LifeSiteNews.com

Monday February 25, 2002

SHARE THIS PAGE: E-mail  Print ArticlePrint


     

CHURCH IN NETHERLANDS FORBIDS CATHOLIC BURIALS FOR THOSE PLANNING EUTHANASIA

AMSTERDAM, February 25, 2002, (LSN.ca) - The Catholic Church in the Netherlands is drawing up pastoral guidelines on dealing with cases of requests for Catholic burial for people who are planning to undergo voluntary euthanasia. Catholic News Service (CNS) reports that the Dutch church spokesman for the Hertogenbosch Diocese Micheil Savelsbergh confirmed that the Catholic Church cannot give religious burials to people who planned to be euthanized.

Savelsbergh told CNS in a Feb 21 interview that church funerals could be given to people who already had died from euthanasia, but not for patients whose deaths still were being planned that way.

Back to Top Back to Top


     

UK FERTILITY AUTHORITY OKAYS DESIGNER BABY SELECTION

LONDON, February 25, 2002 (LSN.ca) - Britain's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) decided Friday to allow in vitro fertilization to be used to have children born with close genetic matches to older siblings in order to be able to provide bone marrow transplants. HFEA approved the request of Raj and Shahana Hashmi who were looking to use IVF to select a child with a bone marrow match for their three-year-old Zain who suffers from the rare and potentially fatal blood disorder thalassaemia.

As with all IVF treatment, the procedure creates many embryos (live children) and implants only a few, the rest of which are either frozen and stored, discarded and thus destroyed/killed, donated to research resulting in their death or given to other couples for adoption. A child with the specific genetic match is selected from among the created embryos using pre-implantation genetic diagnosis.

Although HFEA said this was a very rare case and that the decision would not be precedent setting, the BBC is reporting today that there are another six families looking to have 'designer babies' for similar reasons. While the Hashami's say that the extra embryos created will be frozen rather than destroyed, experts in the field have noted that only about half of all embryos survive the freezing and thawing process.

See the BBC coverage:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/health/newsid_1836000/18365...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/health/newsid_1839000/18390...

Back to Top Back to Top


     

BELGIAN UNIVERSITY TO TEACH DOCTORS HOW TO COMMIT EUTHANASIA

BRUSSELS, February 25, 2002 (LSN.ca) - The Belgian Free University in Brussels is planning to teach medical student how to commit euthanasia. Professor Wim Betz of the university's department of medicine explained to the media, "If a doctor decides to commit euthanasia, it's better he does it correctly from the start." Last October the Belgian Senate voted to legalize euthanasia with the lower chamber of parliament expected to approve the legislation this year.

Final passage of the bill will make Belgium the only country in Europe to follow the Netherlands in allowing euthanasia. Last June the Belgian government also followed the Netherlands in proposing a cabinet bill to legalize homosexual marriage. The government followed Britain's lead in allowing the abortifacient "morning-after" pill to be available to the public without a prescription.

See related LifeSite coverage:
BELGIAN SENATE APPROVES EUTHANASIA
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2001/oct/0110262 .html

See the coverage from Ananova:
http://www.ananova.com/yournews/story/sm_528725.html

Back to Top Back to Top


     

DIRECTOR OF CATHOLIC PREGNANCY COUNSELING CENTER IS AN ESCORT AT ABORTUARY

DORCHESTER, February 25, 2002 (LSN.ca) - Massachusetts News is reporting that the Director of Counseling Services at Catholic Charities in Dorchester, a facility that counsels pregnant women, volunteers his Saturdays escorting women into Planned Parenthood's abortion clinic in Boston. The paper confirmed with Catholic Charities spokesperson , Maureen March that Howard M. Brown is a counselor at the centre and further published a photo of Brown in his "Planned Parenthood Escort" uniform.

Brown's illicit extra-curricular activities were discovered after he testified in court against a pro-life woman who was charged with assault outside the abortuary. The petite woman was cleared of the charges but Brown raised suspicions in court after he dodged questions about where he was employed.

LifeSite contacted Brown at Catholic Charities Dorchester but he refused to speak saying all media inquiries must go through Ms. March. Calls for comment from Catholic Charities and the Archdiocese of Boston were not returned by press time.

To express your concerns:

Catholic Charities
Archdiocese of Boston
75 Kneeland Street
Boston, MA 02111-1931
maureen_march@ccab.org
tshorter@catholiccharitiesusa.org

Archdiocese of Boston
His Eminence Bernard Cardinal Law
Cardinal's Residence 2101 Commonwealth Av.
Boston, MA 02135-3192
617-782-2544,FAX 617-782-8358
Email to: prolifebos@aol.com


See the coverage in Massachusetts News:
http://www.massnews.com/22002pp.htm

Back to Top Back to Top


     

EXCLUSIVE INTERIM PREVIEW: WOMEN'S FORUM EXPOSES YOUTH TO PERVERSITIES

TORONTO, February 25, 2002 (LSN.ca) - The Interim, LifeSite's parent monthly national pro-life newspaper carries a shocking expose in the upcoming March issue which details a women's forum which scandalized young participants with graphic sex information.

Busloads of highschool girls, including a contingent from a Grade 9 class at St. Clement's private Anglican school in Toronto, attended the forum which headlined the notorious Nafis Sadik, former head of the abortion promoting United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Interim reporter Tony Gosnach attended the Women's Health Matters Forum and Expo, held Jan. 18 and 19 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

On the agenda was a series of three "special presentations for adolescent women," including Let's Talk About Sex, Sex on the Couch, and Questions About Birth Control and the Emergency Contraceptive Pill. They were presented by such organizations as Planned Parenthood of Toronto, the (Toronto) Bay Centre for Birth Control and Teens Educating and Confronting Homophobia. Answering a question on 'When is one ready to have sex?', facilitator "Tanya" said, "None of us can tell you when you're ready to have sex. You can always have sex with yourself, have some good time with yourself and, you know, you're ready at 10 as far as I'm concerned! And maybe even before that."

In addition to General Motors Canada, the chief sponsor of the event, the government funded Ontario Women's Health Council was also listed as a sponsor. Harvey's, Swiss Chalet, TUMS, Liberty Health, CTV and the Toronto Star were among the other sponsors.

For more see the March issue of Interim.

To order a subscription to : The Interim

Back to Top Back to Top


     

LIFESITE NEWSBYTES

NO JAIL TIME FOR 'VILE' CHILD PORN
http://www.canada.com/ottawa/story.asp?id={A58D13FF-BF6C-43C...
(link valid today only)

JOE CLARK SAYS HE WILL REMAIN TORY LEADER INTO NEXT ELECTION
http://www.canoe.ca/Columnists/weston.html

PRIME MINISTER'S GRANDNIECE GIVEN $94K-A-YEAR JOB IN FOREIGN AFFAIRS DEPT.
http://www.canoe.ca/OttawaNews/os.os-02-22-0013.html

RED CROSS PULLS OUT OF FREE CONDOM PROJECT AT OLYMPICS
http://nandotimes.com/healthscience/v-text/story/266164p-245...

SWEDEN SEEKS TO ALLOW HOMOSEXUAL ADOPTION
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-000014263fe...

Back to Top Back to Top

SHARE THIS PAGE: E-mail  Print ArticlePrint

MORE NEWS: LifeSiteNews.com Home Page  Last 10 Days   Archives   Special Reports

Copyright © LifeSiteNews.com. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License. You may republish this article or portions of it without request provided the content is not altered and it is clearly attributed to "LifeSiteNews.com". Any website publishing of complete or large portions of original LifeSiteNews articles MUST additionally include a live link to www.LifeSiteNews.com. The link is not required for excerpts. Republishing of articles on LifeSiteNews.com from other sources as noted is subject to the conditions of those sources.