For Immediate Release
June 21, 2006

Physicians applaud proposed legislation to protect perinatal children in Canada
 
OTTAWA – Canadian Physicians for Life President Dr. Will Johnston applauded today Liberal MP Paul Steckle’s efforts to extend legal protection to perinatal children in Canada—children who have reached the point of fetal viability after 20 weeks gestation.
 
“It is a national tragedy that the most vulnerable people in our country—those children developing in their mother’s womb—receive no legal protection whatsoever,” Dr. Johnston said. “Canada is unique in its utter disregard for the lives of these children, and such legislation is long overdue.” He noted that virtually every other industrialized nation in the world offers protection for its unborn children from at least some stage in their development.
 
Mr. Steckle’s Private Members Bill which was introduced today in the House of Commons seeks to change this situation by penalizing anyone who “causes the death of a child before it has completely proceeded from the body of its mother” after 20 weeks gestation, except if continuing the pregnancy would put the mother’s life or physical health at serious risk.
 
“With advances in medical technology, children younger and younger are capable of surviving outside the womb,” Dr. Johnston pointed out. “These are viable children we are talking about, and most Canadians are shocked when they learn that there is no protection for them in Canadian law.” According to the Canadian Medical Association, viability is possible with a fetal weight over 500 grams and/or 20 weeks gestation.
 
“We believe that all human beings have the inherent right to life, regardless of age or infirmity,” Dr. Johnston said, and he expressed his appreciation for Mr. Steckle’s attempt to extend the boundaries of social justice in this country to include prenatal children during the latter stages of pregnancy. “Mr. Steckle is to be thanked for defending the dignity of human life and for his courageous attempt to bring sanity to even the smallest part of this national tragedy,” Dr. Johnston concluded.
 
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For more information contact:
 
Will Johnston, MD, President
Canadian Physicians for Life
ph/fax: 613-728-5433
email: info@physiciansforlife.ca
www.physiciansforlife.ca