Cardinal Parolin in Ars for feast of St John Vianney

CNA Staff, Jul 29, 2020 / 06:00 am (CNA).- Catholic bishops have said that proposed hate crime legislation in Scotland could criminalize the Bible and the Catechism of the Catholic Church. 

In a statement issued July 29, the bishops argued that t… […]

London, England, Mar 6, 2018 / 03:43 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- On Tuesday, London’s Court of Appeal upheld a lower court’s decision to end life support for an ill 21-month-old boy, despite the parent’s wishes to continue treatment.

Justice Anthony Hayden of the High Court ordered two weeks ago that life support could be removed from Alfie Evans, who is stationed at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool. Hayden said that “continued ventilatory support is no longer in Alfie’s interests.”

Alfie is in a “semi-vegetable state” due to an unknown neurological degenerative condition. His parents want to transfer him to the Vatican-linked Bambino Gesu Pediatric Hospital in Rome, to receive further diagnosis and treatment.

However, the Liverpool hospital where Alfie is currently said it considered further treatment to be “futile.”

“Our aim is always to try and reach an agreement with parents about the most appropriate care plan for their child. Unfortunately there are sometimes rare situations such as this where agreement cannot be reached and the treating team believe that continued active treatment is not in a child’s best interests,” said the hospital.  

Justice Eleanor King was one of the three judges who denied the appeal on March 6 and agreed with the High Court’s previous decision.

Justice Hayden “could not have done more to ensure the father and mother had every opportunity to express their views and have them taken into consideration,” she said, according to BBC.

She said the evidence showed that the child was “deeply comatose” and “to all intents and purposes unaware of his surroundings.”

Justice King applauded Tom Evans’ passionate “fight on with Alfie’s army,” but said the father had “no clear plan.”

Evans said afterward that he would challenge the case before the Supreme Court.

“At this moment, Alfie’s not ready so we’re not ready to let go,” he said, according to the BBC.

Head of Alfie’s parents’ legal team, Barrister Stephen Knafler QC, said the state’s decision wrongly hinders “parental choice.”

The court ruling echoes a similar case last year, when England’s courts ordered Charlie Gard to be taken off life support.

At 11 months old, Gard died in July 2017 after a months-long debate regarding his parents’ right to pursue further treatment. The parents had fundraised over $1.6 million to seek experimental treatments and had received offers from European and U.S. hospitals. However, courts rejected the request to transfer him for experimental therapy.

The case drew widespread attention and outcry. Dr. Melissa Moschella, a Catholic University of America philosophy professor, disagreed with the court’s decision, telling CNA that the United Nations “clearly indicates that the parents, not the state will have primarily responsibility.”

 “It seems to me completely wrongheaded that the state should be stepping in here when the decision that the parents are making is really aimed at the best interests of the child,” Moschella said in 2017.

“It’s not crazy, it’s not abusive, it’s not neglectful. It’s the decision of parents who want to, however they can, to give their very sick child a chance for life.”

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Belfast, Northern Ireland, Sep 13, 2018 / 01:03 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Coming into effect at the end of 2018, English women will be allowed to take abortion pills at home; but it remains unclear whether Northern Irish women who travel to England will be allowed to do so.

Currently, women who plan to end a pregnancy at 10 weeks or less are required to take two abortive pills at the clinic. The second pill is taken between 24-48 hours after the first one.

With the new plan, the women will be allowed to take the second abortion pill at home, after the first one has been taken at the clinic.

The women may have to prove English residency; a similar program in Scotland requires a residence test.

If the residency test is adopted in England, it “would deny women coming from Northern Ireland this choice of procedure,” Labour MP Stella Creasy has said.

Victoria Atkins, British Minister for Women and Equalities, explained that the Department for Health is only able to approve English homes as a place that the abortion bill can be taken.

Atkins said officials “are working with the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists to determine protocol which will set out criteria for which places should be covered by the term ‘home’.”

“We will look at how the (early abortion pill) schemes are working in Scotland and Wales and learn from the experience there.”

Abortion is allowed in Northern Ireland only if the mother’s life is at risk, or if there is risk of permanent, serious damage to her mental or physical health. Abortion pills are illegal in Northern Ireland.

Bills to legalize abortion for fatal fetal abnormality or rape or incest failed in the Northern Ireland Assembly in 2016.

In June 2017, Teresa May’s government announced that Northern Irish women would be able to procure free National Health Service abortions in England.

The UK Supreme Court threw out a case challenging Northern Ireland’s abortion law in June 2018, saying the commission which brought the case does not have standing to do so. However, the judges also said the current law violates the European Convention on Human Rights.

Lord Mance, delivering the judgement June 7, said that had the commission the competence to bring the challenge, “I would have concluded, without real hesitation at the end of the day, that the current Northern Ireland law is incompatible with article 8 of the [European human rights] convention insofar as it prohibits abortion in cases of fatal foetal abnormality, rape and incest but not insofar as it prohibits abortion in cases of serious foetal abnormality.”

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