Voluntary Death January 6 – Montreal – Mr. Justice Jacques Dufour rules in favour of terminally ill, 25 year old Nancy B’s request to have her life support system disconnected. Nancy suffers from Guillan – Barré Syndrome, a crippling sickness for which there is no cure. She appealed to the courts after doctors were hesitant to act on her behalf. The ruling [...]
September 16 – Ottawa – By a vote of 99-62, the House of Commons passes legislation ending baby bonuses and bringing in a new child benefit system aimed at helping the working poor. The baby bonus was established by Mackenzie King in 1945, to ensure that children would have their basic needs met. The monthly payments were made directly to the mothers, [...]
Roe v. Wade is often compared with the Dred Scott case. Who or what was Dred Scott? M.M., St. John’s. Dred Scott was a slave. He was taken by his owner to Illinois, a ‘free’ state where slavery was not allowed, and then to the federal territory, part of the Louisiana Purchase where slavery was prohibited under the Missouri Compromise of 1820. [...]
“Prenatal human beings, even at the earliest stages of life, should be treated with appropriate respect as members of the human family and not viewed as commodities.” For years Prof. Donald De Marco has been pointing out the damage to personal relationships which may result from the new reproductive technology. Fatherhood and in-vitro babies What happens to the concept of fatherhood, for [...]
“Gov’t ‘consistently misled’ Canadians about AIDS” …So the Sault Ste Marie Star headlined a story last August 24, 1991, beginning a series prepared by a news team from the Hamilton Spectator. The report as a whole confirmed what The Interim has been saying for the last five or six years. In itself AIDS is not a disease threatening the general population (though [...]
An ethicist summed up the problems with surrogate motherhood as follows: 1. Surrogate motherhood violates the marriage covenant between husband and wife. 2. – dehumanizes the procreative process. 3. – exploits women, especially those who take money for the use of their bodies. 4. – treats the child as a commodity. 5. – subverts the child’s relationship with his or her mother. [...]
Is there any solid scientific evidence of differences between IVF babies and those conceived normally? W.K.P., Toronto. Dr. Patricia Baird, who is chairing the Royal Commission on New Reproductive Technologies, has quoted a number of studies on the subject in recent speeches. She has made the following observations: in Vitro-fertilization results in more multiple births; in the general population these are 1:100; [...]
Abuse of Canada Council Ottawa, Ont. – MP Don Boudria (Lib. Glengarry), who helped quash a bill to legalize mercy killing last winter, expressed outrage that Vancouver’s John Hofsess is using Canada Council money to promote his Right to Die Society. In a newsletter obtained by the Ottawa Sun, Hofsess said that he wanted to buy television time to show people “the [...]
New Brunswick Premier Frank McKenna says the takeover of local hospital boards is a way the province can save money. Many New Brunswickers feel it is a way the province can grab power. Under the Liberal government’s new Hospital Act, the local boards of the province’s 51 hospitals are to be replaced by 8 “region boards.” The region boards are not obliged [...]
Calgary – I arrived to picket at the Calgary abortuary on a sunny afternoon. The man I was relieving left word that he had spoken to an East Indian woman who sat alone in a car parked in the abortuary lot near the sidewalk where we picket. She was crying. Her husband was inside the building presumably arranging an abortion. Noticing her [...]
What is the objection of pro-life people to being called “anti-abortion?” After all, they are anti-abortion. R.P., Whitehorse, Yukon True enough, but that is only half the story. Pro-lifers are also against other evils: euthanasia; infanticide of handicapped new-borns by starvation and dehydration; the creation of human embryos (ex utero) to be vivisected in experimentation; fetal transplants and so on. Anti-abortion is [...]
Newfoundland Newfie abortuary one year old St. Jon’s, Nfld. – On the Morgentaler ‘clinic’s’ first anniversary here, CBC’s regional radio newscast featured an interview with Peggy Meisner, the abortuary’s head nurse and office manager. She stated that the past year has gone very smoothly. “Except for a couple of rowdy demonstrations in the early days, Right to Lifers have been really very [...]
The purpose of The Interim is to set forth the truth about the freedom and dignity of the individual human person in the area of family, marital and sexual morality. Insofar as religion and politics, law and medicine, economics and culture impinge upon this sphere, The Interim makes these areas her own. Erring clergy, indifferent politicians, lawless magistrates, doctors of death, abusers [...]
Last December 13, the first fetal tissue transplant in Canada for Parkinson’s Disease took place at the Victoria General Hospital (VGH) in Halifax. Parkinson’s is a neurological disorder characterized by loss of motor functions and coordination; it affects about 70,000 people in Canada, most of them over age 50. The transplant of fetal tissue from an aborted child into an adult brain [...]
How many abortions are performed worldwide each year? L.A., Vancouver No one really knows. The most recent ‘guesstimate’ I have seen is 70 million, but the number could be much higher. Added to these abortions are the very early abortions caused by abortifacients such as Intra-Uterine Devices (IUDs) and birth-control pills; it is suggested that these could triple the 70 million. Does [...]