A Closer Look at Britain and the Culture of Death

NC Register ^ | September 4, 2010 | EDWARD PENTIN

[NYer]

Ahead of the Pope’s upcoming visit to Great Britain, there’s been a vigorous debate in some sections of the British press over whether the UK is the centre of the ‘culture of death.’

The discussion was sparked by a timely interview in Zenit with the director of pastoral affairs for the Westminster archdiocese, Edmund Adamus, and in particular this comment he made near the beginning:

“Whether we like it or not as British citizens and residents of this country—and whether we are even prepared as Catholics to accept this reality and all it implies—the fact is that historically, and continuing right now, Britain, and in particular London, has been and is the geopolitical epicentre of the culture of death. Our laws and lawmakers for over 50 years or more have been the most permissively anti-life and progressively anti-family and marriage.”

That policies directly opposed to a culture of life have taken root in the UK is well known among a good number of British Catholics and pro-life campaigners. But in the face of protestations among some columnists who beg to differ, I wanted to see how much this label could be backed up with solid facts.

Below is some evidence I dug up on my home country’s record on life issues over the past 50 years. It’s by no means exhaustive but the findings are undeniable, highly disturbing and back up Adamus’ assertion:

[NYer]

On Abortion:

• The UK has the highest number of abortions than any country in Europe with an average of 600 unborn children killed every day.
• 210,529 babies were killed in the womb in 2008* (the UK Department of Health puts the figure lower at 195,296). This compares to 114,484 in Germany (which has a higher population than Britain), 115,812 in Spain (a slightly lower population), and 121,806 in Italy (roughly the same population). The proportion of induced abortions as a percentage of pregnancies was higher than the U.S. (22.3% compared to 16.6%) in 2006 (the latest available figures).
• In 1958, 1,570 abortions (a rough estimate) were carried out in Britain; in 1968, a year after the Abortion Act, the figure was 23,991. The following year, it had over doubled to 53,643. By 1973, the figure had shot up to 120,160.*
• In the UK, unborn babies with disabilities can still be aborted right up to birth, according to the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC).
• 9 out of 10 unborn babies diagnosed with spina bifida are aborted. A similar proportion of Down’s Syndrome babies are aborted.
• In May 2008, in the first vote on abortion for 18 years, MPs voted against reducing the time limit for abortions from 24 to 20 weeks, even though a lowering of the limit had been predicted. Then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the current deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg voted to keep the limit; David Cameron, the current Prime Minister, voted to lower it to 22 weeks.
• A few weeks ago, Britain’s new Coalition government announced a new maternal health initiative with an “unprecedented focus on family planning” for the developing world. The plan includes the promotion of abortion and sexual “rights” for children.

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[SumProVita]

600 unborn children killed every day.

That’s horrendous! Any idea of what the number for the USA is?

[SumProVita]

I looked it up: Here is what I found:

UNITED STATES

Number of abortions per year: 1.37 Million (1996)
Number of abortions per day: Approximately 3,700
(1996-2008, The Alan Guttmacher Institute)

We have a LOT of prayer and work to do....

[Malesherbes]

16 percent in the United States is bad enough, and that takes place in our own toxic culture.

So I’m not looking down my nose at Britain, but I’ve lived there, and I’ve seen that it is effectively a pagan country which has come to disdain its own history and traditions. It is not surprising that it has become the epicenter of the culture of death.

[Zakeet]

The British experience with murdering seniors and persons with disabilities is as appalling as their record of baby killing. Most of it is due to ineptitude and callousness of their National Health Service.

For example, Britain was a nation of approximately 56 million people at the time when my wife and I lived there. The country had about 250 orthopedic surgeons. If granny fell and broke her hip, granny was placed in a wheelchair until she died. There simply were not enough resources to take care of her - nor should there be in the eyes of bureaucrats because, let's face it, granny was past the point where she could pay tax revenue into (and in fact drained pension income out of) the nation's treasury.

My wife and I saw many more examples of this kind of wanton cruelty and murder during our six years in London.

[Lorica]

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[Pontiac]

The UK has the highest number of abortions than any country in Europe

Is Russia considered part of Europe for the purposes of this statistic?

I recall reading that during the days of USSR that they had the highest abortion rate in the world.

Their abortion rates may have declined. I recall recently that the Russian government had instituted government payment plans to incentivize woman to have more children.

[Jack Hydrazine]

I keep saying that the UK is leading the West into the abyss of destruction with the US following not far behind.

[little jeremiah]

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Any culture that kills the elderly, the ill, the helpless and the young is not a human civilization any more. They are now barbaric, whether they have techo-gadgets or not. Dog eat dog, and it will devolve into worse than this rapidly. Eliminate moral absolutes which include charity and mercy to those less fortunate or weaker, and you get the killing fields in short order.

[NYer]

Number of abortions per day: Approximately 3,700

We need to pray for the mothers. When the reality of what they have done strikes, they become the 2nd victims. This truly is a culture of death.

[the scotsman]

Hysterical nonsense. Your point about the granny is pure bunkum. And I would greatly question your 250 figure. The NHS figure is higher than that and you fail of course to include private surgeons, Americans seem to think we dont have private medicine.

As a Scot/Brit (and a conservative who has his problems with the NHS) who has lived his whole life here just not six years, I think your post was OTT nonsense and that you didnt take much in about Britain in your six years by the looks of it.

BTW, that terrible NHS helped save my fathers life yeaterday and is currently giving him first class treatment in hospital

[the scotsman]

Fine, then dont come here.

If you do, and I welcome you to, you just might find we arent quite the Sodom you think. Oh, and we arent the Moozlim state you lot think either.

[Zakeet]

Hysterical nonsense. Your point about the granny is pure bunkum. And I would greatly question your 250 figure.

The "parked in a wheel chair with a broken hip" happened to one of my secretary's mum, among others. I was given the 250 figure (i.e. number of orthopedic surgeons in Britain) by our company's staff physician when I complained bitterly about granny's treatment.

Americans seem to think we dont have private medicine.

I am well aware of Bupa (the British equivalent of Blue Cross). It was one of the most cherished benefits we provided employees, surpassing even the grant of a company car. And of course, like virtually all expats, my family and I were on the private system - it was a requirement for employment there because the NHS was so poor. However, at the time, the private sector was minuscule and quite frankly of rather poor quality compared at that time (I returned to the States in 1985) to standards throughout America.

As a personal example, I caught some type of bug on one of my business trips to Africa. I traveled up and down Harley Street (the British equivalent of the Mayo Clinic) for over two years seeking advice. I finally gave up, was transferred at my insistence back to company headquarters in the States in town with a population of about 30,000. There, the first doctor I consulted, my personal family physician, immediately correctly diagnosed the problem and promptly cured me.

I could tell many other stories. Two children born at a medical school in South London, delivered by an outstanding physician (the dean of the ob department) who saw us as private patients, working in facilities that were appallingly ill equipped. Public appeals (led by the Evening Standard) in 1985 for a CT scanning machine in order to evaluate a police officer who had been virtually disemboweled by a lunatic, was making a poor recovery, and was in too fragile condition for exploratory surgery. The CT device, invented in the early 1970's, was by the mid 1980's quite common in the States. Britain did not have a single machine. An RN was tending our company Xerox machine because she could make far more money in that role than applying her professional training - while the NHS was forced to cope with a nursing shortage by importing poorly trained replacements from the Philippines. British doctors were emigrating to the States in droves to be replaced by Indian and Pakistani doctors emigrating to the U.K. Etc.

BTW, that terrible NHS helped save my fathers life yeaterday and is currently giving him first class treatment in hospital

I am glad your father had a successful outcome. However, I have sought treatment under both the British and American systems, and in my opinion, there is virtually no comparison in quality.

[Jack Hydrazine]

The UK has a highest per capita crime rate in the world. Why would I want to visit that?

[the scotsman]

1—Thanks for reply.

Your initial post made it look like ALL old people are just left to die on the NHS. That is what I was objecting to. Are there appalling cases like yours?. Yes. But are they the norm?. No, they werent then or now. I have experience of the NHS 25-30 years ago and now and they werent/arent for patients, old or young.

2-—Your experience with all due respect was 25 years ago. And a lot has changed and improved in the NHS since then. You cannot attack the NHS based on 1980-85 anymore than I can base my thoughts on America on my first visit in 1981. Things change. I know, as I have been a patient, NHS worker
and family member of patients over that time.

Would you still have gripes about the NHS?. Yes. But youd find a lot that you would be pleasantly surprised about.

Does the NHS have problems? Yes.
Is it the third rate or even second rate service that Americans shudder about?. No.

p.s the irony is that WE invented the CT scanner. Invented by an Englishman and a Scots-South African.

[the scotsman]

1—The UK dosent have a general crime rate. There are seperate crime rates for England/Wales, Scotland and NI.

2—The crime rate is higher per capita because Britain overall has TWENTY EIGHT crimes that come under violent crime on the statute books. Much more than America.

3—America’s murder rate is much higher than ours. Your gun death and gun murder rates are skyhigh compared to ours. You have 75% of the world’s serial killers roaming your streets.

Yet I still have a fondness for America, Americans and wish to visit again.

I have visited America, met Americans.You pass judgement on us, yet you have never been here?.

[the invisib1e hand]

Number of abortions per day: Approximately 3,700

Crazy, hunh? What if it did? In fact, what if it happened every single day and nobody said or did anything about it?

Well, guess what. Every day, on average, 3000 innocent Americans are put death because they cannot defend themselves, and nobody's paying attention.

It's called legalized abortion, and it's been this way for over 40 years.

Think about it.