops' opinion on the referendum was not binding on Catholics.

The full text of the letter is available at SPUC's website:
http://www.spuc.org.uk/releases/20020228.htm

 Back to Top

---

WEST AUSTRALIAN GOV'T PROPOSES HOMOSEXUAL ADOPTION, IVF AND LOWER AGE OF CONSENT

PERTH, February 28, 2002 (LSN.ca) - A controversial bill by the West Australian government seeks to lower the age of consent for homosexual sex acts from 21 to 16 and allows homosexual couples adoption and IVF treatment rights equal to married couples. The state government's contentious Acts Amendment (Lesbian and Gay Law Reform) Bill 2001 is currently being debated in the upper house.

The Catholic Archbishop of Perth, Barry Hickey, has condemned the bill as "immoral" and demanded that MPs be permitted to vote according to their consciences. "A conscience vote does not guarantee an outcome which satisfies those of us who are Christians, but it does allow members of parliament to speak and vote as they firmly believe," Archbishop Hickey said.

See the coverage in the Australian Sunday Times:
http://www.sundaytimes.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,7034,3857419%255E2761,00....

 Back to Top

---

LIFESITE NEWSBYTES

CROSBY, STILLS, NASH & YOUNG TOUR FOR ABORTION
"What are these baby boomers doing rocking for abortion?" asks Bryan Kemper, director of Rock For Life, an American Life League division. Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young's "Tour of America" has been underway since the beginning of February and is scheduled to run through late April. Voters for Choice, a political action committee that endorses pro-abortion candidates, will have a booth at each concert, and will receive a portion of the ticket sales.
http://www.usnewswire.com/topnews/temp/0228-101.html

US COMPANY TO ASK GOV'T PERMISSION TO MARKET COMPUTER CHIP IMPLANT
Applied Digital Solutions, a Florida technology company is poised to ask the government for permission to market a first-ever computer ID chip called "VeriChip" that could be embedded beneath a person's skin.
http://dailynews.netscape.com/mynsnews/story.tmpl?table=n&cat=51180&id=200202261...

STUDY: USE OF THE BIRTH CONTROL PILL INCREASES RISK OF MORE AGGRESSIVE HIV
In a study of 115 female commercial sex workers with HIV, those who were on hormonal contraceptives - primarily birth control pills or injectable progesterone - at the time of infection had a five- to seven-fold higher risk of becoming infected with multiple strains of the virus than those not on hormones.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/716617.asp

BRITAIN TO LAUNCH WORLD'S FIRST HUMAN EMBRYO CELL BANK NEXT YEAR
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/02/27/nstem27.xml&sShe...

WELCOME TRUST READY TO POUR MILLIONS INTO BRITAIN'S HUMAN CLONING INDUSTRY
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,659304,00.html

 Back to Top

---

SHARE THIS PAGE: E-mail  Print

---

---

MORE NEWS: LifeSiteNews.com Home Page  Last 10 Days   Archives   Special Reports

Copyright © LifeSiteNews.com. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License. You may republish this article or portions of it without request provided the content is not altered and it is clearly attributed to "LifeSiteNews.com". Any website publishing of complete or large portions of original LifeSiteNews articles MUST additionally include a live link to www.LifeSiteNews.com. The link is not required for excerpts. Republishing of articles on LifeSiteNews.com from other sources as noted is subject to the conditions of those sources.