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In the News

  • Times (£): Students in freedom of speech row on abortion
    December 6th, 2016

    Students against abortion have claimed that their human rights have been violated after they were refused permission to set up an official group at their Glasgow campus.

    A freedom of speech row has broken out because an anti-abortion organisation was banned from becoming affiliated to the University of Strathclyde Students’ Association (USSA), which has adopted a formal pro-choice policy.

    The stance means that Strathclyde Life Action will be denied access to funding and the ability to use facilities, with members saying rights to freedom of expression had been breached.

    Read more. 

  • Herald Scotland: Humanists urge Holyrood to repeal Scotland's blasphemy law
    December 6th, 2016

    SCOTLAND'S blasphemy law - which was last invoked more than 170 years ago - should be repealed by ministers with the courage to "show moral leadership", a leading non-faith group has urged.

    The archaic law was last used in 1843 to convict Edinburgh bookseller Thomas Paterson who was sentenced to 15 months imprisonment for selling blasphemous literature.

    Now members of the Humanist Society Scotland have called on the Scottish Government to scrap the law which was deployed in 1697 in the capital trial of Thomas Aikenhead, an atheist student, who became the last person in Britain to be executed for blasphemy when he was hanged in Edinburgh.

    Read more. 

  • Belfast Telegraph: Santa v Jesus board game blasted as 'blasphemy' by Christians
    December 5th, 2016

    Santa vs Jesus, created by Komo Games, invites players to divide into two teams - Team Santa and Team Jesus - and complete various challenges in order to win the most "believers".

    Since being advertised on Amazon it has garnered a number of critical reviews, with some calling for it to be removed from the site.

    Read more.

  • Telegraph: White liberals have speeded segregation in the UK. The great struggle now is to reverse it by Trevor Philips
    December 5th, 2016

    Dame Louise Casey must have chuckled inwardly yesterday. Even before she had said a word about her report on social integration, commissioned by David Cameron, the blustering started. You know that you’ve hit the target when the BBC marshals a line-up of “ordinary” people who protest their desire to “integrate”, and the usual suspects attack any factual evidence as “slanted”, “Islamophobic” and even “racist”.

    Read more. 

  • Christian Today: British Baptists Issue Call For Unity Over Same-Sex Marriage
    December 5th, 2016

    Senior British Baptists have issued a call for denominational unity in the face of challenges posed by the issue of human sexuality.

    Signed by pastors, academics and the general director of BMS World Mission, the denomination's overseas mission agency, the document entitled The Courage to be Baptist: A Statement on Baptist Ecclesiology and Human Sexuality is billed as "a call to Baptist churches to face our present disagreements over same-sex marriage by being faithful to a Baptist way of being church".

    Some signatories hold a traditional view of marriage and sexuality, while others affirm the theological validity of same-sex relationships.

    Read more.

  • New Statesman: Morning after pill: It's time to say no to the "ultimate sexist surcharge"
    December 5th, 2016

    The British Pregnancy Advisory Service recently launched its Just Say Non! campaign to highlight the fact that British women pay up to five times more for emergency contraception than women on the continent. The justification for the UK price of up to £30 – and the mandatory consultation with a pharmacist – is that otherwise British women might use the morning-after pill as a regular method of contraception. After all, you know what us ladies are like. Give us any form of meaningful control over our reproductive lives and before you know it we’re knocking back those emergency pills just for the nausea and irregular bleeding highs.

    Read more. 

  • LifeNews: Death on Demand: Euthanasia Activist Admits Assisted Suicide Not Just for Terminally Ill
    December 5th, 2016

    Australia’s Philip Nitschke is the euthanasia movement’s most candid advocate.

    While most euthanasia/assisted suicide promoters pretend the movement is mostly about ending the suffering of those with terminal illnesses–a demonstrably fake limitation to get people to swallow the cultural hemlock of “death with dignity”–Nitschke bluntly states euthanasia should be available to all without regard to cause.

    Read more. 

  • Washington Times: Worry of copycats in states with assisted-suicide laws
    December 5th, 2016

    Physicians, researchers and ethicists are grappling with the copycat effect of suicide and rising U.S. suicide rates as jurisdictions enact laws to allow the terminally ill to take their own lives with the help of a doctor.

    Dr. William Toffler, national director of Physicians for Compassionate Care, says suicides do not occur in a vacuum but among others who might be moved to imitate the act, a phenomenon called the “Werther effect.” An increase in suicides should be expected where assisted suicide is legal because society is sending the unmistakable message that killing oneself is a proper response to life’s challenges, he says. 

    Read more. 

  • Times (£): Abortion rights 'could be put in constitution'
    December 5th, 2016

    Katherine Zappone has suggested she is in favour of replacing the Eighth Amendment with a “radical” plan to enshrine a woman’s right to choose in the constitution.

    The minister for children and youth affairs said she was concerned that a foetus could still have constitutional rights that would block an abortion, even after a repeal of the Eighth Amendment.

    The government is seeking to appeal against a High Court ruling from July which suggested that the constitutional rights of unborn children extend beyond the right to life. The court suggested that a constitutional reference to the state’s duty to protect “all children” could also refer to a foetus. The ruling has led to suggestions that even if the Eighth Amendment was repealed, a foetus would still be entitled to some rights under the Irish constitution.

    Read more. 

  • Guardian: Row over allowing research on 28-day embryos
    December 5th, 2016

    Scientists will make a controversial call this week to extend the current 14-day limit for carrying out experiments on human embryos to 28 days. The move follows recent breakthroughs that have allowed researchers to double the time embryos can be kept alive in the laboratory.

    By extending the current research period, major insights into congenital conditions, heart disease and some cancers could be gained, they will argue at a conference in London on Wednesday.

    But the move will be viewed as being highly provocative by opponents of embryo research and will be vigorously opposed by many religious leaders and politicians. Previous opposition to embryo experiments has been on the grounds that such research represents a slippery slope that will culminate in unrestricted research being carried out on living embryos.

    Read more.