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Making sex legal at 16 in line with rest of Britain 'would hurt the vulnerable' Gay rights campaigners have clashed with Belfast's Rape Crisis Centre over plans to lower the age of sexual consent to 16. The British government has published proposals to bring Northern Ireland's legal process, under which it is illegal for 16-year-olds to have sex, into line with the rest of the UK. The centre has joined a loose alliance with the Catholic church, evangelical Protestant churches and Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party to oppose the proposed change from 17 to 16. Ranged against them are organisations...

Anti-Coerced Abortion Bill 'Absolutely Necessary' Say 'Silent No More' Leaders STATEN ISLAND, NY, September 19, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Leaders of the Silent No More Awareness Campaign, the nation's largest network of women and men testifying to the harm they endured from abortion, today said that a Wisconsin bill to help prevent coerced abortion is needed not only in that state, but across the country. "In recent months alone, we've seen numerous high profile news stories about women threatened and intimidated by their parents, boyfriends, and others into having abortions," said Georgette Forney, Co- Founder of the SNMAC. "I know from...

My eWEEK Labs colleague Andrew Garcia has independently confirmed a report that will appear in tomorrow's Windows Secrets newsletter: Windows Update is fetching and installing some updates without end users' consent. Windows Secrets contacted eWEEK and Microsoft Watch earlier this afternoon about the discovery. Tomorrow, Windows Secrets' Scott Dunn will report that Windows Update has started "altering files on users' systems without displaying any dialog box to request permission. The only altered files that have been reported to date are 18 small executables used by WU itself. Microsoft is patching these files silently, even if auto-updates have been disabled on...

A 12-year-old girl accused of murdering her family is being transferred to a Calgary facility so she can attend school. The girl, whose identity is protected by the Youth Criminal Justice Act, made a brief appearance in youth court on Monday. Her case was put over until June 2. During her 10-minute appearance, the girl never looked at the spectators in the courtroom. Wearing baggy blue prison issue coveralls, the girl never spoke and mainly looked at her lawyer or the judge. The bodies of the slain family members are removed from the crime scene in Medicine Hat, Alta. (CBC)...

LIMA, Peru, Jun. 23, 2007 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (AP) Peru's Congress has voted overwhelmingly to lower the age to 14 for participating in consensual sex, a move some activists said could expose children to sexual abuse. Lawmakers voted 70-10 on Thursday to approve the measure lowering the age at which criminal law recognizes the legal capacity of a person to consent to sexual activity. It was previously 17. The age of consent for sex in many U.S. states is 16 or older.

The number of children under 18 accused of forcible rape, violent and nonviolent sex offenses rose from 24,100 in 1985 to 33,800 in 2004, the AP's analysis found. Violent offenses include attempted rape and sexual assault, while nonviolent offenses including fondling, statutory rape and prostitution. By comparison, rape and sexual assaults by adults decreased more than 56 percent from 1993 to 2004. Comparable statistics were unavailable before 1993. .....Sharon Araji, an Alaska psychologist who took one of the first broad looks at the problem in her book "Sexually Aggressive Children," thinks the number of child-on-child sex crimes is actually even...

Drunk women can consent to sex, judges rule By Joshua Rozenberg, Legal Editor Last Updated: 2:05am BST 27/03/2007 A drunken woman can still consent to sex, the Court of Appeal ruled yesterday. Three senior judges were giving reasons for clearing a 25-year-old man of raping a student, aged 19, after both had been drinking heavily. Sir Igor Judge: rape ruling Sir Igor Judge, sitting with Lady Justice Hallett and Mrs Justice Gloster, said sex would amount to rape if the complainant had lost her capacity to choose as a result of drink. "However, where the complainant has voluntarily consumed even...

The mother of a boy convicted Friday in the gang rape of an 11-year-old girl on Labor Day told a judge the girl was also to blame and that her son was the victim of "little flipper girls" who think it's cool to have sex with multiple partners. That prompted Milwaukee County Children's Court Judge Mary Triggiano to abruptly interrupt her. "What he did was rape that girl," Triggiano said, calling the deflection of responsibility to the girl appalling. "He got caught. He didn't take responsibility until something pegged him

ATLANTA (AP) — The Georgia Supreme Court has turned down an appeal from a teen who was sentenced to 10 years in prison for having sex with a 15-year-old. In a ruling released Friday, the court denied a motion for reconsideration filed by lawyers for Genarlow Wilson, who was 17 when he and the 15-year-old engaged in consensual oral sex. He was sentenced for aggravated child molestation. Wilson’s case was one of two cases that were cited earlier this year when lawmakers passed a law that otherwise strengthened penalties for sex offenders, but reduced the penalty from a felony to...

A judge denied bond today for a Lyons man who fled the country after being accused of the videotaped rape of a Naperville teen. Burim Bezeri made his first appearance in a Cook County courtroom since ending a 27-month run that began when he and another defendant fled to Europe. Bezeri, 21, returned to Chicago with FBI agents Thursday after surrendering to them one day earlier at an embassy in Tirana, Albania. His return came several months after two friends won acquittals. “I’m very happy he’s back,” his uncle, Gjukaj Bezeri, said outside of court. The defendant’s mother, Nushe, also...

The Seattle Times reports "House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi wants the House Ethics Committee to put Republican leadership under oath to find out what they knew about Congressman Mark Foley's inappropriate communications with Congressional pages." In a statement, Minority Senate leader Harry Reid (D) described the allegations against Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) as 'repugnant.' "Equally as bad," the Nevada Democrat said, "is the possibility that Republican leaders in the House of Representatives knew there was a problem and ignored it to preserve a Congressional seat this election year." Now wait a minute... Then President Bill Clinton had not been sending...

Laws that require minors to notify or get the consent of one or both parents before a teen can have an abortion reduce risky sexual behavior among teens, according to Jonathan Klick, Professor of Law at Florida State University, and Thomas Stratmann, professor of economics at George Mason University. The researchers found that teen gonorrhea rates dropped by an average of 20 percent for Hispanic girls and 12 percent for white girls in states where parental notification laws were in effect. "This suggests that Hispanic and white teenage girls are forward looking in their sex decisions, and they systematically view...

The violent Muslim reaction to Pope Benedict's reference to Muhammad involves far more than the issue of freedom of speech. The ultimate issue is one of theological truth on the one hand, and the true nature of Islam on the other. Pope Benedict's "indirect" disparagement of Muhammad--who was will denigrated by St. Thomas Aquinas, the touchstone of Roman Catholicism--is by definition a disparagement of Islam. Be this as it may, the Pope now calls for "dialogue." When Islam substitutes dialogue for the sword it will cease to be Islam. Islamic leaders from Muhammad to Ahmadinejad have ever declared war on...

Forms, which must be notarized, also warn teens of medical risks AUSTIN — After 13 months of intense pressure from opposing factions, the state has adopted rules requiring written — and notarized — parental consent forms for girls under age 18 to get abortions. The new forms span six pages, warn of medical risks and tout "women's right to know" brochures backed by abortion opponents, said those on opposite sides of the issue. The rules would take effect 20 days later. Patrick said the governor's office backed the final form approved late last week, which requires parents' written consent be...

(AgapePress) - I think she still holds it against me. As a teen today, it's absolutely ludicrous to think that my niece Katie needs to hold my hand while crossing the street.But way back when, when Katie was just three, our battle of wills produced fierce tears. On a shopping trip, I her aunt, was entrusted with her safety. All was going well ... until the moment I grabbed Katie's hand before we crossed the busy parking lot in front of the store.Katie jerked her hand away from me. Hearing a car's motor on the left, I reached out...

ONE of Britain's leading experts on medical ethics has called for doctors to be able to end the lives of terminally ill patients — even if they have not given consent. Len Doyal, professor of medical ethics at the University of London, has taken the euthanasia debate into new and highly contentious territory. He says doctors should recognise they are already killing patients when they remove feeding tubes from those whose lives are judged to be no longer worth living. Some will suffer a "slow and distressing death" as a result. It would be better if their lives were ended...

Updated:2006-05-18 09:19:56 San Francisco Relaxes HIV Test Rules By PAUL ELIAS AP SAN FRANCISCO (May 17) - City-run medical clinics will no longer require written consent and counseling sessions before testing people for HIV in a bid to increase the number of people screened for the virus, officials said Wednesday. The city, at the forefront of the AIDS fight, becomes the first known entity in the U.S. to formally loosen consent and counseling requirements. The new policy was implemented Tuesday in the city clinics and two hospitals that test patients. Last year, 240 people tested positive out of the 6,000...

Age of consent and criminal responsibility may be lowered [07-12-2005] By Daniela Lazarova Turning fifteen is a big milestone in the life of a Czech: you reach the age of consent, you bear criminal responsibility and get a citizens ID, all regarded as a sign of maturity. Last week the chamber of deputies voted in favour of lowering the age of consent and criminal responsibility by one year, sparking a widespread debate among psychologists and the public as to whether such a move is wise. The bill approved by the lower house of Parliament last week has divided people into...

WOMEN who are raped while drunk face losing the chance to bring their attackers to justice after a legal ruling on the eve of new licensing laws. A High Court judge yesterday threw out the case of a student who claimed that she was raped while drunk and unconscious on the basis that “drunken consent is still consent”. The judgment came hours before the sweeping relaxation of Britain licensing laws which introduces 24-hour drinking in pubs for the first time. The change prompted police and doctors to warn that Britain was facing an explosion of binge drinking. The prosecution in...

WOMEN who are raped while drunk face losing the chance to bring their attackers to justice after a legal ruling on the eve of new licensing laws. A High Court judge yesterday threw out the case of a student who claimed that she was raped while drunk and unconscious on the basis that “drunken consent is still consent”. The judgment came hours before the sweeping relaxation of Britain licensing laws which introduces 24-hour drinking in pubs for the first time. The change prompted police and doctors to warn that Britain was facing an explosion of binge drinking. The prosecution in...

Grumbling about whether or not judges are taking away God given rights from parents is worth doing. Fighting said activist judges in order to keep them from taking additional rights away from parents is ALWAYS a good thing. Purposefully voting away your own rights to your kids well being is utterly foolish, utterly stupid, and ultimately utterly dangerous to your children. Every parent that voted against Prop 73 should have their children taken away from them - for they obvious do not have the ultimate well being of their kids in mind... SHAME ON EVERY ONE OF THEM!

. . . the group . . . includes Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott; Raul Gonzalez . . . James Baker . . . and Eugene Cook . . . Former Chief Justice Tom . . . Phillips, Hill and Joe Greenhill, another former chief justice . . . sent a joint letter on Oct. 14 to the Senate Judiciary Committee in support of Miers. "We feel confident that we know what it takes to be a justice -- Harriet Miers exceeds that mark," the trio of justices wrote in the letter. [. . .] "I've known her as president...

Look at George Washington's nomination of John Rutledge to be Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in 1795. If one were to play the qualification (rather than the DISqualification) game, Rutledge should have been easily confirmed. He had chaired the South Carolina delegation to the First Continental Congress in 1774, served as governor of South Carolina in 1779 (after serving as president of the South Carolina Republic from 1776 to 1778), was chosen by the state legislature to serve as the chief judge of the South Carolina Court of Chancery in 1784, and attended the Constitutional Convention of 1787 where...

Even Democrats are beginning to sense that the American people have had about enough of their mindless obstructionist tactics. Most of us know what the Constitution says. The President has the sole right to appoint Supreme Court nominees and the Senate has the obligation to offer advice, then their consent or dissent as the case may be. We understand that the Democrats power is limited to underhanded character assassination leading up to another abuse of the filibuster. Who do you think removed them from all other forms of power in Washington? But despite the recent “damn the torpedoes elitists” mindset...

In light of the current Supreme Court vacancy to be filled and those upcoming, and since the words "advice/advise and consent" are being bandied about with veiled and blatant threats by the Democrats, the Founder's actual deliberations and decisions on this subject need to be recalled and re-stated. The Senate is Supposed to Advise and Consent, Not Obstruct and Delay I. The Framers of the Constitution Assigned to the President the Pre-Eminent Role in Appointing Judges. A. The President Alone Has The Power to Nominate Article II of the Constitution provides that the President "shall nominate, and by and with...

The American Medical Association said Monday that a controversial proposal to boost organ donation merits study. It's called "presumed consent": Anyone who dies would automatically be considered an organ donor, unless he or she had previously registered an objection. During its annual meeting in Chicago, the AMA recommended pilot studies "in relatively small populations" to determine whether presumed consent would increase organ donations. Presumed consent is in effect in some countries in Europe and South America. Presumed consent laws for organ transplants have been introduced in several states, but none has passed. More here.

The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to decide a long-unsettled issue of abortion law: the standard to be used in judging the constitutionality of a restriction on a women's right to end a pregnancy. The issue arises in the case of Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood of Northern New England (docket 04-1144). The case also raises the question whether a parental consent law for minors' abortions must contain a health exception.

A proposed constitutional amendment making it harder for minors to get abortions has qualified for the next election ballot, the secretary of state's office announced Monday. The measure would prohibit abortions on unemancipated minors until 48 hours after an abortion provider notified the minor's parents or legal guardian. There would be possible civil fines for failing to do so. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has said he will call a special election for November if he's unable to reach agreement with Democrats in the Legislature on three other initiatives he has proposed. Schwarzenegger has said he favors the general idea of parental...

It is a rare person who has not heard of the recent cruel homicide of the Florida woman, Terri Schiavo. Everyone, it seemed, had a strong opinion on the subject. Yet, despite clear moral teachings on the evils of euthanasia, there are ‘Catholics’ who boast support for euthanasia and doctor-assisted suicide.[1] Are these ‘Catholics’ badly formed and ignorant of their Church’s infallible teachings on the dignity and sacredness of all human life? Is it the fault of Catholic clergy for not preaching the Church’s teachings from the pulpit? In view of the clarity and frequency of the Church’s up-to-date teachings,...

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — The state's social services agency went to court to block a 13-year-old girl who is pregnant and living in a state shelter from having an abortion, and the girl wants to challenge the judge's decision. The ACLU filed an emergency appeal on Wednesday asking a judge to overturn the ruling that would essentially force the girl to become a mother, said Howard Simon, the organization's executive director for Florida. The girl, named L.G. in court documents and described as a longtime ward of the state, learned she was pregnant two weeks ago and had planned...

4Parents.gov is part of a new national public education campaign to provide parents with the information, tools and skills they need to help their teens make the healthiest choices. There is no substitute for caring parents who are involved in their children's lives. If preteens and teens are going to make the choices that will enable them to become healthy adults, they need parents to talk frankly with them about sensitive topics like sex and relationships. Parents who have been reticent to talk with their teens and preteens about these issues now have a new resource in this website. The...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

Last week, the British Department of Health, with the blessing of the “ethicists” of the British Medical Association, decreed that girls under 16 may—and indeed should—have abortions without their parents’ knowledge. The girls, health officials reason, have the capacity to decide for themselves whether abortion is right for them; and if they decide it is, they also have the right to medical confidentiality. No one seemed to notice that this decree stood in stark contradiction to the legal age of consent for sexual relations, which remains 16. According to current law, every pregnancy to a girl under 16 results from...

Sex between children as young as 12 will be allowed under a shock law change, horrifying teen pregnancy experts, educators and counsellors. The Crimes Amendment (No 2) Bill is designed to repeal our outdated sex laws but critics are furious at a new section that would allow sex between teenage couples. The new law would decriminalise consensual sex for children as young as 12, provided their partner is no more than two years older than them. It would allow a girl as young as 12, and a boy aged 12-14, to have sex with impunity. Parents and police would be...

To hear homosexual agitators tell it, same-sex "marriage" is no threat to the institution that civilized humans have reserved for one man and one woman for thousands of years. They scoff at the notion that vaporizing traditional marriage will break down barriers prohibiting unions involving multiple partners, close relatives or other species. But the facts say otherwise. More than a decade ago, homosexual marriage was legalized in Scandinavia and now dogs are routinely sodomized in Sweden to the point where they need medical treatment. Now the same court that conjured up a same-sex marriage right in Massachusetts has ruled that...

Freedom is not a Luxury Freedom is a divine gift that accompanies our salvation. That freedom, however, does not necessarily relate to political, social, economic, and other external freedoms. It is a condition of the heart rather than a state of external being. There are external freedoms that are an essential part of our democracy that should be cherished and adhered to by all. The enjoyment of those freedoms, though, has inevitably limitations. I remember a college professor at one of the colleges I attended saying, "My freedom ends where your nose begins." There is a price associated with our...

Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted has issued the following statement regarding the abortion/informed consent legislation:On March 4, Governor Janet Napolitano vetoed legislation (SB 1077) that would have required informed consent and a 24-hour waiting period before abortions could be performed. A recent study by the Heritage Foundation has found that when such laws are enacted, not only are the health and dignity of women better protected, but fewer abortions are also the result. I am deeply saddened by this veto because I believe both of these outcomes are beneficial to society. In explaining her veto, the governor speaks of "undue government...

The Senate Leftists are continuing to ignore their constitutionally spelled-out job to vote on judicial nominees. Instead, they are leading a "filibuster" against good conservatives. The GOP should force a real filibuster.The Democrats' continued attempts to avoid their constitutional duty of advice and consent took another step Wednesday as they voted, for the seventh time this year, to block the nomination of Miguel Estrada to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. The vote came as no surprise as they seem to be in the habit of bad-mouthing and voting against Mr. Estrada and they had voted Tuesday against ending their...

ORLANDO, Fla. -- In a landmark decision, the Florida Supreme Court has done away with a law requiring doctors to notify the parents of minors having an abortion. But now the law is not consistent for other medical procedures. In the state of Florida, in order to get any sort of surgical procedure, a minor must not only notify their parents, they have to get parental consent. But in the case of an abortion, the Supreme Court ruled a minor's right to privacy outweighs a parent's right to know. It's now more difficult for someone under the age of 18...

WASHINGTON (Talon News) -- In response to recent statements by Senate Democrats on the Judiciary Committee implying a broader role in the selection and confirmation of Presidential nominees to the federal bench, Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas commented on how the Constitution defines the issue. "Though much is made of the word 'advice,' the Advice and Consent clause establishes only that the Senate's approval is necessary, but not sufficient, for the President to appoint an individual," Cornyn said. "Advice and Consent has devolved to Demand and Obstruct." Cornyn is chairman of the Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil...

WASHINGTON, June 27 — In one of the first consequences of its landmark ruling on gay rights on Thursday, the Supreme Court today set aside the lengthy prison sentence imposed on a gay Kansas teenager for having had sex with a younger boy. In a brief order with little elaboration, the court vacated the 17-year sentence imposed in 2000 on the defendant, Matthew Limon, and returned the case to the Kansas courts "for further consideration in light of Lawrence v. Texas." The case of Lawrence v. Texas, which was decided on Thursday and overturned an Texas antisodomy law, upheld the...

Fetus Heart Races When Mom Reads Poetry; New Findings Reveal Fetuses Recognize Mother?s Voice In-uteroKingston, Ont. -- New research findings on the ability of a fetus to recognize its mother's voice and even distinguish it from other female voices confirms what scientists have speculated about for more than 20 years - that experiences in the womb help shape newborn preferences and behaviour. Dr. Barbara Kisilevsky, a Queen's University professor of nursing along with a team of psychologists at Queen's and obstetricians in Hangzhou, China, found that fetuses are capable of learning in the womb and can remember and recognize their...

Jan. 16, 2003, 6:45PM Supreme Court urged to kill Texas' sodomy law Associated Perss A gay rights group today filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court urging the high court to overturn Texas' sodomy law in the case of two men charged with having sex inside a home in 1998. Lambda Legal, which represents the two men, and several other organizations have asked the Supreme Court to declare the state's anti-sodomy law unconstitutional. "Some of the most diverse and respected voices in this country are lining up to tell the Supreme Court that these laws are contrary to American...

Having slogged her way through Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin, or maybe just some of it, a correspondent asked me if I really believed that the consent-and-exchange society I advocate could possibly work in a Third World country. I answered, yes, of course, and I told her it would work just fine, quickly deliver the goods, peace and prosperity. Indeed, I said, you could see the merits of a free and peaceful economy much more clearly in some benighted backwater of the world than anywhere in the developed world. Mere assertion isn't persuasive, so I started considering how I could dramatize...

Having slogged her way through Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin, or maybe just some of it, a correspondent asked me if I really believed that the consent-and-exchange society I advocate could possibly work in a Third World country. I answered, yes, of course, and I told her it would work just fine, quickly deliver the goods, peace and prosperity. Indeed, I said, you could see the merits of a free and peaceful economy much more clearly in some benighted backwater of the world than anywhere in the developed world. Mere assertion isn't persuasive, so I started considering how I could dramatize...

For the drunkard attempting to excuse himself from a traffic offence, Aristotle offers no more comfort than does the local constabulary. His Nicomachean Ethics argues that drunken offenders should not be let off on the grounds of diminished responsibility, but should have their penalties doubled ‘because the origin of the offence was in the man himself, as he might have avoided getting drunk, which was the cause of his not knowing what he was doing’. In other words, you may be oblivious to what you do while you are drunk, but you are responsible for getting drunk and so you...

It seems there are a lot of very stupid criminals around. What kind of dingdong would consent to being searched by police while carrying large quantities of illegal substances? It happens. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that Police in Florida were within their rights to board a Greyhound bus and question passengers. Furthermore, when police came to two men wearing heavy clothing on a warm day, police had a right to ask permission to search their luggage and bodies. That police found bricks of cocaine strapped to the men's legs was not necessarily the question before the Court. The...