History
Launch of Amnesty for Babies, 28 June 2006
Speech by Ms Kathy Sinnott MEP
Ms Kathy Sinnott MEP
The baby before birth is the most vulnerable human being, unable to speak on its own behalf and in need of the strongest possible advocacy at UN level, Council of Europe level, EU level and state level, and at every level within the state.
When we talk of amnesty, we may think of someone who has been condemned to death and for whom a pardon or amnesty is sought: perhaps a political prisoner who is interned simply for opposing a dictatorial government. 'Amnesty' is actually related to the Greek amnestos which means 'the forgotten ones'.
Do we need to ask who are the forgotten ones in our society? Who are excluded when it comes to human rights? Babies once conceived, and prior to birth, in the society in which we live are often terminated and truly become the forgotten ones, the amnestos. Their human right to life is ignored.
Through the political process of many countries, laws have been enacted allowing babies to be routinely condemned to death every day. There is no trial, no judge, no jury and no appeals procedure; just a death sentence. If [these aborted children] are not strictly political prisoners, they are certainly prisoners of politics in need of amnesty.
We in this campaign must ask why they are being killed. What is their crime? The babies' so-called crime is just being there. They commit the crime of being present and inconvenient; the crime of being disabled, being a girl, being a second child or, in the west, simply being conceived.
Sadly, some countries have already decided that [abortion] should be a human right. The targeting of the baby before birth by powerful international organisations and all attempts to make abortion a human right are unfair, unjust and contrary to the human rights of the baby before birth. Babies need strong advocacy to bring their plight to the world's attention.
Abortion is not, and can never be, a human right. Abortion ignores the right to life of innocent and vulnerable babies. We insist we must have an amnesty for babies.
We are told by those who have a vested interest that the embryo is simply a bunch of cells, that abortion is not really taking a life, and that babies are non-persons. This argument is not new. Throughout the history of the human race rejection of personhood has been used as the excuse for vilification, enslavement, killing, and even genocide of a weaker group of people. Today babies are the weaker group.
Every baby counts, every life is precious, and every life is a unique gift, never to be repeated. Every baby, born or before birth, has an equal right to life with all other human beings, including his or her mother. Every pregnant woman knows that the baby she carries is a new human person. Medical science has also shown beyond any doubt that, from the moment of fertilisation, each newly formed human embryo has a unique, separate and distinct identity and is in fact a new human person in his or her earliest stages. If this was a white whale or some other protected species, environmentalists would be clamouring for the protection of pregnant mothers, but the human embryo is seen as disposable and treated abominably.
I'm delighted to announce that the Amnesty for Babies campaign is launching a petition on its website and inviting [others] to demand an amnesty and a recognition of babies before birth.
Speech by John Smeaton, national director of SPUC
This is the text of a speech by John Smeaton, national director of SPUC, at the launch of the Amnesty for Babies Before Birth campaign at the Restaurant Vieux-Bois, avenue de la Paix, Geneva, on 28 June 2006.
As Ms Sinnott says, it's very timely and necessary to launch an international appeal to nations throughout the world to put in place protection for the most vulnerable members of our society - the voiceless ones - children before birth. This initiative, launched by Ms Sinnott, is central to the reason the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children was founded.
The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, along with our colleagues in the pro-life coalition, has attended all major conferences and events at the UN since 1994 and, during that time, has promoted and fought for the right to life of the child before birth. We have opposed all attempts to make abortion a human right and sought at all times to have language included in UN conventions and other documents that upholds the right to life at all stages and phases of life, from conception to natural death.
One of the problems we have encountered in our lobbying experience is that so-called politically correct ideologies have been adopted by many governments and powerful NGOs. These are ideologies which are hostile to the life of the child before birth. These ideologies must be confronted and shown to be inadequate, and that they are detrimental to the future population of all nations and, thereby, their economic viability.
There has been a failure by those charged with the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) properly to implement that convention in respect of all children without discrimination. Sadly, the CRC has been unjustly interpreted by some nations and international bodies to limit the scope of the convention only to born children.
We call on those nations which currently have legislation in place which permits abortion to review their policies as a matter of urgency and to take seriously the statement in the Declaration on the Rights of the Child and the subsequent Convention on the Rights of the Child which says: "Whereas the child, by reason of his physical and mental immaturity, needs special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection, before as well as after birth".
We hope that states will also put in place legislation which will provide the much-needed special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection, for the baby before birth as was envisaged by the founding fathers of the UN in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and as was also envisaged in the original Declaration on the Rights of the Child a decade later.