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Pope Benedict XVI rejects population control as the answer to poverty
Pope Benedict XVI in his annual peace message to be delivered on World Peace Day, Jan 1st 2009, rejected the approach to poverty which insists that population control is the only answer.
Poverty he said, "is often considered a consequence of demographic change. For this reason, there are international campaigns afoot to reduce birth-rates, sometimes using methods that respect neither the dignity of the woman, nor the right of parents to choose responsibly how many children to have; graver still, these methods often fail to respect even the right to life. The extermination of millions of unborn children, in the name of the fight against poverty, actually constitutes the destruction of the poorest of all human beings. And yet it remains the case that in 1981, around 40% of the world's population was below the threshold of absolute poverty, while today that percentage has been reduced by as much as a half, and whole peoples have escaped from poverty despite experiencing substantial demographic growth. This goes to show that resources to solve the problem of poverty do exist, even in the face of an increasing population".
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Human rights stem from natural law written on heart of man, says Cardinal Bertone
Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican Secretary of State, said in a speech at a congress on the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Rome, last week, human rights "cannot be considered as containers that according to particular historical, cultural and political moments, are filled with different meanings and elements." Their common roots, he said, are found in natural law which, as Pope Benedict XVI said in his speech at the U.N., "is written on the heart of man." (Catholic News Agency)The cardinal also explained that defending "fundamental rights" such as life, the family, education and religious freedom, "means not confusing them with simple and often limited contingent needs. Moreover once they are recognized and enshrined into eventual conventions, human rights always need to be defended."
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We report this week on the new Vatican Instruction on Bioethical Questions and Pope Benedicts "Peace Day" message.
We also report on the Irish Government decision to hold a new referendum on the Lisbon Treaty despite the overwhelming rejection of the Treaty by the Irish electorate in June.
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Pro-Lifers welcome "Dignitas Personae" the new Vatican Instruction on Bioethical questions, pro-abortionists critical
The Holy See last week released a new document on human dignity that upholds the timeless teaching of the church that human life begins at conception and that abortion and all related anti life procedures are gravely sinful. The document, titled "Dignitas Personae (Human Dignity): On Certain Bioethical Questions" says, that the human being is to be respected and treated as a person from the moment of conception; and therefore from that same moment his rights as a person must be recognized, among which in the first place is the inviolable right of every innocent human being to life. The document which was welcomed in pro-life circles deals comprehensively with the issue of human fertility and makes it clear that the Church approves techniques which act "as an aid to the conjugal act and its fertility." Some techniques to remove obstacles to natural fertilisation such as "hormonal treatments for infertility, surgery for limited endometriosis, unblocking of fallopian tubes or their surgical repair, are licit." But it reiterates the ethical unacceptability of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) since "all techniques in IVF proceed as if the human embryo were simply a mass of cells to be used, selected, and discarded." Special reference is made to the very high wastage of human embryos associated with IVF and related procedures. "In many cases the abandonment, destruction and loss of embryos are foreseen and willed." The case against IVF is forcefully put in terms of the commodification of the embryo "The desire for a child cannot justify the 'production' of offspring, just as the desire not to have a child cannot justify the abandonment or destruction of a child once he or she has been conceived." It adds that diagnosing embryos for diseases or genetic flaws before implantation is "shameful and reprehensible" and that such techniques, like prescribing or using contraception that prevents implantation, lead to "the sin of abortion." The document does not offer a clear solution for what to do with currently frozen embryos, which it says "represent a situation of injustice which in fact cannot be resolved."
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12 year old girl paralysed by mystery illness after HPV injection
A 12-year-old schoolgirl has been left paralysed from the waist down by a mystery illness that came on 30 minutes after she was given the new anticervical cancer jab (see Timesonline article). Ashleigh Cave suffered dizziness and headaches soon after the vaccination at her school and then deteriorated rapidly, collapsing several times over the following days. A week later she was admitted to hospital after losing all strength in her legs and, two months on, there has been no improvement. Her mother Cheryl, 37, from Aintree, Merseyside, is blaming her daughter's condition on the human papillomavirus (HPV) jab, which was introduced in Britain in September as part of a government-funded vaccination programme. |
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Family tree study shows fathers determine sex of children
It seems that the tendency to produce either sons or daughters is inherited by men from their parents. A man who has many sisters is more likely to produce a daughter while a man who has many brothers is more likely to produce sons according to a newly released research paper published by Corry Gellatly, a research scientist at Newcastle University. The results are based on data of 927 North American and European family trees going as far back to 1600 and involving over half a million members of these families.
"The family tree study showed that whether you're likely to have a boy or a girl is inherited. We now know that men are more likely to have sons if they have more brothers but are more likely to have daughters if they have more sisters. However, in women, you just can't predict it," according to Mr. Gellatly.
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Irish Government Betrayal
Following the decision by the Irish Government to hold a new referendum on the Lisbon Treaty last week a press statement was released by Declan Ganley and Jens-Peter Bonde.
The Irish Government's failure to respect the wishes of the electorate is not just a betrayal of those who rejected the Lisbon Treaty but a betrayal of Ireland's hard-won democracy. According to the Government the main concerns of the Irish electorate have been identified and there is a suggestion that guarantees will be given to Ireland in respect of the main issues including the retention of a Commissioner. Guarantees however are unacceptable, the proper solution to this dilemma is for the ill fated Treaty/Constitution with its attached Charter of Fundamental Rights to be abandoned fortwith. In the context of a new Referendum the very minimum requirement is that legally binding protocols are provided, which would mean re-ratification of the Treaty by all member states. Since this is clearly not the intention, Ireland must vote the Treaty down once more.
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