World Family Policy Center Newsletter

Patrick Fagan, Ph.D.

William FitzGerald Fellow in Family and Culture Issues, the Heritage Foundation, USA

The following is an excerpt from Patrick Fagan’s speech "Dignity of the Child from Conception and Its Right to Life, Home, and Family" presented at The World Congress of Families IV Warsaw, Poland, May 2007:

The Main theme of this presentation is that, not only is the Child the Future of Society, but marriage is the future of society, and is the right of every child, everywhere. The child has the right to its natural family. Just governments protect that right.

Traditional Value people are often accused of looking to the past and of trying to revive the past but critics have it upside down. Traditional Value people care about the future, work to build the future, and build it best by giving the child what it needs to arrive in the future well equipped for life.

Opponents instead insist on the right of adults to reject each other even if it means serious detriment to the child and serious cost to society.

Underlying this presentation is the fact that society is a web of human relationships. And the most basic relationship in building the rest of these societal relationships is the marital relationship.

The most important relationship for learning how to relate to others in all the roles in life is the marriage of one’s parents. Children thrive on the relationship between their parents.

I learned this in my first years as a therapist when I treated many children in their middle childhood (from 5 to 10) who were referred to me by physicians. Being young and inexperienced I was very careful in assessing each child. By the end of the first year I became convinced that the children’s symptoms were in reaction to their family situation.

In my second year I began study and training in family therapy and by the third year I had settled into a pattern:

I would not see the child till I could see the whole family including father (almost all families were intact back then in the early 1970s in Canada where I worked). I would work with the family till the parents trust in me grew enough that I could peel them off and work on the issues that divided them.

In 95 percent of the cases I did not have to do anything with the child … he or she got better “spontaneously”.

When the parents are united the children thrive.

When parents are in conflict children suffer and don’t grow as well as they should. They do not learn as well. They are more anxious, more depressed, less friend, more aggressive or less cooperative.

There is a new and growing body of research on the impact of religious practice on myriad areas of human life.

We can say that the more people practice their faith the more they thrive in every dimension measured so far: in health, in learning, in happiness, in friendships, in mental health and in marital relationships.

We know that when mother practices her religious beliefs her marriage benefits.

When father practices his religious beliefs his marriage benefits

When they both practice their religious beliefs their marriage benefits even more.

And the child benefits even more from this better marital relationship.

To read the entire speech, visit http://www.worldcongress.org/wcf4.spkrs/wcf4.fagan.htm

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

FEATURED NEWS ARTICLES

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

1. Most Children Still Live in Two-Parent Homes, Census Bureau Reports

New York Times

February 21, 2008

The American family may be under stress, but most children still live in two-parent households, the Census Bureau reported Wednesday.

Over all, 7 in 10 children live with two parents, about two-thirds live with two married parents, and about 6 in 10 live with both biological parents, according to the latest analysis, which is drawn from 2004 surveys.

In 1970, 85 percent of children were living with two parents and 11 percent with their mother only, proportions that shifted to a little more than 70 percent and slightly more than 20 percent, respectively, in 1990.

The comparable figures in 2004 were about 70 percent and 23 percent. The figures suggest that the tumultuous shifts in family structure since the late 1960s have leveled off since 1990.

“We’re not seeing the rapid change that was going on between 1970 and 1990,” said Rose M. Kreider, a Census Bureau demographer and author of the study of children’s living arrangements. “Evidently, we’re at a place where things are not moving very fast.”

Still, more than 1 in 4 children were living with only one parent.

To view the entire article, visit http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/21/us/21census.html?_r=2&ei=5088&en=b7ca447fd80dd42f&ex=1361336400&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&adxnnlx=1203699645-0VL9vYfDIxv+4WR+BygWLw

................

2. Judges: 'Gay' exposure OK for kindergarteners

WorldNetDaily

February 1, 2008

In a case that could wind up in the U.S. Supreme Court, an appeals panel upheld dismissal of a lawsuit by Massachusetts parents seeking to prevent discussion of homosexual families in their children's elementary school classrooms.

The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday agreed with a judge's decision last year that a school can expose children to contrary ideas without violating their parents' rights to exercise religious beliefs.

"Public schools," wrote Judge Sandra L. Lynch, "are not obliged to shield individual students from ideas which potentially are religiously offensive, particularly when the school imposes no requirement that the student agree with or affirm those ideas, or even participate in discussions about them."

Lynch reasoned that schools must accept the Massachusetts high court's groundbreaking 2003 decision ruling "that the state constitution mandates the recognition of same-sex marriage."

To view the entire article, visit http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=59997

Pro-Gay Booklet Sent to Every School District in America

CitizenLink

February 20, 2008-02-22

All 16,000 public school superintendents in the U.S. will be receiving a copy of Just the Facts about Sexual Orientation and Youth, a 24-page booklet that concludes homosexuality is a "normal expression of human sexuality."

“What’s so scary and dogmatic about this report is that it communicates that religious-based viewpoints are harmful, and even dangerous," said Candi Cushman, education analyst for Focus on the Family Action.

The pamphlet is endorsed by more than a dozen professional mental health and counseling organizations, education associations and one liberal religious group. The theme: Schools are only allowed to provide one message about homosexuality — that it's normal and should be embraced.

Alan Chambers, president of Exodus International, said he knows that’s not true.

“Allowing people to choose what is best for their lives is respectful, it’s tolerant, it’s everything that the other side uses as their mantra, but really fails to respect and live up to," he said.

To view the entire article, visit http://www.citizenlink.org/CLNews/A000006603.cfm

................

3. Brits Consider 20 Week Abortion Limit

Newsmax

February 20, 2008

The House of Commons is considering putting an upper time limit of 20 weeks on abortion. The Brits were spurred by testimony from Professor Sunny Anand from the University of Arkansas. Professor Anand said evidence shows that the part of the brain which can feel pain develops by around 20 weeks, and that fetuses aborted beyond that time could feel “excruciating pain.”

Before Professor Anand appeared before the Commons, he appeared on the BBC, where he said, “After 20 weeks of gestation it is very likely that the fetus will feel the kind of pain that occurs from the crushing of body parts or dismemberment or other invasive procedures that occur during fetal surgery or abortion.”

Parliament has taken up the debate on abortion laws for the first time in almost twenty years, and the upper age limit is a topic of hot debate.

To view the entire article, visit http://newsmax.com/health/20_week_abortion_limit/2008/02/20/74073.html

French Catholics Seek Legal Status for Embryos

The Washington Post

February 19, 2008

PARIS (Reuters) - France's Roman Catholic Church has called for embryos to be given a clear legal status following a court decision that let parents of miscarried fetuses enter them with a name in the official civil registry.

Anti-abortion groups in many countries have long argued for a legal status for embryos as the first step towards having courts rule that abortion is a form of murder. Pro-abortion groups vigorously oppose any such status.

But Paris Cardinal Andre Vingt-Trois, head of the French bishops' conference, said establishing this status would not undermine legal abortion in France because of the way the law allowing the termination of pregnancies was constructed.

The Cour de Cassation, France's highest appeals court, ruled on February 6 that a miscarried foetus could be entered into the civil registry if a couple wished to commemorate it that way.

"This means that a foetus has a status," said Vingt-Trois, who is meeting fellow bishops this week to discuss bioethics issues. "What has happened in the past 50 years is that the legal status of the embryo and foetus has been rapidly changed. They have been turned into things.

To view the entire article, visit http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/19/AR2008021901510.html?hpid=sec-religion

................

4. Luxembourg parliament adopts euthanasia law

Reuters

February 20, 2008

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Luxembourg parliament adopted a law late on Tuesday to legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide, adding the Grand Duchy to a small group of countries that allow the terminally ill to end their lives.

The law, expected to come into force towards the summer, was passed by 30 votes to 26. Luxembourg's media said it was a symbolic defeat for Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker whose Christian Social Party opposed it.

"The Christian Social Party and the Catholic church were against the euthanasia law, calling it murder but we said no, it's just another way to go," said Jean Huss, a member of parliament of the Green Party and co-sponsor of the bill.

Huss said he expected that the legislative process needed for the law to come into force would take a few more months and would most likely be implemented towards the summer.

The Netherlands became the first country to permit assisted deaths for the terminally ill in April 2002.

Opponents there had drawn parallels with Nazi Germany, where authorities killed thousands of disabled children and mentally ill adults.

To view the entire article, visit http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSL2011983320080220?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews

................

5. Short Maternity Leaves, Long Deployments: Schedule Sends Army Moms Back to the Field Quickly

The Washington Post

February 18, 2008

"Little man, I love you! Mommy misses you," Spec. Amy Shaw spoke softly as she looked into the video camera in her Baghdad barracks, surrounded by photographs of tiny Connor James, the infant son she left behind in Wisconsin. "Mommy'll be home soon."

Connor was three months old when Shaw and her husband, Brad, a sergeant with the military police, began a 15-month deployment to Iraq, their second tour in the combat zone. Like thousands of other new military mothers, the 22-year-old Army medic faced a stark choice: Give birth and quickly leave the baby behind, or lose her job.

Many female soldiers hoping to start families face the prospect of missing most of their child's first year. The Army grants six weeks of maternity leave before a new mother must return to her job or training, and four months until she can be sent to a war zone. The Marine Corps and Navy allow from six months to a year before a new mother must deploy.

To view the entire article, visit http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/17/AR2008021702324.html?hpid%3Dtopnews&sub=AR

................

6. South Korea Cloning Firm Offers to Make Dog Clones for Pet Owners

BBC

February 15, 2008

A woman from the United States wants her dead pitbull terrier - called Booger - re-created.

RNL Bio is charging the woman, from California, $150,000 (£76,000) to clone the pitbull using tissue extracted from its ear before it died.

The work will be carried out by a team from Seoul National University, where the first dog was cloned in 2005…

RNL Bio says this is the first time a dog will have been cloned commercially.

"There are many people who want to clone their pet dogs in Western countries even at this high price," company chief executive, Ra Jeong-chan, told the Korea Times.

The firm is expecting hundreds more orders for pets over the next few years and also plans to clone dogs trained to sniff out bombs or drugs…

"The cost of cloning a dog may come down to less than $50,000 as cloning is becoming an industry," he said.

To view the entire article, visit http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7246380.stm