Powerful re-statement of ethical unacceptability of IVF in new Vatican Instruction

In an Instruction published today, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has powerfully re-stated the ethical unacceptability of IVF.

Fr John Fleming (pictured right), SPUC’s bioethics consultant, and a corresponding member of the Pontifical Academy for Life, has sent me his review of Dignitas Personae which I publish in full below.

The Vatican’s unambiguous prohibition of IVF is expressed in compassionate terms. As Fr Fleming points out, below: “ … [Dignitas Personae] reminds us that the Church is not unmindful of the ‘legitimacy of the desire for a child and understands the suffering of couples struggling with problems of fertility. Such a desire, however, should not override the dignity of every human life to the point of absolute supremacy.’[1]”

Regarding what can be done with frozen embryos, the Instruction rejects destructive research, providing children for other couples, surrogacy and pre-natal adoption. Fr Fleming comments: "Sounding a note of exasperation with the continuing use of embryo freezing, itself an insult to human dignity, and the plight of the 'thousands of abandoned embryos', [Dignitas Personae] describes it as 'a situation of injustice which in fact cannot be resolved.'" [2]

It’s as if the church is saying to the secular world: “You created this situation by wantonly and irresponsibly creating human embryos in vitro and you are asking the church to solve the problem. It’s up to you to solve this unjust situation yourself by stopping creating embryos outside the body and freezing them.” [1] DP, n 16 [2] Ibid and DP, nn 18-19

Fr Fleming's review in full:

The new document on bioethics from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), Dignitas personae (DP), addresses a range of new issues that have emerged since 1987 in the light of the criteria set out in the Instruction Donum Vitae (1987) (DV). DP also examines some issues that had already been treated in DV but which were in need of additional clarification.

The document has many positive things to say about the importance of science and its achievements. At the same time it recognises that “there are also persons in the world of philosophy and science who view advances in biomedical technology from an essentially eugenic perspective.”[1]

The First Part

The First Part of DP deals with the anthropological, theological, and ethical aspects of human life and procreation. While supporting developments in science which “serve to overcome or correct pathologies and succeed in re-establishing the normal functioning of human procreation”, DP condemns those developments which “involve the destruction of human beings or when they employ means which contradict the dignity of the person or when they are used for purposes contrary to the integral good of man.”[2]

Then DP sets out what it considers to be the fundamental ethical criterion used in DV which is to be used to evaluate all moral questions arising from any procedures which involve the human embryo:

Thus the fruit of human generation, from the first moment of its existence, that is to say, from the moment the zygote has formed, demands the unconditional respect that is morally due to the human being in his bodily and spiritual totality. 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.[3]

The Second Part

Following a detailed discussion of the implications of this fundamental ethical criterion, and especially within marriage, DP then deals with “New Problems Concerning Procreation”.

Again, DP makes it clear that the Church approves techniques which act “as an aid to the conjugal act and its fertility.”[4] 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.”[5]

But DP reiterates the ethical unacceptability of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) since “all techniques of in vitro fertilisation proceed as if the human embryo were simply a mass of cells to be used, selected, and discarded.”[6] DP comments on 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.”[7]

The case against IVF is forcefully put in terms of the commodification of the embryo as an entity to satisfy criteria which must be satisfied such that the gift of life is not accepted unconditionally.

At this point DP considers the plight of frozen embryos in storage, unwanted and abandoned. What is to be done with them? Immediately excluded are the uses of embryos for destructive experimentation, the provision of children to other infertile couples, and surrogacy. DP describes the proposal for “prenatal adoption” as “praiseworthy with regard to the intention of respecting and defending life”[8], but is nevertheless to be excluded ethically because it occasions similar ethical problems to the transfer of embryos to other infertile couples and surrogacy.

Sounding a note of exasperation with the continuing use of embryo freezing, itself an insult to human dignity, and the plight of the “thousands of abandoned embryos”, DP describes it as “a situation of injustice which in fact cannot be resolved.”[9]

The ethical unacceptability of the dissociation of “procreation from the integrally personal context of the conjugal act” is emphasised again in DP. At the same time DP reminds us that the Church is not unmindful of the “legitimacy of the desire for a child and understands the suffering of couples struggling with problems of fertility. Such a desire, however, should not override the dignity of every human life to the point of absolute supremacy.”[10]

Unacceptable procedures widely practised, but considered by the Church as ethically illicit, also include intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) [11], freezing embryos [12], freezing oocytes [13], embryo reduction of multifetal pregnancies [14], preimplantation diagnosis with the purpose of ensuring that only embryos free from defects, or being the desired sex or other particular qualities are transferred [15], and new forms of interception and contragestion such as the morning after pill. [16]

The Third Part

The Third Part of DP then moves on to consider “New Treatments which Involve the Manipulation of the Embryo or the Human Genetic Patrimony”. These issues include gene therapy, human cloning, the therapeutic use of stem cells, and hybridisation.

The discussion of these issues is carefully nuanced with somatic cell gene therapy being seen as generally acceptable while germ line gene therapy is not. Gene therapy put in service of enhancing a human being as distinct from a therapy for pathology is also called into question. It is seen as an attempt to create a new type of human being” such that “one can recognise an ideological element in which man tries to take the place of his Creator.” [17]

Human cloning is seen as intrinsically illicit whether done for so-called reproductive purposes or so-called therapeutic purposes. [18] On the other hand the use of stem cells is evaluated positively when stem cells are taken from the human body in ways “which do not cause serious harm to the subject from whom the stem cells are taken.” Examples of this are when stem cells are taken from an adult, the blood of the umbilical cord at the time of birth, and from foetuses which have died from natural causes. The taking of stem cells from a living human embryo invariably causes the death of the embryo and is therefore gravely illicit. [19]

There is a long discussion on hybridisation with the Church drawing attention to the significant moral and health dangers associated with the mixing of animal and human genetic material.

In its conclusion DP notes that the Church often seems to be presented as having a moral teaching which contains too many prohibitions. DP answers this criticism, and refers to the many other moral prohibitions with which all would agree, such as slavery, racism, unjust discrimination and marginalisation of women, children, and ill and disabled people. In other words the Church continues to apply the principles of the culture of life which exclude certain practices in order that the intrinsic dignity of the human being and his or her inviolable and inalienable rights are properly safeguarded, and not discounted to meet utilitarian considerations.

[1] DP, n 3 [2] DP, n 4 [3] Donum vitae, 1,1:^45 80 (1988), 79, cited in DP, n 4 [4] DP, n 12 [5] DP, n 13 [6] DP, n 14 [7] DP, n 15 [8] ibid [9] ibid and DP, nn 18-19 [10] DP, n 16 [11] DP, n 17 [12] DP, nn18-19 [13] DP, n 20 [14] DP, n 21 [15] DP, n 22 [16] DP, n 23 [17] DP, n 27 [18] DP, nn 28-29 [19] DP, n 32

A great prayer for life is urgently needed

Here is a message which may be of particular interest to Catholic readers who live in London and the home counties - or to Catholic visitors to London.

It's a message this week from our pro-life colleagues in Good Counsel Network. They say:

"To make reparation on the 40th anniversary, for the passing of the Abortion Act in England on the 27th October 1967, in October 2007 the Good Counsel Network started to have Mass, Adoration & Benediction on each Monday & Tuesday. We have continued to have Mass, Adoration & Benediction on each Monday & Tuesday since. We are now trying to increase this to cover each weekday, Monday to Friday.

"We normally start with Mass at 12noon followed by Adoration until Benediction at 5pm, but times do vary so we will send out times as we book them. We really are in urgent need of more people to come for Adoration. If you can commit to a regular hour that would be a great help, but if not please don't be put off, you can tell us the day before or even on the day if you are coming. Your attendance is still helpful. Just telephone 020 7723 1740 to let us know when you plan to attend.

"This week will be the first full week that we will have, starting on Monday 8th December Feast of the Immaculate Conception with Mass (Old Rite) 12noon followed by Adoration until Benediction at 5pm, Tuesday Mass 12noon followed by Adoration until Benediction at 5pm, Wednesday Mass (Old Rite) 12noon followed by Adoration until Benediction at 5.15pm, Thursday Mass 3pm followed by Adoration until Benediction at 6pm and Friday, Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mass 12noon followed by Adoration until Benediction at 5pm. Please pray for the success of this undertaking and that enough Priests will agree to come for Mass and Benediction. I hope to see you soon."

As Pope John Paul II said in Evangelium Vitae (100): "A great prayer for life is urgently needed a prayer which will rise up throughout the world"

Tony Blair reinforces his pro-abortion links

Tony Blair (pictured) has now teamed up with one of Canada's best-known pro-abortion figures. Belinda Stronach (also pictured), a prominent businesswoman and former MP, has joined her foundation with Mr Blair's Faith Foundation in order to promote the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The British government under Tony Blair interpreted the MDGs as including a universal right to abortion on demand. When an MP, Belinda Stronach said that women's groups should only receive government funding if they are pro-abortion. The Blair-Stronach partnership will also promote the Faith Acts Fellowship, which the Tony Blair Faith Foundation runs in partnership with the InterFaith Youth Core. The InterFaith Youth Core is bankrolled by major pro-abortion foundations.

How much more evidence do religious leaders need about the close-knit ties of Mr & Mrs Blair to the culture of death before they realise they must act to block the Blairs' infiltration of faith communities?

Prescription-free birth control scheme is based on failed ideas

A trial to supply hormonal birth control without prescription is based on previous failed schemes.

"Previous pilot schemes, which promoted the morning-after pill through pharmacies claimed success because making them free increased the uptake" said Paul Tully, SPUC's general secretary, in a comment to the media today.

"The trials, however, were not shown to have decreased pregnancy or abortion rates. Nor did they bother to monitor the effect on sexually transmitted infections. Sexually transmitted infections may have been made worse, since the rampant increase in sex disease may be partly due to greater reliance on morning-after pills.

"We deplore this new move which threatens women, and promotes the silent abortion of early embryos in some instances - this is a recognised but hushed-up effect of many forms of hormonal birth control.

"The government is determined to promote birth-control drugs and devices to achieve its policy objectives, in defiance of common sense and evidence - as well as concern for health of women, some of whom suffer adverse reactions from hormonal birth control.

"Since the Teenage Pregnancy Unit was set up, it has intensified failed policies (like school-based sex ed, sex clinics for children, and more and more birth control for teens) and introduced new initiatives that have been equally futile (teen pregnancy co-ordinators across the country, school nurses as condom pushers).

"The determination of health service officials to pursue the failed policy of providing birth control drugs - including drugs which the manufacturers say are abortifacient - is further evidence of the contempt in which conscientious practitioners are held. If this route is pursued, only those prepared to co-operate in the surreptitious corruption of children will be allowed to run pharmacies."

Sky TV's assisted suicide documentary

SPUC is concerned about the ethics of tonight's Sky documentary which follows the assisted suicide of Chris Ewert (pictured) at the Dignitas suicide centre in Switzerland.

Anthony Ozimic, SPUC political secretary, commented to the media this morning:

"We are concerned that focusing upon one particular case will have a disproportionate effect upon the debate on assisted suicide, skewing viewer's perceptions. Many people, including patients themselves, often don't know that palliative care is highly successful in alleviating the symptoms of motor neurone disease. Craig Ewert's fears about his quality of life and the effect on his family could have been properly addressed with correct medical advice and full personal support. We fear the documentary will obscure the broader issues of how allowing assisted suicide devalues human life and endangers the vulnerable.

"Many terminally ill and disabled people, and the vast majority of medical professionals, are opposed to legalising assisted suicide. Assisted suicide sends a message to the terminally ill that caring for them is a waste of time, that their lives are no longer worth living and that they are better off dead.

"Assisted suicide also sends a message that no one really has dignity unless they have the option to be poisoned. Killing is not a valid answer to human suffering or a perceived loss of dignity. Every human being has equal and absolute dignity simply by being human. Assisted suicide makes a mockery of our laws on equality."

Vatican backs Bishop of Lancaster in his stand against the culture of death

In a timely Vatican statement, Bishop Patrick O’Donoghue has received the strong endorsement of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Rome (CDF) for his teaching document, Fit for Mission? Church which called on schools and parishes "to protect our young from the cultures of death that seek to corrupt and exploit them".

Archbishop Luis Ladaria S.J. , Secretary to the Congregation, (pictured) expressed the hope that not only the faithful of Lancaster, but also 'Catholics throughout Britain, will find hope and encouragement' in Fit for Mission? Church.

If I may say so, Your Excellency, non-Catholics throughout Britain also find hope and encouragement whenever Bishop O'Donoghue raises his prophetic voice against prevailing trends in England and Wales!

Vatican endorsement of Bishop O'Donoghue's stand against the culture of death being promoted in schools could not come at a more important time, particularly when the position of the Catholic Education Service regarding the government's anti-life policy in schools is giving rise to such concern.

The government and its policy advisors are now promoting access to abortions through schools in the following ways: establishing school based health & sex clinics in all secondary schools; appointing ‘teenage pregnancy’ monitors – whose job is to keep down teenage births; giving school nurses and advisors (such as Connexions ‘personal advisors’) a clear remit to refer for abortions without informing parents; contributing to the early sexualisation of children by making sex education a statutory subject in all schools starting from age 5.

Earlier this year Cardinal Renato Martino, President, Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, and Archbishop Mauro Piacenza, Secretary, Congregation for the Clergy, congratulated Bishop Patrick for his challenging document promoting an authentic Catholic identity for today’s Church. First published in August 2008, in response to popular demand Bishop Patrick brought out an expanded edition with the Catholic Truth Society in October.

In March 2008 Cardinal Levada, Prefect to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith wrote a foreword to Bishop Patrick’s expanded edition of Fit for Mission? Schools. (CTS Do 779).
In the light of the recent controversy widely reported in the press concerning Fit for Mission? Church, Bishop Patrick is particularly encouraged by the CDF stating so clearly, ‘You and your collaborators are to be congratulated for alerting the faithful to the dangers of secularism and hedonism’.

Bishop Patrick expressed his delight at receiving Archbishop Ladaria’s letter on behalf of the CDF:

‘I would just like to express my heartfelt thanks to the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith for supporting the programme of renewal I have now fully set out in Fit for Mission? Church, and Fit for Mission? Schools. At the heart of both documents is the urgent appeal to Catholics throughout our country to reject the misinterpretations of the Second Vatican Council that have become so wide-spread. Once again we must commit ourselves without reservation to the fullness of doctrinal, moral and liturgical truth safeguarded by Peter!’

The Catholic Truth Society's expanded edition of Bishop Patrick O'Donoghue's "Fit for Mission? Church" is available at: http://www.cts-online.org.uk/

Further details:

Rt Rev Patrick O’Donoghue
Bishop of Lancaster
Bishop’s Office
The Pastoral Centre
Balmoral Road
LANCASTER

Tel: 01524 596050

I'm sure that readers may wish to write to Bishop O'Donoghue to congratulate him on the backing he's receiving from the Vatican for his brave stand against the culture of death.

False idea of academic freedom no defence for inviting Cherie Blair

As I blogged last week, Cherie Blair has been invited to speak this Friday at the Angelicum, a leading Catholic university in Rome, on the subject of women and human rights. Mrs Blair has a long-track record of supporting anti-life and anti-family causes, in opposition to Catholic teaching. Sister Helen Alford, the dean of the Angelicum's social sciences faculty, has replied in response to the more than 200 complaints made to the Angelicum demanding Mrs Blair's invitation be cancelled. The first part of Sister Helen's reply reads:

"By inviting Mrs Blair, we, as a faculty of social sciences, are following the example of the Pope’s own social sciences institute, the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, based in the Vatican itself. Mrs Blair was invited to make an address to its 2006 plenary assembly, which focused on children and young people ... Obviously, in doing so, neither the Vatican as a whole, nor the Pope personally, was in any way endorsing a pro-abortion point of view, and neither are we."

Whom the Pope meets in audience is an entirely separate matter. Everyone knows that any Pope must meet a wide range of prominent public figures in order to carry out effectively his pastoral ministry and diplomatic role.

In contrast, it was not justified of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences to have invited Mrs Blair to speak in 2006, nor is it justified of the Angelicum today. Let us suppose that, in the 1930s a lawyer had hosted, celebrated and endorsed organisations which promoted, performed and/or demanded the killing of Jews. Would it have been right for Catholic universities and academies to have invited such a lawyer to be a featured speaker? There is no moral difference between the killing of Jews and the killing of unborn children. Whatever the views of the Angelicum, the Angelicum's invitation to Mrs Blair to be a featured speaker implies that the killing of unborn children is less morally significant than the racist killings of born people.

The second part of the Sister Helen's reply basically says that the presentation of the other featured speaker at the conference, Professor Janne Haaland Matlary, will be strongly pro-life. I'm delighted to hear it, but that fact doesn't make the invitation to Mrs Blair any less unacceptable. In the 1930s, inviting an anti-Holocaust speaker would not have made inviting a pro-Holocaust speaker any less unacceptable. It should be noted that Friday's event at the Angelicum is not a debate between Prof. Matlary and Mrs Blair but a conference with featured speakers.

Nothing has been said in advance about what Mrs Blair will say in her presentation "Religion as a Force in protecting Women's Human Rights", though there is nothing to prevent her using her speech to oppose Catholic pro-life/pro-family teaching. The Angelicum says the conference will celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, "remember that the full recognition of the rights of women is still a goal to be achieved" and "examine the dangers that relativistic thinking poses for the future of human rights". Yet the anti-life/anti-family organisations that Mrs Blair has endorsed all believe abortion to be a universal human right yet to be achieved, and are the world's leading promoters of the very same relativistic thinking which endangers the future of human rights. The Cherie-endorsed IPPF and FPA UK both endorsed the failed campaign to remove the Holy See from the United Nations. (Mrs Blair is pictured above cutting a special 75th anniversary birthday cake for FPA and offering the cameraman a condom.)

Mrs. Blair's failure to defend Catholic pro-life teaching is explained by her strong, personal endorsement of anti-life/anti-family organisations. She has said explicitly on a number of occasions that she rejects Catholic teaching on sexual morals. And when asked in May by the Catholic Herald newspaper what she thought of her husband's voting record in favour of abortion, she was reportedly stuck for an answer, saying: "I think that...", pausing before replying: "I don't think I want to answer that."

Some people may say withdrawing the invitation to Mrs Blair would be to suppress academic freedom. The good of academic freedom is not absolute, nor it is equal to the good of human life and its defence. There is a massive difference between Catholics researching the anti-life/anti-family movement in order to combat its arguments, and giving a platform to an active supporter of the anti-life/anti-family movement, a platform which she (or he) can use to espouse those arguments. The truth of the sanctity of human life is not a relative concept, to be equated with the anti-truth of abortion, as if the former was just an opinion and the latter a viewpoint one may dislike.

In any case, there are many other experts on women and rights whom the Angelicum could invite instead, who are totally pro-life and pro-family. Just because a speaker has expert knowledge in a particular area doesn't mean all other considerations are irrelevant. Why not invite Osama bin Laden to speak on Middle East politics or pro-infanticide bioethicist Peter Singer to speak on neo-natal medicine?

Dietrich von Hildebrand, the Catholic intellectual, wrote a popular book entitled "Trojan Horse in the City of God", which explained how certain figures were undermining the Church from within. I can think of no better description of Cherie Blair (or her husband). Defenders of life and family must re-double the pressure upon the Angelicum to withdraw Mrs Blair's invitation. You can contact the following relevant persons at the Angelicum:

Sister Helen Alford O.P, dean of the Angelicum's Faculty of Social Sciences
Email alford@pust.urbe.it
Tel +39 06 67 02 353

The Angelicum's Faculty of Social Sciences
Email fass@pust.urbe.it
Tel: +39 06 67 02 402, fax +39 06 67 02 417

The Angelicum's secretariat, email segreteria@pust.urbe.it

You may also like to contact His Eminence Zenon Cardinal Grocholewski, Prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education:

by fax: +39 06 69 88 41 72
by post: Congregation for Catholic Education, Palazzo della Congregazioni, Piazza Pio XII 3, 00193 Roma, Italia

Concern about government plans to clarify the suicide law

It has been reported that the government plans to use its Coroners and Justice bill to clarify the law on assisted suicide. SPUC is calling on the government to give an assurance that its plans are limited to its stated aims of preventing the online promotion of suicide and suicide methods. We are concerned that radical, so-called right-to-die MPs or peers - urged on by media coverage for assertions that some elderly people have a so-called duty to die - might seek to use the bill to weaken the legal protection of the right to life. We are therefore also calling upon the government and parliamentarians to block any attempts to use the Coroners and Justice bill to weaken in any way the Suicide Act 1961 and the existing legal prohibition on assisted suicide.

FPA DVD for schoolchildren is a glorified advertisement for abortion

Fiorella Nash (pictured) has sent me the following review:

"The Family Planning Association (FPA) in the UK has produced a DVD entitled Why Abortion?, intended for schoolchildren as young as 14. In some respects it contains few surprises. The scenarios used in the DVD are intended to portray abortion as a sensible, altruistic decision, whilst the arguments against abortion are not mentioned at all. Pro-lifers are demonised as angry, sneering individuals who wave banners displaying the word 'Murderers', or who accuse their friends of being murderers when they announce that they have had an abortion. An accompanying leaflet claims that 'in countries where abortion is legal, some individuals and groups violently oppose abortion. 'In one scenario, a religious girl who has always been pro-life declares to her pro-life boyfriend: 'It’s not about beliefs and ideals any more, it’s about realities. I just don’t want this baby', whilst the group of teenage commentators argue that 'churches shouldn’t moralise or dictate', 'no matter what your religion you have to do what’s right for you' and 'you never know how you’re going to feel about something like this until it happens.'

"Pro-life doctors come off worst of all. Young people are asked: 'Some doctors and nurses are anti-choice. Is it okay for them to promote their personal, moral viewpoints?' Not one of the teenagers in the scripted discussion supports the pro-life position. The reasons why doctors refuse to be involved with abortion are not explained. Women are encouraged to check the views of doctors beforehand and 'vote with their feet.'

"Young people are warned about pro-life counselling services. The DVD is peppered with the usual arguments for abortion, backstreet abortion (see some counter-arguments here), a woman’s right to choose etc, with no attempt being made at all throughout the DVD to confront the real moral arguments surrounding abortion. Prenatal development is not mentioned once, and the potential risk of breast cancer and post-abortion trauma are dismissed as 'myths', as is the fact that so-called emergency contraception is abortifacient.

"Most insidiously, the DVD was developed in Northern Ireland, and the teenage commentators are clearly based in Northern Ireland to give the impression that the people of Northern Ireland want the Abortion Act extended there, when the reality is completely different. The lack of abortion on demand in Northern Ireland is portrayed as a crass injustice, rather than the will of the people to protect life.

"This so-called resource contains information on private abortion facilities such as BPAS, which constitutes little more than product placement in the classroom. In an all-too characteristic display of hypocrisy, this glorified advertising campaign for abortion is dressed up as 'balanced and accurate information' designed 'to contribute to a more open and less judgemental debate'. Parents must fight this DVD being shown at their children’s schools as a matter of urgency."

Tony Blair continues to manipulate the Catholic Church

Tony Blair has written an article in the latest edition of The Tablet, which describes itself as an "international Catholic weekly". The article's subject is the work of Mr Blair's Faith Foundation in promoting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Mr Blair neglects to tell Tablet readers that his government interpreted the MDGs to include a universal right to abortion on demand which, along with other anti-life policies he pursued, he has refused to repudiate since being received into the Catholic Church (see below). Mr Blair quotes Cardinal Oscar Rodríguez who has said that "the needless deaths of nearly 10 million children a year are an abomination that cannot be tolerated". Cardinal Rodriguez was referring to the deaths of born children from disease. Interestingly, Mr Blair does not quote Cardinal Rodriguez's call for life and the family made to politicians and legislators in 1996, the year before Mr Blair became prime minister:

"Abortion is a primordial evil and one of the fundamental problems of our age ... We call for a massive international effort by politicians and legislators in favour of human life ... We call for legal protection for the unborn child from the moment of conception. We recommend unequivocal pro-life legislation on embryo experimentation and genetic engineering ... We call for an end to the 'contraceptive imperialism' of population control promoted with the use of abortion, sterilization and contraception."

Nor does Mr Blair quote what Cardinal Rodriguez said about politicians who support abortion, shortly before Mr Blair was received into the Catholic Church in 2007:

"A politician who publicly supports abortion, he excommunicates himself ... [T]hat person himself is doing an act that is inconsistent with what he says he believes. That is, we're talking about a person who...is doing something that is a lie."

Since being received into the Catholic Church shortly after leaving office, Mr Blair has refused even to comment upon, let alone repudiate, the swathe of anti-life laws and policies he supported as prime minister and as a parliamentarian.

Mr Blair goes on to praise Pope Paul VI's encyclical Populorum Progressio on international development. Yet Mr Blair makes no reference to certain other of Paul VI's words:

• "It is inadmissible that those who have control of the wealth and resources of mankind should try to resolve the problem of hunger by forbidding the poor to be born." (address to UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, 1974)
• "[I] declare that the direct interruption of the generative process already begun and, above all, all direct abortion, even for therapeutic reasons, are to be absolutely excluded as lawful means of regulating the number of children." (Humanae Vitae, 1968)
• "[W]hatever is opposed to life itself, such as any type of murder, genocide, abortion, euthanasia or wilful self-destruction...are infamies indeed. They poison human society" (Gaudium et Spes, 1965)

Mr Blair explains the Faith Acts Fellowship programme that his Faith Foundation is running in partnership with the InterFaith Youth Core, but neglects to inform Tablet readers that the Interfaith Youth Core is bankrolled by pro-abortion foundations and that the Faith Acts Fellowship works with World Vision, which is calling for abortion on demand to be legalised in the world's poorest nations. Mr Blair says the programme's fellows will need "compassion in the face of needless suffering and death" - yet what compassion has Mr Blair shown for the needless suffering and death of the unborn and the vulnerable caused by the laws and policies he promoted?

Mr Blair, stretching to his full moral stature, preaches to us: "[S]ins of omission can vary in their gravity, and the worst can be more grievously damaging than sins of commission." Indeed - omitting to repudiate anti-life laws and policies for which one is mainly and personally responsible, and refusing to witness to the sanctity of human life.

Mr Blair predictably reminds Tablet readers that "countering climate change [is] the greatest moral challenge of this century." So, Mr Blair, is countering climate change the greatest moral challenge of this century, or abortion? Was Pope John Paul II wrong to tell pro-life leader Fr Paul Marx that he was "doing the most important work on earth"?

Tony Blair, and his anti-life wife, is undermining the faith of the church into which he has been received.

Supposing Tony Blair had pursued throughout his political career, policies in support of killing bishops or the lay faithful of, say, the Catholic Church or the Anglican Communion? And, supposing, having been received into the Catholic Church, he refused to repudiate such policies? Would The Tablet give him free rein to present his thinking on religious matters? If not, why not? What distinctions does The Tablet draw between unborn children and the respect due to their right to life, and the right to life of Catholic and Anglican bishops and lay faithful?

Urge Catholic university to withdraw Cherie Blair invitation

Cherie Blair (pictured) has been invited to speak next week at a conference on women and rights organised by the Pontifical University of St Thomas, otherwise known as the Angelicum, one of the world's leading Catholic universities.

Mrs Blair, like her husband Tony, is often listed as a Catholic. Yet like her husband, Mrs Blair has a long track-record of promoting anti-life and anti-family causes, in opposition to Catholic teaching. Mrs Blair has endorsed CEDAW (the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women), specifically mentioning CEDAW's affirmation of women's so-called 'reproductive rights', which is both a technical term and a euphemism for abortion on demand. The CEDAW convention and the committee which implements it are the vehicles for one of the most radical pro-abortion campaigns ever. Mrs Blair has also endorsed the radical pro-abortion organisations the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), the Family Planning Association (FPA) UK and Human Rights Watch. (Mrs Blair is pictured here at FPA's 75th birthday party, where she cut a special birthday cake.) Both IPPF and FPA endorsed the failed campaign to remove the Holy See from the United Nations.

It is therefore deplorable that an abortion-promoter like Mrs Blair has been invited to speak, not just at a pontifical university in Rome, but at a conference on women and rights. What about the rights of the countless unborn girls killed because of the pro-abortion groups Mrs Blair has endorsed? What about the countless millions of women suffering from post-abortion trauma?

Organisations associated with the Catholic Church (or indeed any group, religious or secular, opposed to abortion) should not invite Mrs Blair (or her husband) to their events. I urge people to contact the Angelicum immediately to protest against Mrs Blair's invitation and demand it be withdrawn. You can contact the following relevant persons at the Angelicum:

• the organising secretariat of the conference, email convegno@pust.urbe.it
• the deanery of the faculty of social sciences, email fass@pust.urbe.it
• the secretariat of the university, email segreteria@pust.urbe.it

You may also like to contact His Eminence Zenon Cardinal Grocholewski, Prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education:

• by fax: +39 06 69 88 41 72
• by post: Congregation for Catholic Education, Palazzo della Congregazioni, Piazza Pio XII 3, 00193 Roma, Italia

Hillary Clinton's appointment tops unprecedented pro-abortion line-up

The appointment of Hillary Clinton as US Secretary of State is confirmation that Barack Obama's administration will be the most anti-life in American history. In addition to Mrs Clinton's appointment and other anti-life Obama appointments which I blogged about recently, Mr Obama has appointed:

Susan Rice, who worked in Bill Clinton's anti-life administration, to be a US ambassador to the United Nations

Ellen Moran, executive director of pro-abortion group EMILY's List, to be White House director of communications

Dawn Johnsen, former legal director of pro-abortion group NARAL, to be a member of his Department of Justice Review Team.

It is therefore incredibly appropriate that Pope Benedict's prayer intention for this month is: "That, faced by the growing expansion of the culture of violence and death, the Church may courageously promote the culture of life through all her apostolic and missionary activities."

Courage means, for both Catholic and non-Catholic pro-lifers, not engaging in woolly wishful thinking that fails to oppose Mr Obama's pro-abortion government, naively allayed by his vague election-time promises to find "common ground" with pro-lifers in order to reduce abortions. Supposing Barack Obama supported the killing of, say, Catholic nuns ... Would right-minded citizens feel inclined to accept vague assurances that he would work with opponents of such killings in order to lower their incidence - whilst simultaneously promising to sign into law a draconian measure designed to extend such killings? What is the difference between the humanity and human rights of unborn children and Catholic nuns?

After the infamous Munich agreement in May 1938, Adolf Hitler said that he had no further territorial claims to make in Europe -and then went on to invade and control huge swathes of Europe. Hitler's words at Munich were believed by many wishful thinkers at the time, even though Hitler had set out clearly in Mein Kampf his belief that it was essential for Germany to occupy eastern Europe. Mr Obama has set out clearly his intention to sign the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) as his first deed as president, and to reverse the pro-life gains made under the Bush administration - yet some wishful thinkers, Chamberlain-like, remain in denial.

Many Germans of Hitler's time, and many people across the world, will have loved J.S. Bach's Advent chorale Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme (Sleepers, wake, the voice calls us). This Advent, let's rouse all those people we know are sleeping in apathy to awake and respond to Pope Benedict's call to courageously promote the culture of life.

Abortion increases risk of mental health problems says new 30 year study

According to a 30-year study published in the British Journal of Psychiatry abortion increases the risk of mental health disorders, whereas other pregnancy outcomes are not related to an increased risk of mental health problems. The researchers say: " ... abortion was associated with a small increase in the risk of mental disorders; women who had had abortions had rates of mental disorders that were about 30% higher. There were no consistent associations between other pregnancy outcomes and mental health. Estimates of attributable risk indicated that exposure to abortion accounted for 1.5% to 5.5% of the overall rate of mental disorders".

Britain's "apartheid" is still reflected in the killing of Down's syndrome babies

There has recently been a lot of press coverage rejoicing over the supposed fact that more babies with Down's syndrome are being born now than at any time since widespread pre-natal testing began in 1989. The claim made is that the trend towards aborting increasing number of babies with the syndrome has now been reversed. The articles in various national newspapers have suggested that this is because British society's increasing acceptance of allowing such babies to be born.

While this sounds like very good news, it has to be tempered with a very large dose of caution.

Just over two years ago, the Down's Syndrome Association pointed out that 62 per cent of all Down's syndrome cases are diagnosed while still in the womb and 92 per cent these babies are aborted.

And Rosa Monckton, who (with her husband Dominic Lawson) has a daughter Domenica, aged 13, who has Down's syndrome (both pictured above) sounded a cautionary note in her article in the Daily Mail (26th November 2008). She says: "These are the figures: in 1989 there were 717 babies born with Down's syndrome, and in 2006 there were 749. This does not seem to be to be such a huge sea change ... "

Whilst well over half of babies with Down's Syndrome are sought out before birth, and then the vast majority of those are killed, British attitudes towards the disabled, including the parents and families of the disabled, born and unborn, arguably remain as enlightened as those towards the majority population in South Africa under apartheid.

Sick abortion group demeans Christmas to promote more child killing

The British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), one of Britain's main abortion promoters and providers, will be supplying morning-after pills free of charge this Christmas and sending women a Christmas pack containing the morning-after pill, condoms and leaflets. BPAS is promoting its campaign with sexually suggestive advertising which demeans Christmas and women. It is a despicable ploy which threatens unborn children, promotes promiscuity, undermines public health and insults the child-centred meaning of Christmas. The offensive sexual innuendo linked to Santa Claus is evidence of BPAS's morally bankrupt status.

A pattern has emerged of hard-core pro-abortion groups and associated companies insulting religious and other sensitivities and thereby generating extra publicity for their child-killing, women-abusing businesses. Planned Parenthood of Indiana, United States, are also running a Christmas campaign, selling gift cards and promoting them with the message: "Why not buy a loved one a gift this holiday season that they really need?" - a reference to abortion and birth control drugs and devices. In 2004 Schering, the manufacturers of the Levonelle brand of morning-after pills, ran a pre-Christmas campaign in 2004 entitled "Immaculate Contraception", which it withdrew following pressure from SPUC supporters and others.

The offensive nature of these messages reflect the offensive nature of abortion. In contrast, pictured is a real meaning of Christmas, positive and loving; centred on a child (Jesus), his mother (Mary), their family (represented here by St John the Baptist, who leapt for joy in his mother's womb at the presence of his relative the embryonic child Jesus) and their friends (represented here by St Nicholas, the real Santa Claus).

A more hopeful vision for Ireland

Here is the second part of Anthony Ozimic's (SPUC's political secretary) report from Ireland:

"Following Monday night's debate at University College Cork, UCC Students for Life organised a meeting, hosted by Kathy Sinnott MEP. The meeting was introduced by Jacinta Daly (pictured left), who reminded the audience that unethical embryo research is restricted not only in Ireland, but also in other countries e.g. Germany. The speakers were introduced by Mary O'Regan (pictured right), who said the issue of abortion touched her even as a seven-year-old during the 1992 Irish abortion referendum.

"William Reville (pictured), associate professor of biochemistry at UCC, explained in-depth the science and the ethics of stem cell research. He pointed out how arbitrary it is to conclude that humanity only starts at some point later than conception. He also said that history of medical research suggests embryonic stem cell research may never work even after many decades and trillions of dollars are spent on it. The newly-discovered ethical alternative technology of induced pluripotent stem cells is far more promising and is already being enhanced.

"I described (pictured) the universal calling to be pro-life as positive, inclusive and in harmony with today's concerns for a better future based on human rights. (I had also spoken to students on Sunday night in Hull, northern England, where I shared the same vision from within a Catholic theological perspective.) I also encouraged the audience to sign and/or promote the scientists' and physicians' declaration promoted by Amnesty for Babies.

"Kathy Sinnott MEP (pictured) started by referring to her own miscarriage in earlier life, and that women naturally know their early or unimplanted embryos to be babies. She explained how destructive embryo research has little to do with embryology but a lot to do with vested commercial and academic interests, and gave advice on how pro-lifers could oppose UCC's decision to allow embryonic stem cell research.

"In conclusion, Tuesday's meeting presented a far more hopeful vision for Ireland than the one offered by Baroness Warnock during Monday night's debate."

Warnock tells the Irish - Destructive research on human embryos a moral duty

Anthony Ozimic, SPUC political secretary, sends the following report from Ireland:

"On Monday night University College Cork (UCC) Philosophical Society held a debate on the motion "That this House supports UCC's decision to use embryonic stem cell research." The catalyst for the motion was the decision by UCC to conduct embryonic stem cell research using surplus IVF embryos. Among others, the society had invited Baroness (Mary) Warnock to speak. Prior to the debate, the projection screen (pictured) advertised a forthcoming debate about the 1916 Easter Rising, subtitled: "Wanted: for crimes against the Irish State", which I felt neatly summed what many Irish feel about the influence of British and other foreign anti-lifers in Ireland!

Baroness Warnock (pictured) said that:

• there is an “absolute moral obligation” to conduct embryonic stem cell research, and a scientist who chose not to conduct it would be "failing in their moral duty". I think we can see in this claim a clear threat to conscientious objection.
• UCC's decision to allow embryonic stem cell research is means Ireland is "at the beginning”. Of the slippery slope?
• there was “no precise moment” at which a human embryo becomes a human. This is a really pathetic argument, so amateur that it would be laughed at in any other field.
• human-animal hybrid embryos are not hybrid animals because they won’t be implanted and therefore won't develop into animals. Her claim mirrors the bizarre idea that only a human being which is viable (i.e. likely to live) constitutes human life, and therefore non-viable human beings are only potential life. This idea would justify the killing of the terminally-ill, which Baroness Warnock is notorious for promoting also.
• embryonic stem cells are better than adult stem cells because they are able to turn into all 200 tissue-types of the human body. Such totipotency, however, is in fact a disadvantage, because it makes embryonic stem cells uncontrollable.

Also speaking in the favour of the motion was Dr Tom Moore (pictured), the scientist who is conducting embryonic stem cell research at UCC. Among other things, Dr Moore said:

• everyone is agreed that all forms of stem cells hold enormous potential. This is a completely misleading claim, as years of human embryonic stem cell research have failed to benefit even one patient, and this absence of results may well be because it has no intrinsic potential. In fact, Dr Moore contradicted himself later when he admitted that embryonic stem cells were too dangerous to use in therapy and could only be used as a research model.
• there is no reason why Ireland should not allow embryonic stem cell research using surplus IVF embryos, because Ireland already allows IVF and the morning-after pill (which Dr Moore pointed out was abortifacient), as well as allowing the use of cells from foetuses aborted overseas. In fact, he said that destructive experimentation upon embryos is an inevitable part of IVF.
• the knowledge of how to reprogramme adult cells was gained, and could only have been gained, through embryonic stem cell research. What Dr Moore didn't tell the audience was that this knowledge was gained not through using human embryos but mouse embryos. In any case, as Dr James Sherley has pointed out, embryonic stem cells are not only unnecessary but not helpful for learning about adult cell reprogramming.

Dr Donal O Mathuna (pictured right), Professor Tommy McCarthy (pictured below), and others in the floor debate later, spoke valiantly in defence of embryonic children. They highlighted how anti-life bioethicists have manipulated public consultation in Ireland in order to bolster and promote the failed science of destructive embryo research. Sadly the motion was carried by about two to one."

Family Planning Association does Government's and Connexions' dirty work

The Daily Telegraph reports today that schoolgirls as young as 14 could be forced to watch a film that teaches them they have the right to choose an abortion.

This is worrying because a review of FPA's educational material on abortion shows it to be an insult to women, particularly to women who have had an abortion.

I will get hold of a copy of the FPA's film as soon as I can and let readers know whether there's been any improvement.

However, in teaching children under the age of 16 about how to access abortion, the FPA is doing the work of the government. In its "Best Practice Guidance for doctors and other health professionals on the provision of advice and treatment to young people under 16 on contraception, sexual and reproductive health", the Department of Health says:

"Doctors and health professionals have a duty of care and a duty of confidentiality to all patients, including under 16s. This guidance applies to the provision of advice and treatment on contraception, sexual and reproductive health, including abortion ... The benefits of informing their GP and the case for discussion with a parent or carer. Any refusal should be respected. In the case of abortion, where the young woman is competent to consent but cannot be persuaded to involve a parent, every effort should be made to help them find another adult to provide support, for example another family member or specialist youth worker."

This is exactly the message that Connexions advisers are trained* to deliver in our nation's secondary schools.

*Young People and Sexual Health, A Reader for those participating in the Connexions training programme. Let me know if you want a copy. Contact me at johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk

Bishop prepared to sacrifice his life to end abortion

Bishop Robert Hermann of St Louis, Missouri, drew applause from his brother-bishops when he stated at a recent meeting: “I think any bishop here would consider it a privilege to die tomorrow to bring about an end to abortion."

Explaining his comments to a journalist afterwards, he added: “Very simply: If American youth are willing to go to war and lay their life down to defend our freedoms, then every bishop should be willing to give up his life, if it meant putting an end to abortion.

"And if we're willing to do that, then we should be totally fearless of promoting this cause without being concerned about political correctness, without trying to build coalitions with pro-choice people."

I applaud this courageous stand - spoken like a true man of God and expressed in terms which merit careful attention. We should all be prepared to lay down our lives for the sake of the most innocent rather than do deals which hand over the innocent for destruction.

"I drove my daughter to the abortion clinic like a lamb to the slaughterhouse ... "

Here's a story in the press which, for once, tells the unvarnished truth about abortion - and, in particular, about abortion on a girl of 12. Let's get this story to every school in Britain in the light of the government's abortion policy for the under-16s which is likely to stepped up in the months ahead.

It begins:

"TEARS FLOWED freely in Gordon House yesterday during a gripping presentation by a foreigner, now living in Jamaica, who recounted a tale of how she forced her daughter to carry out an abortion.

"She has been haunted by the grave decision more than two decades later. Members of the public seated in the gallery and even parliamentary staff were moved to tears following the touching submission to the joint select committee considering the report of the Abortion Policy Review Group.

"Anne Arthur, a grief counsellor, was overcome with emotion as she shared the story with the committee of how her instructions to abort her then '12-week-old granddaughter' had left an indelible scar on her mind.

"'I drove my daughter to the abortion clinic like a lamb to the slaughterhouse, against her will', she lamented ... " Read the full story here. We need to get this tragic story to every school in the country, including faith schools which are also hit by the government's abortion policy, as the government & sex education establishment intensify their efforts to provide confidential abortion and birth control advice and services to schoolchildren under the age of 16.