Articles for Month: December 2002

LIFESITE, December 20, 2002 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, editor of the magazine First Things, was the banquet speaker at the Toronto International Forum. With his deep, booming voice he held the close attention of the over 500-strong audience for 45 minutes, leaving them hungry for more. More importantly, his uplifting and hopeful speech motivated veteran and recent activists alike to be a voice for the unborn, the sick, the elderly and the disabled. Fr. Neuhaus, who was born and raised near Ottawa before moving to the U.S., thanked those who were involved in the pro-life movement, which he […]

LONDON, December 20, 2002 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The British High Court today ruled in favour of a pro-life person who challenged the country’s artificial reproduction authority for granting permission for clinics to selectively screen embryos to find a tissue match for treatment of born siblings.  The High Court ruled that the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) operated beyond its jurisdiction in allowing the controversial procedures which have been described as designer baby selection.  Josephine Quintavalle, of Comment on Reproductive Ethics (CORE), was congratulated on her high court victory over the embryology authority today by the Society for the Protection of […]

MONTREAL, December 20, 2002 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Raelians, a Quebec-based UFO cult, claims that its Clonaid company is set to announce the birth of the world first cloned human within two weeks.  While the claims of this sect have been dubious in the extreme, pro-life leaders point out that what this “news story does point out is that the cloning of human beings is a scientific disaster waiting to happen.”  Pro-life leaders warn that despite what it says on the surface, the proposed Canadian legislation regarding stem cell research, Bill C-13, does not forbid human cloning.  “Every ‘mad’ scientist in […]

WASHINGTON, December 20, 2002 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Stanford University's unilateral decision to create a stem cell laboratory for human embryo experimentation and cloning has drawn criticism from the Bush Administration's bioethics panel. “Stanford has decided to proceed with cloning research without public scrutiny and deliberation,” said Dr. Leon Kass, chairman of the President's Council on Bioethics, “and has hurt the cause of public understanding of this subject by its confusion of the issue.” Dr. Kass, who is on the faculty of the University of Chicago, sought a public apology from Stanford for “obfuscating the nature of such research” into “cloning for […]

WASHINGTON, December 20, 2002 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Pro-lifers may have to hold their noses as Senate Republicans choose a replacement next month for Sen. Trent Lott. Bill Frist, the Tennessee doctor who is reportedly both frontrunner and the White House favourite for Majority Leader, supported the confirmation of Bill Clinton’s militantly pro-abortion surgeon general, David Satcher. In addition, Frist is major a shareholder in a for-profit chain of medical clinics founded by his father and brother that conducts abortions.  According to Tennessee Right to Life’s Sherry Holden, Sen. Frist told the organization he is pro-life. “He said he’s against abortion, period-no […]

CAVE JUNCTION, Oregon, December 20, 2002 (LifeSiteNews.com) –  In a WorldNetDaily feature, former abortionist Dr. Bernard Nathanson, once a co-founder of the National Abortion Rights Action League, reminisces about the cynical and dishonest tactics he and his pro-abortion allies devised during the 1960s and 1970s.  “Repeating the big lie often enough convinces the public,” says Nathanson, now a Catholic convert and a pro-life activist. “We persuaded the media that the cause of permissive abortion was a liberal, enlightened, sophisticated one,” Nathanson recalls, citing misinformation and lies spread by the pro-abortion industry. “This is the tactic of the self-fulfilling lie. Few […]

Politically correct, one-sided re-definition of "tolerance" was a deciding factor

CALGARY, December 20, 2002 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Despite having just witnessed the awesome power of a cooperation between fiscal and moral conservatives in the recent U.S. elections, Canadian Alliance Leader Stephen Harper has chosen to further alienate himself and the Party from its natural constituency of moral conservatives. In an interview with the Calgary Herald, Harper said he wanted to rid the Alliance of a “too right wing, too scary” image by distancing it from “sensitive” social conservatism.  “On sensitive things, we will try to be clear where this party stands. My position on abortion, for example, will be that this […]

LOS ANGELES, December 20, 2002 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Doctors at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles have used stem cells from bone marrow to generate brain cells and nervous system cells that can be used to treat brain cancer, Alzheimer's and other diseases. “Neural stem cells have a lot of characteristics that make them an attractive means of treating neurological disorders—but they come from precarious sources,” said Dr. John Yu, co-director of the brain tumor program and lead author of the study. The journal Experimental Neurology recounts how they injected genetically engineered neural stem cells into the arteries of rats with […]

SACRAMENTO, December 20, 2002 (LifeSiteNews.com) – California Governor Gray Davis, arguably the most pro-abortion governor in U.S. history, has been refused entrance to a Catholic children’s home run by St. Patrick’s Parish in Sacramento.  The priest who runs the home said Davis would not be allowed to distribute gifts at the home – as governors have done for the past twenty years – unless he repents and turns from his sinful ways.  “We don’t let any pro-abortion people in our grounds here,” said Monsignor Edward Kavanagh, director of the home since 1952. “He should get his life together and he […]