Campaign Wants Constitution More Pro-Life

ZENIT, Aug. 2-The Archdiocese of Mexico City began a campaign Aug. 1 to request that President Ernesto Zedillo amend the wording of the Mexican Constitution which protects the unborn.

Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera pointed out that, although the constitution already guarantees the right to life, the Church wants it to state specifically that life is guaranteed from the moment of conception.

“Given the fact that not all civil entities in our country have understood the imperative of defending life from conception, in our Archdiocese of Mexico we have organized a campaign in defense of life,” the Cardinal explained in a letter published in Desde la Fe.

Organizers of the campaign expect to collect 4.5 million signatures throughout the country in support of the amendment.

According to Nuevo Criterio, the official weekly newspaper of the archdiocese, there is an ongoing campaign in Mexico, organized by “radical feminist” groups, in support of the legalization of abortion.

Death Penalty Opposition Explained

ZENIT, July 12-A document issued by the Philippine bishops hopes to clarify the Church's teaching on the death penalty.

A Primer Calling for Commitment to Life and the Abolition of the Death Penalty hopes to help people understand more deeply the Church's position on capital punishment. The death penalty was recently reinstated in the Philippines after a 23-year absence. At present, there are about 1,000 persons on death row in the country.

“It is a catechism on the death penalty,” said Bishop Francisco Claver, apostolic vicar of Bontoc-Lagawe. “We realized there was a need for a greater education for all our people on the implications of the death penalty.”

The Bishops agree on the necessity of punishment for crimes, “but we are questioning whether the extreme penalty of death leads to any good. There are studies indicating it does not deter crime,” the bishop added.

China Still Using Late Abortions

THE AGE, Aug. 4-According to a report in the Melbourne daily, a Chinese gynecologist and obstetrician told an Australian parliamentary committee that late-term forced abortions continue to be carried out in China.

“In evidence to the committee, the doctor, now an Australian resident, said she performed seven-and-a-half-month abortions when working in a Chinese public hospital between 1983 and 1989,” reported the paper. The doctor, also showed the committee a photograph of an unborn child who was aborted in the six-and-a-half month.

“Nothing has changed,” she said. The doctor who returned to China in 1997 and 1998 said that she was told by a former colleague in a public hospital that late term abortions and forced abortions were still occurring, said the report.

The doctor testified to “ many coercive techniques. Men could lose their jobs if their wives got pregnant with a second child. Government officials sometimes bargained with women to get abortions then failed to deliver on their promises afterwards.”

The doctor also “talked about women being taken from their workplaces and forced to go to hospital,” said the report.

Suicide Risks Higher

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, Aug. 3-In July, surgeon gener al David Satcher called for action to be taken to prevent suicide, Wesley J. Smith wrote in The Wall Street Journal. The commentary by the Anti-Euthanasia Task Force lawyer pointed out that more than 31,000 Americans “die each year at their own hands, and between 1952 and 1996 the number of suicides among adolescents and young adults tripled. Nearly 18 elderly Americans kill themselves on an average day.”

Nonetheless, he argued, “Dr. Satcher's campaign faces an uphill battle. The United States is growing increasingly pro-suicide; even many physicians and mental-health professionals openly promote suicide.”

Said the paper, “The euthanasia movements extols suicide as ‘death with dignity.’”

He pointed out that Derek Humphry's book Final Exit, which is a “how-to” book about suicide, has now become a national bestseller.

Smith concluded that if Satcher “really wants to run an effective campaign against suicide, he is going to have to confront the euthanasia and rational-suicide movement.”