Demography and Embryology
Another report details
Marriage and birth rates are falling dramatically, pensioners now outnumber teenagers, and more and more people are living alone, says the Institute for family policy in a survey of life in the 27 EU countries.
The report, ‘The evolution of the family in
The report describes this situation as “demographic winter.” It also notes that 1 in 5 pregnancies now ends in abortion and that “84 percent of the population growth in 2000-2007 is attributable to arrivals from beyond EU borders.”
This coincides with the debate on human fertilization and embryology in the House of Commons, on which the Archbishop of Canterbury had this to say:
In some people’s eyes, the very idea that this should be a conscience matter is still incomprehensible, even somehow offensive.
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It’s worth trying to spell out just why issues of conscience do arise. Some of the questions could perhaps be answered by a better understanding of what the science does and doesn’t mean.
But it’s quite important also to say that science in itself is never going to be able to tell us what the right thing is for us to do – it can tell us only what’s possible.
Other than that, it is difficult to discern just what the Archbishop favors and what he does not. He makes some “slippery slope” arguments but concedes they do not settle the question. Thus the leader of millions of Christians worldwide makes the rousing argument (yawn):
And I, for one, am grateful that both scientists and politicians are willing to recognise there is a serious debate to be had on these matters of conscience, and more is at stake than just a set of irrational prejudices.
Cardinal Keith O’Brien of
In his Easter sermon, Cardinal O’Brien described the legislation as a “monstrous attack on human rights, human dignity and human life”, adding that it would allow experiments of “Frankenstein proportion”.
Cardinal O’Brien’s video statement can be seen here. This has been met with the usual protestations that the church has no business discussing what Parliament does and how MPs vote. Clearly the Archbishop was overly optimistic in his assessment that there could be a serious debate.
So, as many in
And one wonders why there are concerns that the EU has passed a resolution announcing that children have a ‘right’ to abortion (or rather ’sexual and reproductive health and family planning education and services’) and that this ‘must’ be an ‘integral part of the future EU strategy on the rights of the child’.
One wonders if there is any point expending energy in opposing the EU, for it is clearly intent on its own self-destruction.
Edward Norman, reviewing Ratzinger’s Faith: The Theology of XVI in The Spectator comments:
The issues involved should have been brought into focus by public debate over the Human Fertilization and Embryology Bill, but in reality all the debate has done is to demonstrate how little understanding there is, how insensitive the modern world has become to attitudes to human life that posit the existence of external standards of judgment or of non-material values. The Catholic Church is now conventionally referred to as a kind of obscurantist block to enlightenment and progressive advance; the Anglicans in general seem silent on the major issues, either out of internal incoherence or a disinclination to become enveloped in controversy. . . .
That assessment seems about right, particularly with regard to the Anglicans.
