News,
Top stories:
13-year-old girls fitted secretly with birth control implants
13-year-old girls at nine schools in Southampton, England, have been fitted with birth control implants without their parents' knowledge. Norman Wells, director of the Family Education Trust, said: "Schemes like these inevitably lead to boys putting pressure on girls to have sex. The last thing they should be doing is fuelling the flames of promiscuity and the sexual health crisis with schemes that treat parents, the law and basic moral principles with contempt."[Telegraph, 8 February] John Smeaton, SPUC director, commented: "These implants not only act as contraceptives, but can also act as abortifacients, killing newly-conceived embryos by stopping them from implanting in the womb."
Leader of Anglican Communion says legalising assisted suicide would spell "disaster"
Dr Rowan Williams, the leader of the Anglican Communion, has said that legalising assisted suicidewould spell "disaster". Addressing a General Synod debate, Dr Williams said: "[T]o change the law on this subject is, I believe, to change something vital in our sense of the value of life itself." The synod voted overwhelmingly to "affirm the intrinsic value of every human life and express its support for the current law on assisted suicide" [Archbishop of Canterbury, 6 February]
Morning-after pills dispensed by vending machine at US university
Students at a university in the American state of Pennsylvania can buy morning-after pills from a vending machine. The machine also provides condoms and pregnancy tests. [Mail, 7 February] According to the manufacturers, morning-after pills may cause early abortions by preventing embryos implanting in the womb.
Other stories:
General
- Sarah Palin’s touching account of living with a son with Down’s syndrome [Mail, 6 February]
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