The United States Government announced on April 16, 1987, that it is clearing the way for investors to patent new forms of animal life through gene splitting, and that the new policy would be adopted by the Commerce Department’s Patent and Trademark Office. The policy will allow the patenting of animals with new traits, and one report states that “researches will eventually [...]
In January this year an In Vitro Fertilization clinic opened at Winnipeg’s Health Sciences Centre. This prompted meetings and considerable correspondence between members of the IVF team and the League of Life in Manitoba. As a result;, the recent Vatican document, “On Respect for Human Life and its Origins and the Dignity and Procreation,” which formally condemned IVF, has created more than [...]
Bishop Anthony Tonnos of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hamilton had rejected the idea that teaching students how to use condoms is an acceptable way to prevent the spread of AIDS. In a firmly-worded pastoral letter, Bishop Tonnos stresses Catholic teaching on “faithful and permanent” marriage, rejects extra-marital sexual activity and affirms chastity as a positive and viable virtue. “We believe that [...]
“Western society is at a crossroads: the crossroads of civilization, and a technological scientism in which people may be produced in glass tubes. It is a time of family versus the State; the individual versus big business and is about; the helpless versus the powerful; the right of choice. It is a ‘crucial state’ history and you, [the pro-life movement] are making [...]
“It is ludicrous logic that causes them (the Doctors Billings’) to link abortion and contraception” wrote the pastor of Calgary’s Glamorgan Church of God in January 1987 Interim. Certainly two famous British abortionists don’t think so. Let me cite two of many researchers: Dr. Malcolm Potts, former medical director of the London International Planned Parenthood Federation, has written, “As people turn to [...]
Two recent studies by Newfoundland researchers show that single women undergoing abortion are both knowledgeable about contraceptives available to them and are unwilling either to marry to legitimize the pregnancy or to consider adoption as a viable alternative. For women under 24, age, lack of financial security and single status are the three most common-cited reasons for seeking abortion. Paul Sachdev, a [...]
I’m reminded of a story circulating around Ottawa: A prisoner in Kingston Pen writes a letter to Prime Minister Brian Mulroney complaining about how difficult it has been for him to get parole and he gets a letter back from the PM’s office saying, “…I have taken this matter up personally with Prime Minister Mulroney, and he promises to improve postal service [...]
A bill, prohibiting Arizona schools from either distributing contraceptives, or from referring students to agencies that dispense birth control without parental consent, was approved by the State House of Representatives on Thursday March 13, 1987. At present no Arizona high schools dispense contraceptives, but the co-sponsors of the bill, Lela Steffey and Jim White, object to school clinics referring students to other [...]
On March 10, 1987, the Vatican reaffirmed the special character of marriage and the dignity of human life before birth in a new document on genetic engineering. The document, Instruction on Respect of Human Life in its Origin and on the Dignity of Procreation, was published by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith after wide consultation with many experts around [...]
In a precedent-setting decision, the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld a substantial damage award to a young girl whose birth defects were caused by her mother’s use of spermicidal jelly. The decision is said to have alarmed pharmaceutical companies, some of whom are in the courts fighting law suits brought by women injured by various brand-name Inter Uterine Devices (IUDs) Ortho Pharmaceutical [...]
While no one denies that AIDS education is vitally important if we are to halt the spread of the disease, many are questioning the assumptions on which AIDS prevention is based and the questions being raised are serious indeed. Firstly, it is wrong to base education campaigns on the assumption that all the facts are known on how this virus is transmitted. [...]
Late last year, the media heralded the arrival of a newly-discovered chemical abortion pill, and followed up with further news that the pill could also be used as a convenient, once-a-month method of birth control. In fact, the RU 486 pill has been public knowledge since early last year when American pro-life newspapers, ALL About Issues and National Right to Life News, [...]
Father Paul Marx, the energetic founder and director of Human Life International, spent the first week of February in southern Ontario, passing on to audiences in several cities his observations on world-wide anti-family policies. He sees an inseparable connection between the widespread access to contraception and increased rates of abortion in the world. Father Marx stresses that there is not one exception [...]
This article contains explicit descriptions of some sexual practices which will, no doubt, be offensive to many readers. We, too, find it distasteful. Nevertheless, we feel that our readers have the right to know precisely what is being discussed in the AIDS education debate. When U.S. Surgeon General, C. Everett Koop M.D., issued his Report on Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) in [...]
The Law Reform Commission of Canada has issued a recently-completed paper on “Options for Abortion Policy Reform.” This study is the first step in a programme which will also include issues such as embryo experimentation, infanticide, genetic screening and in-vitro fertilization. It is expected that, by the winter of 1987, the Commission will issue “a report containing specific law [...]