Pro-life governments and nongovernmental organizations have asked the United Nations Human Rights Committee to amend its draft of a legal commentary endorsing abortion and euthanasia.
The UN’s proposed commentary on Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights retains the commitment to recognize and protect “the right to life of all human beings” but doesn’t name the unborn as human beings. It also forbids pro-life laws that “jeopardize [mothers’] lives or subject them to physical or mental pain or suffering” and encourages member states to allow doctors to “facilitate the termination of life” for terminally ill patients.
The United States and other countries, as well as nongovernmental organizations, submitted briefs asking the UN to revise the commentary, with many specifically requesting it include the unborn and other vulnerable groups.
“While securing the lives of some, but not others, the draft is arbitrary, and even discriminatory, in singling out certain developmental stages and diagnoses that are deemed less worthy of human life protections,” the National Catholic Bioethics Center wrote.
The governments of Australia, Egypt, Malta, Poland, and the Russian federation asked for the protection of the unborn, and the United States said abortion access issues “are outside the scope of Article 6.”
Other nations applauded the commentary or asked it to go further: Denmark and the United Kingdom requested the UN strike out the phrase “pregnant woman,” as they allege it discriminates against women who identify as men.
Courtesy: WORLD News Service
Photo courtesy: ©Thinkstockphotos.com
Publication date: October 30, 2017
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