News,
The College of Catholic Lawyers in Mexico is to complain to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights about the legalisation in Mexico City of social abortion in the first three months of pregnancy. Fr Hugo Valdemar, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Mexico City, said the new law went against a clause in Mexico's constitution that says the state must defend human life "from conception until its natural end." [Scotsman 27 April] The city's legislature voted earlier this week for abortion on demand in the first 12 weeks. Current laws allow abortion in cases of rape, threat to the mother's life, or severe medical conditions of the child. [CNN, 24 April]
Women for Life International, a pro-life feminist group in the USA, has joined the protest by many groups and individuals against the proposal by Amnesty International to adopt a stance in favour of abortion. Molly White, co-founder of the group, said: "The proposed policy is not only in direct conflict with the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights ... but adoption of such a policy will set a precedent for worldwide, unfettered fetal genocide, worldwide exploitation of pregnant women, especially poor women, and a worldwide epidemic of violence against women and the girl child." [EWTN News 26 April]
Lord Robert Winston of Imperial College, London, has claimed it is "undoubtedly ... a good thing" to screen human embryos for a genetic mutation carrying a high risk of breast cancer. He says that the only options open to couples who carry such genes are avoiding having children, "playing sexual Russian roulette" and hoping to have unaffected children, having pre-natal diagnosis and abortion of affected babies, or having embryo selection, which he claims is "much better and more ethical." He maintains that this is not the same as producing so-called designer babies. [Daily Telegraph 27 April]
Most Rev Raymond Burke, Archbishop of St. Louis, Missouri, has made a public statement against the decision of the Cardinal Glennon Children's Foundation, a Catholic charity, to book the singer Sheryl Crow for a fundraising concert. Ms Crow is well known for her pro-abortion and pro human embryonic stem cell research views. Archbishop Burke then submitted his resignation to the board of the charity. [Life Site News 26 April]
Fr. Frank Pavone, National Director of Priests for Life, has applauded comments made by Vatican Archbishop Angelo Amato, secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The Archbishop called abortion "terrorism with a human face" and said it was "just as repugnant" as the "abominable terrorism of suicide bombers." Fr Pavone challenged every priest and pastor in the USA to repeat these words from the pulpit. [Life Site News 26 April]
The Committee on Research Integrity of Seoul University in South Korea has issued a statement saying that two separate DNA tests at independent laboratories confirm that a team of researchers at the university have cloned two wolves. This comes after claims of data manipulation because the lead researcher, Lee Byeong-chun, was a former collaborator of the disgraced stem cell scientists Hwang Woo-suk. [Irish Examiner 27 April]
The Association of Children's Hospices (ACT) and the Association for Children's Palliative Care have called for a UK Department of Health-sponsored review of the sector to deliver a national strategy, backed by targets, local commissioning strategies and an extra £24m over three years. ACT chief executive Lizzie Chambers noted that children's palliative care had been badly hit by NHS cuts and was "not a huge priority for social services." [Community Care 26 April]
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