E-Update – November 6, 2008

Alberta Pro-Life Association

LaRee Pickup, provincial Director

New Brunswick appeals Morgentaler decision

The provincial government in New Brunswick has filed an appeal of a Court of Queen’s Bench decision that granted public interest standing to Henry Morgentaler in his fight to have provincial taxpayers pay all the costs of abortions at his private clinic in Fredericton. On August 1st, Justice Paulette Garnett agreed that since no aggrieved women could be found to bring the case against the province, Henry Morgentaler, who stands to gain hundreds of thousands of dollars from the lawsuit, could testify in their place. This would mean that he could argue as a witness in his own lawsuit. The Canadian Press (CP) reported that the province argues that Garnett wrongly determined that public-interest standing is different from the legal capacity required in the Rules of Court.

Washington voters approve assisted suicide

In addition to electing a new president in this past week’s U.S. election, voters in Washington State voted 60% in favour of legalizing assisted suicide. That means Washington becomes the second state in the country, Oregon being the first, to allow doctors to help people kill themselves. Douglas Todd, who writes about religion for the Vancouver Sun, says this will bring pressure in Canada, and especially in British Columbia, for an open debate on changing the law here. Washington State’s proposition offered only competent adults, who are medically predicted to have six months or less to live, the opportunity to request and self-administer lethal medication prescribed by a physician. They must obtain signed affidavits from two doctors and two affirmations of their intention from people with no financial interests in their deaths. Mr. Todd quotes from an editorial by Paul Schratz, editor of the B.C. Catholic newspaper, on the perils of this legislation. You can read the editorial at http://bcc.rcav.org/08-11-03/editorial.htm. You can also read a commentary on the Washington initiative by Alex Schadenberg of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition at http://alexschadenberg.blogspot.com/2008/11/washington-state-passes-i-1000-assisted.html. Mr. Schadenberg points out that exit polls showed that among religious people, half supported the assisted suicide proposition.

Article warns Canadian docs to provide prenatal screening to all

The November 4th issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal has an article warning doctors that failure to offer pre-natal screening to all pregnant women could result in wrongful birth lawsuits. Last year the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada (SOGC) approved new clinical practice guidelines that included offering prenatal genetic testing to all pregnant women not just those over 35 years of age. (SOGC executive vice-president Andre Lalonde notoriously said last month that Sarah Palin might be a poor role model for women because she did not abort her baby after learning he had Down Syndrome.) The article, available at: http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/full/179/10/1027 was written by two lawyers and Dr. Jeffrey Nisker, a physician and professor at the University of Western Ontario. Dr. Nisker says that many doctors are unaware of the new guidelines which also require counseling to go along with the testing. Dr. Nisker says there are not enough doctors to do the lengthy counseling that is required if the tests determine a genetic anomaly in the baby. "The legal actions in the past have occurred because the counselling did not occur and the woman felt it should have occurred," he said. "We need to have strategies in place to rapidly double or triple the number of doctors per population in Canada, because we should be doing this counselling because the guidelines dictate it must be done and doctors have to be given the time to do it.
Events

November 15 Concordia University College of Alberta, Concordia Lutheran Seminary, and Lutherans for Life – Canada will be hosting the 3rd Annual Life conference in the Tegler Centre at Concordia University College of Alberta in Edmonton. Plenary speakers include the Rev. Don Schiemann who will speak on “The Respect for Life and Criminal Justice” and Dr. John Patrick (MD) who will speak on “The Domino Effect of Legalizing Abortion.” Dr. Patrick will also lead a session on “What Hippocrates Knew and We Have Forgotten.” The conference begins at 8:30 a.m. with registration and concludes at 4:20 p.m. (following the third sessional) with an hour and fifteen minute lunch break. For more information, contact Glenn at gschaeffer@lccabc.ca or call 780-474-0063.