International Right to Life Federation, Inc.
Vol. 12 No. 6
(November/December, 2001)

Belgium – Euthanasia

The Upper House of Belgium’s legislature on 25 October voted 44-23 in favor of a bill to legalize euthanasia. Under this proposed law, doctors can legally kill patients, as long as they are “of age and conscious, have requested euthanasia freely and consistently, were in a terminal medical condition and were enduring constant, unbearable physical or psychological pain.”   

U.N. Demands Guatamala Legalize Abortion

The United Nations has a human rights committee. It monitors compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. It also issues non-binding recommendations to national governments. A large nation like the United States can simply ignore such a recommendation. A small third-world country would find it very difficult to disobey, for that would mean losing all of its funding from the U.N. Accordingly, this committee told Guatamala that it “must guarantee the right to the life of pregnant women, who decide to interrupt their pregnancies, by providing them with information and the means necessary to guarantee these rights, and it should amend their law to establish exceptions to the general prohibition against all abortion…” Mercedes Wilson, a Guatemalan delegate to the U.N. stated, “What the committee is basically doing is to demand that free sovereign country disobey its constitution and redraft it.”

Abortion in Spain

According to El Mundo, via Northern Light, on 16 October, a move was made in the Spanish parliament to further open up reasons for elective abortion. Pro-abortion forces would like to include “serious personal, family or social conflict,” and abolish jail sentences for doing illegal abortions. This seems to be the height of absurdity, for 98% of Spanish abortions now are carried out on the grounds of a threat to the “mental health” of the mother. In 1996, there were 51,000 abortions legally performed in Spain. This amounted to 12.5% of known pregnancies.

Abortions in the Philippines

A Philippine government agency, the Population Commission, has been a willing collaborator in recent years with International Planned Parenthood and other U.N. agencies. Their aim has been the legalization of abortion in the Philippines. Accordingly, that commission recently claimed that one woman in four has had a secret abortion in the Philippines. Your editor has been to this very Catholic country several times and is convinced that any such claims are wildly unrealistic, with no remote basis in fact. Manny Arejola, speaking for the Church’s Commission on Family and Life, stated that these figures were completely “impossible” and that this agency had merely invented them in order to “panic” Philippinos into agreeing to legalization of abortion. He noted that the groups making the claims were small but that they “speak very loudly.”

Free Abortions to Afghan Refugees

True to form, International Planned Parenthood (IPPF) continues to try to kill as many babies as it can. In response to IPPF’s offer of free abortions to such refugees fleeing Aghanistan, Cheryl Lynn Dudley, a member of parliament of the African Christian Democrat Party, issued the following statement:  “The U.S. President’s fight against terrorism is understandable, however the real tragedy is that, while President Bush concentrates on Islamic terrorists, the home base terrorists, largely sponsored by American money—that is, Planned Parenthood and the UNFPA—tally a death toll second to none. The truth that no one wants to hear is that IPPF has killed many more New Yorkers than Osama bin Laden has.”

Planned Parenthood – Free Abortions in
New York

Prior to offering free abortions to Afghan refugees, Planned Parenthood had offered free abortions to survivors of the New York World Trade Center catastrophe. While almost all other individuals and organizations offered help for the living, in an ugly demonstration of its anti-life values, PP offered death to the unborn surviving children of the victims of the disaster.

What To Do With Excess Embroys

At the October meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine in Orlando, Florida, two studies were presented, examining a couple’s decision about what to do with leftover embryos after completing fertility treatment. Researchers from Northwestern University Medical School found that, of 41 couples, 71% who had decided what to do with leftover embryos changed their minds during treatment. They did not report the decision, however, but stated that it did not depend upon whether the couples were successful in having a child.

In the second study, Canadian researchers from the London Health Science Center asked 49 couples who had not used their stored embryos for between three and eight years – would they be willing to donate the embryos to other childless couples.  73% “expressed support” for embryo donation.  Some of them had certain qualifications, but it is of substantial interest that almost three-fourths of such couples were interested in donating their embryos.

Mrs. Eva Kowaleski  and Father Maxim Obukhov

Moscow Meeting Great Success!

Dr. and Mrs. Willke have just returned from a very successful visit to Moscow.  They went at the invitation of the Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexi II.  The occasion was a multi-day seminar to which Russian Orthodox priests and lay leaders from the entire Russian federation had been invited.  They came from Siberia, the southern Urals, the Black Sea, Ukraine, Belarus, and the Arctic coast.  The meeting was put together by Father Maxim Obukhov with the help of Mrs. Eva Kowaleski, the wife of a member of the board of International Right to Life Federation.  Considerable literature was distributed including the first Russian edition of the Willkes’ book on Abortion, Why Can’t We Love Them Both, copies of which had just come off the press.  Copies of the book were given to every registrant.   The Orthodox Church is strongly supportive of the pro-life ethic at all levels. 

The Russian Orthodox Church & Abortion

The Russian Orthodox Church has long condemned abortion. More recently, an official spokesman for Alexi II, the Orthodox Patriarch in Moscow, has announced:  “We condemn therapeutic as well as reproductive cloning because the embryo can be considered the carrier of human dignity and blessed with the gift of life. In Canon Law, the destruction of human embryos is tantamount to abortion, and that means murder.”
Reuters, 11/26

Irish Referendum Controversy Continues

The Irish Premier, Mr. Bertie Ahern is reported to be insisting that the referendum take place on 28 February.  He is very pleased with the surprising decision of the Irish bishops to “welcome and support the new proposal”. Under the present law, still operative, the Offenses Against the Persons Act of 1861, human life is protected from conception.  Under Ahern’s proposed amendment, human life in Ireland will only be protected after implantation, when the human embryo is one week old.  According to our legal sources, the referendum, while clarifying much confusion about the permission for surgical abortion later in pregnancy, will not prevent the direct killing of human embryos in their first week of life.  If this is correct, and the referendum is adopted according to the legal advice that we have, it would leave the field wide open for all of the well publicized first-week-of-life destructive procedures now contemplated and urged by the scientific community. This would permit fetal experimentation and cloning.  It would permit the creation of human embryos and then killing them in order to get embryonic stem cells.  It would permit human-animal hybrids and the so-called emergency contraceptive (emergency abortive) pills. 

The approval of the Irish bishops is puzzling, since the head of the Pontifical Commission on the Family, Cardinal Lopez Trujillo had stated in early December that he expected the bishops to “react against the proposal”.  However, the bishops state, that in their judgment there will still be protection in the first week of life.  The two major political parties in Ireland differ on the support for the amendment.  There also is a significant internal conflict within the pro-life movement in Ireland.  All of this leaves the result of the referendum, at this stage, very much in question.

London High Court – No Right To Euthanasia

In a ruling on 18 October, 2001, the High Court in London ruled that a husband not be given immunity from prosecution if he assisted in the suicide of his wife. The judicial panel ruled that the right to dignity did not entail a right to die with dignity, but simply the right to enjoy as dignified a life as possible. It ruled that if the public prosecutor had been allowed to agree not to take action against her husband assisting in her suicide, it would have been a “license to commit a crime.”

Nepal Legalizes Abortion

Under U.N. pressure, this small Himalayan nation has approved an amendment to their civil code which allows abortion for physical or mental health, fetal handicap, rape and incest. That means abortion-on-demand. The only restraint is that the woman’s husband or guardian must give consent. Officials predict that the Upper House will also pass this and the king will sign it. The tragedy here is that the U.N. Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights two months ago demanded that Nepal legalize abortion. The U.N., of course, claims it does not promote abortion, especially if the practice is against the law in a nation, but this was blatant and straight-forward.  We quote:  “The Committee urges the state party to take remedial action to address the problems of clandestine abortions, unwanted pregnancies and the high rate of maternal mortality. In this regard, the Committee urges the state party to reinforce reproductive and sexual health programs, in particular in rural areas, and to allow abortion when pregnancies are life-threatening or a result of rape or incest.”

There’s still a chance that the Upper House might not agree.  The king must sign, but he, at this point, is a figurehead.

China – No RU 486

China surprised almost everyone by withdrawing the French abortion pill, RU 486 (mifiprestone), from the market. It cited serious health concerns.

Survival of Conceptions

The latest information on this comes to us from an article in the New England Journal of Medicine, 11/8/01. It’s entitled, “Implantation and the Survival of Early Pregnancy.” They state:  “Fifty to sixty percent of all conceptions advanced beyond 20 weeks of gestation. Of the pregnancies that are lost, three-fourths represent a failure of implantation…” This is useful information, as some have claimed a much higher loss ratio.

Stem Cells in Amniotic Fluid?

In a new development, scientists from Boston’s Children’s Hospital reported at an American College of Surgeons Meeting on October 10^th, that they found “early stage embryonic cells” in the amniotic fluid of pregnant women. Just two milliliters of amniotic fluid can provide up to 20,000 cells, 80% of which are viable. When “scaffolded” together in a lab culture, the cells quickly grew into connective tissue, which could be used as tissue grafts to repair birth defects such as holes in the abdomen or chest of an unborn child. This is another alternative to killing human embryos to get their stem cells.

Sperm Donor Liable

A Swedish court has ruled that a man who donated sperm to a lesbian is legally liable for child support. The court ordered him to pay $265.00 a month for such support. Just think what an impact this would have if copied in other countries. What would it do to sperm banking? What would it do to selling of female eggs? Another straw in the wind comes from Canada where a proposed bill in its House of Commons would forbid anonymous sperm and egg donations. Future donors would be required to agree to the release of personal information to any babies resulting from their donation.

Contraceptive Gel Aids HIV-AIDS

During the 8^th International AIDS Conference in Durban, South Africa, last year, researchers from the joint U.N. program on AIDS presented the results of a study of a contraceptive gel containing nonoxynol-9. This is a spermicidal jelly that is effective in preventing pregnancy and is widely used internationally. The study examined whether or not it was a microbicide, that is, what would its effect be on preventing sexually transmitted diseases. The result of the study reported was that this compound did not protect against HIV infection and may have aided transmission. The women who used this gel became infected with HIV at a 50% higher rate than women who used a placebo gel.

A Contraceptive Skin Patch

This is a new method of contraception. It was approved for marketing by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration. This is a patch that is stuck on her skin once a week for three weeks and then removed for the fourth week. It acts similar to the typical monthly dose and function of contraceptive pills. As such, it will have the same three functions, as noted in the AMA report above.

Doctors Without Borders Do Abortions

Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres) has admitted it has provided medical equipment that its officials knew were to be used for abortions in North Korea. It does have an official stand against abortion, but apparently this doesn’t mean anything. A spokesman for this group, Chris Torgeson, has stated that the group’s doctors do perform abortions. This group works in many countries, and she says, “In some countries, abortion is an important part of family planning policy.”