Canada
Quebec resident Ginette Leblanc, who has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), is challenging the federal Criminal Code prohibition on euthanasia. Her lawyer, Rene Duval, will file an application with the Quebec Superior Court asking that 241b of the Criminal Code outlawing assisted suicide be ruled unconstitutional. According to reports, Duval expects both that court and the Quebec Court of Appeal to uphold the prohibition, but he hopes that the Supreme Court of Canada will reconsider the issue and reverse their 1993 Rodriguez decision … The Congress of Union Retirees of Canada, an affiliate of the Canadian Labour Congress, is considering a motion at its Oct. 12-14 conference in Port Elgin, Ont., to endorse physician-assisted suicide because as resolution No. 28 states, “terminally ill individuals have the right to choose how much suffering they must endure” and “the major benefactors of prolonging life for the terminally ill are pharmaceutical companies.” Alex Schadenberg, executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, said the resolution creates a “false paradigm” and called for members of CURC to speak to local representatives to encourage them to vote against the resolution … The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition of British Columbia has been resuscitated and Dr. Will Johnston of Physicians for Life Canada has been named its head … The Canadian Fertility and Andrology Society released statistics that showed the number of multiple births each year has increased almost 45 per cent between 1991 and 2008 with the main culprit being the creation of “multiples” in fertility treatment. Dr. John Barrett of Toronto’s Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre castigated the reproductive technologies industry, saying that “the practice is doing harm” by creating a large population of unhealthy children … New Brunswick Right to Life reports that the number of abortions carried out in the province’s hospitals has declined 32 per cent between 2009 and 2010 from 364 abortions to 247. All but two of those abortions are committed in a pair of regional hospitals, Moncton’s Dr. Georges Dumont and Bathurst’s Chaleur Hospital. Five of eight regional hospitals did not do any abortions in 2010 … The city of Ottawa is considering designating part of Bank Street a LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) village although commuter paper Metro reported the Village committee and Business Improvement Area have held numerous surveys, they have” yielded conflicting results” … The National Campus Life Network and Toronto Right to Life Association have launched Student Life Link, a website to connect high school pro-life clubs. Paul Klotz, executive director of Toronto Right to Life said “The idea is to encourage and empower pro-life youth to take leadership of the pro-life movement and to decide that they will be the generation to secure the right to life” … Dr. David McCann, a Hamilton physician, passed away Aug. 8. His wife Donna told the Catholic Register that the medical establishment did not appreciate her husband’s pro-life perspective on abortion, sterilization, contraception, and stem cell research, but he was never angry with his professors or colleagues. “He was more sad than anything,” recalls Donna McCann of her husband’s disappointment with the moral direction of the medical profession in recent years.
International
Sept. 20 marked the official end to the U.S. military ban on open homosexuality in the armed services. President Barack Obama released a statement, saying “Today, every American can be proud that we have taken another great step toward keeping our military the finest in the world and toward fulfilling our nation’s founding ideals.” The recruitment center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, put up a rainbow flag to welcome gay recruits … Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R, Kansas) received confirmation from Gao Qiang, a former Party Secretary for the Ministry of Health of the People’s Republic of China, that Red China’s population is 400 million people smaller than it would be otherwise due to the country’s one-child policy. Gao noted that since 1979 China had prevented more births than the entire population of the United States, which currently stands at 312 million … The Dutch Physicians Association has released a paper on euthanasia calling for doctors to be required to refer patients to a physician who will carry out a euthanasia request in cases where the doctor will not commit the killing himself. The paper may be a response to Dutch media reports that one-third of Netherlands doctors refuse to do euthanasia and 75 per cent say they will not euthanize patients who are not suffering. The association’s paper also calls for euthanasia to be legal for non-medical reasons such as income or loneliness … The Portuguese parliament is deliberating over several bills that could legalize physician assisted suicide and euthanasia, but Miguel Oliveira da Silva, president of Portugal’s National Ethics Council for Life Sciences, said there is little interest in legalizing killing the sick, elderly, disabled, and vulnerable, as he estimated that just 10 per cent of physicians would be willing to carry out euthanasia if it is legalized … Pro-abortion activists pelted 30 pro-life demonstrators in Paris with eggs and destroyed their banners. A freelance photographer covering the violent attack was also attacked.