News,

Certain United Nations committees have been accused of implementing an anti-life, anti-family agenda, regardless of the provisions of UN treaties. Mrs Amina Mesdoua told the World Family Policy Forum's meeting in Utah that the Committee on the Rights of the Child had promoted a new interpretation of the convention on children's rights. The committee had wrongly suggested that the convention placed no limits on the age at which children had access to so-called reproductive services. [C-FAM on EWTN, 27 July ] SPUC's Peter Smith, who does pro-life lobbying at the UN, said: "While the pro-life groups work hard to delete or neutralise the worst parts of the treaties, these compliance committees seem to be acting as though the anti-life wording had been approved." The UN's Human Rights Committee has expressed concern at the Dutch law to legalise euthanasia which comes into effect at the beginning of next year. The committee is alert for instances where states give legal protection to "acts that put an end to life. The Vatican pointed out that there was pressure on other states to imitate the Netherlands. [Zenit, 29 July ] The French health minister has admitted that he practised euthanasia when working as a physician in Lebanon and Vietnam. Dr Bernard Kouchner described euthanasia as contrary to medical ethics but has called for a public debate on the matter. [EWTN, 26 July ] The US Senate's Appropriations Committee has amended a bill such that public funds could go to overseas groups which advocate or perform abortions. The decision could result in conflict between the Democratic-led senate and the Republican-led House of Representatives, as well as President Bush. [EWTN, 27 July ] A daughter has been born to a woman in Ohio who sustained serious injuries in a car crash two weeks after the child's conception and has been in a coma ever since. Mrs Chastity Cooper gave birth conventionally to Alexis Michelle who weighed eight pounds and is healthy. [BBC, 28 July ] Austrian scientists say they have found a gene which increases the risk of miscarriage. Researchers at Vienna university say that women with a particular variant of the NOS gene are three-fifths more likely to miscarry three times or more. [The Times, 27 July ]