News,

Catholic doctors in South Korea have warned that new national guidelines are so ambiguous that they could allow for abortion, in vitro fertilisation and euthanasia. The Korean Medical Association has reportedly eased its ethical guidelines despite earlier protests from Catholic leaders, prompting the National Federation of Catholic Physicians' Guilds of Korea to announce that its campaign against the revision would continue. [EWTN News, 28 June ] Authorities in China are investigating claims that the director of a hospital in Beijing tried to starve a baby who had survived an attempted abortion because the mother had violated the one-child family policy. The Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Hong Kong claims that the child was born alive on 24 April at 35 weeks' gestation after drugs had been administered to cause an abortion. The hospital's director allegedly told the parents that their child had died and instructed nurses to leave the baby to die. However, staff members fed the baby and returned the child to his or her parents. [Hong Kong iMail, 29 June ] A US federal judge has refused to consider arguments put by abortion providers in South Carolina that state medical and safety rules governing abortion clinics are unconstitutional. The US Supreme Court also declined to hear the case four months ago. [Charleston.Net, 28 June] The governments of Denmark and Finland are reported to be increasing their annual contributions to the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), a major international provider of abortions. [LifeSite, 28 June ] An ecclesial community in California is offering to raise unwanted children in an attempt to persuade their mothers not to have abortions. The Church of Glad Tidings has placed billboards along roads in three counties of northern California with the words: "Don't end your pregnancy. We will raise your child." The congregation has helped to raise more than 50 babies born to prison inmates over the last three years, most of whom were eventually returned to their mothers. [WorldNetDaily, 28 June ]