Lord Nicholas Windsor has described abortion as a form of eugenics. Writing in the The Telegraph Lord Windsor said that his commitment to opposing abortion originated in his realisation that terminating a pregnancy means the destruction of a human being. Summarising the pro-life position Lord Windsor said "the cost [of abortion] is too high because the cost is paid in innocent human life". [Telegraph, 10 October] http://goo.gl/lHQbf

Edwin Poots, the Northern Irish Health Minister, has said he will raise the possibility of introducing presumed consent for organ donation. It is worrying that the minister is opening the door to the idea that the state, ultimately, owns people’s bodies after death.  Such an oppressive attitude undermines the idea that human body parts are not like any other exchangeable commodity but are only to be donated, where appropriate, as a free act of self-giving from one person to another.  For a state to ignore this language of giving and instrumentalise the human body, effectively reducing it to mere property, is an affront to human dignity which undermines us all.  Even those who explicitly consent to be organ donors are often unaware of the state their body will be in when their organs are harvested after "brain death" or "cardiac death".   Given that there is serious doubt as to whether those described as "beating heart cadavers", for example, are actually dead, it is irresponsible in the extreme to further empower the state to remove the organs of those unable to speak for themselves. Liam Gibson of SPUC Northern Ireland said "this is a worrying development and SPUC will be writing to the Minister and the Attorney General regarding the ethical concerns which would arise from a change in the law to facilitate the presumed consent of potential organ donors". [Belfast Telegraph, 10 October] http://goo.gl/kU8cH

 American President Barack Obama has celebrated a mandate which will force religious employers to fund health insurance packages which cover abortifacient contraceptives. 18 Catholic colleges and universities have written a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services protesting the mandate and the United States Catholic Bishops Conference urged Catholics to object to the mandate online. Catholics are now being urged to write to their members of congress and urge them to support conscience protection legislation. [LifeSiteNews.com, 7 October] http://goo.gl/z79lw