Articles for Month: December 1997

December 17, 1997 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE “Maybe now the punishment will fit the crime,” said Jim Hughes, National President of Campaign Life Coalition, the political arm of the pro-life movement in Canada. Mr Hughes was responding to news today that the Saskatchewan Justice Department will appeal the Dec. 1 sentence of Robert Latimer, the Wilkie-area farmer convicted of second-degree murder in the “mercy- killing” of his 12-year-old daughter Tracy, who was disabled. Tracy had not expressed a desire to be killed. Saskatchewan Court of Queen's Bench Justice Ted Noble granted an unprecedented constitutional exemption from the mandatory 10-year minimum sentence […]

KYOTO, Japan, Dec 16 (LSN) – Pro-life attendees as the Kyoto Convention on Climate Change, have voiced concerns over possible anti-life policies in the final document. The American Life League (ALL) reported on December 1 that some attendees suggest fears of “global warming” may be used to justify “reducing world population-using abortion, harmful birth control chemicals and sterilization—to ‘solve’ the alleged climatological problems.” Pro-life researcher Susan Roylance points out that the reason this document is so dangerous is because, for the first time, the UN will be establishing legal regulations (based on “emissions budgets”) which a nation must live within. […]

TRENTON, NJ, Dec 16 (LSN) – New Jersey has become the 18th state to outlaw partial-birth abortion. The state Senate overrode “moderate” Republican Governor Christie Whitman’s veto Monday and banned partial-birth abortions, except when the life of the mother is in danger. The 27-13 vote, the minimum needed for an override, gave final approval to the ban on partial-birth abortions, thwarting Whitman’s attempt to broaden the exception to include virtually any partial-birth abortion.

ROME, Dec 16 (LSN) – An Italian study published in the European Journal of Epidemiology noted that women who had induced abortions were 172 per cent more likely to become infected with the HIV-1. “Significantly higher prevalences of infection [HIV-1] were associated with induced abortion (0.49%) than with delivery (0.18%) (OR: 2.72

OTTAWA, Dec 16 (LSN) – A Southam-Global poll, released yesterday, conducted by the Toronto-based polling company Pollara, indicates 60 per cent of Canadians favour legalizing doctor-assisted suicide. Support for doctor-assisted suicide was lowest—48 per cent—in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, where the Robert Latimer case sparked much controversy. Quebec ranked highest with 65 per cent approval, followed by BC at 64 per cent. Pollara surveyed 1,410 adults nationwide from Nov. 28 to Dec. 2. Results are considered accurate within 3.4 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. Pro-life observers are looking into whether the question was weighted in favour of euthanasia

ROMULUS, Mich., Dec. 16 (LSN) – 59-year-old Rosalyn Hayes of Long Beach, Calif., was the seventh motel-room “assisted-suicide” killing this year in the suburb of Romulus. The details of the killing seem similar to the pattern of assisted-suicide champion Jack Kevorkian, but police are unsure of whether the murder was committed by Kevorkian or his new “assistant,” Georges Reding. Detectives noted that unlike the usual pattern of Kevorkian-assisted suicides, no note instructing police to call lawyer Geoffrey Fieger was left in the motel room. Police were notified of the killing by an anonymous male caller Thursday night. The caller told […]

SALEM, Oregon, Dec 16 (LSN) – Oregon taxpayers could be forced to pay for sex-change operations and physician-assisted suicide. The Oregon Health Services Commission is considering placing the two procedures on the list of medical treatments covered by the Oregon Health Plan, the state’s insurance program for low-income people. The decision is expected early next year. Gov. John Kitzhaber wants physician-assisted suicide considered for the list according to the same criteria used to review other medical treatments. Olivia Jaquay, a transsexual, told the commission the health plan discriminates against her by not paying for a sex-change procedure.

VATICAN, Dec 15 (LSN)—On the news that a third baby has been born after being frozen as an embryo, the Italian newspaper Avvenire denounced sacrificing children “on the altar of experimentation.” The paper was reacting to a case in which an Italian woman gave birth to a child who had been conceived in a test tube, frozen, and then thawed, before being implanted in her womb. Protesters noted such a process has a failure rate of over 80 per cent—each “failure,” of course, being the death of a human being.

WINNIPEG, Dec 15 (LSN) – In a unanimous, precedent-setting decision, the Manitoba Court of Appeal ruled last week that physicians are permitted to refuse to resuscitate critically ill patients, even against the wishes of next of kin. The case involved a boy of nearly one year who was judged by doctors to be in a “persistent vegetative state,” allegedly due to violent shaking. Doctors recommended a do-not-resuscitate order be placed on the child's chart, on the grounds resuscitation would only prolong his suffering (even though they also claimed the child had no sensation). Winnipeg Child and Family Services, who had […]

SAO PAULO, Dec 13 (LSN) – In a case which parallels recent events in Ireland, an 11-year-old Brazilian girl known as “M,” pregnant allegedly due to rape, is requesting an abortion. M and her family have asked a Brazilian judge to permit doctors to kill the 4-month-old preborn child. Judge Luiz Mangabeira Cardoso delayed his decision until next week, saying, “I can’t authorize an abortion until I know if she is going to be harmed or not.” Health Minister Carlos Albuquerque told the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper that the abortion request is in keeping with Brazil's relatively strict abortion […]