A litmus test: to all members of parliament.

Editor

After years of delay the federal government has promised legislation dealing with reproductive technology, including the use of stem cells. Health Minister Anne McLellan has said that this legislation will be tabled before May 10. Taking a position therefore is urgent.

Embryos must be protected

The arguments against embryonic stem-cell use are exactly like those against abortion. We are destroying human lives. Conception is God's gift for a new human life. With conception, life is set on its journey through all the stages of a new human existence--and none of the stages, from conception to death, is more human or less human than another.

It is at conception, not birth, when new human life begins. Medicine knows it, and so does everyone else. The fertilized ovum contains a genetic code which is microscopically present and complete. Nothing will be added to this code before or after birth: the embryo is completely human at the moment of conception. Nothing remains but for the person to pass through the successive stages that God decreed a human life should pass through in its life journey--and birth is only one of them. In some ways the stages of development from conception to death are as different from one another as night is from day, yet all are but successive forms of the one same human being. Zygote, embryo, fetus, baby, child, teenager, young person, middle-aged or senior, are names for different periods of growth for one and the same person.

In short, because all of you MPs treasure life, whether your own or that of your families and friends, all of you should oppose legislation that threatens the life of others. If the government refuses to separate one unacceptable part from other sections of the legislation which benefit the common good--you will have to vote the whole Bill down. The interest of Canada requires that you steel yourself now to face this task.

What, you may say, is "the interest of Canada"? If we set aside the religious aspects of the medical act of killing embryos, if only for a moment, then we still face other considerations such as the future of Canadians as a nation.

Depopulation 

On March 15 of this year, the first results--in fact the most important results--of the census of 2001 were published in the daily papers. Canada's population--like that of all Western countries with the exception of the United States-is grinding to a standstill, soon to be followed by a decline in numbers. The census of 2001 made it clear that ours is not a vibrant young country, with enormous potential, but a country old before its time.

To sustain its population, a country needs a rate of 2.1 children per couple; Canada's rate is 1.5 and has been so for several decades. Even with immigration, our population growth has slowed to a snail's pace. Canada will face serious labour shortages within five years.

Other signs of decline, for example, are our school buildings which are already heading for the chopping block. In the year 2000 Ontario closed 73 schools; in 2001 it was 49 (Toronto Star, Mar 16/02). These closings are not solely the result of populations shifting from rural areas to the cities. In 2002 the downtown Toronto Catholic District School Board will close 10 schools; its counterpart, the Public School Board, will close even more. The point is that the declining numbers of young people imply not only major shifts in our population from young to old, but also bring with them an enormous waste of resources.

Stem-cells and abortion

Let us get back to the main topic, the need to defeat permissive reproductive legislation. As mentioned, this also implies on your part further resistance to the abortion industry which, as many of you now know, has played havoc with Canada's future. If there were no abortions in Canada, then the census of 2001 would have counted millions more people. A number of the more than 2 1/2 million aborted Canadians would themselves have had their own families. To put it differently, by accepting the "morally permissive society" of the nineteen sixties, we as a people are committing national suicide.

In May 1969 members of Parliament failed the country by approving the Liberal government's permissive society. Today, May 2002, you are given a chance to begin the reversal of this disastrous course of action by voting down the use of embryonic stem-cells. Voters will see this as a litmus test for all of you.

One final point for many of you who are Catholics. The Church has spoken very clearly. As Pope John Paul put it: embryonic life is authentic human life. The commandment, "Thou shalt not kill," still holds, no matter what medical and scientific researchers may say or do.

When the Liberal government brings in legislation that approves embryonic stem-cell research, you have the opportunity of defying it and thereby save your soul. Sometimes God's commandments don't allow us to compromise. This is one of those occasions.

Reader: Please fax or mail a copy of this editorial to your local M.P. together with your own letter. Don 't forget to pray for the MPs.