ASSISTED DYING BILL IS STILL ALIVE
THE ASSISTED DYING BILL put forward by Lord Falconer was debated for ten hours with 126 peers speaking on July 18.
It was the second reading for the bill which would allow terminally ill adults to legally commit suicide with assistance, if they had less than six months to live. After the debate, the bill went through to the next stage of the process – to a parliamentary committee for review.
The Archbishop of York, referring to the joint opposition of the Church of England and Catholic Church, said that “dying well belongs with our humanity”, and gives time to spend with loved ones.
He added: “The Assisted Dying Bill could deprive some terminally ill individuals and their families of this very important time of shared love and wonder. I urge noble Lords to resist it. This is far too complex and sensitive an issue to be rushed through Parliament and decided on the basis of competing personal stories.”
GOVERNMENT PUSHES FOR 3-PARENT BABIES
THREE-PARENT BABIES will become a reality if the Government’s determination to push through plans becomes law, despite opposition from 60 per cent of people in a consultation.
Health Minister Jane Ellison announced the move this week following the 12-week consultation which showed that of the 1,857 people consulted, 1,152 people opposed the idea of three-parent babies.
The proposal would allow the nucleus in a healthy donor egg to be replaced with nucleus DNA from a mother. That would give such children genes from two mums and one father.
Experts have questioned the safety and effectiveness of the technique despite the Government’s perspective. Regulations to control the procedures will be put before Parliament on an unspecified date.
STATE GUARDIAN TO ‘REPLACE’ SCOTTISH PARENTS
CHILDREN COULD ACCESS CONTRACEPTION and sex education against the wishes of their parents, once they have a Scottish state-appointed guardian – usurping the rights of parents to say to what public services their child should be given access.
The Christian Institute, Christian charity CARE forScotland, Tymes (The Young ME Sufferers’) Trust, and the Family Education Trust have mounted a legal challenge to the Government’s plans for every Scottish child between birth and 18 years old to have a state guardian assigned to them.
The Christian organisations believe the move is tampering with the very fabric of society. Under Scottish Government plans, the named person scheme is set to be rolled out across the whole of Scotlandby 2016, but it is already operating in some areas.
UNDER-FIRE BAKERY OWNER REFUSES TO BACK DOWN
A CHRISTIAN BAKERY OWNER facing court because he refused to decorate a cake with the slogan ‘Support Gay Marriage’ is refusing to back down from his view, saying, “We are staying true to our beliefs”.
Daniel McArthur, 24, has been at the centre of a religious liberty debate after the bakery he manages for his parents – Ashers Baking Company – declined to decorate a cake with the slogan “Support Gay Marriage”. Daniel apologised for any distress caused as the bakery in Newtownabbey, nearBelfast, came under fire, being accused of ‘bigotry’. The Christian Institute is supporting the family-run bakery, which faces prosecution and a compensation demand by the Equalities Commission.
“We pray that God will give us the strength to fight this,” Daniel has said.
SCHOOLS INVESTIGATION: ALARMING FINDS
CHRISTIANS WERE CALLED IGNORANT, Christmas and Easter was banned and students had to teach themselves Christian Religious Education for GCSEs, according to the findings of the ‘Trojan Horse’ investigation into schools in Birmingham.
The discoveries come from a report by Peter Clarke, former head of counter-terrorism at the Metropolitan Police. Other discoveries included teachers claiming serviceman Lee Rigby’s murder was a hoax. Private Rigby was butchered to death on a street by two Islamic fanatics last year.
Newly-appointed Education Secretary Nicky Morgan, a practising Christian, called the revelation disturbing, and said the report sets out, “compelling evidence of a determined effort by people with a shared ideology to gain control of the governing bodies of a small number of schools inBirmingham.”
DICTIONARY MAKES MARRIAGE GENDER-NEUTRAL
THE DEFINITION OF MARRIAGE has become gender-neutral in the 13th edition of Chambers Dictionary.
Chambers now describes marriage as ‘the ceremony, act or contract by which two people become married to each other’.
The dictionary, first published in 1872, has also changed its definitions of husband and wife in order to reflect the change in the law. Husband is now defined as ‘a man to whom someone is married’ and wife is ‘a woman to whom someone is married’.