Bioethics
Written on 6 Apr, 2004 at 7:54 in
Bioethics | Author:
Paul Tuns
By Paul Tuns
The InterimOn March 11, the Senate approved Bill C-6, An Act Respecting Assisted Human Reproduction and Related Research (formerly C-13). The media dutifully did the government's bidding by erroneously reporting that the government's reproductive and experimental technologies bill bans human cloning and regulates embryonic stem cell research.
Such claims have proven to be untrue. As an analysis by Campaign Life Coalition, released last year, demonstrates, shoddy definitions of what a human ... (Continue reading)
Written on 5 Feb, 2004 at 12:48 in
Abortion, Bioethics, Bits n' Pieces | Author:
Abortion
The Minnesota Medical Association calls a state health department website mentioning studies linking abortion and breast cancer "misleading" and "confusing," while the state branch of the American College of Obstretricians and Gynecologists says the site is deceptive. The health department also claims there are studies that say there is no link ... The Centre for Reproductive Rights tells Focus on the Family, the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute and other pro-life services and organizations to ... (Continue reading)
Written on 5 Jan, 2004 at 12:22 in
Bioethics, Pro-Life, Religion | Author:
Gillian Long
By Gillian Long
The InterimPro-lifers were very concerned after the Canadian Catholic Bioethics Institute's third annual Connie Heng Lecture in Bioethics on Nov. 14, with keynote speaker Fr. Kevin O'Rourke, O.P., who presented the topic, "The Nutrition-Hydration Debate: Various Options." Following his address, a panel of experts discussed the paper.
O'Rourke is a well-known advocate for the removal of food and fluids from cognitively disabled people who are not otherwise dying. O'Rourke claims that ... (Continue reading)
Written on 5 Jan, 2004 at 12:13 in
Bioethics | Author:
Sam Singson
By Sam Singson
The InterimIn an unprecedented move, the General Assembly on Dec. 9 struck down a legal committee decision that would have delayed negotiations on a convention against human cloning for two years. Without having to resort to a vote, the assembly agreed to put the issue of cloning back on the agenda for the next session, which begins in September.
Just one month earlier, on Nov. 6, in one of the closest ... (Continue reading)
Same-sex 'marriage'
Without a doubt, the biggest news story of 2003 is the June 10 Ontario Superior Court decision granting marriage rights to homosexual couples. This decision, in which three judges ignored millennia of tradition and replaced the law with their personal wishes, has serious implications for the family, our society, national politics and the future of our democracy.
The first and most obvious is the assault on the traditional family, the foundational institution ... (Continue reading)
Written on 31 Dec, 2003 at 13:48 in
Bioethics, Editorials, Paul Tuns | Author:
Paul Tuns
The reason that the ALS Society of Canada, and other like-minded organizations, want the government to approve Bill C-13 is so that the Canadian Institutes of Health Research will fund pharmaceutical companies to do such research on human embryos using taxpayers' money. These pharmaceutical companies are eager for taxpayer dollars, too. But the ... (Continue reading)
Written on 31 Dec, 2003 at 13:12 in
Bioethics | Author:
By Interim Staff After the recent passing of Bill C-13 in the House of Commons and all the controversy that went along with it, human cloning has been a prominent issue on the minds of Canadians for the past year. The government of Canada has also had to discuss cloning at the international level, since France and Germany put the topic on the General Assembly agenda back in 2001. ... (Continue reading)
Written on 31 Dec, 2003 at 13:12 in
Bioethics | Author:
By Gillian Long The Interim The pro-life movement is constantly reminded of the importance of being vigilant in monitoring what is put before our children in the name of education. A new threat is coming from Canada's largest university on the topic of embryonic stem cell ... (Continue reading)
Written on 31 Dec, 2003 at 13:12 in
Bioethics, Paul Tuns, Politics | Author:
By Paul Tuns
The Interim
But future of bill is in doubt as Senate prorogues
On Oct. 28, the House of Commons passed Bill C-13, the federal government's long-delayed and fundamentally flawed reproductive and experimental technologies legislation, by a vote of 149-109.
Liberal ... (Continue reading)
Written on 1 Dec, 2003 at 13:52 in
Bioethics | Author:
By Sam Singson The Interim Delegates from around the world met at the UN Sept. 29 to Oct. 3. They were charged with the task of drafting an international ban on human cloning. But they didn't get that far. In fact, they couldn't even get started.
The members of the working group of the Sixth Committee, the committee of the United Nations General Assembly that handles international legal ... (Continue reading)
Written on 1 Nov, 2003 at 7:55 in
Bioethics | Author:
By Sam Singson The Interim
Delegates from around the world met at the UN Sept. 29 to Oct. 3. They were charged with the task of drafting an international ban on human cloning. But they didn't get that far. In fact, they couldn't even get started.
The members of the working group of the Sixth Committee, the committee ... (Continue reading)
Written on 30 Oct, 2003 at 11:15 in
Bioethics, Paul Tuns, Politics | Author:
By Paul Tuns The Interim Bill C-13, An Act Respecting Human Reproduction and Related Technologies, hangs in limbo as the federal government seems unsure of whether it has enough support to get it passed.
As a sign of its desperation to enact the reproductive technologies legislation, the government has indicated that the vote will not be a free one. It has also suggested to Liberal MP Paul ... (Continue reading)
Written on 26 Sep, 2003 at 13:32 in
Bioethics, Book Review | Author:
Review by
Stephen Tardiff
The Interim
Life, Liberty and the Defense of Dignity: The Challenge for Bioethics
By Leon R. Kass M.D.
(Encounter Books, 313 pgs $39.50)
Two hundred years ago, the poet William Wordsworth assessed the human condition, asking: "Have I not reason to lament/ What man has made of man?" At the dawn of the third millennium, technology has the human condition itself within its power; ... (Continue reading)
Written on 26 Sep, 2003 at 13:14 in
Abortion, Bioethics | Author:
By Interim staff
British pro-life campaigners are critical of a High Court ruling that has awarded compensation to a couple because their daughter was born with Down syndrome. The ruling, handed down by Mr. Justice Morland, suggests that a doctor's strong Catholic faith influenced his treatment of a patient, as well as his failure to send her for an amniocentesis test.
Dr. George Tse Sak Kwun had incorrectly recorded the age of Ann Enright as ... (Continue reading)
Written on 5 Sep, 2003 at 13:31 in
Bioethics | Author:
Lifesite News
Researchers in China have announced the successful creation of animal-human chimeras which have survived till the blastocyst stage - at which point they can extract stem cells.
The study which is published in the current issue of the peer reviewed journal Cell Research notes that human skin cells were fused with rabbit ova which had their nuclei removed to produce the cloned embryos.
Hui Zhen Sheng of Shanghai Second Medical University and ... (Continue reading)
