Atheist Perspective » Bishop resigns over Amnesty move

Full story

08-20-2007

This relates to an earlier story about the dispute between Amnesty International and the Catholic Church. The Vatican urged Catholics to stop donating to Amnesty on the basis that Amnesty does not see the criminalization of women who choose to abort their pregnancy as a productive policy.

Ms Gilmore, Amnesty’s Deputy Secretary General in an earlier interview stated:

“We are saying broadly that to criminalise women’s management of their sexual reproductive right is the wrong answer.”

The full response to the Vatican can be found here. In it they say:

“Amnesty International’s position is not for abortion as a right but for women’s human rights to be free of fear, threat and coercion as they manage all consequences of rape and other grave human rights violations.”

Amnesty chairman Paolo Pobbiati insisted its new position had been misinterpreted by Vatican:

“It was partly inspired by our experience in Africa where soldiers rape women in communities they attack to force them to have their children. We also believe women who have had abortions should benefit from medical care regardless of the reason for the abortion.”

Bishop Michael Evans has responded:

“If Amnesty International becomes an organisation which affirms the right to abortion, even under certain circumstances, it is free democratically to do so. But it cannot expect those of us who are just as passionate about the human rights of the unborn child to feel at ease being part of such an organisation.”

These moves by the Vatican and the Catholic clergy are simply ways of trying to force Amnesty to change it’s position. It’s very clever but not all that moral. The church is playing games with lives. There are ways of lobbying and exerting influence, this is not one and moreover it’s an abuse of power. Disagree by all means, protest if you wish but putting people’s lives at risk because you disagree with a small part of the overall agenda is despicable.

Tags: abortion, Catholicism

Comments

9 comments so far.

Tom Donald said:

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On August 21
At 7:15 AM

The vatican preaching on women’s rights? That’s about as meaningful as the vatican preaching on child protection.
These old men need to learn humility. But what’s the chance of that?
Nil.

Greg said:

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On August 21
At 11:17 AM

Their bible says, thou shall not kill, but in that statement does not qualify the killing.

All life is equal across the board, as societies we kill life for our survival in various forms. This bears no judgement from nature, as nature doesn’t care.

Didn’t Hitchens say recently, the church believes that AIDS is bad, but condoms are worse.

No entity with that kind of thinking would be considered moral on any grounds.

brian said:

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On September 05
At 5:29 AM

Wouldn’t it be reasonable for all catholics to give to organizations that can aid without compromising their essential beliefs? Protecting unborn babies is a core issue. If there were no other avenues of aid, then the choice becomes more delicate.

Because one does not have the ability to empathize with a woman who has been raped shouldn’t disable them from making a truth judgement. Killing a baby is wrong regardless of the situation.

Greg said:

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On September 05
At 9:06 AM

Brian, you make an interesting point, one that is purely subjective, but worth saying that “killing a baby is wrong regardless of the situation”.

My previous post truly makes the objective comment that ALL life is valuable across the board. We SUBJECTIVELY kill life everyday for our survival and desire.

If our society would make RU 486 available over the counter then women have greater options and less likely to abort a fetus(not a baby, it’s not a baby at this point).

Additionally, if people would learn the stages of embryogenesis it would help remove the imaginary ideas that keep perpetuating that a “baby” is being killed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_embryogenesis

When we can move our society toward greater responsibility, especially with something so useful like RU486(the Morning After pill) we can slow and reduce the number of abortions.

Just yesterday a story out of Washington State where pharmacists won’t sell the drug because of their religious beliefs - it’s absurd.

Where’s their contempt for all life that is taken for medical research? Notice again that we rationalize the life we take on a daily basis.

Discriminating women, which is what this is as I’ve shown the value across the board, is not responsible.

We don’t discriminate women so if they would like to make a choice that I don’t agree with, what of my business is that or yours?

Something to think about.

Greg said:

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On September 05
At 9:19 AM

“shouldn’t disable them from making a truth judgement”

Careful the statement you make about truth. There is not “one” truth to the subjective mind of any man or woman, there is only choice.

The authentication of such where the subjective life of an individual becomes negated for another person’s version of truth is highly suspect, arrogant in nature, and irresponsible.

Tassos said:

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On November 13
At 6:30 PM

Cool…

Yiorgos said:

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On December 01
At 8:03 AM

Nice!

Odysseus said:

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On December 01
At 10:42 AM

Sorry

Damianos said:

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On December 04
At 9:32 AM

Cool!

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