British court rejects appeal for assisted suicide
LONDON – The House of Lords rejected an appeal by Dianne Pretty, a 47-year-old British woman suffering from motor neurone disease, who asked the courts to allow her husband to assist in her suicide without facing criminal charges. The appeal was dismissed unanimously with the law lords saying that human rights legislation, on which grounds Pretty appealed, was in place to protect life rather than end it. Pretty, who also lost her case in High Court, said she would appeal the case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. British Prime Minister Tony Blair said he would not reform the Suicide Act to allow the sick and disabled to take their own lives.
Euthanasia a ‘minor crime’
AMSTERDAM – A Dutch doctor convicted of illegally euthanizing a healthy patient has gone unpunished. The Dutch appeals court ruled that Dr. Phillip Sutorius failed to act within the legal guidelines set for euthanasia when in 1998 he gave a poisonous cocktail to 86-year-old Senator Edward Brongersma. The Netherlands’ euthanasia guidelines state patients must be suffering unbearable pain with no hope of recovery in order to be euthanized legally, but Brongersma was physically and mentally healthy, although he said he was “tired of living.” The court said his offence was “so minor that any form of punishment would be inappropriate.”
Pregnant woman gets pregnant again
ROME – The BBC reports on the historic case of Flavia D’Angelo who apparently conceived while she was already pregnant. Doctors discovered she was carrying triplets three months younger than her first unborn child when she had an ultrasound at six months. Doctors thought superfecundation (conceiving while pregnant) was rare in animals and impossible in humans although D’Angelo, who says she was not taking any fertility treatment, has apparently proved them wrong.
Japanese use cord blood to treat leukemia
TOKYO – Japan reached a milestone on Nov. 5, as its 500th leukemia patient was treated with a cord blood transplant. Japanese Cord Blood Bank Network leads the program which derives stem cells from the blood of placentas and umbilical cords donated by women who have given birth. Cord blood contains blood-forming stem cells capable of producing all the components of blood and bone marrow.
UN promotes abortion in Afghanistan
KABUL, Afghanistan – The Population Research Institute has confirmed that the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) is on the ground in Afghanistan distributing abortion devices and chemicals in kits disguised “for safe delivery” to refugee camps in neighbouring Pakistan and Iran. PRI said that considering “the great unmet need for food, shelter, water and basic health supplies” and opposition of Islam to abortion, the focus on providing abortion services is obscene. “War trauma and Taliban atrocities now provide the UNFPA with the opportunity to engage in coercive family planning programs in Afghanistan, under the guise of women’s health.”