A consultant cardiologist and past president of the Catholic Medical Association (UK), Dr Kearney, is currently prohibited from providing abortion pill reversal (APR). A tribunal ruled that Dr Kearney is no longer allowed to provide treatment to women who regret taking medication to abort their unborn baby. This interim order was put in place on January 2022 and will be reviewed at the Royal Courts of Justice on 24 February 2022. Lawyers will argue that the prohibition should be reversed. Andrea Williams, chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre, states “we have seen many women immediately regret taking the first abortion pill. Dr. Kearney offers the possibility of saving the pregnancy when this happens. He should have the freedom to do it”.
Publisher
Is decriminalised prostitution ANC government’s job creation plan? (South Africa)
Justice and Constitutional Development Deputy Minister, John Jeffery, released a statement indicating he has begun a series of consultative meetings to discuss the possible decriminalisation of prostitution. The statement says that the SA Law Reform Commission (SALRC) released its Report on Adult Prostitution in 2017 saying the topic needs to be further debated. However, Mr Jeffery failed to explain why Cabinet “felt the possible decriminalisation of [prostitution] should be further debated since nowhere in the SALRC Report is decriminalised [prostitution] recommended as decent or productive work”. Paragraph 46 of the SALRC Report states: “The Commission agrees with Doctors for Life that criminalisation of prostitution provides a legal mechanism to remove a prostitute from coercive circumstances and to provide her with an opportunity to enter rehabilitation, training and reintegration programmes”.
Punishment for child sex abuse and pornography toughened (Germany)
Germany’s Cabinet has approved draft legislation that will allow for tougher punishment of sexual abuse of children and the possession of child pornography. The government initiated the bill in the wake of prominent recent child abuse cases in Germany that feature large numbers of suspects.
Distributing child pornography will draw a sentence of 1 to 10 years, up from the current range of 3 months to 5 years. Possession and procurement of the material will be punished with 1 to 5 years in prison, up from the current maximum of 3 years. Perpetrators fear nothing more than being discovered, so Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht, pleaded for a massive increase in the pressure in tracking them.
The legislation requires parliamentary approval.
Senator pleads for change on child pornography language (Ireland)
Politician, Senator Eileen Flynn, introduced a bill to substitute the words “child pornography” with “child sexual exploitation material” in all legislation. She claims that this more accurately reflects the nature of the abuse. The phrase “child pornography” does not truly reflect the crime or abuse. She further states that language is powerful as it shapes and defines our understanding. It is not child pornography, it is child abuse.
Legislators have the privilege and the responsibility to look out for the most vulnerable and consider all the ways in which society can protect and help them.
South Sudan Eye Surgery Outreach
Doctors For Life arranged an eye surgery outreach in a remote region near the border of South Sudan and Sudan in January 2022. The team included two volunteer ophthalmologists, Dr Carl-Heinz Kruse and Dr Brian Church.
Approximately 700 patients were screened with a total of 135 operations. Most of these surgeries were done on people who were blind due to cataracts.
People, for whom their blindness was not surgically correctable, received audio Bibles in their local languages.
Such a large number of people presented for help that the team was unable to screen and operate them all. Surgical supplies and medication were left to enable local medical staff to continue doing approximately 120 cataract operations after the outreach team returned home.
We would like to thank all those who participated in the South Sudan outreach. Your input was invaluable for the success of the outreach. Participants included Samaritan’s Purse, Mission Aviation Fellowship, Diocese of El Obeid and a number of other international organisations and individuals who prefer to remain anonymous. The World Children’s fund also contributed to the work done in Juba, South Sudan. We would like to thank our main partner, Medical Mission International, and our facilitator, GlobeWorks International, for your continued support and assistance. Without your input the outreach would not have been possible.
Lastly, a big thank you to our sponsors in South Africa who contributed to the provision of medical consumables and other materials used. These included Surgical and Ophthalmic Supplies (SOS), Vertice, National Medical Supplies (NMS), Envision, Dr Jonathan Pons (MME), Apex Vision, and other donors of the audio Bibles. The Ophthalmological Society of South Africa (OSSA) has also played an enormous role in assisting us in the recruitment of some of South Africa’s best ophthalmologists. The OSSA has generously given us access to their annual congresses across South Africa since 2010. We have been blessed to work with approximately 50 of their members who are qualified specialists. Work has been undertaken in needy communities in approximately 8 African countries.
A special thank you to these specialists, including Dr Carl-Heinz Kruse and Dr Brian Church, who were part of the South Sudan team. We have been given an opportunity to join the OSSA congress again between 8-12 March 2022.
High Court to hear Dr De Vos Application against HPCSA
Media Release
Embargo: Immediate release Enquiries: Doctors For Life Int.
Date: 01 February 2022 Telephone: 032 481 5550
The Review Application of Dr De Vos against the Health Professions Council of South Africa is to heard on 1 February 2022 in the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria. Dr De Vos is asking the High Court to review and set aside the HPCSA’s decision to refuse to reconvene the professional conduct hearing against him.
Dr De Vos was charged with unprofessional conduct for allegedly advising a mother that her 19-week healthy unborn baby was a human being. The proceedings against Dr De Vos by the HPCSA started in 2017. In December 2020 Dr De Vos pleaded “not guilty”. The HPCSA then refused to reconvene the hearing so that the committee could hear the case and deliver a verdict, and cited as reason that the “complainant does not want to proceed”.
Since July 2017 Dr De Vos been unable to proceed with this career as the HPCSA would not issue him with a Medical Practitioner number as the hearing had not been concluded.
The HPCSA is opposing the application. Dr De Vos is represented by Adv K Matthee SC and Adv AR Duminy (instructed by De Wet Wepener Inc c/o Maphalla Mokate Conradi) and the HPCSA is represented by Adv M Majozi (instructed by Mgeno & Mteto Inc).
Doctors For Life has been assisting Dr De Vos since the beginning of 2017 with legal representation as well as renowned expert witnesses in the fields of embryology, human anatomy and psychology.
For more information contact Doctors For Life at [email protected]
LIFEalerts – Euthanasia
Euthanasia
Netherlands – Surgeons develop domestic organ donation
An indignant letter to JAMA Surgery by two surgeons from a hospital in the Netherlands developed domestic organ donation after euthanasia as a “newly introduced, donor-friendly donation procedure”. The patient is sedated and intubated at home where he lapses from consciousness surrounded by his family. Then he is taken, unconscious, to the hospital in an ambulance, euthanised, and operated on. There is no clarity on how often this happens. So why are the surgeons indignant? Because a 2020 article in JAMA Surgery had suggested that the best-practice location for organ donor euthanasia is the hospital. More
LIFEalerts – Abortion
Abortion
World – Country and U.S. state-wide developments on abortion
Here is a list of abortion legislation developments that took place in February this year. Goldsmith becomes 19th city in Texas to ban abortion within its limits. Tennessee state introduced a bill in which allows fathers to prevent an abortion. South Carolina state Governor signed into law that abortions are banned when the baby’s heartbeat can be detected but was blocked by planned parenthood lawsuit. South Dakota’s bill that requires doctors who deliver babies after a failed abortion attempt is to give them the same care they would any other baby was signed into law. Arizona, Florida and Northern Ireland are advancing similar legislation to end abortion up to birth for babies with disabilities which include down’s syndrome, cleft lip and club foot.
Australia has launched a bill to protect babies born alive after a failed abortion. Indiana House Lawmakers showed overwhelming support for a bill that is heading to the senate which would ensure that mothers receive information about their unborn baby’s development and the abortion pill reversal procedure before going through with an abortion. Arkansas passed a bill that bans abortions unless it would save the mother’s life and is heading to the Republican-controlled state House, which is expected to approve it as well.
Article 1, Article 2, Article 3, Article 4, Article 5, Article 6, Article 7, Article 8, Article 9.
LIFEalerts – Pornography
Pornography
USA – Child sex abuse survivors sue Pornhub over abuse footage
Two people who were sexually abused as minors have filed suit against Pornhub and its owner, Mindgeek, over videos of their abuse being uploaded to the popular pornography website. According to the lawsuit, Pornhub profited from these and other child pornography videos, making it culpable in the sex trafficking of two underage individuals. The complaint went on to argue that “MindGeek completely fails to control the torrent of videos available on its sites depicting children being molested, rapes of children and adults, persons who are incapacitated and otherwise unwilling participants.” These individuals join others who have gone before them and as result got credit card companies to quit liaising with Pornhub as well as millions of videos removed from their database. More
USA – Mississippi lawmakers considering bill to outlaw ‘revenge porn’
The state of Mississippi could join 46 states in punishing people for “revenge porn.” The bill, Senate Bill 2121, that passed the Mississippi Senate has set penalties for people who share intimate visual material of another person without that person’s permission and with the intent to cause harm. The material could include pictures shared during a relationship that was only intended to be seen by the recipient. It could also include images of someone being molested. The bill defines the material as photos or videos of a person’s private body parts that are exposed or engaged in sexual conduct. More
New Delhi – TikTok faces Complaints in Europe for Failure to protect children
TikTok the popular Chinese short video app, faces complaints in Europe for failure to protect children from harmful content. The bigger concern though is children and teenage users being exposed to hidden advertising and potentially harmful content on the app. The processing of users’ personal data has also been termed misleading. The Madras High Court had imposed a temporary ban on Tiktok in 2019 as it found the app hosting content related to child pornography. TikTok had informed the Court that they are using technology to ensure that obscene content is not spread via the app. The Indian government also imposed a ban on the app. More
Philippines – ISPs can’t automatically block child porn on servers
Internet Service Providers can only block websites containing child sexual exploitation materials as soon as they are flagged, the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) claims. Pornography cannot be detected automatically. Lawyer Omar Sana from DICT explained the limits of ISP capabilities, especially due to conflicting laws that prevent user monitoring as well. Sana said the blocking that ISPs can do is on a domain level. This means if involved agencies can identify the domain name and/or the IP address of the malicious content, the ISPs can proceed to block it. More
USA – Man downloaded child pornography images through file-sharing service
Neil A. MacDonald, 21 who downloaded hundreds of images and more than two hours of videos of child pornography through a file-sharing service, named Mega, was sentenced to 16 months in jail. Beck said it was part of an international investigation involving a cloud-based file sharing service called Mega. Around a quarter of the images showed real children. Upon his release, MacDonald must put his name on the sex offender registry where it will stay for 20 years. MacDonald is prohibited from contacting or being around anyone under the age of 16 years of age for five years and is not allowed to use any device that connects to the internet without permission from his probation officer. More
LIFEalerts – LGBTQ+ Issues
LGBTQ+ Issues
UK – New Model for Clinicians when treating Gender Dysphoric minors
Susan and Marcus Evans are the two psychotherapists who are former employees of Tavistock Gender clinic in the UK. They presented a paper at a multi-disciplinary conference in January this year which reflects serious concerns about the transition of children before maturity. They encourage a psychotherapeutic model that provides a process of psychological exploration, in which an individual’s personality structure, beliefs, defence mechanisms, and motivations are assessed and examined in a supportive environment. This follows concerns from multiple professionals at the gender clinic, parents of gender dysphoric children, and ex-patients who regard the current “affirmative treatment” model as doing more harm. This eventually led to the High Court of England ruling that children under 16-years cannot consent to life-altering medical treatments due to immaturity.
“A rigid one-size-fits-all affirmative approach is unhelpful. Where children are concerned, we need a new model to ensure more clinically rigorous, balanced, and ethical assessment and treatment protocols. At the very least, the ordinary ethical standards of good practice must be restored to this area, as our duty, first and foremost, must always be “do no harm.”” Their proposed model concentrates on helping the child assess pain and differentiate the type, degree, and cause of pain because it can represent a helpful indication of something that needs attention. A wish to transition is often described by those who experience it as a belief that they were “born in the wrong body,” and consequently deprived of an idealized relationship with their physical self. The ideal we all have, at some level, is a self that would be loved and accepted by others, and by ourselves.
“The denial of the psychological factors influencing the desire to transition can unwittingly lead the patient and health professionals to embrace concrete, affirmative solutions, while ignoring relevant aspects of the individual’s mental-health situation and personal history.” As can be seen in “depressed patients that feel worthless and suicidal; anorexics feel too fat, and starve themselves; and obsessional patients perform rituals repetitively before other interactions.”
“A trans-identifying child can become more fixated and invested in the daydream idea, and it becomes a belief that if only they’d transition, all their problems would resolve.” Because of this, “the desire to reduce pain and anxiety by rushing into either social or medical transition needs to be resisted, as there are long-term costs that a child in a fixed state of mind is unable to imagine or understand.” More
USA – Alabama considers banning transgender drug treatment for minors
For a second time, Alabama state considers banning transgender experimental drug treatment on minors. The bill took a step forward in a hearing of the Senate Health Committee voting 11-2 approving to make it a felony for doctors to administer hormonal drug treatment that transitions people 18-years or younger who identify as transgender. Alabama is one of at least eight states where conservative lawmakers are pushing similar measures, arguing such decisions should wait until adulthood. More