Posted on 08/03/2009 3:45:25 PM PDT by wagglebee
ROME, August 3, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - When the Italian drug agency approved the sale of the deadly abortion drug RU 486 late Thursday night, senior Vatican officials responded strongly saying that doctors who prescribe it and the women who take it risk excommunication. The Italian Pharmaceuticals Agency (AIFA) said the drug, to be sold under the brand name Mifegyne, would not be sold in pharmacies and only be administered by physicians in hospitals.
Bishop Elio Sgreccia, a bioethics professor, author and former vice-president of the Pontifical Academy for Life (PAV) told Corriere della Sera newspaper, "This is a compound which kills the foetus and one much promoted by the pharmaceutical industry. It is an incitement to abort. It is absolutely unacceptable and leads to automatic excommunication."
He added, "First abortion was legalised to stop it being clandestine, but now doctors are washing their hands of it and transferring the burden of conscience to women."
The current head of the PAV, Archbishop Salvatore Fisichella said, "An embryo is not a bunch of cells. It is a real and full human life and to suppress it is a responsibility no one can take without fully realising the consequences."
Fisichella, however, refused to state outright that these "consequences" include automatic excommunication. In an interview with Corriere della Sera, he said, "It is obvious that the canonical consequences are the same as for surgical abortion, this is known. But I do not want to make a declaration." Asked why not, he added that such a declaration would be "too easy".
In an article in Saturday's Italian edition of L'Osservatore Romano, Fisichella wrote that the drug will "lead to a trivialization of the concept of life." The drug is "an evil in and of itself because it takes a human life. This life, which is only visible through the assistance of technology, possesses the same dignity inherent in every person."
The vote of the AIFA board of directors in favour of the drug, after a reportedly heated four-hour debate, was four to one. Romano Colozzi, the dissenting member, warned, "The apparent ease of this pharmacological method will inevitably lower the level of caution and responsibility."
Some legislators in the government of Silvio Berlusconi had also opposed the decision. Citing the statistics from the Italian health agency showing at least 29 maternal deaths associated with the drug, Eugenia Roccella, the subsecretary of the health office, indicated reservations about the decision. She told media that despite their decision, an "interchange of opinions" would continue between AIFA and the health ministry.
Gianni Alemanno, the mayor of Rome said, "Infanticide is, in fact, being legalised for the modest sum of €14 a tablet."
Abortion on demand up to the end of the third month of pregnancy has been legal in Italy since 1978. It is estimated, however, that the nearly 70 per cent of doctors in Italy who are conscientious objectors to abortion will not prescribe the drug.
Italy was one of the last EU countries to resist legalising the deadly drug that is the subject of massive class action law suits in the US. Developed in France, RU-486 or mifepristone is approved as a prescription drug in the US and througout the European Union except, as of Friday, in Ireland and Portugal.
The prevalence of RU 486 in the abortion industry is growing worldwide. In 2007, figures released for England and Wales revealed that 43 per cent of early abortions were the result of RU 486, called "medical" abortion in much of the medical literature.
As I see it, there are two keys in knowing what the scripture says...The first one is that you have to know some of the scripture...And the second one is you have to believe it...
And in my experience, most Catholic aren't real good at either one...
Now there's a new twist on Catholic bashing. You accuse Catholics of not knowing Scripture and using this to justify YOUR support of abortion.
As far as your Scriptural reference to Adam's CREATION, you seem to miss the FACT that Adam was CREATED, he was not conceived as EVERY OTHER PERSON since Adam and Eve have been.
Is it possible to go any lower than using the Bible to justify abortion?
I think you'll be hard pressed to locate a post of mine over the last eleven years that promotes abortion...Go ahead, give it a try...
As far as your Scriptural reference to Adam's CREATION, you seem to miss the FACT that Adam was CREATED, he was not conceived as EVERY OTHER PERSON since Adam and Eve have been.
Didn't miss it at all...Adam didn't breath...A baby in the womb doesn't breathe...Now if you can correct that with scripture, I'd be more than happy to learn something new...But don't bother with old Catholic wive's tales...
Is it true that you practice witchcraft???
Do you support abortion?
Of course not...
Your problem is relying solely on the scriptures. The Church doesn’t rely solely on the scriptures when it says that life begins at conception.
At any stage of life?
In post 6 you stated that until the baby breathes it has no soul. This is what abortionists have been saying for decades, they believe that the unborn baby has no soul and therefore isn't human.
Didn't miss it at all...Adam didn't breath...A baby in the womb doesn't breathe...Now if you can correct that with scripture, I'd be more than happy to learn something new...But don't bother with old Catholic wive's tales...
What is this "Catholic wive's tale" you are referring to?
NOWHERE in Scripture does it say a person must breathe to have a soul (including the verse you quoted).
I know there are many fine Christians who have protested at clinics, offered counseling to pregnant women, and provide adoption services. It is at the top where only lip service is given, no real confrontation/consequences for those who create the laws, or support them.
I agree completely. It is long past the time when the Catholic Church needs to publicly proclaim that until they atone for their sins, certain people are excommunicated and they need to NAME NAMES.
And I think that non-Catholic Evangelical leaders need to do the same thing, I realize that many of them do not have a formal method of excommunication, but they can make it clear that certain people have, by their own actions, damned their souls unless they repent.
I believe that if some Evangelicals and Catholic bishops were to issue a joint statement about people like Obama, Sebelius, Pelosi, the Clintons, etc., it would have a very dramatic effect.
Correctomundo...And I may be wrong...But as I see it, all children are a gift from God...
But then I'm a softie anyway...I don't kill puppies, kittens or anything else...Whether in the womb or not...
You're right, too few Evangelical churches exercise the church discipline they should. We do have some, but nowhere near enough.
I believe that if some Evangelicals and Catholic bishops were to issue a joint statement about people like Obama, Sebelius, Pelosi, the Clintons, etc., it would have a very dramatic effect.
For it to have any effect they have to say until they repent, and prove they have repented by undoing the damage they've done, they are not welcome in church and if they show up they will be told to leave. If we really want to end these terrible things like abortion people must be forced to pick sides.
***But then I’m a softie anyway...I don’t kill puppies, kittens or anything else...Whether in the womb or not...***
May I enquire about the non breathing in the womb; and whether you eat meat or any living vegetation?
It's certainly not my problem...When God say don't add to the words of the book, that's not one of the sins I'm guilty of...I won't be standing there on judgement day trying to explain why I perverted the scriptures...
So if you want to add to the book or take away from it, good luck to ya...
You have the prerogative of making any scripture mean what you want it to mean...
Gen 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
The passage says Adam became a living soul when the breath of life was breathed into him...
I guess you can claim it means what ever you want it to mean...But that won't change what it clearly says...
Inquire away...
Okay; I’d rather enquire, though.
Do you think that fetuses in the womb are living humans?
Do you eat meat? Do you eat vegetation that is or was living (as opposed to fruit which drops away from the main plant)?
because there are other uses for it as a drug...it only got FDA approval...a president can delay approval but not stop the bureaucrats.
For the life of me I can't figure out how your religion missed it, or refuses to acknowledge a very basic fact...It took your religion 400 years to accept the idea that God is a Trinity even tho your religion can't seem to find it in the scriptures...
Your religion still can't figure out that we as babies are created in the image of God...The Trinitarian God...
Adam was created out of the dust...He was lifeless at the time...A baby is created in the womb...It gets if life from the mother...Cut the umbilical cord in the womb and it's all over for the baby...
Adam came to life when God breathed into him...A baby comes to independent life when when it breathes the breath of life...Does God provide this breath of life??? I believe so...
When Adam AND a new baby takes on a life of it's own, God provides the baby (and Adam) with a soul...
And to answer your question; yes I believe a fetus in the womb is a living human being...He/she can not yet live on his/her own but just as alive and human as you or me...
Do you eat meat? Do you eat vegetation that is or was living (as opposed to fruit which drops away from the main plant)?
Are we playing a game here??? No I'm not a vegetarian...I do however eat far less red meat than I used to...
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