Leon J. Podles :: DIALOGUE

Notre Dame did not anticipate the level of criticism it is getting for its invitation to Obama, criticism not only from grass-root pro-life activists, but also from bishops and cardinals. Those who defend the invitation have been rather lame. They claim that the invitation does not show an approval of Obama’s positions on life; this [...]

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The future Dr. Svensson of Sweden

One possible source of the Vatican’s lax attitude to sexual abusers in the clergy is that the Vatican is staffed by Europeans who consider America’s harsh punishments of crime barbaric.

Sweden, the New York Times reports, has a convicted neo-Nazi murderer in medical school.

Mr. Svensson…was convicted in the 1999 hate [...]

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For several years my sources in biotechnology have told me that the fight over the use of stem cells obtained by killing human embryos was meaningless, that stem cells taken from the patient’s own body were far more promising. The National Post reports:
The ethical deate over embryonic stem cell use may soon be moot, thanks [...]

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Doctors are held to a higher standard than priests are. The National Post reports: 

A surgeon who engaged in sexual acts with four women who came to him for weight loss surgeries, including twin sisters, had his licence revoked today.
Dr. Jacobo Joffe, who practiced out of Scarborough Grace hospital, pleaded no contest to allegations of sexual [...]

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By a vote of 30 to 26 with three abstentions, the parliament of Luxembourg has legalized doctors’ killing of their patients. According to Kathnet:
Ärzte, die Beihilfe zum Selbstmord leisten, begehen mit dem neuen Gesetz keine Rechtsverletzung mehr.
Doctors, who assist with suicide, under the new law will suffer no legal penalties.

Luxembourg is 86% Catholic.

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