Free Republic

France's supreme court has ruled that parents of miscarried or stillborn children can register a name for the child, no matter what stage of development the child was at at the time of miscarriage or birth, reports the AFP. Previous to this most recent ruling, parents in France were allowed to register a name for miscarried or stillborn children, but only after 22 weeks gestation, or if the child weighed over 1.1 pounds. This new ruling gives parents the right to claim the body of their child, which, until this point, was incinerated by the hospital along with other waste...

It was years after Mark and Diane Albrecht laid their son Christopher to rest that they discovered they had not buried all of him. His brain had been removed for tests by an Ohio county coroner trying to determine why the seemingly healthy 30-year-old man had died. It was never returned. The Albrechts' discovery that they had buried their son without his brain has led to a federal class-action suit that could cost local governments millions of dollars, force changes in the way medical examiners perform their jobs and establish new rights for the next of kin. The suit argues...

Provides Basis for Protection of All Unborn by Legislatively Establishing Personhood. A Life at Conception Act - as introduced by Congressman Duncan Hunter (H.R. 618) - is legislation that, quite simply, would declare the unborn to be “persons” under the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, and therefore entitled to the right to life guaranteed therein. The 14th Amendment states: “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to...

As Georgia legislators meet for their first session of the season, pro-life advocates will rally outside the state Capitol Monday to urge them to prioritize a measure acknowledging the “personhood” of embryos and recognizing the right to life of persons from conception to death. The Let Them Live Rally in Atlanta will seek to impress upon lawmakers the importance of supporting the Human Life Amendment (HR 536), which requires a two-thirds vote of the Georgia House and the state Senate to appear on the November 2008 ballot. Pro-life advocates are confident that Georgian voters will approve the measure once it...

The Legacy of Judas: National Right to Life Contact: Donna Ballentine, 888-888-2785 MEDIA ADVISORY, Dec. 20 /Christian Newswire/ -- The following is submitted by Brian Rohrbough, President, American RTL: Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot went to the chief priests and said, "What are you willing to give me if I deliver Him to you?" And they counted out to him thirty pieces of silver. So from that time he sought opportunity to betray Him. In 1981, after president Ronald Reagan agreed he would sign federal personhood legislation for the unborn, National Right to Life and their longtime...

DENVER, December 18, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A young law student in Colorado has launched an effort to put a resolution on the state ballot in 2008 to acknowledge the personhood of embryos from the moment of fertilization. Kristi Burton, age 20, is heading a group called "Colorado for Equal Rights" (http://www.coloradoforequalrights.com), which is grabbing the attention of the major media nationwide.  The organization is seeking the 76,000 signatures necessary under Colorado law to subject a resolution to a statewide plebiscite. The resolution simply reads: "Be it Enacted by the People of the State of Colorado: SECTION 1. Article II...

Opening a new front in their assault on abortion, activists in half a dozen states are preparing ballot referendums that would grant "personhood" and constitutional rights to embryos from the moment of conception. The drive is under way in Colorado, where activists have begun gathering signatures for an initiative, and Georgia, where the Legislature will take up the issue when it reconvenes in January. Abortion opponents in Montana, Oregon, Mississippi and Michigan are among those considering similar measures. The new strategy takes an idea that has been central to the pro-life movement - that human life begins when an egg...

LOS ANGELES, November 26, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Human beings, being mammals, do not lay eggs. This fact, known to most school children, is frequently forgotten by those in the media reporting on advancements in embryo and cloning research. The latest example of media misrepresentation on embryo research comes from Saturday's Los Angeles Times which ran the headline, "Abortion opponents push for 'personhood' for eggs." The Los Angeles Times reporter examines pending bills in several states that would confer legal personhood on the unborn child from the first moment of conception. Nicholas Riccardi cites efforts in Colorado, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana and...

When I saw a column written by pro-life activist Jane Frantz in the Appleton Post-Crescent, it really took the wind out of my sails. She wrote about her epiphany in the pro-life movement following her own abortion, but she pointed out something that reminded me of the reasons why pro-lifers continue to tread water politically. Frantz opined, "After three and a half decades, I wonder how much longer we can afford to do the same things, expecting different results." Her observations about pro-lifers "authoring and defending woefully inadequate legislation" is but one of the problems we face on the political...

Pro-life activists in Colorado have cleared a major hurdle in preparing an initiative for the 2008 election that would grant personhood to the unborn and create a possible confrontation to the 1973 Roe vs. Wade ruling that created abortion rights. The state Supreme Court has granted permission for supporters of Colorado for Equal Rights to move forward with collecting the estimated 76,000 signatures needed to put the issue on the state election ballot. It would grant personhood to the unborn from the moment of fertilization, meaning state and local laws protecting any individual life would be applied to the unborn....

The Colorado Supreme Court today released a decision giving proponents the go-ahead for a ballot initiative that would amend the state Constitution in 2008 to define personhood as a fertilized egg. Opponents of the measure, which would lay the constitutional foundation for making abortion illegal in the state, asked the court to reject the ballot title as misleading to voters. The court ruled that the measure's wording is clear and meets state requirements in terms of covering a single subject. The measure, if approved by voters, would extend constitutional protection from the moment of conception with regard to rights of...

Contact: Kristi Burton, Colorado for Equal Rights Spokesperson, 719-661-8827, www.coloradoequalrights.com DENVER, Colorado, November 13 /Christian Newswire/ -- After weeks of review, the Colorado Supreme Court has just released a decision granting Colorado for Equal Rights permission to move forward with a ballot initiative to restore personhood to human beings from the moment of conception. Presidential candidate Dr. Alan Keyes, along with American Life League Founder Judie Brown, will speak about the necessity of such an initiative. Colorado for Equal Rights will now begin gathering the 76,000 signatures required to put this issue on the November Ballot. This Constitutional Amendment will...

NEW YORK, November 7, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The meaning of human nature itself is under threat from a new philosophy of “soul-less scientism” that will undermine “our own self-understanding as human beings” and reduces the aspirations of mankind to the purely material realm. This new philosophy outstrips the danger posed by the actual techniques and technologies of modern biomedical science, said Dr. Leon Kass, speaking to a New York audience in October.  “Scientific ideas and discoveries” he said, “are being enlisted to do battle against our traditional religious and moral teachings, and even our self-understanding as creatures with freedom and...

We in the pro-life movement have got a decision to make. If this were a football game, it would be the fourth quarter with one second on the clock. We, the Lifers, trail the Choicers by three points. We’re on their goal line. It’s fourth down. And, it’s the Superbowl. Do we go for the field goal and the tie, in hopes of sending the game into overtime? Or, do we run a play and go for the touchdown and the win? Welcome to the debate within the pro-life movement between those who support the National Right to Life and...

Recently, while wandering through my local grocery, I turned the corner, heading up the cereal aisle. I had no more walked ten feet when I caught the attention of a stranger – a young man in his mid-twenties – walking toward me. Upon seeing me, his face lit up and a smile spread from ear to ear. I smiled in return, his pace quickened and he marched straight over to me and with a welcoming voice said, "Hello, how are you?" I stopped, we exchanged a few friendly words and then after a hardy “goodbye,” he moved on to greet...

Pro-life organizations are trying to build support for the legal definition that an unborn child is a person to exploit a weakness that was cited by author Harry Blackmun when he wrote the creative Roe V. Wade abortion precedent in 1973. But their work has generated a huge argument within the pro-life movement: whether it's better to chip away at the opportunities abortionists have to conduct their business or a challenge should be mounted to confront Roe's very premise that the unborn are only tissue. WND reported earlier when several pro-life organizations launched an advertising campaign that was critical of...

But the Catholic bishops of England and Wales, in a submission to the Parliamentary joint committee scrutinising the draft legislation, said that the genetic mothers of “chimeras” should be able to raise them as their own children if they wished. The bishops said that they did not see why these “interspecies” embryos should be treated any differently than others. The wide-ranging draft Human Tissue and Embryo Bill, which aims to overhaul the laws on fertility treatment, will include

Colorado for Equal Rights files Pro-Life Amendment June 19th, 2007 Today Colorado for Equal Rights filed language with the Colorado Legislative Council to start the process of a ballot initiative for the November 2008 election, which will grant rights of personhood from conception. This proposed amendment to the Colorado Constitution states, “As used in Article II, Sections 3, 6, and 25 of the Colorado Constitution, the words “person” and “persons” shall include any human being from the moment of fertilization.” www.coloradoequalrights.com

VIENNA, Austria (AP) - In some ways, Hiasl is like any other Viennese: He indulges a weakness for pastry, likes to paint and enjoys chilling out watching TV. But he doesn't care for coffee, and he isn't actually a person—at least not yet. In a case that could set a global legal precedent for granting basic rights to apes, animal rights advocates are seeking to get the 26- year-old male chimpanzee legally declared a "person." Hiasl's supporters argue he needs that status to become a legal entity that can receive donations and get a guardian to look out for his...

Acorns and EmbryosRobert P. George and Patrick Leehe prestigious New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) recently invited two members of the President’s Council on Bioethics to reflect on the ethics of using embryonic stem cells in biomedical research. Paul McHugh, a professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University, explained his opposition to the destruction of human embryos created by the union of gametes, but sought to distinguish such embryos from what he dubbed “clonotes”: that is, embryos brought into being by cloning (a process known technically as “somatic cell nuclear transfer” or SCNT). He argued that human “clonotes” are not...

Travel the Grand Trunk Road between Lahore and Islamabad, and you come to the city of Gujrat. Awash in the smog and sewage produced by its million-odd inhabitants, it is an unlovely place best known for the manufacture of electrical fans. It is also the location of a shrine to a 17th-century Sufi Saint by the name of Shua Dulah. For at least 100 years, but perhaps for centuries, it has been, though is no longer, a depository for children with microcephaly. The word "microcephaly" comes from the Greek, "small head". But in Pakistan, such children are known as chuas...

The newborn girl was carefully wrapped in two plastic bags and tossed over a fence into a ravine in Alhambra, California. She did not survive the 53-feet fall. This horrifying case of infanticide, uncovered in March, produced a wave of alarm and emotion from Alhambra natives, who named the baby Therese Rose and lovingly organized a funeral service for her. It’s hard to imagine anyone not moved by the baby’s heartless murder and, in contrast, the tender response of the people of Alhambra. However, too often outrage over an infant’s senseless homicide stops short when she is still in...

SANDUSKY (AP) -- A hospital whose employee stored about 90 fetuses or fetal tissue instead of disposing them didn't violate the law, said a county judge, citing the U.S. Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade abortion rights ruling. Erie County Judge Tygh Tone ruled against extending the definition of "person" to include fetal tissue based on Roe v. Wade, which set a precedent that legal rights of a "person" have "generally been contingent upon live birth." The judge dismissed four claims in a lawsuit against Firelands Community Hospital, now known Firelands Regional Medical Center. Two women who had miscarriages or stillbirths...

This morning on Fox and Friends a young woman from Arizona made her case that she was improperly fined for driving in the lane restricted to two persons during rush hour. Candace was 8+ months pregnant at the time and there were two persons riding in the vehicle and therefore in compliance with the law. The law is said not to require two people in two different seats ot otherwise define persons. Since life begins at conception Candace and her son fulfilled the requirement. As the interview progressed she was asked if she deducted the unborn child as a dependant...

The insertion of human stem cells into monkey brains runs a "real risk" of altering the animals' abilities in ways that might make them more like us, scientists said today. A panel of 22 experts -- including primatologists, stem cell researchers, lawyers and philosophers -- debated the possible consequences of the technique for more than a year. While the group agrees it is "unlikely that grafting human stem cells into the brains of non-human primates would alter the animals' abilities in morally relevant ways," the members "also felt strongly that the risk of doing so is real and too ethically...

RUSH: To Baltimore, we'll start with Paul today. Welcome, sir, and hi. You're on the EIB Network. CALLER: Mega dittos, Rush. How are you? RUSH: Good. Never better, sir. CALLER: You're going to need to take some blood pressure medicine. You're really on a roll today. RUSH: Thank you, sir. CALLER: (Laughing.) My only comment is that, you know, I'm horrified by what's happening in Florida with Terri Schiavo, but -- RUSH: Oh, yeah, "But..." CALLER: The courts have ruled, and the decision has been made according to Florida law-- RUSH: Yes. CALLER: --and it's time to stop 11 days...

1. Dr. Cranford said, to Hannity last night, that PVS persons have no constitutional rights.2. Cranford has said that Terri is PVSQuestion: Does Terri have the constitutional right to ask to be starved to death?

[Note: I thought some might be interested in a recently "found" short article I was asked to write as a new professor over 10 years ago on "personhood", on how not everything can be just a matter of "consensus". -- DNI]. Dianne N. Irving, M.A., Ph.D. (former research biochemist) Assistant Professor, History of Philosophy/Bioethics De Sales School of Theology Washington, D.C. 20017 copy right March 15, 1994 [published in Pontis (March 1994), The Center for Medical Ethics and Mediation, San Diego, CA.] CAN EITHER SCIENTIFIC FACTS OR "PERSONHOOD" BE MEDIATED? Beginning with the correct facts Health care decision making is...

PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN'S PERSONHOOD PROCLAMATION By the President of the United States of America: A PROCLAMATION America has given a great gift to the world, a gift that drew upon the accumulated wisdom derived from centuries of experiments in self-government, a gift that has irrevocably changed humanity's future. Our gift is twofold: the declaration, as a cardinal principle of all just law, of the God-given, unalienable rights possessed by every human being; and the example of our determination to secure those rights and to defend them against every challenge through the generations. Our declaration and defense of our rights have...

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Quote: At an appeals court hearing in August 2001, Felos set a high standard for personhood. "The litmus test is whether or not a person can bring a spoon to their mouth," he said. Source: Fight-for-life bombshell: Woman 'trying to talk'! Husband of brain-damaged wife seeks starvation despite claims, Posted: August 2, 2003, 1:00 a.m. Eastern, By Sarah Foster © 2003 WorldNetDaily.com Do you know what percentage of the human population cannot raise a spoon to its mouth? That number would include most normal children under the age of one, a large percentage of those in nursing homes, all...

A Clash of Orthodoxies Robert P. George Copyright (c) 1999 First Things 95 (August/September 1999): 33-40.A few years ago, the eminent Harvard political scientist Samuel Huntington published in Foreign Affairs a widely noted article called "The Clash of Civilizations." Looking at contemporary international relations from a geopolitical vantage point, he predicted a clash of the world’s major civilizations: the West, the Islamic world, and the Confucian East. Huntington’s article provoked a response from one of his own most brilliant former students—Swarthmore’s James Kurth. In an article in the National Interest entitled "The Real Clash," Kurth argued persuasively that the clash...

Jackson, MS (LifeNews.com) -- The Mississippi Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that an unborn child is a person and wrongful death lawsuits may be filed on her behalf. Tracy Tucker pursued a wrongful death lawsuit when a mistake by doctors caused her to have a miscarriage in 1997. The unborn child was 19 weeks old at the time. At the time, the law only allowed such suits when the unborn child was post-viability. The 6-2 ruling expands the definition of a "person" in wrongful death cases to include all unborn children. Justice Jim Smith, writing for the court, said the...

Tells Harvard Students that Supreme Court Rulings Make Partial Birth Abortion Ban Pointless Speaking to Harvard students recently on the topic of "Thirty Years of Roe vs. Wade," Professor of Constitutional Law Dwight Duncan said that a key question at the oral argument of the case was whether the fetus is a person. If it is, its Constitutional rights would be protected. However, the court said a fetus was not a person within the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment, which says a person shall not be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law. There was no...

PIKEVILLE - The state Court of Appeals overturned a guilty plea yesterday in the death of a fetus in a Pike County car crash, effectively upholding Kentucky case law that even a viable fetus is not a person until it is born alive. "We view the born-alive rule as providing a cogent and well-defined legal criterion which has existed as common law in this commonwealth for more than half a century," Judge John Miller said in an opinion. But the case, which has attracted nationwide interest from abortion-related groups, might not be over. The ruling will be appealed to the...

Our body plan is being defined in the first few hours of life. Your world was shaped in the first 24 hours after conception. Where your head and feet would sprout, and which side would form your back and which your belly, were being defined in the minutes and hours after sperm and egg united. Just five years ago, this statement would have been heresy. Mammalian embryos were thought to spend their first few days as a featureless orb of cells. Only later, at about the time of implantation into the wall of the uterus, were cells thought to acquire...