LifeSite Daily News for Thursday March 27, 2003

See today’s LifeSiteNews stories

Send news tips

SHARE THIS PAGE: E-mail Print

LIFESITE TOLL-FREE LINE FOR NEWS TIPS

A toll-free telephone line has been launched by LifeSite allowing you to easily contact us from the U.S. or Canada with news tips or other important information.

Telephone calls or emails from readers have been an important resource for LifeSite. After receiving such calls we attempt to verify and further research the information given.

Call LifeSite at 1-866-787-9947 or email [email protected]
For those from outside the U.S. or Canada, please use the email address or call 1-416-204-9749 ext 444

CANADIAN BILL C-13 TO BE RAMMED THROUGH FINAL VOTE WEDNESDAY

Bill Was Nearly Defeated on Technicality But Liberal Trickery Averted Defeat

OTTAWA, March 27, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Sources in the Canadian Parliament have informed LifeSite that the Liberal Government intends to push through the controversial Assisted Human Reproduction Act, Bill C-13, on Wednesday.

The entire bill was nearly defeated yesterday after the passage of MP Paul Szabo’s motion banning all human cloning. The government received a vote of only 120-94 to submit the bill as amended for third and final reading, but that is not the whole story.

Most opposition members voted against proceeding with the amended legislation as did several members of the Liberal majority. However, the opposition numbers were significantly lower than they should have been at the time of this last vote of the day on C-13. Over 20 Canadian Alliance members had earlier departed the House chamber after they were led to believe that a deal was made to pair with an equal number of Liberal Party members so that their opposing votes would cancel out.

Just after the cloning vote, the approximately 26 Canadian Alliance MPs left the House chamber. However, the Liberal members who had agreed to the deal reneged and stayed in the House for subsequent votes, including the final vote to send the bill to Third Reading.

Several motions which could have further improved the bill consequently lost critical votes. One of those motions was Jason Kenney’s Motion 17 which would have banned all destructive embryo research. The vote on that critical motion came right after the successful passage of Paul Szabo’s motion to ban all cloning and the accompanying departure from the House of the 26 duped Alliance members.

GOVERNMENT PLANS TO DEFEAT FULL CLONING BAN IN SENATE

OTTAWA, March 27, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – After more than a year of consistent effort, Canadian MPs voted in a narrow majority yesterday to support an amendment to the Assisted Reproduction Act to ensure all human cloning is banned. However, Parliamentary sources have informed LifeSite that the Liberal Government intends to use its majority in the Senate to strip the ban on all human cloning from the bill before its passage by the Senate.

Reliable sources report that Liberal Health Minister Anne McLellan was heard yesterday smugly suggesting that Paul Szabo’s successful Motion 13, which amended the bill to ban cloning by ‘any technique’, will be reversed in the Senate.

CANADIAN HOUSE MEMBERS VOTE ON AMENDMENTS TO STEM CELL BILL

See How Your MPs Voted On Pro-Life Measures On LifeSite

OTTAWA, March 27, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Members of the House of Commons voted yesterday on several key amendments aimed at improving the Assisted Human Reproduction Act Bill C-13. MPs voted by a narrow majority to support Motion 13 by Liberal MP Paul Szabo which banned human cloning by “any technique”. However, Canadian Alliance MP Jason Kenney’s Motion 17 to ban destructive research on human embryos was defeated as was a motion by Alliance MP Maurice Vellacott which aimed to limit in vitro fertilization treatments to heterosexual couples.

See yesterday’s LifeSite report on the voting:
LIBERALS RAM THROUGH VOTING ON 60 AMENDMENTS TO CANADIAN BILL C-13
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2003/mar/03032601.html

Votes on these three motions were recorded and results are available on LifeSite at:
https://www.lifesitenews.com/features/stemcellembryo/Motion_13_vo…
https://www.lifesitenews.com/features/stemcellembryo/Motion_17_vo…
https://www.lifesitenews.com/features/stemcellembryo/Motion_4_vot…

PHARMACEUTICAL GIANT FORCED TO ADMIT ABORTED FETAL TISSUE USED IN VACCINES

Merck & Co. Refuses to Allow Shareholders to Know of Tainted Vaccine Boycotts

FRONT ROYAL, VA, March 27, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The pro-life organizations, Children of God for Life and Human Life International, announced today that Merck & Co. has publicized the use of aborted fetal cell lines in their vaccines to shareholders.

What they failed to tell stockholders is that there is: An organized boycott of all Merck products; A resolution by the Catholic Medical Association to use alternatives to their vaccines cultivated on aborted fetal tissue and; Instruction by investment counseling organization, Pro Vita Advisors, that investors divest their Merck stock.

Due to the use of aborted fetal cell lines in vaccine production, Human Life International President Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer, who purchased sufficient shares of Merck stock, demanded that fellow shareholders be informed that Merck has violated its own Statement on Values, which states in part, ” We are committed to the highest standards of ethics and integrity.”

In a 5-page letter to the SEC, Merck pleaded their case to keep the entire resolution from becoming public, stating that the use of aborted fetal cell lines falls under “ordinary business” and therefore should be excluded from the proxy vote. In addition, Merck refused to acknowledge that it was profiting from the destruction of human life, stating there was no “financial evidence” to prove it. Merck’s net income for 2002 was
$7.2billion, with $34.6 million in viral vaccine sales.

While the SEC agreed to allow the information to be included in this year’s annual meeting, Merck’s attorneys were able to successfully remove most of the critical language.

To review the Merck Proxy statement being mailed to shareholders for consideration at the upcoming meeting, go to:
https://www.merck.com/finance/proxy/pr2003/proposal_4.html

To review the unabridged version of this press release with the original language of the Resolution as submitted by Human Life International go to:
https://www.cogforlife.org/merckpress.htm

U.S. SUPREME COURT SET TO OVERTURN TEXAS ANTI-SODOMY LAW

Scalia and Renquist Warn of Constitutional and Other Problems with Decision

WASHINGTON, March 27, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The U.S. Supreme Court is about to strike down Texas’s anti-sodomy law. Justice David Souter captured the majority atmosphere when he said such a law requires more than “moral judgment” to justify it. Souter said, “There has to be harm to others. What harm is there to others” in homosexual sex, he wondered — either ignoring or unaware of substantial information and warnings about the follow-on effects of imposing homosexual equality.

Chief Justice William Rehnquist noted that, “Almost all laws are based on disapproval of some people or conduct”. Rehnquist said rights need to have deeper roots and longer acceptance than the recent pro-homosexual trend in society warrants.

Justice Antonin Scalia joined Rehnquist in criticizing the idea that the Texas law violates “substantive due process” and “equal protection” under the Constitution. Scalia posited a hypothetical situation in which laws in many states against “flagpole-sitting” could be repealed. (Sitting on top of a flagpole as a stunt mostly died out around 1929.) Mocking the idea that everything is a right if someone merely says so, Scalia said: “Does that make
flagpole-sitting a constitutional right?”

For newswire coverage:
https://biz.yahoo.com/law/030327/66f39a278f4b34a9b7ca01db5fce…

PRO-LIFE AND PRO-ABORTION BOTH CONDEMN POLICE REQUEST FOR PROTEST PENALTIES

TORONTO, March 27, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Toronto Police Chief Julian Fantino wants his force to have more control over demonstrators since anti-war rallies have become more violent and alarming in recent years. Fantino is asking the federal government to amend the Criminal Code to strengthen the hand of police with “deterrent sentences” for offences committed at rallies and demonstrations.

Under the plan, says the Toronto Star, individuals or groups with a “history of violence or abuse at a demonstration would be disqualified from getting a protest permit” for two years or more, and would be obliged to post a bond before getting the go-ahead to stage a protest.

Both sides of the abortion debate felt the police chief was targeting them. “I don’t like it one bit,” said Jim Hughes, national president of the Campaign Life Coalition. “This is crazy, a no-brainer … I may not like what someone is going to protest, but I defend their right to,” Hughes said.

The Toronto pro-life movement reports that it has always demonstrated peacefully but has complained of many false arrests, rough treatment and bias from some police officers. Leaders also recall experiences of other officers more professionally protecting pro-lifers from threats of pro-abortion violence.

The secretive police complaints process has consistently been found to overwhelmingly favour officers who violate required procedures. Pro-life leaders say that the situation has not improved since Fantino took over as the new police chief. The chief has not responded to numerous letters or phone calls from pro-life leaders to discuss these and related issues.
.
On the pro-abortion side, Marilyn Wilson of the Canadian Abortion Rights Action League, said the idea is an affront to “free speech in our society.”

For local coverage:
https://www.thestar.ca/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thest…

FAMILIES VOW TO APPEAL RULING IN SOCIAL WORKER CHILD ABDUCTIONS

ST. THOMAS, Ont., March 27, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Lawyers for the Christian families terrorized by St. Thomas and Elgin Children’s Aid vow to appeal the decision of Madam Justice Eleanor Schnall, saying it gives too much power to social workers.

In spite of the clear evidence that the children are happier and healthier than most these days, the judge slapped six-months’ probation on the parents, giving social workers unannounced access to the family’s home and prohibiting physical discipline of the seven children, aged between 8 and 16.

Effectively, Schnall has stripped parents of any protection against overzealous and inexperienced social workers.

For Toronto Star coverage:
https://www.thestar.ca/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thest…

For previous LifeSite coverage:
LIFTED PUBLICATION BAN CONFIRMS AYLMER SOCIAL WORKERS WERE OUT OF LINE
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2002/jul/02070210.html

AYLMER SOCIAL WORKERS VIOLATED CHARTER RIGHTS, LAWYER ARGUES
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2002/jul/02070502.html

NEW MEASURES AVAILABLE TO FIGHT EMAIL SPAM

Email spam has become a major problem for many of our readers and the Internet community in general. Sales messages and porn spam are rapidly increasing and clogging inboxes.

Effective new products have recently become available to deal with this onslaught. One that some of us use is called Firetrust Mailwasher which discovers most spam before it even gets to your email inbox and sends it back as though your address was rejected. A companion to that is Firetrust Benign which prevents the capturing of your email address when you preview messages and it handles a lot more of the most recent problems that are not caught by anti-virus software.

We suggest you review these products at https://www.firetrust.com/ or acquire other similar products.

LifeSite receives no benefit whatever from recommending this software other than helping our users to experience much less aggravation when downloading our daily news.

LIFESITE NEWSBYTES

WHO DECIDES: PARENTS OR THE HOSPITAL? TEXAS CASE HIGHLIGHTS PREEMIE DILEMMAS
https://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0327/p01s01-usju.html

JEALOUS WOMAN WHO KICKED RIVAL FOUND GUILTY OF FETAL HOMICIDE
https://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/news/2067625/detail.html

REFORM RABBIS ELECT WOMAN PRESIDENT
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29328-2003Mar…

SHARE THIS PAGE: E-mail Print