Chile – Women give preborn children a voice
Poland – Payments aimed at reducing number of abortions USA – Planned Parenthood prepares for defunding Northern Ireland – Hundreds of thousands say no to abortionUSA – Anorexic Woman Allowed to Starve Herself to Death
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Abortion
Chile – Women give preborn children a voice
One of the biggest hurdles the pro-life movement has to clear is convincing pro-abortion activists that preborn children are independent living human beings. The Reivindica Feminist Movement confronted the abortion culture in Chile with an amazing demonstration by meeting at Plaza de la Constitution and marching together to the government buildings. But they didn’t chant or carry signs; instead, they let their preborn babies do all the talking. The women strapped fetal monitors to their stomachs, amplifying the sound of their babies’ heartbeats with megaphones. The powerful protest by the women of Chile is a stark reminder that these babies are human beings from when they are conceived.
http://liveactionnews.org/chilean-women-find-a-powerful-way-to-give-preborn-children-a-voice/
Poland – Payments aimed at reducing number of abortions Poland’s anti-abortion conservative government has passed a new law, the so-called For Life payment, promising parents of children born disabled or facing life-threatening disease a once-off €926 payment, in a bid to cut the number of abortions. PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski said he hoped the new payment would encourage mothers to carry to term even children with no chance of survival, to allow Baptism or a blessing and burial. The PiS-dominated parliament backed the plan by 267 to 140, and it cleared the Sejm in just 48 hours, with 21 abstentions. http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/poland-backs-payments-aimed-at-reducing-number-of-abortions-1.2858308 USA – Planned Parenthood prepares for defunding The President-elect proposed defunding Planned Parenthood, if it continued to offer abortions; he promised to nominate an anti-abortion justice to the Supreme Court; and he promised to repeal Obamacare, the Affordable Care Act, which affect access to birth control. The Vice President-elect, Mike Pence, is an implacable foe of Planned Parenthood, and was amongst the first to propose defunding the organization. In 2014, the organisation received US$528 million in state and federal funding, representing about 40 percent of its annual budget. http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/planned-parenthood-prepares-for-defunding-after-trumps-election/12084#sthash.spJbXCRB.dpuf Northern Ireland – Hundreds of thousands say no to abortion Members of Precious Life were outside Stormont Parliament Buildings to challenge Amnesty International’s claimed 45,000 strong petition calling for legalised abortion in Northern Ireland. Bernadette Smyth, the director of Precious Life, argued that Amnesty’s claim of a “45,000 strong petition” holds no weight and should not be taken seriously by the Northern Ireland Assembly. Members of Precious Life delivered forty-seven boxes containing over 300,000 pro-life petitions at the foot of the steps of Stormont Parliament Buildings. “This will be a powerful reminder to our elected representatives that their voters do not want abortion in Northern Ireland,” concluded Ms. Smyth. http://preciouslife.com/news/345/300000-people-say-no-to-abortion-in-northern-ireland/Alternative Medicine
Malawi – Concern at murder of Malawian Albinos A 2016 Amnesty International report released has exposed a wave of violent attacks against people with albinism in the Southern African country. Killings of people with albinism are fuelled by a belief that their bones bring wealth and good luck and that body parts are believed to be sold to practitioners of traditional medicine in Malawi and Mozambique for use in charms and potions. Deprose Muchena, Amnesty International’s Director for Southern Africa, said no one should be discriminated against because of their appearance. 83http://cajnewsafrica.com/2016/11/09/concern-at-murder-of-malawi-albinos
Euthanasia
USA – Anorexic Woman Allowed to Starve Herself to Death According to Bioethicist Wesley J. Smith, we have reached the point where mentally ill people are being allowed to commit suicide or to die from their psychiatric afflictions. In Belgium, a chronic self-harmer was voluntarily euthanized and organs harvested. And in California, a regulation permits the involuntarily institutionalized mentally ill who are dying to be released for the purpose of committing assisted suicide. And now, a court has ordered that a woman with anorexia not be kept alive through forced feeding even though it means she will starve herself to death. ‘I understand autonomy. But by definition, this poor woman is not competent to make decisions about herself and her own wellbeing with regard to food’ said Smith. 118http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/442421/anorexic-woman-allowed-herself-death
IVF&Surrogacy
Cambodia – Country bans commercial surrogacy The Cambodian health ministry distributed a letter to about 50 surrogacy providers and brokers, informing them of the new ban and asking all medical professionals to comply with the injunction. “Surrogacy, one of a set of services to have a baby by assisted reproductive technology, is completely banned,” the letter said. The ministry said commercial sperm donation is also banned and clinics and specialist doctors providing in-vitro fertilisation services will require ministry permission to operate. http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/cambodia-bans-commercial-surrogacy/12079#sthash.1FIbuFxn.dpufMedical Ethics
India – Head of World Medical Association fighting corruption charges The new president of the World Medical Association, Indian urologist Ketan Desai, is facing corruption charges. Since the aim of the WMA is “to establish and promote the highest possible standards of ethical behaviour and care by physicians” this is bound to tarnish its image. The WMA has forged a number of pioneering ethical standards and represents millions of doctors. The American Medical Association and the British Medical Association are members. It is alleged, when he was president of the Indian Medical Association he accepted a bribe of 20 million rupees (US$450,000 at the time) from a medical college to smooth the way for enlarging its student intake, a charge he denies. http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/new-head-of-world-medical-association-still-fighting-corruption-charges/12069 USA – Nursing Homes to Starve Patients to Death Bioethicist Wesley Smith writes that it is shocking that New York Times columnist Paula Span is promoting suicide by starvation, known as “voluntary stop eating and drinking.” Now legal in five states, it doesn’t require governmental action or physicians’ authorization. This is suicide by starvation, and it is agonizing, usually requiring a doctor to provide palliation to make the process bearable. Patients don’t need a terminal diagnosis, and they don’t have to prove mental capacity. Several states, including Wisconsin and New York, forbid health care surrogates to stop food and fluids. Geriatric depression is a terrible problem in our society. The last thing depressed oldsters need is a writer on aging issues pushing self-starvation as a splendid way out. http://www.lifenews.com/2016/10/21/new-york-times-wants-nursing-homes-to-starve-patients-to-death-without-asking-permission/ USA – Update: AMA approves modernized Code of Medical Ethics The AMA has voted to adopt a modernized version of its Code of Medical Ethics after an 8-year process. The project, which included “substantial invited feedback,” had three primary goals :Improve relevance through language that applies to contemporary medical practice; Focus on clarity, by improving structure and formatting; and increase consistency, by consolidating related issues into a single, comprehensive statement.“The modernization project ensures that the Code of Medical Ethics will remain a useful and effective resource that physicians can continue to rely on, while remaining faithful to the virtues of fidelity, humanity, loyalty, tenderness, confidentiality and integrity enshrined in the original code,” said Steven J. Stack, MD, AMA president. The new code is opposed to assisted suicide/euthanasia but allows abortion. http://www.healio.com/family-medicine/practice-management/news/online/{01b0879e117dd7326006b2e84bcaac7e8fa1509c5c67baf2c9eb498fe06caff4}7B30a7bbc8-19a9-458b-9f33-2ebd82919051{01b0879e117dd7326006b2e84bcaac7e8fa1509c5c67baf2c9eb498fe06caff4}7D/ama-votes-to-modernize-code-of-medical-ethics https://www.ama-assn.org/about-us/code-medical-ethics UK – Dying British teenager wins right to be cryogenically preserved A 14-year-old girl dying of cancer has won a court battle to be cryogenically frozen in the hope of being revived in 200 years’ time. Justice Jackson said “I cannot emphasize enough what this case is not about. It is not about whether cryonic preservation has any scientific basis or whether it is right or wrong. The court is not approving or encouraging cryonics, still less ordering that JS’s body should be cryonically preserved. Nor is this case about whether JS’s wishes are sensible or not. We are all entitled to our feelings and beliefs about our own life and death, and none of us has the right to tell anyone else – least of all a young person in JS’s position – what they must think.” http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/14-year-old-to-be-cryogenically-frozen-in-uk/12098Pedophilia
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Pornography
USA – Wal-Mart pulls book with nude photos of children from online site Under pressure from the National Centre on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE), Walmart.com is no longer selling a book of photographs by controversial photographer Jock Sturges. Sturges’ photographs have been severely criticized by pro-family leaders for their nude and semi-nude pictures of teens, adolescents, and children as young as three. NCOSE Executive Director Dawn Hawkins and her pro-woman organization issued a call for Wal-Mart to remove the publications from its online sales, along with other sexually-charged books and magazines from its store shelves. The online petition received thousands of signatures within the first 24 hours. Wal-Mart responded by stopping sales of Sturges’ book. https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/walmart-pulls-book-with-nude-photos-of-children-from-online-site Russia – Citizens shut down US artist’s ‘child porn’ exhibit A cadre of camouflaged non-government officers blocked access to an exhibit by controversial American photographer Jock Sturges, whose exhibits often features naked teenagers. Sturges’ exhibit, titled “Absence of Shame,” became embroiled in public controversy when bloggers criticized his display by exposing some of his nude and semi-nude pictures of teens, adolescents, and children, some reportedly as young as three. In response to the controversy, Putin’s newly appointed Children’s Rights commissioner, Anna Kuznetsova, began an investigation into Sturges’ exhibit. https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/russia-shuts-down-u.s.-artists-child-porn-exhibit-after-major-demonstration South Africa – Pornography helped turn Hlomane into UCT rapist Within hours of watching porn movies, MthunziHlomane 43, unleashed a reign of terror on women with braided hair similar to that worn by the porn actresses. He ADVERTISING invented by Teadsadmitted attacking female students near the Rhodes Memorial at the University of Cape Town between November 2015 and February 2016. He was sentenced to nine life terms for rape. He utilised his cell phone to watch adult pornography. In many of these films the female performers had braids which aroused in him a preference for women with braids. Armed with a knife, stick or rock, Hlomane waited near the secluded Rhodes Memorial and there confronted his defenceless victims. http://www.timeslive.co.za/thetimes/2016/11/15/Porn-seen-as-trigger-for-UCT-rape-spree Spain – Police arrest 56 in internet child porn operation Spanish police confirmed that they have arrested 56 men in a nationwide operation against internet child pornography. A police statement said the detainees are suspected of distributing abusive images involving children on peer-to-peer internet file-sharing sites. Those arrested were mostly Spaniards, aged between 40 and 60. It said officers seized some 170 hard discs and 600 CDs and DVDs containing child pornographic material in nearly 40 house raids. The arrests took place over several months in provinces across Spain. The statement said the operation was the result of an 18-month investigation. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11746021Same Sex Attraction
Mexico – Same Sex ‘marriage’ rejected by nationwide protests Months of repeated national protests against Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto’s initiative to amend the constitution to create homosexual “marriage,” has been killed by a committee vote in the nation’s Chamber of Deputies, with a majority of members of the president’s own party voting against it. Support for the bill had become politically impossible for most of the deputies on the committee after hundreds of thousands of Mexicans flocked to pro-family demonstrations after the announcement of the initiative. The bill would have allowed same-sex couples to “marry,” and also permit them to adopt children, an effect that is particularly offensive to a majority of Mexicans, who are strong supporters of the traditional family. https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/mexican-presidents-gay-marriage-initiative-killed-by-legislators-after-mass USA – Exposing the LGBT fraud that science supports In a report published in The New Atlantis journal, author Dr. Paul McHugh, one of the leading psychiatrists in the world and other scientists conclude: “born that way” and ‘’woman feeling trapped in man’s body’’ or ‘’man feeling trapped in woman’s body’’ is not supported by scientific evidence. Additionally, a minority of children who express gender-atypical thoughts or behaviour will continue to do so growing up. There is no evidence that these children should be encouraged to become transgender, much less undergo hormone treatments or surgery. Homosexuals have higher rates of mental health problems (anxiety, depression, suicide), as well as behavioural and social problems (substance abuse, intimate partner violence), than the general population and discrimination alone does not account for the entire disparity. https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/deceit-and-lies-we-have-been-told-on-homosexualitySexual Exploitation
USA – Group hopes to use billboard campaign to curb sex trafficking demand Young women are bringing an important message to the Kansas City metropolitan area in hopes of stopping sex trafficking. Women are taking their message to the streets in a billboard campaign that speaks out against human trafficking and also to target those creating the demand. The problem here is much bigger and more complex than law enforcement alone, said Alison Phillips, of KC Street Hope. The billboard the group wants to install features an image to spotlight the main demographic of buyers, which is an upper-middle class white man with a wedding ring looking down at his hand while he’s getting arrested. The women behind the campaign hope that men like these will see the billboard and think twice. http://www.kmbc.com/article/group-hopes-to-use-billboard-campaign-to-curb-sex-trafficking-demand-in-kc/8349453 South Africa – Durban Inn Town Lodge human traffickers jailed for 85 years Three men convicted of human trafficking and running a brothel with girls as young as 12 years old were sentenced to an effective 85 years in jail. Durban Regional Court Magistrate Simphiwe Hlophe sentenced Sandile Patrick Zweni, 41, Nonduzo Dlamini, 27, and Bhabha Dubazini, 33, who were found guilty of a host of charges related to the prostitution ring that Zweni operated from a Durban Hotel. “Human trafficking is one of the world’s most shameful crimes,” said Hlophe. “What these girls endured was difficult and painful.” He said that it became apparent that the only way the girls could deal with the prostitution was to take the drugs. http://www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/inn-town-lodge-human-traffickers-jailed-for-85-years-2091958 Ireland – New campaign urges men to stand against sex trafficking Most Irish men have never paid for sex and claim that they never will, but can still play a vital role in fighting the “enslavement” of women caught up in the sex trade, the launch of a male-focused campaign against prostitution and sex trafficking has heard. The campaign, named Prostitution We Don’t Buy It, is the first all-island project to ask Irish males to stand up against prostitution and sex trafficking. The campaign offers new information about perceptions of the sex trade and could be a turning point against legalizing prostitution. Sarah Benson, chief executive of Ruhama, one of the main campaign partners, said there needed to be recognition “that most Irish men never have and never will purchase sex”. http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/new-campaign-urges-irish-men-to-take-stand-against-sex-trafficking-1.2185276Substance Abuse
USA – Could America’s top cop send marijuana legalization up in smoke? President-elect Donald Trump’s selection of Sen. Jeff Sessions for attorney general has set the marijuana industry ablaze. More specifically, his nomination has left supporters of pot legalization troubled about what his confirmation could mean for the future of legalization efforts at the state level given that the drug remains illegal under federal law. “Good people don’t smoke marijuana,” Sessions said during a Senate hearing. “We need grownups in Washington to say marijuana is not the kind of thing that ought to be legalized.” http://edition.cnn.com/2016/11/18/politics/sessions-marijuana enforcement/index.html?sr=fbCNN111916sessions-marijuana-enforcement0207AMVODtopLink&linkId=31340018 South Africa – Process starts to legalise medical cannabis for chronic illness The Department of Health and the Medicines Control Council announced in Parliament that it will soon request public comment on the Medical Innovation Bill. The new regulatory framework could be available by the end of January 2017 for stakeholder comment and could be implemented by April 2017. The Bill will make cannabis legal for medicinal use in SA without going through the necessary clinical trials all other medicines are subject to. No known medicine is smoked due to adverse effects created by carcinogens in the smoke and inability to control exact dosage. http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/ifp-welcomes-giant-step-forward-for-medical-cannabis-use-20161124 USA – Does marijuana weaken heart muscles? Five more states voted to legalize recreational marijuana, but users may want to be cautious. A study presented at the annual scientific conference of the American Heart Association in New Orleans suggests that marijuana use can weaken heart muscles, particularly in young men. Recognizing the possible adverse health effects of smoking pot to get high, the researchers examined the link between marijuana use and heart health. The report also found that marijuana users were more likely to use tobacco and illicit substances, as well as suffer from depression, than non-marijuana users. http://edition.cnn.com/2016/11/13/health/marijuana-weakens-heart/index.html?sr=fbcnni111416marijuana-weakens-heart0219PMVODtopLink&linkId=31127993 Norway – Cannabis abuse possible cause of psychosis Researchers from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH), together with colleagues from Virginia Commonwealth University, examined the relationship between cannabis and psychosis using psychiatric interviews of Norwegian twins. The interviews reveal whether the twins had symptoms of psychosis and cannabis abuse. Cannabis abuse increased the risk by 3.5 times. “Our analyses showed a significant association between cannabis abuse and symptoms of psychosis in the general population. It appears that cannabis abuse can cause psychosis,” says Eivind Ystrom, senior researcher at NIPH. The study was published in the Oxford Journal. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/11/161108073134.htmhttp://schizophreniabulletin.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2016/07/18/schbul.sbw101
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