Posted on 08/03/2009 3:45:25 PM PDT by wagglebee
ROME, August 3, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - When the Italian drug agency approved the sale of the deadly abortion drug RU 486 late Thursday night, senior Vatican officials responded strongly saying that doctors who prescribe it and the women who take it risk excommunication. The Italian Pharmaceuticals Agency (AIFA) said the drug, to be sold under the brand name Mifegyne, would not be sold in pharmacies and only be administered by physicians in hospitals.
Bishop Elio Sgreccia, a bioethics professor, author and former vice-president of the Pontifical Academy for Life (PAV) told Corriere della Sera newspaper, "This is a compound which kills the foetus and one much promoted by the pharmaceutical industry. It is an incitement to abort. It is absolutely unacceptable and leads to automatic excommunication."
He added, "First abortion was legalised to stop it being clandestine, but now doctors are washing their hands of it and transferring the burden of conscience to women."
The current head of the PAV, Archbishop Salvatore Fisichella said, "An embryo is not a bunch of cells. It is a real and full human life and to suppress it is a responsibility no one can take without fully realising the consequences."
Fisichella, however, refused to state outright that these "consequences" include automatic excommunication. In an interview with Corriere della Sera, he said, "It is obvious that the canonical consequences are the same as for surgical abortion, this is known. But I do not want to make a declaration." Asked why not, he added that such a declaration would be "too easy".
In an article in Saturday's Italian edition of L'Osservatore Romano, Fisichella wrote that the drug will "lead to a trivialization of the concept of life." The drug is "an evil in and of itself because it takes a human life. This life, which is only visible through the assistance of technology, possesses the same dignity inherent in every person."
The vote of the AIFA board of directors in favour of the drug, after a reportedly heated four-hour debate, was four to one. Romano Colozzi, the dissenting member, warned, "The apparent ease of this pharmacological method will inevitably lower the level of caution and responsibility."
Some legislators in the government of Silvio Berlusconi had also opposed the decision. Citing the statistics from the Italian health agency showing at least 29 maternal deaths associated with the drug, Eugenia Roccella, the subsecretary of the health office, indicated reservations about the decision. She told media that despite their decision, an "interchange of opinions" would continue between AIFA and the health ministry.
Gianni Alemanno, the mayor of Rome said, "Infanticide is, in fact, being legalised for the modest sum of €14 a tablet."
Abortion on demand up to the end of the third month of pregnancy has been legal in Italy since 1978. It is estimated, however, that the nearly 70 per cent of doctors in Italy who are conscientious objectors to abortion will not prescribe the drug.
Italy was one of the last EU countries to resist legalising the deadly drug that is the subject of massive class action law suits in the US. Developed in France, RU-486 or mifepristone is approved as a prescription drug in the US and througout the European Union except, as of Friday, in Ireland and Portugal.
The prevalence of RU 486 in the abortion industry is growing worldwide. In 2007, figures released for England and Wales revealed that 43 per cent of early abortions were the result of RU 486, called "medical" abortion in much of the medical literature.
Well said!
Pro-Life Ping
Ping for your lists
And more importantly an embryo is a soul.
Christ was fully God/fully Man from the moment of conception.
A Christian must understand this connection yet its not commonly part of the debate.
**Abortion on demand up to the end of the third month of pregnancy has been legal in Italy since 1978. It is estimated, however, that the nearly 70 per cent of doctors in Italy who are conscientious objectors to abortion will not prescribe the drug.**
Not quite enough doctors there — but maybe others will be swayed and have more joined their ranks.
Gen 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
It appears that the soul is created when a baby breathes on his/her own...
My son was born prematurely and needed to be on the ventilator to breathe.
***I remember clinton used executive order to reinstate the use of ru-486 and bush never rescinded it.***
Bush did not eradicate all evil in the White House. He merely ended some of it. It is incumbent upon us all to ensure that the term that Obama has been elected to does not lead to another one. His actions thus far certainly help his next election loss. What say you all?
Psalm 139 -
13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
16 your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
Fisichella, however, refused to state outright that these "consequences" include automatic excommunication. In an interview with Corriere della Sera, he said, "It is obvious that the canonical consequences are the same as for surgical abortion, this is known. But I do not want to make a declaration." Asked why not, he added that such a declaration would be "too easy".
The big problem is that modern technology is going to find a way to have dirt-cheap abortions and make millions of dollars doing this. We are going to get mass-produced abortions. We will no longer worry about a comparative handful of abortions: a million and a half a year. We will not know how many deaths will be administered. It may be twice as many; we will have no sure way of knowing. What we know is that it will be so unbelievably easy that the numbers of abortions will skyrocket. There is going to be no way to stop it by picketing. Besides, we will not have anyone specific to picket....from the thread Letter To Paul Hill [part 8 of 13]:The Technology of Low-Cost Murder....There are tens of millions of men and women who will not vote to ban the sale of such a product. This is our problem. It is a political problem resting on a specific moral foundation: humanism. The problem is judicial. It is corporate. And finally, when the physicians are driven out of business by mass produced abortifacient, pro-lifers are going to face a new reality. They are going to realize that it is not abortion as such that is the problem. It is the problem of a society that has legalized abortion.
Kind of sad that this rule has to be made.
Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise.
"Before I formed thee in the bowels of thy mother, I knew thee: and before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee, and made thee a prophet unto the nations." Jeremias 1:5
Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise.
"Before I formed thee in the bowels of thy mother, I knew thee: and before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee, and made thee a prophet unto the nations." Jeremias 1:5
Oh, I forget...Some of you guys don't spend enough time in the scriptures to know that like God, humans have a body, a spirit and a soul...We were made in THEIR image...
And again;
Gen 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
And even tho you can't figure it out, that doesn't disqualify the verses you guys posted...
Pro-Life bump
Do you think that Christianity is some kind of clever puzzle that you have to "figure out," so you can pat yourself on the back while you congratulate yourself on how much smarter you are than the poor, stupid Catlicks?
That's what tradition is for, see. It's admitting that people other than Iscool are guided by the Holy Spirit and can make sense out of those passages that are "hard to figure out".
See how clear it can be:
"do not murder a child by abortion or kill a newborn infant" -- The Didache, circa AD 80.
Simple. Correct. And Biblical.
Fact is, Christianity is pretty simple...Too simple for some...
As I see it, there are two keys in knowing what the scripture says...The first one is that you have to know some of the scripture...And the second one is you have to believe it...
And in my experience, most Catholic aren't real good at either one...
But no, it has nothing to do with intelligence or intellect...It has to do with wanting to know what God says to us...
That's what tradition is for, see. It's admitting that people other than Iscool are guided by the Holy Spirit and can make sense out of those passages that are "hard to figure out".
I didn't post any scripture that was hard to figure out...Often, the scripture is too hard for many to believe...
This is an issue that Evangelicals and Roman Catholics are co-belligerents fighting. However, when has the RCC publicly excommunicated anyone who created these policies and supports abortion?
I know there are many fine Christians who have protested at clinics, offered counseling to pregnant women, and provide adoption services. It is at the top where only lip service is given, no real confrontation/consequences for those who create the laws, or support them.
*********************
Tempting someone to sin is in itself a sin.
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