News,

A newspaper predicts that more than 200 UK MPs could support a reduction in the time-limit for abortion of non-disabled babies. The change could be made by an amendment to the government's Human Fertilisation and Embryology (HFE) bill, with other MPs abstaining. Our source points out that, of 900 babies born between 22 and 24 weeks in 2005, 250 survived for a year or more. [Telegraph, 29 March] SPUC has warned that such a proposal would not only further entrench discrimination against disabled babies, but would also drive MPs into a trade-off in human lives with the pro-abortion lobby. In the current pro-abortion parliament, this could result in widening the grounds for abortion both before and after any new "limit".

Scotland's principal bishop has agreed in principle to meet scientists to discuss animal-human hybrid embryos. Cardinal Keith O'Brien, Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, has agreed to a suggestion from Mr Jim Devine, Labour MP for Livingston, after the former had called the HFE bill monstrous. The cardinal said he hoped the researchers would also: "accept instruction from our Churches and peoples of faith on basic morality, on what human life really is, on the purpose of our life on earth and so on." Mr Devine, a Catholic MP, does not agree with the Cardinal's opposition to the bill. [BBC, 29 March] A Catholic scientist says that the church is wrong about the bill. Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, chief executive of the Medical Research Council, supports it because of the therapies that could result from its passage. These outweighed the objections. Sir Leszek expressed his dissent from the churches teachings saying: "My view would differ from the views that are proposed by the Church on all elements of when life begins. I'm afraid I just differ, just as [views differ] in any large organisation. Maybe that makes be a bad Catholic, but then so be it. These are views I hold in all conscience." [Times, 29 March] The Islamic Medical Association, the Muslim Doctors Association, the Islamic Medical Ethics Forum and the Union of Muslim Organisations have expressed their support for Catholic opposition to the bill. [Catholic News Agency, 27 March] Ms Nuala O'Loan, former Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman, has also opposed the bill. [Belfast Telegraph, 28 March]

SPUC has called on its supporters Europe-wide to contact the Council of Europe's parliamentary assembly members to reject a report which demands the promotion of abortion everywhere in Europe, and compulsory sex educationa. The report will be considered during a plenary session this month. [SPUC director's blog, 18 March] The council has 47 member-states and is distinct from the EU.

A TV producer has questioned whether teenage pregnancy is always the problem it is portrayed as being. Ms Ruth Pitt, who has been filming young mothers in Merseyside, England, said: "These young women, though none planned their babies, are incredibly committed to them. The children are put at the absolute centre of their world and they just get on with it. I have a suspicion that there are a lot of middle-class families whose love for their child is partly conditional. It's related to achieving academically. But a lot of these teenage mums don't expect anything of their children. They love them for what they are, and their overwhelming priority is looking after them themselves." The Times feature article also quotes Germaine Greer and Simon Duncan, professor of social policy at Bradford, as well as citing the film Juno [Times, 11 March]

A survey by YouGov suggests that more than half of British people believe that people with incurable, though not terminal, illnesses should receive what our source calls: "medical help to die". 76% said the terminally ill should get such help. Dignity in Dying called for a change to the law. [PA on Channel 4, 10 March] The phrase "medical help to die" is regularly used to blur the distinction between palliative care and intentional killing of terminally ill or disabled people.

To subscribe to SPUC's email information services, please visit www.spuc.org.uk/em-signup. 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. © Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, 2018