Articles for Month: December 2008

Commentary by Wesley J. Smith December 19, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Can you imagine if “the experts” suggested that genetic tests be done on all pregnant women to screen for supposedly undesirable racial characteristics or a propensity for homosexuality (if that could be done), with the goal of vastly reducing the number of babies born with those traits? There would a clarion outcry. Well, that is precisely what is happening in Australia, only the targets are unborn babies with Down syndrome, people that “the experts” want very much to cull from society by preventing most from ever being born. From the […]

By Kathleen Gilbert ROME, December 19, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Pope Benedict XVI yesterday expressed his “deepest concern” as Luxembourg draws near to adopting assisted suicide into law, which the Pope roundly condemned as contrary to true compassion. “Political leaders, whose duty is to serve the good of man, as well as doctors and families should remember that ‘the deliberate decision to deprive an innocent human being of his life is always evil from the moral point of view and can never be lawful,’” said the Pope, quoting the encyclical Evangelium Vitae.  Benedict issued his remarks as he received the new […]

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski SEOUL, S. Korea, December 19, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Doctors at Severance Hospital in Sinchon-dong are refusing to carry out the sentence of the Western District Court ordering doctors to remove life support, including feeding tubes, from a comatose woman. The physicians are appealing the ruling to S. Korea’s Supreme Court. AsiaNews reports that the administration of Severance Hospital said that it would wait until December 17, the deadline established by the District Court for carrying out the euthanasia, before taking any action, and has now rejected the court’s decision. “This is a question concerning life, and […]

CHICAGO, Illinois, December 19, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Yesterday the Illinois Supreme Court ruled in Morr-Fitz v. Blagojevich that individual pharmacists and pharmacy owners do have legal standing to challenge a rule requiring them to dispense Plan B, which abortion activists call “emergency contraception,” regardless of their religious, moral, or conscientious beliefs.   The rule was originally forced upon the pharmacists and pharmacies by a 2005 emergency order of Governor Rod Blagojevich, who stated in no uncertain terms that pharmacists should either dispense the controversial drug or leave the profession. Two lower courts had previously ruled that the plaintiff-pharmacists and pharmacies did […]

CHICAGO, December 19, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In a move which could be replicated in major cities across North America, the Pro-Life Action League will hold its sixth annual “Empty Manger” Christmas Caroling Day on Saturday, December 20. Two caroling tours will take place, one visiting four Chicago abortion facilities and one visiting four in DuPage County. “The Christmas story is a story of hope and joy brought into the world by a newborn baby,” said League communications director Eric Scheidler. “We want abortion-bound mothers in Chicago and the western suburbs to know that their unborn babies are a gift, too.” […]

FRONT ROYAL, VA, December 19, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer, STL, president of Human Life International (HLI), today challenged Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, CA to reconsider his participation in the upcoming inaugural ceremonies for President-elect Barack Obama. “We applaud Pastor Warren’s support of pro-life causes as well as his defense of traditional marriage,” said Father Euteneuer. “This is why we are concerned that his high-profile and explicitly Christian prayerful invocation at President-elect Obama’s inauguration may be perceived as an endorsement, even a blessing, of what will likely be the most anti-life administration […]

WASHINGTON, DC, December 19, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – American Life League (ALL) will feature two of the most innovative new voices in the pro-life movement at their Training and Activism Week (TAW) and Personhood Conference Jan. 21-23. The TAW will feature Jill Stanek, renowned pro-life blogger and former nurse who launched the Born Alive Truth campaign during the 2008 presidential elections, and Lila Rose, the UCLA student president of Live Action Films who outed Planned Parenthood’s cover-up of statutory rape and acceptance of racially motivated donations. “Jill and Lila’s work with new technology and media has helped uncover the truly despicable activity of […]

December 19, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – As mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae hurtled to financial ruin, their charitable foundations continued to pour money into homosexual causes, reports the organization Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays (PFOX).   Their largest single gifts came in the last year — just months before both companies collapsed and were taken over by the government.   Freddie Mac gave more than $20,000 to the 2008 fundraising gala of the Washington, D.C., chapter of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG-DC). Fannie Mae gave between $10,000 – $19,000 to the same event.   According to its […]

By Piero A. Tozzi  NEW YORK, December 19, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Two dueling declarations were presented yesterday at the United Nations (UN) General Assembly on the controversial subject of “sexual orientation and gender identity.” The first, submitted by the French-led European Union (EU) and signed onto by roughly 65 nations, called upon member states to include “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” as protected non-discrimination categories and “to ensure that sexual orientation or gender identity may under no circumstances be the basis for criminal penalties.” Nearly sixty nations, principally from the Islamic world, sub-Saharan Africa and Oceania, presented an alternate statement […]

VATICAN, December 19, 2008 (CWNews.com/LifeSiteNews.com) – The Vatican’s permanent observer at the UN has opposed a resolution that decries discrimination on the basis of “sexual orientation and gender identity.” Archbishop Celestino Migliore said that the Holy See endorsed the proposal’s condemnation of violence against homosexuals, and agrees with the call “to put an end to all criminal penalties against them.”  However, the archbishop said, the non-binding resolution – introduced by France and the Netherlands, and endorsed by 66 UN member-states – “goes well beyond the above-mentioned and shared intent.” He explained that the terms “sexual orientation and gender identity” are […]