Reciting the ancient Hippocratic Oath was once the high point of any medical school convocation. Now, the noble pledge of traditional medical ethics is being altered or even suppressed to accommodate modern prejudices and taboos. Interim associate editor Tony Gosgnach tells us why. Once upon a time, it was unthinkable that a physician would perform an abortion, or cause harm to his [...]
A recent press report has disturbing inplications for all concerned with the sanctity of human life. The report described efforts by health officials in California to pay crack cocaine-addicted women to undergo sterilizations. According to the report, the program is a privately run enterprise involving Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union. The program is known by the provocative name CRACK [...]
The Catholic Church and Christian tradition teach that sexual intercourse belongs only within the bond of marriage. Marriage is a covenant between a man and a woman with God. Only within marriage do ideal conditions exist for raising children. Christians respect sexual intercourse and recognize it to contain both a gift of love (union) and a gift of life (procreation). Through sexual [...]
BRISTOL, Tenn. (LSN) -- The Christian Medical and Dental Society, which represents more than 11,500 doctors and medical students nationwide, condemned plans announced Jan. 6 to begin cloning humans for profit. Dr. David Stevens noted that an individual would have to sacrifice hundreds of lives just to attempt a cloning procedure. Cloning a single animal, the sheep Dolly, involved killing 277 developing [...]
Federal Health Minister Allan Rock has reiterated the need for careful federal regulation in the area of new reproductive and genetic technologies. In a December letter to The Interim, Mr. Rock said the voluntary moratorium on certain new reproductive technology applications, such as sex selection for non-medical purposes, cloning of embryos, and embryonic research, remains in effect. The moratorium was enacted by [...]
STOCKHOLM - Sweden's most influential opposition leader demanded August 26 that the government investigate a four-decade policy under which 60,000 people deemed genetically inferior were sterilized. Swedes, long proud of there social welfare system, have been forced to acknowledge an unflattering chapter in their past since a newspaper series recently looked at the 1935-76 involuntary sterilization program. Some have said robbing fellow [...]
KINGSTON There were theatrics, debate and emotion and a Global Action Plan. More than 500 people from around the world gathered at Queen's University here July 13-17 to look at the causes of breast cancer and develop a strategy to halt the disease. Breast cancer is the leading cause of death in women 35 to 54 years, and rates are highest in [...]
“Let s make man in our image, after our likeness,” said Almighty God in Chapter 17 Genesis. Now, “Clone-Aid” – a Caribbean company, advertising human clones (at a cost of $200,000 each) on the Internet is proposing that man can make man in his own image and for his own purposes. Less than two weeks after Scottish scientists announced they had successfully [...]
OTTAWA – “Our future children”, an examination of the consequences of Bill C-47, was the theme of a seminar organized in April by the Catholic Women’s League of the Ottawa archdiocese. Bill C-47, which deals with human reproductive and genetic technologies, has generated wide debate since it came to light on the public agenda. Speakers addressing the issue included Reform MP Sharon [...]
The latest breakthrough in genetic engineering, the successful cloning of an adult mammal, carries with it the disturbing possibility that the same, or similar, techniques could be used to clone human beings. Even the secular press, e.g., The Globe and Mail, recognizes that this possibility has raised “the thorniest of ethical and philosophical questions.” These “Thorny questions,” however, along with the frightening [...]
Is there any reliable information about the numbers of human embryos that are frozen or used for experiments in Canada or elsewhere? K.A. Ottawa In Canada? No. There are, however, some statistics from Britain. Early this year, in answer to a question tabled in the House of Commons by David Alton, M.P., and a Parliamentary Written Answer revealed that 64,053 embryos had [...]
Interim special Reform party M.P. Sharon Hayes and St. Jerome's College philosophy professor Dr. Donald DeMarco are two central speakers at a seminar on reproductive technology and genetic engineering sponsored by the Catholic Women's League of the Ottawa archdiocese. The seminar, scheduled for April 22 at St. Augustine's Church in Ottawa, offers a Catholic perspective on these current social issues. Other speakers [...]
Is it true that the American Medical Association (AMA) has approved the removal of vital organs, e.g. the heart, from newborn anencephalic babies who are still alive? The AMA’s Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs has certainly recommended this action. Any organ transplant, but especially that of an unpaired organ such as the heart, demands very strict medical-legal rules. In the USA, [...]
Although there had been worldwide shock and dismay over the recent destruction in England of 3,300 (or more) abandoned embryos conceived through in-vitro fertilization (IVF), its pretty well open season on the tiny humans in Canada. There are currently no laws governing IVF in this country, thanks mainly to the reluctance of former federal Health Minister Diane Marleau to enact mandatory guidelines [...]
The destruction of human embryos in England can be seen as another case of reproductive technology outpacing the law. Research into in-vitro fertilization, while designed to help infertile couples, did not immediately take into account the moral and ethnical questions surrounding the treatment of “spare” embryos. Britain in fact, was a pioneering nation in the science of in-vitro fertilization, and perhaps it [...]