President George W. Bush calls on Congress to pass the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, which would allow for the prosecution of individuals who hurt the unborn child during the commission of criminal acts. Both the Senate and House of Representatives are considering the bill … Florida Governor Jeb Bush (R) orders state lawyers to have a legal guardian declared for an unborn child, the result of a rape of a mentally disabled woman. Judge Laurence Kirkwood postpones making a decision. Stephen Moore writes in the Weekly Standard that Jeb Bush is a front-runner for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination … U.S. Supreme Court refuses to take up a challenge to a lower court ruling that upheld state regulations for abortion facilities in South Carolina, thus affirming the right of states to regulate abortion … Former National Organization of Women president Patricia Ireland, an outspoken advocate of abortion, lesbian rights and radical sex education programs, is appointed chief executive of the Young Women’s Christian Association. The Traditional Values Coalition warns parents about entrusting their daughters to the association.
The Washington Post reports that there are nearly 400,000 human embryos frozen in the U.S., at least 90 per cent of them created as a result of IVF treatments. The Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research will use the figures to argue for federal funding for embryo research … The New Scientist reports that Osiris Therapeutics of Maryland has discovered the potential of adult stem cells may be even greater than has been thought and that the theoretical differences between adult and embryonic stem cells may not be as great as previously thought. Researchers at Minnesota University find that multipotent adult progenitor cells can produce any type of tissue. Pro-lifers note that if this is confirmed, there would absolutely no reason to go down the road of destructive embryonic stem cell research … Scientists at Washington University in St. Louis have discovered that stem cells from bone marrow and umbilical cord blood can be used to treat liver damage in mice …Songtao Shi of the U.S. National Institutes of Health discovers that baby teeth are a rich source of stem cells.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that the Australian government has instructed the Therapeutic Goods Administration to consider and report on the idea that drug companies should be required to indicate whether their products have been developed using human embryos … British nurses are calling for tighter regulations on how the morning-after pill is distributed by pharmacists. Since 2001, a doctor’s prescription has not been necessary for a pharmacist to hand out the MAP, but the Royal College of Nurses was told that many women are not receiving adequate medical checks or being warned about the MAP’s potential side-effects … Hungary’s constitutional court rules that cases of so-called mercy killing should continue to be treated as manslaughter … The Hindustan Times reports that Mukul Gopal Mukherjee, chairman of the human rights commission of West Bengal, India, wants legislators to allow doctors to hasten patients’ deaths when family members request it and is encouraging doctors to take the lead in lobbying for such change … Slovakian Justice Minister Daniel Lipsic is entertaining the idea of prohibiting all human cloning, with punishments of up to eight years in prison for the creation of a human clone … Following news that the number of children in Japan has declined for 22 consecutive years, resulting in the lowest proportion of children in the world, the Daily Yomiuri reports that the Japanese government is planning on promoting in-vitro fertilization and other fertility treatments to the tune of 85 billion yen a year.
Two Liberal leadership candidates – Finance Minister John Manley and Heritage Minister Sheila Copps – endorse legal recognition of same-sex “marriage.” Former finance minister and leadership frontrunner Paul Martin says he is undecided on the issue and will defer to whatever the courts say should occur … Toronto mayoral candidate and former Liberal MP John Nunziata comes out against same-sex “marriage” … Homosexual Bloc Quebecois MPReal Ménard and colleague Richard Marceau issue a statement declaring their party’s support for same-sex marriage, calling it a matter of the “equality of citizens” … Statistics Canada report shows that Christians still make up a majority of the country – 72 per cent of the population – although their proportion of the population is declining. The number of people reporting they had no religion rose from 12 per cent in 1991 to 16 per cent in 2001 … Christian Heritage Party leader Ron Gray endorses Family Coalition Party in anticipation of upcoming Ontario election.
