Editorial Report Carl Scharfe On December 8, 1983, Roland Penner, the NDP Attorney General of Manitoba, announced that he was withdrawing the charge of conspiracy of performing an illegal abortion against abortionist Henry Morgentaler. He then laid a new charge of performing an illegal abortion, a charge Mr. Penner knew in advance to be meaningless as Morgentaler was not in Manitoba at [...]
The declining birth rate and the increase in life expectancy is producing a steady change in the distribution of the Canadian population. Every country needs a balance between different age groups in order to maintain equilibrium between the working and nonworking sections. This allows the elderly to be supported by the younger groups without being a burden to society. In countries with [...]
At a conference on "Infanticide and the Handicapped Newborn" held in the U.S. a few years ago. Dr. Eugene Diamond Professor of Pediatrics at Loyola University in Chicago's School of Medicine made some shocking revelations. Among other things, he told the 420 delegates from around the world of the results from a conference entitled "Ethics of Newborn Intensive Care." The assembled doctors [...]
Infanticide is not a horror coming upon us in 1984. It has been here for some time-in the United States, in England, in Canada and around the world. According to the Globe and Mail last June, a doctor, who admits he deliberately ordered an overdose for an infant girl in Edmonton's University Hospital, said Euthanasia is happening everywhere but nobody is talking [...]
During the Morgentaler pre-trial hearing, the Toronto press daily painted such pieces of the witnesses' testimony that showed the present abortion laws to be cruel and inequitable. Hardly surprising really, as tit was Morgentaler's lawyer who presented witnesses to bolster the defense contention that the present system violates the Canadian Charter of Rights. Much of the testimony, reported in the papers, was [...]
In July of 1983, I was doing supply work in St. Patrick's P. I almost passed it but then I saw, The Autobiography of Alf Saltarelli as told to arish, Markham. One day I was glancing through the books on the rack in the lobby of the Church and my eye caught the title, To Be Alive Jim Jalsevac. Jim is a [...]
In Britain, the Medical Research Council has established a programme to test whether multi-vitamin pills given to pregnant women can prevent spina bifida ocuring in their babies. Two thousand high-risk mothers (most of whom already have at least one spina bifida child) will take part in the programme. While 75% of the women will take the vitamin pills, a "control group" of [...]
On June 30, 1983, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. C. Everett Koop issued a revised "Infant-Doe" Regulation aimed at "protecting handicapped infants from illegal discrimination in receiving health care." The regulations are a response to the 1982 Baby Doe case in Bloomington, Indiana, in which a newborn with Down's syndrome was allowed to starve to death after his parents refused corrective surgery on [...]
INTERNATIONAL Sixteen-year-old Kimberly entered the Richmond Metropolitan Crisis Pregnancy Centre, pregnant and feeling very confused. She already had an appointment for an abortion at a local abortion clinic. The counselors at the CPC showed Kimberly lots of love and encouraged her to choose life. In her own words: "When I left the Centre I left just as confused as I was when [...]
Guest Column How is apathy overcome? Complacency is so entrenched in our attitude that it has become almost a Canadian characteristic. Our civilization is at the most important crossroads of its history, and still people cocoon themselves in their own illusory existence. We cannot escape taking stands today. We cannot ignore that which is a direct attack upon us and pretend it [...]
In November 1983, the Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) formally adopted a resolution calling for freestanding abortion clinics, and the removal of abortion from the Criminal Code. Reports following the annual convention implied that full support from the membership endorsed the motion. The Globe and Mail (November 24, 1983) ran a front-page story entitled "OFL Wants Full Abortion Access" and both the [...]
This is the text of the 1982 OFL motion on abortion, adopted at their annual convention. This motion was reaffirmed in November 1983. The wording of this motion is identical to that submitted to and adopted at the most recent Canadian Labour Congress convention in 1982. WHEREAS, it should be the fundamental right of each woman to choose when and if she [...]
Both the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) and the Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) have passed resolutions supporting the killing of unborn children. These resolutions call for the legalization of Morgentaler-style abortuaries and the removal of abortion from the Criminal Code. The two organizations represent millions of Canadian workers. Their promotion of abortion, however, is not shared by the majority of the people [...]
For those who would like to see death offered as an option in health care the discussion is now centered on who will be the executioners. Some believe "the burden of responsibility for administering euthanasia would still rest solely on the doctor" (Richard Trubo, An Act of Mercy). Others believe that board made up of diverse kinds of people should have the [...]
Doctors who practice good medical ethics understand their role in dispensing health care. Death and social engineering are not their areas of competence or responsibility. The individual who is sick is their responsibility, not society at large. They recognize the possibility of wrong diagnosis, non-infallible prognosis (where the doomed patient survived). And the possibility of a new cure, all of which prompt [...]