News, The full judicial review of the UK government's decision to ask parliament to authorise so-called therapeutic cloning takes place today in the English high court. Yesterday the British secretary of state for health applied for an adjournment of the legal challenge brought by the ProLife ...

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News, The Belgian senate has voted to legalise euthanasia. Members of the upper house of Belgium's legislature voted by 44 to 23 in favour of the bill, which will now pass to the lower house. Under the proposed law, doctors could legally kill patients as long as they were "of age and conscious...

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News, The Irish government's plan to hold a new referendum on abortion before the general election in June have been dealt a blow by the Fine Gael opposition party. Fine Gael is to move a set of amendments to the bill which would permit the referendum to go ahead, and this could postpone the b...

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Government suppresses Lords campaign against China one-child policy Westminster, --The Government pulled out all the stops last week to defeat an House of Lords amendment aimed at severing funding for China's one-child policy. A cross-party coalition of peers, including Catholic pro-life Lord Alton ...

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News, The student union at Sheffield University in England has been forced to climb down over its decision to block the establishment of a university pro-life society. The union had refused to allow an official pro-life society on the basis that it would contravene policies against "discriminat...

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News, 43 people have gone on trial in Porto, Portugal, charged with procuring or participating in illegal abortions. 17 of the accused are women alleged to have had abortions, while others include nurses, doctors and a social worker. Abortion is illegal in Portugal except in cases of foetal ha...

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News, Pro-lifers in the UK have welcomed today's ruling by the high court in London that no-one has a right to procure their own death. Mrs Dianne Pretty, who has motor neurone disease, had challenged a refusal by the director of public prosecutions to grant her husband immunity from prosecuti...

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Pro-life groups welcome judgement on assisted suicide London, --Pro-life groups intervening in the case of Mrs Diane Pretty have welcomed this morning's judgement. Paul Tully, general secretary of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, said: "We welcome the decision, which has been made ...

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Pro-life groups can intervene in Northern Ireland abortion case Belfast, --The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) and other pro-life groups have been allowed to make submissions to the Belfast high court in a case concerning abortion in Northern Ireland. Mr Justice Kerr this mornin...

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News, The high court in Belfast, Northern Ireland, this morning gave permission to SPUC and other pro-life groups to submit evidence in the judicial review being brought by the pro-abortion Family Planning Association (FPA). Mr Justice Kerr asked SPUC, Life, Care and Precious Life to file writ...

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News, Women who seek asylum in the Republic of Ireland have been allowed to obtain abortions in Britain. Mr Peter O'Mahony, director of the Irish Refugee Council, told the Irish Times that women asylum seekers have been allowed to abort their unborn children in Britain and then return to Irela...

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Leading medical academics reject legalised euthanasia London, --Eminent medical scholars speaking at a prestigious ethical conference have rejected the legalisation of voluntary euthanasia. Speaking at Ethical Dilemmas at the Beginning and End of Life: the Clinician's Challenge, Dr Raanan Gillon, em...

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News, The government of Chile is to distribute the abortifacient morning-after pill free of charge. The Santiago appeals court approved sales of the Postinor-2 morning-after pill on Wednesday, and a Chilean laboratory has offered to donate free doses of the drug for distribution by the governm...

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News, A coalition of pro-life groups is today presenting its case to three British high court judges who are considering a request from a woman with motor neurone disease who wants to be helped to die. The director of public prosecutions is being asked to say that he will not press charges aga...

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News, A retired Irish high court judge has criticised the definition of abortion in a government bill to amend the country's constitution. Mr Rory O'Hanlon is also reported to have questioned the way in which the referendum on the amendment is being carried out. The definition suggests that th...

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News, The president of the International Right to Life Federation has condemned the wording of the Irish government's proposed constitutional amendment. Dr Jack Willke, who heads the international organisation based in Ohio to which many pro-life organisations throughout the world are affiliat...

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News, A Kenyan government report has recommended the legalisation of abortion. The document, prepared for the health standards and regulatory services department and entitled Kenya Family Health Programme, claims that social and medical evidence outweighs the "perceived moral and legal need fo...

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Proposed change to Irish constitution "attack on innocent human lives" Westminster, --The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC), Europe's oldest pro-life organisation, has described a proposed amendment to Ireland's constitution as an attack on innocent human lives. The Twenty-Fifth A...

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News, SPUC has reacted with shock and deep concern at the news that the Irish government plans to liberalise abortion law by removing legal protection for the youngest human embryos. Bertie Ahern, the Irish prime minister, yesterday unveiled the text of a bill which would pave the way for a re...

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News, A prominent British philosopher has said that people should have the legal right to select the sex of their child using in vitro fertilisation (IVF) technology. Dr David McCarthy of the university of Bristol wrote in the Journal of Medical Ethics: "Defenders of the legality of sex select...

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