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LISBON TREATY
The Oireachtas ( Parliamentary) all party Committee on European Affairs set up by the Irish government to consider its options in the wake of Ireland's rejection of the Lisbon Treaty issued its report last week Thursday (27 November).
The report clearly favours ratification of the Treaty, following a new referendum. "If a decision is made to hold another referendum, it would be expected that the Government would make an attempt to respond at both domestic and EU level to the range of concerns expressed during the referendum campaign." Those concerns according to the report would be best tackled in a joint declaration by member states attached to the treaty, instead of legally stronger protocols, as their inclusion in the document would have to be confirmed by a re-ratification of the treaty in all member states, argues the Irish study.
This option is however not acceptable to those who campaigned for a NO vote in the June referendum. The essential difference between a declaration and a protocol is that a Protocol is legally binding and a Declaration is not.
There are several Declarations already appended to the Lisbon Treaty, these are NOT legally binding on the States party to the Treaty. There are also several Protocols attached to Lisbon. These ARE legally binding, quite as much as the main text of that Treaty.
Should the Irish Government decide to proceed on the basis of non-binding declarations a second referendum would also be vigorously opposed and the result would be in doubt.
A new opinion poll shows that 70% of people do not want a rerun of the Lisbon Treaty. The poll also shows that if a new treaty was forced upon the electorate that it would end up being heavily defeated. The poll was carried out by a new non-profit social affairs research organization Gael Poll.
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We report this week on a number of new studies that show abortion can cause both anxiety disorders and substance abuse. Needless to say the pro-abortionists still try to either deny or minimise the results
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Abortion can cause anxiety disorders and substance use disorders
Two recently published studies point to an increase risk of women developing anxiety and substance use disorders following abortion. First a New Zealand study published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, found that women who have an abortion are at three-fold risk of developing mental anxiety disorders or substance use disorders such as drug or alcohol addiction as compared to other women. The researchers came to the conclusion after reviewing 500 women. According to Professor David Fergusson, who led the research, the findings have "important implications," because more than 90 per cent of British abortions were authorised on the grounds that keeping an unwanted baby would cause the mother mental health problems. "This evidence clearly poses a challenge to the use of psychiatric reasons to justify abortion. There is nothing in this study that would suggest that the termination of pregnancy was associated with lower risks of mental health problems than birth," the Daily Mail quoted him, as saying. Commenting on the study Prof Patricia Casey, of University College and Mater Hospital, Dublin, according to an Irish Times report said there was an obligation on abortion providers to inform women of the new findings."There are immediate medico-legal implications flowing from the finding; namely, the prospect of litigation against abortion providers for failing to provide women with information of a possible causal link between abortion and subsequent health problems," she said. This newest study backs up other recently published research in the Journal of Psychiatric Research, by Coleman PK et al. which concludes that Abortion was found to be related to an increased risk for a variety of mental health problems (panic attacks, panic disorder, agoraphobia, PTSD, bipolar disorder, major depression with and without hierarchy), and substance abuse disorders, after statistical controls were instituted for a wide range of personal, situational, and demographic variables. |
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Increasing Number of Abortions in Spain
LifeNews.com - reports that a new Spanish government report issued on Tuesday found the number of abortions in Spain has more than doubled over the last ten years. Despite this the socialist government wants to expand Spain's abortion law to allow even more. The number of abortions increased from 53,847 in 1998 to 112,138 last year, according to the Spanish health ministry.The abortion rate was highest among women between the ages of 20 and 24 and second highest for women aged 25 to 29. |
Conjoined Twin dies following operation
Hope Williams one of the conjoined twins delivered by Caesarean section at London's University Hospital on Wednesday last, has died after an operation to separate her from her sister Faith. Doctors at Great Ormond Street Hospital in central London said the baby's lungs were unable to support her breathing. Her sister however is reported to be in a "stable" condition after the marathon operation which began on Tuesday. The girls, from Shrewsbury, Shropshire, were joined from the breastbone to the navel. Their mother, 18-year-old Laura Williams, is Britain's youngest ever mother to give birth to conjoined twins |
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STEM CELLS
William Reville associate professor of biochemistry at University College Cork writing in the Irish Times Thursday Dec.4th said, Whether or not you consider human embryonic stem-cell research to be permissible depends on your evaluation of the ethical status of the human embryo.
Science alone cannot settle this question, but it does provide information essential to forming an informed opinion. Biology tells us that an individual human life begins when the sperm unites with the egg to form the zygote, the genetically unique, complete and self-directing earliest embryonic stage. The zygote is the beginning of a continuum of development - zygote-foetus- baby-child-adult-older person - that ends in death. Each point on this continuum is human and has the properties appropriate to that point. Thus, the early embryo contains stem cells with the appropriate plasticity, enabling them to develop into the 200 specialised cells of the human adult. Such profound plasticity does not exist at later stages along the continuum. Irish Times Article | |
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