One in five British pregnancies end in abortion
The barbarity of British society is underlined yet again by the latest recorded figures for abortions – 160,000 per annum. This means that one in five pregnancies are deliberately and unnaturally terminated, or one unborn child is slain in the womb every three and a half minutes of every day.
What a warped morality we have as a nation. At the same time as we mourn (as we must) over the 16 infants and their teacher massacred in their school, we do not shed tears for 160,000 babes slaughtered in the womb. We cannot evade our corporate responsibility for this culpable destruction of human life. Guilt lies upon our nation, and this will yet be shown. “But there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets.”
Hospital seeks court permission for passive euthanasia
Mrs Janet Johnstone has been in a coma and persistent vegetative state for the past four years in Law Hospital, Carluke. The Hospital Trust is asking the Court of Session to declare that it would be lawful to withdraw Mrs Johnstone’s artificial feeding and let her die – also known as passive euthanasia. The lawyer representing her interests stated in court, “Mrs Johnstone has been committed to the care of this hospital and, if they fail to provide her with the necessities of life and she dies, it is a criminal offence.”
No doubt the Court is bearing in mind the recent cases of people who have wakened from a coma and persistent vegetative state. Dr Fiona Smith, Dundee, who was in a coma for three months, suddenly awoke and asked for her children. An American girl recovered over four years after being in a deep coma for fifteen months. Gary Dockery, a Tennessee policeman, woke up from a coma lasting seven and a half years and started talking. Well might some doctors question current assumptions about persistent vegetative state
We fear we are going down the same road as Holland where euthanasia is technically illegal but prosecutions will not be mounted in certain defined circumstances, and therefore euthanasia is widely practised. We are fast losing sight of the fact that the imparting and ending of life is God’s prerogative.
Dr J I Packer – correction
Among the Notes and Comments in the February issue was a piece entitled Slipping Away, which sketched the downward course followed by Dr J I Packer and stated that he had a meeting with the Pope during his visit to the United States late last year. This information was taken from reports which appeared in other Christian magazines. More recent information makes it clear that although Dr Packer was invited to meet the Pope he did not in fact accept the invitation. We regret the error. KDM