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European Court of Human Rights to Rule on Right to Life of the Unborn

Court Granted Intervener Status only to Two Pro-Abortion Groups

STRASBOURG, December 10, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The European Court of Human Rights heard a case Wednesday morning which sought to establish that unborn children have the right to life. A ruling on the case is expected in several weeks. LifeSite has learned that the only two NGO's to which the European Court granted intervener status were Family Planning Association (London) and the Centre for Reproductive Rights (New York), both pro-abortion activist organizations.

The case was brought by French national, Thi-Nho Vo, who was born in 1967 and lives in Bourg-en-Bresse France.

On November 27, 1991, when she was six months' pregnant, Vo went to Hôtel-Dieu Hospital in Lyons for a medical examination. On the same day another woman, Mrs Thanh Van Vo, was due to have a coil removed at the same hospital. Because of a mix-up caused by the fact that both women had the same surname, the doctor who examined the Vo pierced her amniotic sac and court documents indicate that the action made "a therapeutic abortion necessary."

Following a criminal complaint lodged by Vo in 1991, Dr. Francois Golfier was charged with causing unintentional injury. The charge was subsequently increased to one of unintentional homicide. On June 3 1996, Lyons Criminal Court acquitted Golfier. Vo appealed and, on March 13 1997, Lyons Court of Appeal overturned the Criminal Court's judgment, convicted the doctor of unintentional homicide and sentenced him to six-months' imprisonment, suspended, and a fine of 10,000 French francs. On June 30, 1999, following an appeal on points of law, the Court of Cessation reversed the Court of Appeal's judgment, holding that the facts of the case did not constitute the offence of involuntary homicide since the court refused to consider the unborn child a human being entitled to the protection of the criminal law.

Vo applied to the European Court of Human Rights on December 20, 1999. On May 22, 2003 the Chamber of the Court, decided that the case was of such serious significance it would be heard by the Grand Chamber of 17 judges rather than the normal 7 judge Chamber.

On November 25, 2003 the President of the Grand Chamber granted the two pro-abortion groups leave to intervene as third parties in the proceedings.

Relying on Article 2 (right to life) of the European Convention on Human Rights, Vo's lawyer, Bruno Le Griel, objected to the authorities' refusal to classify the unintentional killing of Vo's unborn child as involuntary homicide. Vo maintains that France has an obligation to pass legislation making such acts a criminal offence.

Le Griel, told the BBC: "I will be asking the court to recognise reality, that is to say the human life, a human being, begins at the moment of conception. Who would dare tell my client to her face that what she was carrying, what she lost as a result of a mistake in the hospital, was nothing more than a cluster of cells and was not a human child - her child?"

Nuala Scarisbrick, of the Life, the pro life charity, told the BBC: "This is a landmark case. If the EU judges follow common sense and the evidence of their eyes they will say 'of course that baby was a real, living human being', and that will be a legal earthquake - here in the UK, across Europe and eventually across the world - which will destroy abortionism."

Jim Hughes, Vice President of the International Right to Life Federation told LifeSite that the European Court was negligent in granting intervener status to two pro-abortion activist organizations without seeking input from the many pro-life NGO's, as a case of such importance warrants.

See the BBC coverage:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3304307.stm

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Study Warns of Blood Clot Risk When Flying While on Birth Control Pill

Women on the pill are 14 times more likely to develop blood clots while flying

NEW YORK, December 10, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The medical journal, Archives of Internal Medicine, reports a study today indicating that women who use birth control pills greatly increase their risk of potentially life threatening blood clots when they travel by air. The study entitled, Risk of Venous Thromboembolism After Air Travel: Interaction With Thrombophilia and Oral Contraceptives," says that women who are on oral contraceptive while in flight are fourteen times more likely to develop venous thromboembolism - blood clots that travel through the veins and can block the chambers of the heart, or block off part of the lungs, which may be fatal.

The study noted that the pill, by itself, increases the likelihood of blood clots four times and long-flights, by themselves, double the risk of the disease. However, when pill usage and long-flights are combined there is a startling fourteen-fold increased risk of the dangerous blood clots. The findings have prompted calls for warnings in airports.

"Warning signs should be posted in every airport," said American Life League president Judie Brown. "But unbelievably, the news that women on the birth control pill are at increased risk for potentially deadly blood clots on long airline flights is being ignored. The Federal Aviation Administration should be ordered to disclose this important information to all female passengers. It could save lives." Brown told LifeSite, "The birth control pill is simply bad medicine, regardless of how you look at it. And now we learn that from 35,000 feet, the view is even worse."

See the abstract of the study in the journal:
http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/163/22/2771

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Homosexual Activist MP Bolts Merged Conservative Party for Liberal Party

Liberal Leader Martin says Brison is a "tremendous addition"

OTTAWA, December 10, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Scott Brison, the Nova Scotia Progressive Conservative MP has defected to the Liberal Party, and Liberal Leader and Prime Minister Paul Martin enthusiastically welcomed Brison saying he was a "tremendous addition" to the Liberal Party. Martin also said he will work with Brison to make the Liberal party attractive to other disillusioned Tories. Martin recently appointed former Ontario MPP Tim Murphy, a long-time advocate of homosexual 'marriage', to the highest position in the Prime Ministers Office - Chief of Staff.

Brison, a homosexual activist MP was until last week widely reported as considering a run for the Leadership of the newly created Conservative Party of Canada, the merged party of the former Progressive Conservatives and Canadian Alliance.

Brison, who has publicly admitted to be a practicing homosexual, supports homosexual 'marriage'. He came in fourth in a leadership race to lead the Progressive Conservatives earlier this year.

See the CBC coverage:
http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/12/10/brison_031210

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Illinois Bill Protects Homeschoolers: Makes it a Crime to Falsely Report Child Abuse

SPRINGFIELD, December 10, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Legislation which has passed the Illinois House and is working its way through the Senate would ensure that those who knowingly falsely report child abuse are prosecuted. The Home School Legal Defense Association supports the legislation. HSLDA notes that "Many homeschoolers are routinely subjected to social worker investigations based on completely false allegations. Unfortunately, the majority of false tipsters face either no or insignificant consequences for the serious emotional trauma imposed on the families they harass."

The "Abused and Neglected Child Reporting Act" (H.B. 2902) says, "Any person who knowingly transmits a false report to the Department (of Child and Family Services) commits the offense of disorderly conduct under subsection (a)(7) of Section 26 1 of the 'Criminal Code of 1961.' Any person who violates this provision a second or subsequent time shall be guilty of a Class 4 felony."

HSLDA has encouraged its members to support the legislation.

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Toronto Group Discovers Stem Cells Can Be Grown From Human Skin

TORONTO, December 10, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) - New research from the University of Toronto has shown the potential for creating stem cells from human skin.

Stem cell research is a relatively new and emerging field in medicine. Stem cells are undifferentiated cells, which means they can be transformed into cells ordered to almost any bodily tissue. In theory, this may aid in the repair and regeneration of tissues previously thought irreparable; for instance, the brain in Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease, or heart tissue in heart attack sufferers, and so on. The skin cells in the Toronto research were turned into neural cells - cells that could be encouraged to turn into new brain cells for Parkinson's disease or spinal neurons for spinal injury sufferers, for example.

Dr. Peter Hollands, an embryologist who now runs an umbilical cord blood bank in the Toronto area says that "common sense" dictates that resources be directed toward adult over embryonic stem cell research. "Embryonic stem cells have many legal, moral, ethical and religious objections before even the practicalities of obtaining the cells, growing them, storing them and not least transplanting them are addressed," Dr. Hollands told LifeSiteNews.com in a recent interview. "Adult and umbilical cord blood stem cells are readily available, have no objections associated with them and are tried and tested in clinical use. Umbilical cord blood stem cells, for example, have been used over 3000 times for 45 different diseases!"

Adult stem cells to date have been harvested from bone marrow - a source that is painful and difficult to extract. This new advance would mean an improved, simpler source of adult stem cells and as well, a potential end to embryonic stem cell use and the killing necessary to create them. Because these stem cells are derived from a patient's own skin, this ensures a perfect genetic match, without possibility of rejection and no need for life-long use of costly anti-rejection drugs.

Read more on the issue at:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,8122-926350,00.html

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Presidential Hopeful Never Saw an Abortion He Didn't Like

ALEXANDRIA, VA, December 10, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Howard Dean, former governor of Vermont and current Democratic presidential hopeful, is the only physician candidate in the race. Dean's strong support for abortion extends to the procedure known as partial-birth abortion. On November 2, 2003, President George W. Bush signed a ban of the grisly procedure that was subsequently blocked by three federal judges. That same day, Dean voiced his opposition to the ban, calling it a "dark day for American women."

Following his medical internship, Dean was employed as an obstetrician/gynecologist with the Vermont chapter of Planned Parenthood, the top abortion provider in America. In a July interview on a Boston television station, Dean shifted focus. "I did not perform abortions," he intoned. "I'm a medical doctor."

Read CNSNews on the issue at:
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewPolitics.asp?Page=\Politics\archive\200312\POL2003120...

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Presidential Hopeful Uses F-Word In Public Interview

NEW YORK, December 10, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Democratic presidential candidate Senator John Kerry, in an interview with Rolling Stone Magazine, described President Bush's involvement in Iraq by saying "Did I expect George Bush to f--- it up as badly as he did?"

In an interview with the New York Post, Brooking Institute presidential scholar Stephen Hess, when asked about the use of foul language by a presidential hopeful in a public interview, said "It's so unnecessary," and that he couldn't remember another candidate ever doing so.

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LifeSite NewsBytes

Active Homosexuals Granted Australian Asylum if they must live "Discreetly" in Native Land
http://www.thecouriermail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,8120496%255E421,0...

Updates on Terri Schiavo case:
Terri Schiavo's parents asks appeals court to let them enter case http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/7424364.htm
Poll: most Floridians oppose 'Terri's Law' http://www.wtev.com/news/state/story.aspx?content_id=E46B9661-4E9D-470F-92C1-A47...
Florida Teacher Blames Firing on Support for Disabled Woman
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.asp?Page=\Culture\archive\200312\CUL20031210b...

UK Family Planning Association Demands More Access to Abortion
http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0600uk/content_objectid=13709856_method=...

Retired officers say they are gay
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/sfl-agenerals10dec10,0,2049205.stor...

Too Much Sex on TV, Say Kids -And Ratings
http://www.ncregister.com/pageone/120703_2.htm

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