Articles for Month: December 2001

Pro-Life Spokesmen Protest Suggestion of “Ownership” of Embryonic Children OTTAWA, December 13, 2001 (LSN.ca) – The Canadian Alliance, Canada's Official Opposition, issued a dissenting opinion on a Commons Committee report, which recommended allowing destructive research on human embryos. The Commons report suggested a ban on all human cloning – both reproductive and cloning for research purposes. The Minority report, issued by the Canadian Alliance in response to the Health Committee recommendations, demanded a clause in the legislation calling for “respect for human life.” The Alliance report stated “we feel that the greater problem with embryonic stem cell research is that […]

DUBLIN, December 13, 2001 (LSN.ca) – In a shocking move, the Catholic Bishops of Ireland are publicly supporting abortion legislation which the Vatican has explicitly opposed. A release issued by the Irish Episcopal Conference Wednesday said “We welcome and support the new proposal.” The proposal in question is the Human Life and Pregnancy Bill, which has already passed one of the Houses of Irish Parliament. The bill has one positive aspect in that it overrules the Supreme Court ruling which allowed abortion in the case of a threat to the life of the mother, but included a mother’s threat of […]

LONDON, December 13, 2001 (LSN.ca) – The first country to allow human cloning, has once again forged into controversy by approving the use of pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) to screen in vitro embryos to find genetic matches for older born siblings for use as stem cell and bone marrow donors. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) today announced its decision to “allow a couple at risk of passing on a genetic disease to use PGD, not only to select embryos free from the disease, but also to select an embryo so that stem cells from the resulting baby's umbilical […]

WASHINGTON, DC, December 13, 2001 (LSN.ca) – Dr. Tanja Dominko made a presentation last week on her research attempts to clone monkeys. After three years and nearly 300 attempts she gave up calling the cells, which were supposed to be cloned embryos, a “gallery of horrors.” Following the same process of nuclear transfer used to create the cloned sheep “Dolly”, Domniko found that the newly manufactured ‘embryos’ would not divide further than elemental stages. Moreover she found that the embryos were massively deformed while appearing superficially healthy. The New Scientist reports that the ‘embryos’ did not form distinct nuclei containing […]

LOS ANGELES, December 13, 2001 (LSN.ca) – The newsletter of the Los Angeles Lay Catholic Mission details a report about the crimes of abortionists compiled by California Right to Life. The report was published in response to a legislative report written by a state senate staffer, entitled Crimes Against Reproductive Rights in California, which alleges that pro-life people are violent, and supplies examples. The Right to Life “Abortion Crime Report” lists a total of 2,297 incidents of pro-abortion violence and illegal activities. The report then goes on to list crimes committed by abortionists in California by city, citing the original […]

POPE CALLS FOR DAY OF FASTING AND PRAYER FOR WORLD PEACE Pope John Paul II has called for a day of fasting and prayer and charity for world peace tomorrow, Friday December 14.  https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/angelus/2001/documents/hf_jp -ii_ang_20011118_en.html STOCKWELL DAY RESIGNS, ABLONCZY ENTERS ALLIANCE LEADERSHIP RACE Canadian Alliance Leader Stockwell Day resigned yesterday but did not announce that he would run for the leadership. Day said to wait for an announcement in January. Meanwhile Diane Ablonczy, the Canadian Alliance’s health critic, officially launched her candidacy.  https://www.nationalpost.com/news/updates/story.html?f=/news/updates/stories/  20011212/national-458018.html POLICE DO NOT HAVE AUTOMATIC RIGHT TO STRIP SEARCH The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled […]

Toronto Market gradually losing only alternative to liberal newspapers MONTREAL, December 12, 2001 (LSN.ca) – CanWest Global Communications Corp. which purchased the Southam newspaper chain including the National Post from Conrad Black has ordered its 17 Southam papers to run one company-made editorial per week. CBC reports that the CanWest editorials to be written at headquarters in Winnipeg will soon increase to three per week. CBC reports that the Montreal Newspaper Guild said the decision will seriously hamper the newspaper’s freedom of speech, and limit the number of voices it can offer readers. Montreal Gazette reporter Alexander Norris, one of […]

Use of Aborted Baby Tissue In Vaccine To Be Considered OTTAWA, December 12, 2001 (LSN.ca) – Health Canada has solicited information from potential vaccine producers for the manufacture of smallpox vaccine. Following the United States’ lead, Canada sent out a request for information (RFI) to approximately 300 Canadian and international pharmaceutical/biological companies to determine whether they are able to provide the vaccine. The companies are to respond by January 7, after which Health Canada will consider the applications. In the United States, one company which was awarded US contracts for the provision of the smallpox vaccine, switched its manufacturing procedure […]

MONTREAL, December 12, 2001 (LSN.ca) – Researchers in Montreal have discovered that a stem cell found in adult bone marrow does not cause rejection by a recipient's immune system. Called a 'miracle' stem cell, the mesenchymal stem cells, or MSCs, don't carry markers on their surfaces which lead to rejection, reports the December 15 issue of New Scientist. While many scientists have had to go to human cloning to get human embryo stem cells to avoid the immune rejection, MSCs naturally avoid the reaction as well as the whole controversy over experimentation with embryos. Ray Chiu, of McGill University in […]

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia, December 12, 2001 (LSN.ca) – Nearly two hundred young leaders representing nine countries gathered for a World Youth Alliance conference two weeks ago featuring top European thinkers and policy-makers to declare their vision for the future of Europe. The European Youth Alliance’s release of the Bratislava Youth Declaration on December 1 coincided with the first regional democratic elections in Slovakia, and the two events were covered together on Slovak National Television. “We call upon the governments and citizens of Europe to reaffirm the recognition … of the inherent dignity and inalienable rights of all, including the inviolable right […]