The Star put up a post today about the ethics of selling body parts, which I had already posted on. What stunned me about their post was they asked Moira McQueen, director of the Canadian Catholic Bioethics Institute to contribute. Now obviously Dr. McQueen has a right to an opinion, and as a well-respected theologian I am sure she has some very interesting things to say, but look at the group she represents.
The Canadian Catholic Bioethics Institute has links to such nonsense as “New Study Shows Double Cervical Cancer Risk for Oral Contraceptive Users” from LifeSiteNews.com which is a religious pseudo-news site. I say pseudo news since, there is no way to verify much of what they report. Unfortunately the Life Site News didn’t have a link to the study to follow on further.
One could easily argue that the pill (oral contraceptive) is the greatest advancement in women’s rights, giving them the opportunity to choose when and if to have children; allowing women to enter the work force in record numbers not to mention the thousands of women who might have died during childbirth. One might also note the church’s strong condemnation of the pill, in favor of the the Billings Ovulation Method an alternative contraception that the Church considers acceptable. Think Monty Python’s skit, every sperm is sacred.
The CCBI site also contains links to such idiotic articles as “Abstinence programs help youths make wise choices” and “The Achilles’ Heel of Condoms – Chastity and Fidelity Proving More Effective” as reported by Father John Flynn. A priest is reporting on condom use. Isn’t that like me reporting on how to milk a yak? How on earth would he know what a condom is, or how one is used? Rather than making rash statements, lets take a look at the teen pregnancy statistics off of Wikipedia shall we?
| Country | Teenage birth rateper 1000 women 15-19 |
|---|---|
| South Korea | 3 |
| Netherlands | 5 |
| Tunisia | 7 |
| Australia | 16 |
| United Kingdom | 20 |
| Russia | 30 |
| United States | 53 |
| Indonesia | 55 |
| South Africa | 66 |
| Brazil | 73 |
| Bangladesh | 117 |
| Niger | 233 |
Take out Niger, since as a mostly rural country in sub-Saharan Africa teen marriages are common. Instead look at the US and Brazil, both countries mentioned in the good father’s report , both of which preach a lot of “abstinence”. Much higher than countries like the Netherlands which teach proper sexual education. The issue isn’t that abstinence is wrong, it isn’t, but to only educate kids with one solution to the issue is not only idiocy but in my opinion criminal.
The all time fav for me is the article entitled “Study: HIV-positive Practicing Homosexual Men 9000% More Likely to Develop Anal Cancer” Which opens with “New research has again shown the grave danger of homosexual sex acts to the human body.” Talk about fear mongering. And the list of nonsense articles goes on:
- Study: Even with 100 % Condom Use 30% Still Contract Potentially Deadly HPV Virus … (June 26) – Illinois Family Institute
- Medical Doubts About Condoms and AIDS Prevention … (June 22) – ZENIT Archive (ZE06062220)
- New FDA Condom Guidelines “An Appalling Deception” According to Family Group … (November 14) – LifeSiteNews.com
…and on and on.
If the CCBI wants to be looked at as a center for science and ethics, which is a very noble and worthy cause, they should have the decency and common sense to look at the research presented in some of their links before they post them.