World Family Policy Center Newsletter
* News
relative to protecting the family worldwide *
Volume 4 Issue 7 - February 28, 2005
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Quote of the Day: “The
Supreme Judicial Court can and does
invoke the law of man. The Supreme Judicial Court cannot
repeal
the law of nature."
—
David Flynn, Massachusetts State Rep.
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Today’s Contents:
A. Featured Articles:
1. Judge Rules Against Gay Couples in N.Y.
Related Article:
Britain to Allow Gay Civil Unions
Related
Article: Anglican Schism Feared Over Gays
Related
Article: Flocks in U.S., Canada face split
2.http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/feb/05021807.html:
What Place for God in Europe?
3.
Supreme Court to Hear Assisted-Suicide Challenge
4.
Effectiveness of UN Cloning Declaration in Dispute
5.
Study: Teens Religious, But Unknowledgeable
6. HIV
scars India's vast population
7.
Adelphia Dumps XXX Porn Plans
8. UN
says World population will rise to 9.1 billion by 2050
B. Coming Events
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FEATURED ARTICLES
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1. Judge Rules Against
Gay Couples in N.Y.
February 24, 2005
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ITHACA, N.Y. (AP) - A judge has ruled against a group
of same-sex couples who challenged the state's anti-gay marriage law after they
were denied marriage licenses.
The 25 couples sued the city of Ithaca and the state
last June, arguing that the law contradicts a 2002 New York statute outlawing
discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
But State Supreme Court Judge Robert Mulvey rejected
that argument Wednesday, saying it is up to the Legislature to change the law,
not the courts.
To read entire article:
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nat-gen/2005/feb/24/022404243.html
Related Article: Britain to Allow Gay Civil Unions
February 22, 2005
Washington Times
LONDON -- Same-sex partners in Britain will be able to
enter into civil unions beginning in December, joining homosexuals in parts of
Europe and the United States in obtaining many of the rights enjoyed by married
couples, the government said yesterday.
The Civil Partnerships Bill passed by Parliament last
year gives same-sex couples the right to form legally binding partnerships and
entitles them to some of the same tax and pension rights that married couples
have.
Starting Dec. 5, couples will be able to notify the
register office at their local council that they intend to form civil
partnerships. After a 15-day waiting period, they will sign an official
partnership document in front of witnesses.
To read entire article:
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20050222-123838-4077r.htm
Related Article: Anglican Schism Feared
Over Gays
By Al Webb
The Washington Times
February 24, 2005
LONDON -- Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams,
showing signs of exasperation, has warned fellow leaders of the Anglican Church
that a dispute over homosexual clergy threatens to shatter their
77-million-member communion.
The leaders -- senior archbishops and presiding
bishops from six continents -- were summoned to a week-long conference in a
country mansion in Northern Ireland, but at the midway point, there was little
sign of any agreement on the horizon.
"Should the call to halt and find ways of
continuing in our present communion not be heeded, then we shall have to begin
to learn to walk apart," Archbishop Williams said.
To read entire article:
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20050224-122353-5917r.htm
Related Article: Flocks in U.S., Canada
face split
By Julia Duin
The Washington Times
The U.S. Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of
Canada must cease ordaining homosexuals and conducting blessings of same-sex
unions by 2008 or withdraw from the worldwide Anglican Communion, the
denomination's archbishops ruled yesterday.
In the meantime, the two churches cannot participate
in the governing body of the 70-million-member Anglican Communion, according to
a five-page communique issued last night from a conference in Northern Ireland.
To read entire article:
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20050224-115733-2113r.htm
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2.http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/feb/05021807.html: What Place for God in Europe?
Across Europe,the conflicting
currents of secularism, Christianity, and Islam are compelling Europeans to
wrestle with their values as never before. In this first installment of a
three-part series, the Monitor examines the forces that are shaping European
identity - and explores why the Continent is debating what role, if any, religion
should play in public life.
By Peter Ford
The Christian Science Monitor
February 22, 2005
PARIS – As he urged closer ties with Europe Monday,
President Bush played down the current political disputes. "No power on
earth will ever divide us," he said.
That may be true when it comes to Iran's nuclear
program. But his remark ironically hints at a transatlantic chasm over US and
European values, and the role each side assigns to a fundamental facet of human
life: religious faith.
Two events last year neatly frame the challenge: In
the United States, a California man tried to remove "One Nation, Under
God" from the Pledge of Allegiance. Americans cried foul - roughly 90
percent wanted to keep the phrase - and on June 15, the Supreme Court halted
the bid on procedural grounds.
Three days later, in Brussels, officials agreed on the
final text of the European Union's new Constitution. The charter made no
mention of God, despite calls that it recognize
Europe's Christian roots.
To read entire article:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0222/p01s04-woeu.html
Christian Science Monitor Follow-up
Articles:
•
In a Secular Ocean, Waves of Spirituality:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0223/p01s03-woeu.html
•
Europe's Rising Class of Believers: Muslims
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0224/p10s01-woeu.html
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3. Supreme Court to Hear Assisted-Suicide
Challenge
Supreme Court Could Face Turnovers in '05
FoxNews.com
February 22, 2005
WASHINGTON —
The Supreme Court on Tuesday said it will hear a challenge to the nation's only
assisted suicide law, taking up a case embracing the Bush administration's
appeal to stop doctors from helping terminally ill patients die more quickly.
Justices will review a lower court ruling that said
the U.S. government cannot sanction or hold doctors criminally liable for
prescribing overdoses under Oregon's voter-approved Death With
Dignity Act. Since 1998, more than 170 people — most with cancer — have used
the law to end their lives.
Arguments will be heard in the court's next term,
which begins in October.
Former Attorney General John Ashcroft filed the appeal
last November, on the day his resignation was announced by the White House,
arguing that physician-assisted suicide is not a "legitimate medical
purpose" and that doctors take an oath to heal patients, not help them
die.
Oregon countered by saying that regulation of doctors
generally has been the sole responsibility of the states. Ashcroft has no
authority under the federal Controlled Substances Act to punish doctors because
Congress intended the law only to prevent illegal drug trafficking, the state
argued.
To read entire article:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,148333,00.html
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4. Effectiveness of UN Cloning Declaration in Dispute
By Patrick Goodenough
CNSNews.com International Editor
February 24, 2005
(CNSNews.com) - A decision by a United Nations
committee to recommend a global ban on all human cloning is making waves around
the world, although some question whether it will have any real effect.
Should it be endorsed by the full General Assembly,
the committee decision reached late last week would result only in a
non-binding declaration, not a legally binding treaty.
Critics say the resolution, which was an attempt to
find a compromise between bitterly divided members of the legal committee, is
badly worded and ambiguous.
Some pro-life campaigners, however, regard it as an
important victory.
U.N. member states have been divided on whether to ban
cloning for whatever purpose, or to ban the practice only in cases where the
end-result would be the birth of a cloned child - "reproductive"
cloning.
Cloning involves the injecting of genetic material
from a patient into an egg whose DNA has been removed. The resulting embryo
will be a genetic copy of the patient.
To read entire article:
http://www.cnsnews.com//ViewCulture.asp?Page=\Culture\archive\200502\CUL20050224a.html
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5. Study: Teens Religious, But Unknowledgeable
FoxNews.com
February 24, 2005
The majority of American teens
believe in God and worship in conventional congregations, but their
religious knowledge is remarkably shallow and they have a tough time expressing
the difference that faith makes in their lives, a new survey says.
Still, the notably comprehensive National of Study of
Youth and Religion concluded that "religion really does matter" to
teens.
The research found that devout teens hold more
traditional sexual and other values than their nonreligious counterparts and
are better off in emotional health, academic success, community
ith of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Smith reports the full
results in the new book "Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives
of American Teenagers" (Oxford University Press), written with doctoral
student Melinda Lundquist Denton. The book will be published next week.
To read entire article:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,148560,00.html
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6. HIV scars India's vast population
By Steve Sternberg
USA TODAY
CHENNAI, India — Sharma is so fearful of the
discrimination that haunts people with HIV that she confides to just a few
trusted family members that she carries the AIDS virus. She says she has her
job to think of, and she worries what might happen to the 8-year-old daughter
clinging to her knee.
When Dr. Suniti Solomon diagnosed India's first case
of HIV 20 years ago, no hospital in Chennai would care for the patients.
G Venket Ram, YRG CARE
The 37-year-old teacher from the northern city of
Bhopal learned what it means to have HIV in India when her husband developed
AIDS. "The doctors in Bhopal told us they didn't have any treatment for
HIV," says Sharma, who won't disclose her last name. "It's only
available in foreign countries."
When Sharma became sick, she refused to accept her
doctors' rejection with its implicit death sentence. Her husband, who became
infected through a blood transfusion, died last March. Instead, she accepted
her brother's invitation to visit his family in Chennai, 24 hours by train from
Bhopal, and see the woman patients call Dr. Suniti.
Suniti Solomon diagnosed India's first cases of HIV in
this southern city in 1986. The cases came to light after she directed one of
her students at Madras (now Chennai) Medical College to test the blood of 100
prostitutes who had been arrested in a police sweep. Six of the women tested
positive. Five years after HIV began circling the globe, it had arrived in
India. Stigma and discrimination arrived with it.
To read entire article:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2005-02-23-aids-india_x.htm
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7. Adelphia Dumps XXX Porn Plans
Large cable firm stops offering hard-core pay-to-view
February 25, 2005
WorldNetDaily.com
Adelphia, the large cable company that began this
month to offer hard-core pornographic movies on its system, has stopped the
practice and backed off its plans.
"Some concern has been expressed over this type
of adult programming. Adelphia will remove it from all of its systems,"
the Denver Post quotes Adelphia spokesman Paul Jacobson as saying.
Earlier this month, Adelphia, the fifth-largest cable
provider, began offering the porn to its Southern California markets. In
response, several pro-family organizations, including the American Family
Association and Concerned Women for America, began campaigns to target the
company. Those groups now are declaring victory.
To read entire article:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=43027
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8. UN says World population will rise to
9.1 billion by 2050
www.chinaview.cn 2005-02-25 04:25:54
UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- World population
will increase by 2.6 billion from 6.5 billion to 9.1 billion by 2050 with all
growth in less developed countries, the United Nations said Thursday in a
study.
The figures are from the 2004 Revision of the official
UN population estimates and projections, released by the Population Division of
the Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
Almost all growth will take place in the less
developed region, where today's 5.3 billion population is expected to grow to
7.8 billion in 2050.
By contrast, the population of the more developed
regions will remain mostly unchanged at 1.2 billion.
To read entire report:
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-02/25/content_2616707.htm
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9. Kansas Probing Women Who Had Abortions
February 24, 2005
FoxNews.com
TOPEKA, Kan. — In an
investigation conducted secretly for months, the Kansas attorney general is
demanding that clinics turn over the complete medical records of nearly 90
women and girls who had abortions.
Two abortion clinics are fighting the request in
Kansas Supreme Court, saying the state has no right to such personal
information. But Attorney General Phill Kline insisted Thursday he is simply
enforcing state law.
"I have the duty to investigate and prosecute
child rape and other crimes in order to protect Kansas children," Kline,
an abortion opponent, said at a news conference.
Kline is seeking the records of girls who had
abortions and women who received late-term abortions.
To read entire article:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,148625,00.html
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COMING EVENTS
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Please note:
FORTY-NINTH SESSION
OF THE COMMISSION ON THE STATUS OF WOMEN
will convene at the United Nations, New York City, NY
28 February to 11 March 2005
The Commission will be focusing on two thematic issues
as outlined in its multi-year programme of work:
1.
Review of the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcome
documents of the special session of the General Assembly entitled "Women
2000: gender equality, development and peace for the twenty-first
century"; and
2.
Current challenges and forward looking strategies for the advancement and
empowerment of women and girls
For more information: http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/49sess.htm
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Note: The preceding article excerpts are highlights of
current events and
do not necessarily represent the views of the World
Family Policy Center
or Brigham Young University.
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Newsletter created and distributed by:
World Family Policy Center
J. Reuben Clark Law School
Brigham Young University
Managing Director:
Richard Wilkins
Executive Director:
A. Scott Loveless
Newsletter Editors: Joy S. Lundberg and Gary B.
Lundberg
If you have any articles, editorials, or papers you
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