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International Right to Life Federation,
Inc.
Vol. 18 No. 1
(January/February 2007)
Portugal Referendum Wins But
Pro-life forces in Portugal won but the win may be temporary. 59% of people voted in favor of abortion in the referendum. However, for it to be valid, at least 50% of that country's registered voters must vote, and only 44% actually did. Accordingly, the attempt to legalize abortion has failed. However, the Socialist Prime Minister has stated that he will now attempt to pass legislation through
their Parliament to legalize abortion.
Major French Rally
On January 21, fifteen thousand participants marched for life in Paris. The FN party's Jean-Marie Le Pen is the major political group. It seems to be charting a path for this group for the complete abolition of abortion.
Its next national election should be very interesting.
Ireland - Embryos Not Protected
A single judge in Ireland's high court has ruled that frozen embryos are not protected by the Constitution's protection of human life. In a complex twenty-six-page judgment, the judge ruled that protection applies only after implantation. Mr. Pat Buckley of the European Life Network noted that there was an attempt to amend the constitution so that legal protection would only begin at implantation,
and that this was rejected several years ago in a referendum.
UN Treaty on Disabled Signed
This had been four years in negotiations. Pro-abortion forces had attempted and fiercely fought to put in "reproductive health." Pro-life forces just as vigorously resisted it. The General Assembly has now given final approval to a treaty that will protect the rights and dignity of people with disabilities. It also includes the right to life of disabled newborns and should "substantially improve the lives of peoples with disability throughout the world," said Jean Head, the grand lady lobbyist for International Right to Life Federation, Inc. and the National Right To Life Committee. Mr. Peter Smith, representative to UN for SPUC and the International Right to Life Federation reported, "Fifteen national delegations made good interpretive statements on the controversial term 'sexual and reproductive' which is often falsely interpreted to include abortion." He observed that strong pro-life statements came from the USA and the Holy See. "These interpretive statements mean that no one can claim that the Disability Convention includes a right to abortion under these terms."
Won't Sign Convention on Disabled
On February 1, the Holy See confirmed that it won't sign the UN Convention on Disabled People, which was passed last month in New York.
China - More Men Than Women
Not surprisingly, we are now seeing reports of the gender imbalance resulting from China's one child policy.
In a January report, by the China Daily official news, the government admits that there will be tens of millions of men not able to find wives. Specifically, fifteen years from now,
there will be 30,000,000 more men than women in the marrying age group.
In China, One Child Family To Continue
In spite of the gender imbalance noted above, Chinese Premier Went Jerboa, at a national conference on population and family planning announced that the one child per family policy will continue. According to government statistics today,
there are 117 boys born for every 100 girls in China.
USA Crosses Three Hundred Million While
Other Western Nations Plateau and Decline In Population
The Wall Street Journal 10/3/06 commented: This is cause for celebration. We three hundred million Americans are on balance healthier, wealthier and freer than any population ever. We breath cleaner air, drink cleaner water, earn higher incomes, have more leisure time and live in less crowded houses. Every natural resource that we depend on- water, food, copper and even oil - is far more abundant today measured by affordability than when our population was one hundred or even thirty million. Thanks to the rapid pace of technological progress there is every reason to believe that these resources will be still more abundant when our population reaches four hundred million,
which will be about forty years from now.
Euthanasia in Italy?
Italy's Prime Minister is using a particular tragic case of muscular dystrophy (who wants to die) to campaign for a law legalizing euthanasia. This has spawned a national debate,
with the Catholic Church leading the fight against killing such patients.
IVF Babies Have More Problems?
The journal, Pediatrics (November 15), reports that children conceived through in-vitro fertilization have poorer health than those who are conceived naturally. This includes higher mortality rates, increased risk of hospitalization, cerebral palsy, and longer hospital episodes around the time of birth. This can be partly explained by the fact that there are more multiple births among IVF babies.
However, even single babies have more problems.
Pill Doesn't Reduce Pregnancy, Abortion Rates
A meta-analysis of 23 published reports conducted in ten countries has been reported in the prestigious journal,
Obstetrics and Gynecology. It demonstrates that the morning after pill does not reduce pregnancy rates or abortions. It concluded, "Increased access to emergency contraception pills does enhance its use, but has not been shown to reduce unintended pregnancy rates." The authors noted, "No study has shown that increased access to this method reduces unintended pregnancy or abortion rates on a population level." They concluded that the use of this bill "Is unlikely to produce a major reduction in unintended pregnancy rates no matter how often women use it." We note, that a major reason why the pill has been made available in many countries is specifically because
the argument was posed that it would reduce unintended pregnancies, particularly among teenagers.
Slovenia - A Controversy
Slovenia's Minister of Labor, Janez Drobnic, suggested that his small nation limit taxpayer funding of abortion to cases when the pregnancy threatens the mother's life. In response to this, Prime Minister Janez Jansa has called upon the minister to resign. It is noted that Slovenia shares with its neighbors a severe birth deficit and faces impending population decline as abortion has taken its toll on that country's work force while allowing a continuing aging of the current population.
The minister has refused.
Ukraine Babies Killed for Parts?
The BBC in England has obtained video footage of postmortem examination of babies who have been killed for their organs. Thirty bodies were exhumed showing such dismemberment. The report indicates that the babies seemed to have been killed to obtain stem cells from their bone marrow. It also reports speaking to mothers in the city of Kharkiv, who reported having a healthy child delivered, only to have them killed for research.
Certainly, this should be thoroughly investigated.
The Push Is On For CEDAW
According to Article XII of this United Nations effort, the wording states, "State parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in the field of healthcare, in order to ensure, on the basis of equality of men and women, access to health care services, including those related to family planning." This was signed by most nations in 1985. It was opposed and not even voted on in the United States Congress. Now with the new Democrat Senate in place, there is a push for U. S. ratification of CEDAW. If in fact, this were to occur,
it would specifically undermine current and future Federal and State regulations on abortion.
UN Pressure On Columbia
Citing the CEDAW Treaty above, its UN committee criticized Columbia for only legalizing some abortions but not all of them. A few months ago, the Columbia Supreme Court weakened that country's prohibition against abortion by allowing it for rape,
incest, fetal deformity, and life of the mother.
Chile Rejects Legal Abortion Legislation
An attempt recently to broaden the reason for the legalization of abortion by allowing it in cases of rape and incest, and mother's life was rejected by the National Congress. Chile is one of more than 30 nations that prohibit abortions in all cases.
The vote was 61 - 21.
France - Hopeful News
The F. N. Party of Jean-Marie Le Penn has taken an outright pro-life position. If elected in the next general election, he promised a referendum during his presidency to anchor
"the sacred character of life into the French Constitution and forbid abortion."
Australia - Bad News on Cloning
By a vote of 82 - 62, the Australian Parliament has voted to legalize human cloning. Those in favor argued that almost any disease imaginable could be cured through research that involved human cloning and then killing of the new human produced. This is bad news for Australia,
and because it sets a precedent it is bad news for the world.
Vietnam and Sex Selection Abortions
The Vietnamese government has issued fines hoping to prevent sex selection abortions. In addition, they have recently held a joint conference with the UNFPA to implement this. The representative said, "Gender based abortions are a serious human rights violation that impedes development and worsens the socio-economic status of the entire nation, and not just for girls and women. An imbalance of sexes fuels human trafficking and sexual exploitation. It endangers economic development.
It increases social instability as a growing population of men search for partners."
Swiss Court Allows Assisted Suicide
Its highest court, the Swiss Federal Court, has put mental problems on a par with physical ones, which includes a person believing that their life "is not worth living anymore." It stated, "It must be recognized that an incurable, permanent, serious, mental disorder can cause similar suffering as a physical disorder, making life appear unbearable to the patient in the long term." The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition stated,
"The Swiss have now opened the door to a free fall into the abyss of the culture of death."
Stem Cells From Teeth
We have reported earlier that a rich source of adult stem cells was from the pulp of baby teeth when they are extracted. Now comes a study from University of Southern California, which found adult stem cells in extracted wisdom teeth, 3rd molars. These cells have successfully regenerated teeth in pigs. In this study, "We use stem cell technology to create a bio-root and periodontal tissue along with dental, clinical, porcelain crown technique to restore tooth function in swine."
So reports Reuters on January 3, 2007.
Stem Cells For Muscular Dystrophy?
Published on line, November 15 in the journal Nature at the San Raffaele Institute in Milano, Italy, adult stem cells taken from the affected dogs, "Worked remarkably well easing symptoms of muscular dystrophy in dogs."
He hopes to start a similar experiment in children shortly.
Hair Follicle Cells as Embryonic Stem Cells Alternative
Dr. Sieber-Blum at University of Wisconsin has just published in a recent issue of
Stem Cells, the Int. J. of Cell Differentiation and Proliferation. They have taken hair follicle stem cells (epidermal, neural crest stem cells). These have been isolated at high levels of purity, and have characteristics both of embryonic and of adult stem cells. They are readily accessible, without any invasive procedure and certainly without killing any embryos. They would be compatible with the patient's own cell types, and may well prove to an alternative to embryonic stem cells which can only be obtained by
killing five day old living human embryos.
Adult Stem Cells To Treat Intervertebral Discs
At the University of Manchester in England, Dr. S. Richardson of the Division of Regenerative Medicine is experimenting with the use of the patient's own adult stem cells to regenerate intervertebral discs in patients with severe back pain.
He has announced the beginning of pre-clinical trials within a year.
Heart Valves From Stem Cells
At the November American Heart Association Conference, Dr. S. Hoerstrup from the University of Zurich reported success in growing human heart valves from that patient's adult stem cells. Using stem cells obtained from amniotic fluid, isolated, cultured, and then placed on a mold made of biodegradable plastic, such valves were grown in approximately six weeks. They call their method "a promising low-risk approach enabling the prenatal fabrication of heart valves ready to use right after birth."
If this is successful, and can be replicated, this is an amazing advance.
And Now Artificial Livers
This time it is using adult stem cells from umbilical cord blood to grow the world's first artificial liver. First these cells are removed from umbilical cord blood, cultured, and multiplied. Then various hormones and chemicals are used to "coax" the stem cells to turn into liver tissue. To date, tiny pieces of liver, less than one inch in diameter, have been created.
Hopes are high for much more progress in this direction.
J.C. Willke, President,
International Right to Life Fed.
1821 West Galbraith Road
Cincinnati,
Ohio 45239 USA
Phone +1 (513) 729-3600
Fax +1 (513) 729-3636
e-mail:
IRTLF@lifeissues.org
International
Right to Life Fed., International Office
Ruitersweg 35-37 1211 KT Hilversum
The Netherlands
Phone +31 35 624-4352
Fax +31 35 624-9141
e-mail:
info@schreeuwomleven.nl
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