News

OTTAWA, ON September 7, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In a controversial promotional stunt, a hit-music radio station in Canada’s capital is hosting a contest to “win a baby.”

The New Hot 89-9’s contest rules and regulations state that the retail value of the “Prize” – a fully funded round of fertility treatment – is approximately $35,000 CAD. Newcap Radio Inc. is sponsoring the prize.

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“It is some people’s lifelong dream to conceive a baby, but not everyone can…  If you’re in that situation The New Hot 89-9 is swooping in like a big beautiful stork to make your dreams of changing diapers a reality,” reads the blurb on the station’s website.

The news of the contest follows on the heels of news of a lottery in the UK, also offering a baby as the grand prize.

Jim Hughes, president of Campaign Life Coalition, Canada’s national pro-life organization, called the stunt “appalling.”

“It just shows how far down the slippery slope we travelled thus far and it’s a portent of what’s to come,” he told LifeSiteNews.com.

Josie Geuer, Program Director for the New Hot 89.9 told LSN that the station is running the promotion because “1 in 6 people have trouble conceiving, and we know that our audience—we target females between the age of 25 and 54—is dealing with the issue of conceiving right now, and so we wanted to give them the opportunity to have a baby of their own.”

“We want to inspire people, and give them hope, and inspire change, and inspire conversion because a lot of people are humiliated by fertility issues,” she said, adding, “they’re not talking to each other and unfortunately for that reason a lot of people seek treatment too late.”

But Hughes told LSN that treating a baby as a “prize” to be won in a competition reduces a baby to a commodity.

“It turns a child into a consumer product and encourages the trade in innocent human life.”

The “Win a Baby Contest” closes Monday, October 10th at 9am. The woman who wins the contest must complete the “fertility treatment procedure” within 12 months from the end of the contest.

Contact information

Hot 89.9 FM
Josie Geuer, Program Director
6 Antares Drive
Phase 1, Unit 100
Ottawa, Ontario
K2E 8A9
Ph: (613) 723-8990
e-mail: [email protected]

Newcap Radio
745 Windmill Road
Dartmouth, Nova Scotia
B3B 1C2
Ph: 902-468-7557
e-mail: [email protected]