European Life Network Newsletter
ELN
Issue 19 June  2008
In This Issue
Lisbon Treaty Defeated
Decision on Animal Human Hybrids may cost Labour Party votes
Italian Prime Minister to pursue pro-life policies
New Head for Pontifical Council for the Family
Assisted Suicide Case to be heard by UK High Court
Two Mothers
Dangers of Organ Transplants
Lisbon Treaty Defeated
 
The Irish electorate have voted to reject the Lisbon treaty. The treaty is therefore dead however it appears that some EU politicians are not prepared to accept the result. Despite the fact that ratification of the treaty requires  unanimous acceptance by all EU member states Jose Manuel Barosso President of the EU Commission has stated that ratification of the treaty by other states should continue. This is precisely the kind of thinking that caused Ireland to vote 'NO' and is further evidence of the democratic deficit in the EU  
for further comment see today's post in my BLOG

 
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Decision on Animal Human Hybrids may cost Labour Party Votes
 
The Labour party could lose Catholic votes in Scotland because of its support for animal-human hybrids and the current abortion regime. The warning comes in a letter to a newspaper from Mr James MacMillan, a Catholic musical composer. He addresses his remarks to the party's leader in the Scottish parliament, reportedly calling the UK parliament's decisions immoral. [Scotsman, 12 June] 
 
Greetings!
We focus first this week on Ireland's historic vote against the Lisbon Treaty and the fact that there already appears to be a move to ignore it, uderpinning the core argument of those who rejected the treaty that there is a major democratic deficit in Europe. See also today's post on my BLOG 
 
 
 
Italian Prime Minister to pursue pro-life policies
The Italian prime minister has intimated that he might pursue pro-life policies. After a meeting with the Pope, Mr Silvio Berlusconi expressed total agreement with Benedict XVI on "the sanctity of the human person and of the family" and said the church would welcome what his new government did in this sphere. [Catholic World News, 6 June] 
 
New Head for Pontifical Council for the Family
The Pope has appointed Cardinal Ennio Antonelli as president of the Pontifical Council for the Family. The 71-year-old Archbishop of Florence succeeds the late Cardinal Alfonso López Trujillo. [Catholic World News, 9 June]

 
Assisted suicide case  to be heard bu UK High Court
The English high court has agreed to let a woman with multiple sclerosis seek a ruling on whether her husband may be prosecuted if he assists her plan to commit suicide overseas. Ms Debbie Purdy, 45, is considering going to Belgium or Switzerland accompanied by Mr Omar Puente. [BBC, 11 June] SPUC will be intervening in the case, as it did in the somewhat similar 2002 matter of Mrs Dianne Pretty. [SPUC, 11 June] Alison Davis of No Less Human, part of SPUC, said: "I understand completely the despair and blackness which causes some disabled and ill people to feel suicidal, because I once felt the same." However, she also said: "Allowing assisted suicide or weakening the law against it would compromise the protection from harm every vulnerable person deserves. The assumption that dying and incurably disabled people are, in effect, right to want to die and better off dead would be confirmed." [SPUC, 11 June]

Two Mothers?
The House of Commons committee considering the British government's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill has approved a measure which would mean that the children of lesbian couples could have two women's names on their birth certificates. That part of the bill cannot now be amended and the ruling Labour party will tell all its MPs to vote for the bill. [Evening Standard, 11 June]
 
Dangers of Organ Transplants
A patient, presumed dead, revived as transplant-surgeons in Paris began the process of removing his organs. The city's university hospital's ethics committee has reportedly been told that doctors massaged his heart for 90 minutes before surgeons arrived. He began breathing and now can talk and walk. France recently changed its law to allow the harvesting of organs without a declaration of brain-death. [Telegraph, 10 June]