News,

An abortion practitioner in New York has been charged with the little known offence of abortion in the second degree after reportedly stabbing a woman with a syringe containing an abortion drug in an attempt to kill her unborn child. Stephen Pack, 44 and married with two children, is said to have had an extra-marital affair with the 31 year-old nurse whom he believed to be between six and eight weeks pregnant. She is undergoing treatment to counteract the effects of the drug, but the effect on the unborn child is unknown. [Associated Press, New York Times, 15th April (from Pro-Life Infonet)] A doctor who admitted administering a lethal injection to a multiple sclerosis victim has had his conviction for first-degree murder upheld by the supreme court of Norway in a key test of the country's laws against euthanasia. Dr Christian Sandsdalen, 82, carried out the act in 1996 at the request of Bodil Bjerkmann, his 45 year-old patient. He then demanded to be tried for murder and last Friday's unanimous ruling came after a protracted court battle involving a series of appeals. Dr Sandsdalen's sentencing has been postponed indefinitely due to 'mitigating circumstances'. [Associated Press, 15th April (from Pro-Life Infonet)] The international Europe for Life congress has ended in Granada, Spain, with condemnations of abortion and euthanasia, which it saw as bound up with one another. Catholic Archbishop Antonio Caviares of Granada appealed for the abolition of "capital punishment applied to the unborn" and the congress concluded that legalisation of abortion opened the door to "elimination of the elderly and sick". The event, which was organised with the Vatican's Pontifical Council for the Family, also emphasised the importance of the family and Christian sex education. [Zenit News Agency, 17th April] [This bulletin is privately circulated by the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, www.spuc.org.uk, 5/6 St Matthew Street, London, United Kingdom, SW1P 2JT, +44 20 7222 3763. The reliability of the news herein is dependent on that of the cited sources, which are paraphrased rather than quoted. Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the society. Please forward this bulletin to other interested parties. To unsubscribe, send an appropriate email to information@spuc.freeserve.co.uk]