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December 2001
Contents: Cloning - Latest. The Hard Truth. Voices for Life.
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here for our press contact details If you haven't met me or had to listen to my rantings on the mailing list yet, I'm Fiorella from Cambridge. Welcome to the Student LifeNet Newsletter, December 2001. Please take a moment to read this and if you have any news from your own university pro-life groups, don't hesitate to get in touch with me at: maltesecross51@hotmail.com. Cloning - Latest. As you all know, last year, Britain became the first country in the world to legalise human cloning for 'therapeutic' purposes. The ProLife Alliance launched a successful legal challenge to the legislation, arguing that the 1990 HFE Act did not cover cloned embryos. As a result, on the 29th November, the Government in an attempt to save face rushed more legislation through the Commons in a single afternoon, banning the implantation of cloned embryos into the body of a woman. The legislation is severely flawed and does not prevent the creation, storage and export of cloned embryos. However, in spite of a mockery of a Commons debate and a three line whip ensuring that the legislation was passed, the human cloning debate has been reignited, opening the way for a complete ban on the creation of cloned embryos. The government has appealed Justice Crane's ruling in favour of the ProLife Alliance, which will be heard on the 16th January 2002. How You Can Help...... If you have received any feedback from your MP or MEP, please email us so that we will be prepared for future campaigns. We have everything to gain from continuing to lobby MPs and proclaim the Prolife message whilst the cloning issue is still under investigation. Do you know of any scientists at your university who oppose cloning? Perhaps there is a scientist in your university who is working with adult stem cells. The adult stem cell case is very strong (see www.stemcellresearch.org). If ever there was a time for scientists to make their voice heard, it is now. The Hard Truth. In early October, Gregg Cunningham, an American pro-life activist, came to talk to the Cambridge pro-life group. His argument was that the evil of abortion could only be understood by exposing it for what it is. His graphic video footage, posters showing photographs of aborted babies under the title of 'choice' and comparisons with historical examples of mass murder provoked a mixed reaction from those who found the images powerful and those who raised concern that showing pictures of abortion could be counterproductive and be used by the prochoice lobby to damage the prolife movement. Arguably, it suits the pro-choice lobby that abortion should only happen behind closed doors, and used with care, these pictures could have a tremendous impact upon the general public's unthinking acceptance of abortion In this context, showing the ProLife Alliance censored broadcast might be a way to convey how horrifying abortion since the censorship represents society's own admission that that abortion is too terrible to be seen. The ProLife Alliance were banned from showing their election broadcast on the grounds that the film of an abortion was offensive to viewers, in spite of the fact that it is a legal operation paid for by the taxpayer that is carried out over 500 times a day, and the increasingly graphic and explicit images shown on television today as a matter of course. The broadcast that was eventually shown consisted of a blank screen with narration. How You Can Help...... Why not show either the censored or the uncensored broadcast in your university and start a debate about freedom of speech, censorship as an abuse of our democratic right to know the truth, whether choice can be meaningful without a knowledge of the facts, or the contradiction posed by censoring abortion as too terrible to be seen but not too terrible to be carried out day after day. Several university pro-life groups have shown the Hard Truth (the uncensored version) in recent months with largely positive results. This issue is more topical than ever with the ProLife Alliance broadcast appeal coming up on the 31st January. Why not get students talking and debating these issues? Please get in touch if you would be willing to show this video at your university in the coming months. Voices For Life. LIFE is organising carol singing on the 21st Dec from 10:30-12:30 in the Glades shoping centre, Bromley and in Cambridge at the Grafton Centre on the 22nd between 2 and 4pm. If you can sing (and even if you can't) please add your support to this very worthwhile cause. If you want to sing with the Cambridge lot, get in touch with Clare Underwood on 01223 366066 or clare_underwood@ntlworld.com. LIFE offers a concrete alternative to abortion through its work spreading the pro-life message in schools but most importantly by providing a counselling service and practical help for pregnant women in difficult situations who might otherwise opt for an abortion. Please help to publicise their work by ensuring that your Student Union publishes LIFE's contact details in their welfare material and perhaps by encouraging college doctors and nurses to make LIFE's details available in health centres. For more information about LIFE and the location of your nearest centre, see www.lifeuk.org. If you have got this far down, all that remains is for me to wish you all a very Happy Christmas on behalf of everyone at SLN. If you have any ideas for events next term or need help setting up a group don't hesitate to get in touch and above all....check out our website and get involved. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year Fiorella Sultana de Maria Cambridge |
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