Blue Like You

Archive for the ‘fetal rights’ Category

Great letters in today’s National Post about Morgentaler’s appointment to the Order of Canada, including one from our own Dr. Roy.

Please check them out.

This one by Michael Bliss is especially worth the read:

As a Member of the Order of Canada, I am deeply saddened by the way that our honours system is apparently being debased and cheapened by appointments such as the Henry Morgentaler one. Those of us who occasionally nominate worthy people for consideration for the Order have been told repeatedly that if they have been considered and rejected on an earlier occasion, the files are not normally reopened. I cannot understand why the Morgentaler file was apparently reopened on several occasions.

If the Order of Canada’s advisory committee, meeting behind closed doors, continues to make divisive, apparently political recommendations, it will undermine the integrity of the Order and further discourage those of us who tried to help make the system work. I am particularly distressed that the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada is involved in a process the trustworthiness of which many of us now question.

And this is where the title of this post came from.

* * * *

Update: Check this out!!! Ethicist expresses empathy - Ottawa citizen:

…Dr. Morgentaler’s appointment to the order "is being trumpeted by those who agree with him" as proof that abortion is something that Canadians want to honour, Ms. Somerville said. "Obviously, people would feel the same thing about me in relation to my opposition to same-sex marriage, so it’s sort of a weird situation."

Ms. Somerville is not a member of the Order of Canada. A nomination submitted a few years ago by Anglican minister and preaching professor Carol Finlay was unsuccessful. Ms. Finlay was told it was because Ms. Somerville was too controversial.

Ms. Finlay, who disagrees with Ms. Somerville on the same-sex marriage issue, said Ms. Somerville deserved the honour because of her commitment to open debate…

…Last July, she was copied on a letter that someone had sent to the Governor General’s office expressing concerns that, if she were ever named a member, "the integrity and greatness of the Order of Canada would be undermined."

So, what do you say now, Raphael?

Kelly McParland: Opposition to Morgentaler’s Order is Wide and Deep and Intense.

From comments at McParland’s post:

by ladylawyer
Jul 03 2008
4:43 PM

I am not a church-goer, a Catholic, a fundamentalist, or a woman who opposes women’s rights. In fact, I practice family law in a small town where it is part of my job to enable women, especially immigrants and refugees, to realize the equal rights that Canada’s legal system allows them.

I used to think that having an abortion was a decision to be made between a woman and her doctor, but now I know better. My daughter was born before the end of her second trimester–an age of gestation when abortions are still routine. She is alive today because of wonderful technology and the round the clock care of the ICU doctors and nurses. She is now 29 years old, married, and has an MA in archeology.

Giving the Order of Canada to Morgentaler is an affront. If I had been awarded an Order of Canada, I wouldn’t be able renounce and return it quickly enough.

CTV - Abortion restrictions continue 20 years after ruling. (i.e. nobody wants to do it. I wonder why?)

ProWomanProLife - A callous sort of Canada.

Also please check out Joan Tintor - Bliss: Morgentaler’s OC file was reopened several times.

Saturday Update: Don Cherry for Order of Canada! - Rex Murphy.

Great column here by George Jonas (H/T Lifesite), where he picks apart some of tired old arguments used by the Pro-choice crowd.

It is a somewhat irreverent and almost humourous perspective, if that were possible with such a contentious issue:

…Some put the question in terms of a woman’s right to control her own body. That would be valid enough in the realm of smoking, diet, liposuction, or sex — but abortion? Abortion means controlling someone else’s body. (As a man, I have no authority to speak on the matter, I know, but I’m not speaking as a man. I’m speaking as an ex-fetus.)…

He also addresses the reality of our declining birthrate:

…We’re all set to march to our extinction in style. We’ve become the only species that diminishes with success: the first in natural history to experience population decline whenever we do well. The wealthier and more secure our post-Darwinian societies become, the more we fail to reproduce…

Enjoy the read. Also please check out SDA’s discussion on “Populating a Baby-Starved Canada”.

Macleans has an interesting article concerning our Baby Deficit as well - Making Moms: Can We Feed the Need To Breed?