Bits 'n' Pieces

Euthanasia

The number of people who requested physician-assisted suicide (PAS) in Oregon increased 10 per cent in 2003 to 42. A state report on PAS said that the reason most victims end their lives is the fear of losing their autonomy. Dr. Kenneth Stevens, a Portland physician, raises concerns that, "There is a wall of secrecy around assisted suicide in Oregon" and worries about the real numbers and the lack of reporting on botched suicide attempts. He wonders if the real number might be higher than the official number ... The Daily Telegraph reports that Switzerland is going to "crack down on 'suicide tourists'" by requiring visitors to be Swiss residents for six months before becoming eligible for assisted suicide at the Zurich Dignitas clinic. Last year, 91 foreigners died last year at Dignitas ... New Zealand euthanasia advocate Lesley Martin's trial for the alleged murder of her mother began March 17. Martin said: "This is not just my trial. This is the trial of everyone who's ever made a promise that they would help someone die gently if necessary, and the trial of every doctor who has helped and remained silent" ... The British House of Lord's established a parliamentary committee to consider the issue of euthanasia as part of a compromise over Lord Joffe's Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill, which would legalize assisted suicide and euthanasia. There is no early indication of how the committee may report ... Hawaii is moving toward legalizing assisted suicide, two years after a similar bill was defeated. Among organizations pushing for the law: the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii and Planned Parenthood of Hawaii.

Homosexuality

The Swedish Parliament is considering a change to the marriage law to include homosexual civil unions within the legal definition of marriage. Same-sex civil unions have been recognized in Sweden since 1995. The only party to oppose the move is the Christian Democrats, who hold fewer than 10 per cent of the seats ... A recent poll show s61 per cent of Swedes in favour of defining marriage to include homosexuals ... Before being defeated in the federal election following the March 11 terrorist attacks in Madrid, the ruling Popular Party proposed the legal recognition of homosexual civil unions. Spanish pro-family group PROFAM said that as a result of the announcement, PP has lost the support of Spanish families ... The Turkish parliament is set to review proposed changes to the Penal Code which would criminalize discrimination based on "sexual orientation." It would be the first majority Muslim country to grant such special rights to homosexuals ... The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission is urging the United Nations Human Rights Commission to pass a resolution to ban discrimination based on "sexual orientation." The resolution was co-sponsored by Brazil and Canada ... Michael Coren in the Toronto Sun about extending tolerance beyond homosexuality: "I can see a day when our state television and radio stations will broadcast brother/sister weddings and where magazines will feature special editions on what the stylish incestuous bride will be wearing this summer. We'll have a popular television show called Incest Eye For The Straight Guy and nobody will be upset. If they are, nobody will listen. It's all about tolerance. And if you can't tolerate this, it may be time to live somewhere else or just fade away."

Canada

Conservative Party leadership candidate Belinda Stronach, who supports abortion and same-sex "marriage," beat socially conservative Lois Brown for the party's riding nomination in Newmarket-Aurora ... Former Reform Party leader Preston Manning endorses Stronach for Conservative leader ... Stockwell Day won his nomination to represent the Conservatives in Okanagan-Coquihalla ... Newcomer Mark Warawa, who declared himself to be pro-life during his nominating speech, is the Conservative Party candidate in Langley, B.C. ... Same-sex "marriage became an issue in the election by the territorial government of Nunavut. Former cabinet minister Tagak Curley, re-elected to the government in February, criticized the incumbent, Paul Okalik, for not doing enough to protect native culture, saying that Okalik has acquiesced with Ottawa's plans to impose same-sex "marriage." Curley also criticized the Human Rights Act, passed last November, which enshrined special rights of homosexuals. Okalik won.

United States

President George W. Bush names three pro-lifers to the Presidential Council on Bioethics: Johns Hopkins pediatric neurologist, Dr. Benjamin Carson, an opponent of the marginalization of religion in the public square; chairman of the department of political science at Loyola College in Maryland; Diana Schaub, an opponent of embryonic research, which she says is a combination of slavery and abortion; professor of government at Georgia's Berry College, Peter Lawler, who warns against the trend toward aborting genetically defective babies ...The first bill signed into law by Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher (R), first elected last November, was legislation similar to the federal Unborn Victims of Violence Act (yet to be passed) which makes it a crime to kill an unborn child in the commission of a violent crime ... Boston District Judge Allen J. Jarasitis ordered a heroin-addicted pregnant woman to protect her unborn triplets: "If she wants to poison her own body that's one thing, but assuming what is in the police report is true, she's affecting three other people."

International

A member of the Singapore legislature says the country should discourage abortion among married women in an effort reverse the declining birth rate there. Their fertility rate is 1.23, well below the replacement level of 2.1 ... The Kenyan Family Planning Association, a member of the International Planned Parenthood Federation, allows staff to break Kenya's abortion law. Josiah Onyango, FPAK's medical officer, says: "Whoever wants to, can do it. I have no problems with that." Medical staff report abortions, Onyango explains, as treatment for menstrual regulation ... Poland's ruling socialist party indicated it intends to liberalize the country's pro-life laws after it enters the European Union. Jolanta Banach, a candidate for party leadership, said: "Our bill will aim to protect women's right to decide about their parenthood." Lech Kowalewski of Human Life International Europa said: "Poland's feminists should be concentrating their efforts upon the real problems facing women today, such as poverty and unemployment, rather than promoting their misplaced ideologies" ... Prime Minister Jose Manuel Durao Barroso has rejected calls to liberalize its abortion laws. Pro-abortion activists have been calling for a second referendum on the issue after losing one in 1998 ... A study in England released by the Family Education Trust has found that explicit sex education in schools has resulted in an increase in the teenage pregnancy rate. Schools that distribute free condoms and confidential reproductive health services to girls have seen pregnancies increase by up to 34 per cent.

International organizations