|
Catholic Church Prelate Condemns Britain's "Frankenstein Science"
Scotland's Cardinal Keith O'Brien has attacked the current British Government proposals, which include the creation of animal human hybrids to produce stem cells describing the proposals as "grotesque" and "deathly" experiments. Cardinal O'Brien released the text of his Easter sermon on Good Friday in which he accuses the government of endorsement of experiments of Frankenstein proportion -- without many people really being aware of what is going on." "It is difficult" says the Cardinal "to imagine a single piece of legislation which more comprehensively attacks the sanctity and dignity of human life than this particular Bill." "This Bill represents a monstrous attack on human rights, human dignity and human life. In some other European countries, one could be jailed for doing what we intend to make legal."See also Irish Independent article 'Grotesque' embryo plan denounced by Church http://www.independent.ie/world-news/europe/grotesque-embryo-plan-denounced-by-church-1324804.html |
Move to promote abortion on demand throughout Europe
The pro-abortion lobby has launched a major new campaign against the unborn throughout Europe. The Council of Europe is due to consider a radical new report calling for every European country to remove all restrictions to abortion. Please read about this at http://spuc-director.blogspot.com/2008/03/help-stop-europe-wide-abortion-campaign.html and urge everyone to contact their Council of Europe parlimentary representatives asking them to reject this report | |
|
European Life Network wishes all our readers a very Happy Easter.
This week we report on the pro-life interventions of two senior church men at the 7th session of theHuman Rights Council in Geneva and we also report on major new attempts by both the EU and the Council of Europe to create a human right to abortion.
| |
Russian Orthodox Leader Challenges UN Panel
A Russian Orthodox Church leader upset radical feminist and gay rights lobbyists when he told a special session of the Human Rights council in Geneva on March 18th that the concept of human rights brought into Europe by Christianity, had been subverted by a small group of activists and civil servants who have imposed an atheist or agnostic interpretation on human rights and he denounced as "dangerous" anti-life and secularist trends in human rights thought. H.E. Metropolitain Kirill of Smolensk and Kalinngrad Chairman of the Dept. for external church relations Moscow Patriarchate told a "panel on intercultural Dialogue on Human Rights" that an assumed "woman's right to abortion neglects the right of the embryo and no reference is made to ethics when destructive experiments are carried out on human embryos." "It is even more astonishing," he continued "to hear that human rights should now contain a right to euthanasia". "A major flaw of human rights theory he continued is in the interpretation of the idea of freedom, in which the "right to choose" is defended but "nothing is said about human responsibilities". The result of this separation is that "the freedom of the individual from evil is left undefended". "Human rights," he said "are based on the most fundamental right which is the right to life. Soon it might turn out that these human rights are favouring death rather than life." |
Papal Nuncio Tells UN that the right to life can never be denied to the most vulnerable
During a debate on the report of the Special Rapporteur on the Right of Everyone to the Enjoyment of the Highest Attainable Standard of Physical and Mental Health, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, Papal Nuncio to the UN in Geneva, told the meeting that Religious health care providers while delivering significant health care are denied 'place at the table'. "Such organizations," he told the meeting, "often assume significant responsibility for the burden of health care delivery, most especially to the poorest sectors of the population and to those living in rural areas." Archbishop Tomasi also told the meeting that people can never ignore or deny the right to life among the most vulnerable, such as children in the womb and those suffering from grave and life-threatening illnesses. However, he stressed that the right to health should never be interpreted to include abortion or to encourage the neglect of the sick. "My Delegation urgently hopes that references to 'emergency obstetric care' will never be misconstrued to justify the forced ending of human life before birth and that the reference to a state's obligation to 'identify a minimum 'basket' of health services' and to 'striking balances' will not be interpreted in a manner that denies essential services to the seriously ill," the archbishop said. Archbishop Tomasi also criticized the report's possible weakness in defending an absolute right to life, saying, "While the report claims that 'few human rights are absolute,' it is the firm belief of my delegation, Mr. President, that no compromise can be made with a person's right to life itself, from conception to natural death, nor with that person's ability to enjoy the dignity which flows from that right." |
Pressure mounts in Europe for legalised abortion
Kathy Sinnott MEP reports, last week in the European Parliament, the Uca report on gender equality passed with 7 references to "sexual and reproductive rights." These rights by definition in diplomatic language include the right to abortion. Before that in January 2008 the European Parliament added 5 references to "sexual and reproductive rights" for even young children to the Angelilli report on the "Rights of the Child." This follows closely on the European Commission's ethics committee document last year proposing a universal right to abortion. This trend is in contrast to Ireland joining Poland and Malta in opposing the anti-life EU policy and preventing "sexual and reproductive rights" language from being added to the UN Commission on the Status of Women document on 8th March 2008. Ireland can take action such as this at present, even though a member of the EU. This is why the articles of the Lisbon Treaty's provisions on foreign policy, which restricts Ireland's right to have its own policies, should be carefully examined before we vote in the referendum. The question has to be asked will we still be able to exercise our right to protect vulnerable people and our values if the federalising Lisbon Treaty is approved? | |
|
|
|
