Recent Catholic News

CALGARY, AB, Jan 29, 2001 (LSN.ca) – Justice Patricia Rowbotham of Alberta’s Court of Queen’s Bench has ruled that a full-term baby which died during childbirth, is not a child and therefore the parents are not due compensation for bereavement in her death. Parents Martin and Mary Bertoia were awarded $60,000 in damages for the admitted negligence of their physician, Dr. Lynn Marriott, but were refused an additional $25,000 for the loss of the baby – Kelsey Lee on the grounds that the law does not consider the baby a child. “The anomaly in this case is if Kelsey Lee […]

OTTAWA, Jan 29, 2001 (LSN.ca) – An Ottawa pro-life poster advertising Pro-Life Sunday has gained extensive media attention over the use of a quote from a Dr. Seuss book. The poster, depicted in a Jan. 28 Ottawa Citizen article (see link), showed a tiny six- to eight-week-old embryo under the Seuss quote: “A person’s a person, no matter how small.” The Citizen says that Audrey Geisel, widow of Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, is upset that the quote is being used and her lawyer is demanding that it be removed. Action Life, an Ottawa pro-life group designed […]

SHANGHAI, China, Jan 29, 2001 (LSN.ca) – A Chinese trial has demonstrated the effectiveness of the Billings Ovulation Method (BOM) – a method of natural fertility regulation which can be used to achieve or avoid pregnancy. The study compared the effectiveness of the Intra-Uterine Device against that of the BOM in avoiding pregnancy. The trial involved 1,654 women aged 24-35, with 992 using BOM and 662 using IUDs. Results showed that in the BOM group five women became pregnant due to faulty application of the method, the pregnancy rate being 0.5%, while in the IUD group there were 12 pregnancies […]

WASHINGTON, Jan 29, 2001 (LSN.ca) – On Friday, President George W. Bush said he was against funding for research using aborted babies or human embryos. Moreover, on “Meet the Press” yesterday, Vice President Dick Cheney supported the President on fetal tissue research and also would not rule out efforts to overturn Roe v Wade. Nando Times reported Friday that Bush said, “I do not support research from aborted fetuses,” saying federal money should not be spent on such research. On stem cell research he said, “I believe there’s some wonderful opportunities for adult stem-cell research … I believe we can […]

The Canadian Press reports that Ottawa is considering allowing rent-a-womb contracts for low pay. Superdrug a pharmaceutical company in London, England will sell the abortifacient morning-after-pill over the Internet at superdrug.com   http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,429610,00.html Leading Liberal politician Mac Harb has been quoted as saying he believes that human clones have already been created. “Somewhere, I don’t know in which lab and I don’t know how old they are, but I am sure cloned humans exist,” he said.  http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_186925.html JAKARTA, Jan 26, 2001 (LSN.ca) – Governor J.P. Solossa of the Indonesian province of Irian Jaya has revealed that the use of condoms […]

OTTAWA, Jan 26, 2001 (LSN.ca) – The Supreme Court of Canada ruled today in the case of child pornography dealer John Robin Sharpe. Some pro-family groups have expressed relief that the decision upholds most of the current legal restrictions on child pornography. Others are far less positive and fear the Court has further opened the door to acceptance of such material by finding that Canadian law too severely restricts the freedom of child porn users on at least two points. The 6-3 decision said that the current law’s infringement on Charter rights are for the most part justified. The justices […]

VANCOUVER, Jan 26, 2001 (LSN.ca) – LifeSite has learned that the Children’s and Women’s Health Centre (CWHC) of British Columbia has “unique and diverse responsibilities in maintaining and facilitating abortion services throughout British Columbia.” The information comes from David Loukidelis, Information and Privacy Commissioner for BC in a recently released order concerning a refused information request for determining the number of abortions performed at CWHC, as well as the gestational age. Loukidelis agreed with CWHC that they did not have to release the information to the applicant, Ted Gerk. The Commissioner’s reasoning, however, has raised additional questions because of the […]

ZURICH, Switzerland, Jan. 26, 2001 (LSN.ca) – A major study released by the Center for Strategic and International Studies declares that global labor shortages, falling savings rates, declining asset values, escalating debt and a precipitous drop in military spending are likely to be the result of the aging of the population in the world’s major industrial nations. The study, conducted in collaboration with the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, European Commission, and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, said exploding pension-age populations will combine with flat or declining labor forces to create the potential for significant fiscal shortfalls in the […]

JAKARTA, Jan 26, 2001 (LSN.ca) – Governor J.P. Solossa of the Indonesian province of Irian Jaya has revealed that the use of condoms will be made mandatory for those engaged in extra-marital sex as a way to combat AIDS. “We will soon issue a provincial decree on the obligatory use of condoms in specific high-risk locations and areas from where the disease could spread,” Solossa said. He indicated that the program would soon involve the whole province. See the AFT report at:  http://www.news24.co.za/News24/World/Asia/0,1113,2-10-20_968915,00.html

OTTAWA, Jan. 25, 2001 (LSN.ca) – The situation in Canada regarding the vast moral minefield of new reproductive technologies (NRT) is admittedly a disaster with no formal law in place banning experimentation on unborn babies. With experimentation in the field involving human embryo cloning, animal-human hybrids and the like, Canada’s voluntary moratorium on such practices is laughable. A report in today’s National Post reveals that Health Minister Allan Rock is set to release a national policy on NRT which would ban the most grotesque experiments (such as growing embryos in artificial wombs), but give government sanction, and allow funding for […]