Canada
Justice Minister Irwin Cotler has again said he would explore how to make the appointment of judges more “transparent” and “accountable.” He said he will invite the public to send the Justice Department suggestions on a replacement for Supreme Court justice John Major, who is retiring in December … Former Reform and independent MP Jim Pankiw is petitioning the Federal Court to exempt politicians from Canada’s human rights act, saying that it limits political speech … After flirting with re-admitting independent MP Carolyn Parrish(Mississauga Centre, Ont.) to their caucus, the Liberals rejected her overtures to return … The youth wing of the Quebec Liberals has urged the provincial party to impose a dress code on students to prevent them from wearing provocative clothing to school, as part of a strategy against sexual activity among pre-teens and adolescents. Simon Begin, president of the party’s youth commission, said: “When you see a little girl, who’s eight or 12 years old, wearing a G-string, that may be a bit too provocative and offensive” … Dr. Barbara Romanowski of the University of Alberta reported that as many as 20 per cent of Canadians are infected with herpes and that perhaps 80 per cent do not even know it. There is no cure for the disease … The Canadian Centre of Justice Statistics will begin collecting information on homicides on pregnant women. Chief of Policing Services John Turner (not the former prime minister) said he doesn’t think pregnancy is a significant factor in the murder of Canadian women, despite U.S. statistics that show homicide is the second largest cause of death – after vehicular accidents – of pregnant women, with 617 pregnant mothers killed last year.
United States
Following the death of Oriane Shevin, 34, after she used RU-486, the state of California has announced it is investigating the deaths of a total of four women, all of whom used the “abortion pill” … The National Organization of Women has called for passage of the Access to Legal Pharmaceuticals Act, which would require pharmacists who refuse to dispense contraception to refer clients to one who will. NOW began its action alert to supporters: “If dispensing birth control is so morally offensive to pharmacists, they should find another job” … Newsweek reports Democratic think tank Third Way is working on crafting a message for pro-abortion Democrats to woo average Americans, including possibly abandoning the “framework of ‘choice’ itself” … At its annual convention, the Knights of Columbus adopted a resolution stating that the organization “will never consider Roe v. Wade to be settled constitutional law.” Supreme Knight Carl Anderson said in a speech to the organization that by striking down laws against abortion, the Supreme Court had “seized for itself a power that no one has a right to exercise.”
International
A Belgian doctor has been accused of killing five patients at a nursing home in Oostende, with officials saying he did not have the patients’ approval to euthanize them … The Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg is preparing to hear the case of an Irish woman who claims the Republic’s ban on abortion breaches the European Convention on Human Rights. TheSociety for the Protection of Unborn Children presented a submission detailing previous court rulings that demonstrate there is no human right to abortion and that individual nations are entitled to grant full legal protection to the unborn child … The New Zealand Medical Association has reaffirmed its position against euthanasia … Colombian Senator Carlos Gaviria has called for a debate on legalizing euthanasia. In 1997, then-Judge Gaviria ruled that doctors cannot be prosecuted for assisting suicide … Journalist Deal Hudson wrote inThe Window: A Catholic Look at Society, Culture and Politics that a former Peruvian prime minister and three members of the country’s Congress informed him the “biggest obstacle” to their pro-life activities were USAID-funded non-governmental organizations. Last year, 10 Peruvian congressmen wrote a letter to USAID administrator Andrew Natsios, charging the agency with conniving to change Peru’s laws to allow abortion … A 10-year study of India by the Christian Medical Association found that unborn baby girls continue to be aborted at a high rate, causing a serious gender imbalance across the country. The number of girls born in Delhi hospitals was just 542 per 1,000 boys if the parents’ first children was a girl and just 219 girls for every 1,000 boys if the parents already had two girls. The CMA’s Joe Varghese warned the mass killing of unborn baby girls would be “disastrous for the sex composition of society” … Scientists at Seoul National University, led by Woo Suk Hwang, have successfully cloned a dog, the first time that feat has been achieved. Of over 1,000 embryos implanted, only three were successful and one of those miscarried. The other died after birth. Last year, the same researchers announced they had produced the world’s first cloned human embryo.