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In the News

  • Sky: No change on Liberal same-sex marriage policy
    September 15th, 2015
    Malcolm Turnbull is standing by the coalition government's commitment to hold a national plebiscite on legalising same-sex marriage after the next election.
     
    Deputy Labor leader Tanya Plibersek asked whether the prime minister will allow a free vote on same-sex marriage, saying Liberal MP Warren Entsch's bill currently before the parliament could go to a vote as early as tomorrow.
     
    Mr Turnbull responded by confirming the government's policy still stands and the matter will be resolved via a plebiscite following the next election.
  • Guardian: Kentucky clerk Kim Davis watches as same-sex couple gets marriage license
    September 15th, 2015
    With Kim Davis watching, a lesbian couple received a marriage license in the clerk’s office in Rowan County, Kentucky, where she had for months refused to allow any licenses to be distributed under her watch.
     
    On her first day back to work since she was sent to jail for refusing to issue licenses to gay couples earlier this month, Davis told reporters she would not authorize her deputies to process licenses for same-sex couples, but, if they chose to, she would not take “action” against them.
  • Life Site News: Irish PM won’t rule out abortion referendum
    September 15th, 2015
    Ireland’s Taoiseach — or Prime Minister — Enda Kenny has served notice he is open to the pressure from pro-abortionists and their offshore supporters to amending the nation’s constitutional protection for the unborn.
     
    Kenny’s government already loosened the country’s pro-life law in 2013, allowing abortions through all nine months of pregnancy if the mother’s life is deemed at risk, including if the mother threatens suicide.
  • Reuters: U.S., China, UK experts to tackle vexed issue of gene editing
    September 14th, 2015
    Scientists from the United States, China and Britain will come together to discuss the future of human gene editing, which holds great promise for treating diseases but also has the potential to create "designer babies".
     
    The Chinese Academy of Sciences and Britain's Royal Society said on Monday they would join the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in co-hosting an international summit on the topic in Washington on Dec. 1-3.
     
    The technology, called CRISPR-Cas9, allows scientists to edit genes by using genetic "scissors" that operate a bit like a biological word-processing program that can find and replace defects.
     
    CRISPR has excited academic researchers and drug companies alike, since it may allow them to rewrite the DNA of diseased cells. But it has also raised serious ethical concerns due to the potential to alter the genetic code of embryos.
  • BBC: Jeremy Corbyn ally John McDonnell named shadow chancellor
    September 14th, 2015
    Jeremy Corbyn has announced most of the key jobs in his first shadow cabinet, naming his left wing ally John McDonnell as shadow chancellor.
     
    Defeated leadership rival Andy Burnham is shadow home secretary, while Hilary Benn remains shadow foreign secretary.
     
    The top roles on the Labour front bench are all taken by men, leading to criticism from some MPs.
  • Independent: Faith leaders will have to join a 'national register' and undergo security checks, leaked Home Office documents reveal
    September 13th, 2015
    Imams, priests, rabbis and other religious figures could be made to enrol in a “national register of faith leaders” under new Home Office plans to counter extremism in the UK.
     
    The controversial strategy reportedly says Whitehall will “require all faiths to maintain a national register of faith leaders” and the Government will “set out the minimum level for training and checks” faith leaders must have to join the register.
     
    The plans, which appeared in a draft leaked to The Telegraph and are due to be published in the autumn, also detail how the government has sought to ban individuals whose behaviour “falls below the thresholds in counter-terrorism legislation” but which “undermines British values”.
  • Guardian: Private sector moves into UK's fight against terrorism
    September 13th, 2015
    The private sector is moving into the fight against terrorism as British police and the military are to be offered the chance to hone their skills at a state-of-the-art weapons and tactics centre in a former underground reservoir.
     
    The £20m independent National Firearms and Tactical Training Centre (NFTTC) to be built in Bedford will feature specialist weapons ranges and live-fire houses that can be decked out to create realistic hostage, siege and terrorism scenarios.
     
    The privately funded 200,000 sq ft centre, due to open in January 2017, will be constructed inside the Manton Lane underground reservoir, which was built in 1935 and decommissioned by Anglia Water in the 1990s.
  • Telegraph: Elton John offers to meet Vladimir Putin to discuss gay rights
    September 13th, 2015
    Sir Elton John has said he wants to hold talks with Vladimir Putin over what he called the Russian president's "ridiculous" stance on gay rights.
     
    The Rocket Man singer extended the offer of talks after speaking at a conference in neighbouring Ukraine, where he met with the country's president Petro Poroshenko to lobby him about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights.
     
    Sir Elton accused Mr Putin of saying "stupid things" in reference to his warning to gay people travelling to the Winter Olympics to "leave the children in peace".
  • Guardian: Fertility industry errors created doubt over parental status of sperm donor couples
    September 12th, 2015
    Couples who used sperm donors to conceive have had their parental status called into question after “widespread incompetence” in the sector was revealed in court.
     
    Handing down a ruling in the family division of the high court, where seven couples were battling to establish a legal declaration that they were the legal parents of their offspring, judge Sir James Munby said that some couples were suffering problems due to failings in the system.
     
    It has emerged that consent forms, which are signed by couples who are not married or in a civil partnership to ensure legal parentage before treatment begins, had not been properly completed by the clinics involved.
  • BioEdge: Dutch right-to-die group promotes euthanasia in schools
    September 12th, 2015
    The Dutch Voluntary End of Life Association (NVVE) is rolling out is latest project to bolster public support and acceptance of euthanasia – a school curriculum program called ‘euthanasia – dead normal’.
     
    The curriculum, launched last week, aims to provide high school students with “accessible information” about euthanasia, helping them to “have respect” for those who chose to end their lives.
     
    Representatives of the NVVE will visit schools and guide students through the materials. There are videos offering ‘different’ (though all supportive) perspectives on euthanasia: a 26 year old woman with muscular dystrophy who opted for euthanasia; a 17 year old girl who’s grandmother asked for euthanasia; and a doctor who performs euthanasia.