News,

The President of Italy has called for a parliamentary debate on euthanasia after receiving a letter from a terminally ill man campaigning for its legalisation. President Giorgio Napolitano received a letter from Piergiorgio Welby, 60, who suffers from advanced muscular dystrophy, saying that he wanted the right to die "with dignity" and called for Italians to have the same access to euthanasia as the Swiss, the Belgians and the Dutch. Mr Napolitano wrote back saying that he had been "deeply moved and touched" and that he wanted lawmakers to debate the issue of euthanasia. Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, President of Pastoral Assistance to Health Care Workers, called for Catholic parliamentarians to act "with consistency". He said: "For the Church, euthanasia amounts to murder, it's as simple as that, and therefore it can never be allowed. It's forbidden by the fifth commandment. God's law is extremely clear on this and there is no room for misunderstanding - one must not kill." [Ansa, 25 September]

A police officer in Florida who killed her boyfriend and then committed suicide is thought to have been deeply distressed over a recent abortion. The Miami Herald reported that Laura Grunas, 30, had had an abortion a few weeks before the violent argument with her boyfriend Robert Peat, 31, which resulted in her shooting both Mr Peat and then herself. Ms Grunas is said to have accused Mr Peat of being responsible for the killing of their child. [Life Site, 25 September]

Twenty two women living in the Chinese province of Shandong are to file a lawsuit against the Birth Control Office. The women are among those helped by Chen Guangcheng, the blind human rights activist who has been sentenced to four years and three months imprisonment after campaigning against China's coercive one-child policy. One of the women, Li Juan, underwent a forced abortion two days before her child was due to be born. [The Epoch Times, 25 September]

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