California Cryobank, a 30-year-old fertility business, has launched a “Donor Look-A-Like” scheme which allows women to search for sperm donors that the company claims resemble Tom Cruise, Viggo Mortensen, Will Smith (pictured), and other celebrities or athletes. The programme, however, has led to criticism from pro-life groups. Dr. David Stevens, Chief Executive Officer of the...
An Australian version of the 2009 Manhattan Declaration in the United States and the 2010 Westminster Declaration in the UK, was launched last week in the Australian capital city of Canberra. The Canberra Declaration, which affirms the need to respect religious freedom, traditional marriage and the sanctity of human life was read to the media...
A law defending traditional marriage, which was backed by a clear majority of citizens of California was struck down by a US District judge yesterday. It will now be appealed. Proposition 8, which was passed in a referendum in 2008 on the same day as President Obama was elected, preserved the definition of marriage as...
The Catholic hierarchy have welcomed the publication of a paper by the Department of Education listing the areas in which the Church can begin transferring some of its primary schools to new patrons. There are forty-three small and medium-sized towns that meet the Department’s criteria for the hand-over of schools. These criteria are that the...
Over 1,000 first year girls in UK secondary schools were prescribed with the contraceptive pill last year, new figures show. The figures, from the General Practice Research Database (GPRD), represent a fivefold increase in the past decade. They also show that 200 girls between the ages of eleven and 13 were prescribed long-term implanted or...
New legislation to create a national vetting agency to assess the suitability of people who work with children will be put before the Government by the end of the year, the Minister of State for Children, Barry Andrews (pictured), has said. In an interview with the Irish Times, Mr Andrews said that he expected to...
A US university which removed a professor barred for teaching Catholic doctrine on homosexuality, even though he was employed to teach Catholicism, has provisionally backed down, and will allow him to teach again in the coming semester. Dr Kenneth Howell, an adjunct professor in the university’s religious studies department, learned of the decision last week....
A key UN treaty monitoring body has has attacked the Russian Federation for promoting motherhood and women being able to stay at home with their newborn children. The CEDAW committee of the UN, which monitors the implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), argued that Russia should...
Environment Minister and Green Party chief John Gormley has attacked those who oppose the Civil Partnership Bill as homophobes who hold “old and discredited prejudices”. Speaking at an event in Dublin to mark the passing of the civil partnership legislation, he said that homophobia still existed, before adding that he rejected arguments for a clause...
A US federal judge has thrown out an appeal against a decision by Eastern Michigan University to expel a student from a master’s degree program because of her religious views against homosexual acts. Julea Ward of Detroit was removed from Eastern Michigan’s counselling course because she refused to counsel homosexual clients as part of her...
