The following statement was released by Dr. Joseph Stantan on Oct. 12, 1984, at a press conference in Washington, D.C. It was signed by 65 physicians, including two past presidents of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the former co-founder of NARAL. The continuing debate on abortion has generated an atmosphere in which the biological facts may be ignored or [...]
Child pornography is readily available in Canada. It is mostly imported illegally and is almost impossible for the authorities to detect because it comes to the purchaser through the mail in “plain brown envelopes.” Child pornography production is not a large industry in Canada, according to the Badgley Committee on Child Abuse. However, a substantial amount of child [...]
Ottawa On January 16, 1985, Mr. Justice Gerard LaForest of the New Brunswick Court of Appeal was appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada by Justice Minister John Crosbie. Judge La Forest, 58, replaces Mr. Justice Roland Ritchie who resigned because of ill health. It had been expected that the successor of Judge Ritchie, who was from Nova [...]
In January, a judge of Alberta’s Court of Queen’[s Bench ruled that “sexually explicit films in which women are degraded or dehumanized”, are obscene. In March, a Maritimes judge criticized recent court decisions on obscenity as being too liberal and said, “one really has to rack one’s mind to conjecture an act, or depiction of that act, that would be [...]
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 [...]
“Selection” is the practice of withholding necessary medical treatment to handicapped newborns with the intention to facilitate an early death. Those who defend “selection” (for non-treatment) argue that they are motivated to do so out of noble compassion for the handicapped child. Selection is not limited, however, to those infants for whom treatment would provide no hope [...]
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 November 1984, The Interim front page story (“Aborted babies used for vaccine”), attracted national media attention. The reaction to information that the current rubella vaccine was developed from cells of an aborted baby varied from amused credulity that pro-lifers would reveal see no objection to continued use of the vaccine, while others are distressed that their children have [...]
When the civic centre in Brockville, Ontario showed the films, Abortion: - Stories North and South and Democracy on Trial recently, the local Right to Life group handed out the following piece of literature. - In spite of scientific and medical fact Dr. Morgentaler refuses to believe in the humanity of babies-in-the-womb. - Hitler refused to believe in the [...]
Over the past year, Canada has heard much of Henry Morgentaler. The abortionist has continued to champion the view that in order to be truly liberated, woman must have the right to abort the child conceived within her. As a youngster in Poland in the twenties, Morgentaler grew up in a family where religion was relegated to the dustbin. His father was [...]
"Spina Bifida is a birth defect which involves damage to the spine and nervous system. The vertebrae of the spine and the spinal cord are not formed properly and surgery is usually required immediately after birth. The long-term effect frequently includes weakness or paralysis of the legs and problems with bowels and bladder control. Spina Bifida is sometimes accompanied by hydrocephalus (accumulation [...]
Joe Borowski was so appalled at a Manitoba provincial court judge's comment that a 20-year-old convicted rapist was not in need of rehabilitation, that he immediately wrote a letter to Premier of Manitoba asking for the dismissal of the judge. Sean Stewart, who had pleaded guilty to raping a 19-year-old female clerk who was working alone at a 7-Eleven store July 12, [...]
The number of Down's Syndrome children could well be reduced in the next decade by new pregnancy-testing methods. This is the message of an article from the British journal The Economist which was printed in the Globe & Mail ("Down's detection gets help - July 16, 1984.) At present the chromosomal abnormality of Down's syndrome can be tested by amniocentesis, and the [...]
HAMILTON -The fundamental human right to life was strongly affirmed recently by the Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec, one of four member bodies of the Canadian Baptist Federation. At its 96th annual assembly, held in June at McMaster University, delegates of the 46,000-member Convention passed a resolution containing the following declaration. The right to life is the paramount and most fundamental [...]
In order to grasp at once the seriousness with which the question of pluralism and secularism today must be treated, let us recall the issue which has become its most controversial sign: the legalization of abortion. Part of an article I wrote in 1971 summarizes this contradiction: In our democratic society people believe that political problems, whatever their nature, can always be [...]