The first “foolproof” abortion pill, called RU-486, is now in its final tests with the British Committee on Safety of Medicines. (see January issue of the The Interim) The pill will be used in France, India and China this year and has been approved by the World Health Organization for use in other Third World Nations. This pill [...]
Selling babies is illegal in Canada-perhaps. While there are laws which cover money changing hands in the conventional adoption process, there are no specific laws governing the new phenomenon of commercial “surrogate” motherhood. A surrogate (replacement) mother is one who agrees to conceive and bear a child for another woman. The trouble is, the “surrogate” mother is the [...]
Private Member’s bills usually attract little attention, but Mr. Enoch Powell’s measure-the Unborn Children Protection Bill- is not in this category. It’s importance is underscored by the fact that, although attendance in the House of Commons is usually sparse on Fridays, an unusually large number of Members attended the Bill’s second reading on Friday February 15 1985. The [...]
The Newcastle area of New Brunswick has the distinction of having one of the world’s most comprehensive programmes of parental screening for spina bifida. According to one source at the Miramichi Hospital, a blood test, called the Maternal Serum Alpha-Fetoprotein Test (MSAFP) is “routine” for all prenatals. In 1983 this test was used in 695 maternity-related cases in New [...]
Two years ago I wrote my first column. It was for the first issue of The Interim and was on “pro-life feminism,” a constant theme of many subsequent columns. When I wrote that first column, I thought I’d soon run out of things to say on the abortion issue and I’m sure that some of you who persist in the [...]
Dr. David Armstrong, scientific director of the test-tube clinic at the University of Western Ontario, does not appear to know how rapidly life develops. In an interview with Rose Dimanno of the Toronto Star on February 12, Dr. Armstrong defended his recommendation that human embryos be mass-produced and kept up to 28 days for experiments because, he said “up to [...]
A health-care package being planned by the University of Toronto’s Students’ Council is to include coverage for contraceptives. Some other universities already have student-sponsored health benefits but none include coverage for contraceptives. If it goes into effect, the plan will be mandatory for all full time students. An executive of the Students Administrative Council, Kevin Perkins was reported by the [...]
Genetic Counseling is that field of medicine which is involved in gathering genetic and family information in an effort to determine whether a particular couple would be likely to pass on certain genetic diseases to any future children. A risk ratio may be formulated and the couple would then decide whether or not to have children or perhaps they [...]
The recent disclosure that vaccines were produced from tissues of aborted babies had three main pro-life reactions: the immediate one of repugnance; the second, "why were we not told?" the third, "what experimentation that we don't know about is going on now?" The answer to the last question is that human vivisection of live aborted babies is almost commonplace, even though it [...]
Canadian newspapers reported recently that next year the first “foolproof” birth control drug will be distributed in Europe. “First foolproof post pregnancy birth control pill” read the Ottawa Citizen caption. (Dec. 5). “Foolproof pill ready next year,” said the Toronto Sun. The Winnipeg Free Press, however, headed its short news item more accurately: “Abortion pill safe, labs say.” (Dec. 4). [...]
Oh boy! Dull moments around here are about as plentiful as white blackbirds. I returned from Europe to find The Interim office bussing with questions, counter-questions and speculations regarding the morality of using vaccine extracted from an aborted baby to inoculate school children against Rubella. According to reports, the vaccine being used in Canada was extracted [...]
Conversations concerning the rubella vaccine and fetal experimentation in general have jammed our telephone during the last month. I have heard such statements as, “let’s drop this: it’s not an issue we can win,” “there’s nothing wrong with this vaccine,” “good can come from evil,” and so on. Most opinions are strongly-held. This had touched a number of nerves. [...]
In 1729, the Dean of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin, Ireland, published an essay entitled A Modest Proposal. The title is ironic because what he proposed was a scheme to solve the problem in Ireland by butchering children. In a carefully reasoned argument, he explains how the parents will be paid for raising small children who will then be [...]
In 1979, the League for Life of Manitoba publicized fetal experiments conducted at Winnnipeg’s Health Sciences Centre in 1973, 1974 and 1975. Babies of up to 25 weeks gestation, aborted through hysterotomy, had blood taken and their adrenals, gonads and pituitary glands removed. 213 babies were used in these experiments. Some had up to 8 ccs of blood taken [...]
The following two letters were sent to the Star and the Globe by Campaign Life in an attempt to correct their editorial presentation of the WI-38 Rubella vaccine story as the product of an irrational “fringe” group. The Editor The Toronto Star Dear Sir: Your December 2 editorial “Vaccine isn’t Abortion Issue” finds it “ironic” to see [...]