Religion & Ethics Australia Digest

A weekly public affairs review from the Centre for Christian Ethics, Morling College

No. 046, 19-25 Aug 2005  ² edited by Rod Benson

News & opinion

Abortion

Skin taken from an aborted foetus and cultivated in the laboratory has been used in the treatment of eight children who suffered severe burns, allowing them to avoid traumatic skin graft operations.
SMH 19 Aug 05

A review of medical evidence has found foetuses likely don’t feel pain until the final months of pregnancy, a powerful challenge to abortion opponents who hope that discussions about foetal pain will make women think twice about ending pregnancies. The Age 24 Aug 05

Unborn babies appear to cry in the womb from as early as the 28th week of pregnancy, according to research that may influence the intensifying debate about whether pain or distress are experienced before birth.
SMH 25 Aug 05

Abuse – sexual

Why does a judge allow one man’s culture to be used as an excuse for violence and rape of a child, asks Janet Albrechtsen.
Aust 24 Aug 05 Also…

Bioethics – stem cells

A new type of cell discovered in umbilical-cord blood promises to overcome the ethical and legal dilemmas surrounding the use of embryonic stem cells. Aust 19 Aug 05

Scientists say they have for the first time turned ordinary skin cells into embryonic stem cells – without using human eggs or making new human embryos in the process. SMH 23 Aug 05

Censorship

While it’s one thing to disparage the extreme symptoms of libertarianism seen on Big Brother, it’s quite another to seek to ban them, writes Kenneth Nguyen.
The Age 20 Aug 05

Child safety

If you glance at your street during the school summer holidays, the lack of children thereof is perhaps the most worrying. There is a new omnipotent force on the block – child safety. More…

The state and its capital are awash with reports of men trawling the streets for children. SMH 20 Aug 05

Church growth

Mainline denominations, especially those identified as liberal or moderate, are losing members while Evangelical and charismatic churches, which are often identified as conservative, are growing. More…

Criminal justice

Chemical castration reduces repeat acts by sex offenders and allows them a normal life, writes Phil Dye. SMH 24 Aug 05

Drugs

Prime Minister John Howard has delivered a blunt warning to Australians who carry drugs into Asia, calling them stupid and telling them not to expect the Government to save them. SMH 24 Aug 05

Education

The 1960s and ’70s were not only about Woodstock, Vietnam moratoriums and flower power. At the same time, education became a key battleground in the Left’s attempt to take over the commanding heights of the nation’s culture, writes Kevin Donnelly.
Aust 24 Aug 05

School teachers should leave their political bias at home, writes Miranda Devine.
SMH 25 Aug 05

Employment

Hugh Stretton argues that Australia should once again be aiming for full employment. More…

Environment

When peatbogs melt, they can release one of the most potent greenhouse gases, methane. If enough is released, and in Siberia there are billions of tonnes locked below the ice, it can directly accelerate global warming and thus more is released. Aust 23 Aug 05

The rate of ice melting in the Arctic is increasing and a panel of researchers says it sees no natural process that is likely to change that trend. SMH 24 Aug 05

Ethical investment

Leading Australian ethical investment fund Glebe Asset Management, which manages more than $500 million for the Anglican Church, has axed its ban on investing in uranium miners as pressure mounts on the Gallop Government to allow mining of WA’s extensive uranium reserves.
The West Australian 24 Aug 05

Ethics – medical

Three years ago, peak industry body Medicines Australia made headlines when it reviewed its Code of Conduct, redefining “acceptable” relationships with the medical profession. Aust 20 Aug 05

Executive salaries

Company directors have been warned to link executive salary packages more closely to performance and curb the size of termination payouts or face a shareholder backlash at this year’s AGM season. AFR 24 Aug 05

Feminism

If Paris Hilton, Britney Spears and the 2005 cast of Big Brother had conservative tongues wagging about the effects of evil pop culture on helpless young women, the results of a recent British poll might just make them convulse. The Age 19 Aug 05

Foreign policy

America’s gung-ho foreign policy could put Australia in an uncomfortable position, writes Peter Hartcher. SMH 19 Aug 05

Friendship

It may be Australia’s universally accepted term of address but yesterday “mate” became a forbidden word in the national Parliament. SMH 19 Aug 05

John Howard and George Bush are not mates; they’re accomplices, writes Michael Leunig. The Age 22 Aug 05

Health policy

There’s a problem in Australia’s health system, and many experts think at least a part of it is acute. Aust 20 Aug 05

HIV/AIDS

Poverty and discrimination continue to be a daily reality for many Australian women living with HIV/AIDS. A survey shows that one in three female sufferers are living below the poverty line. Almost 90 per cent of women surveyed reported difficulty in meeting the costs of daily living. The Age 23 Aug 05

Internet

As online searchers struggle to stay on top of all the new weblogs or “blogs” that appear daily in cyberspace, search engine Feedster has launched a top 500 listing in a bid to make better sense of this bewildering new universe. SMH 24 Aug 05

Islam – Australia

Moderate Australian Muslims will call today for reforms across their community, including accreditation for imams and a mentoring system to introduce young Muslims to the wider community and remove their sense of being marginalised. SMH 22 Aug 05

Those meeting the PM today do not represent the broader community, writes Amir Butler. The Age 23 Aug 05

Islamic leaders have offered to draw up an Australian register of imams to weed out extreme and radical teaching following their meeting with John Howard. Aust 24 Aug 05

Conservative Islam has much to offer the fight against home-grown terrorism, writes Amir Butler. SMH 24 Aug 05

John Howard chose his Muslim summit guests with an eye to the outcome he obtained from yesterday’s meeting. That result was useful

as an inclusive gesture, but it would be naive to think it any more than a modest step in grappling with a threat that’s impossible to measure, writes Michelle Grattan.
The Age 24 Aug 05

Judiciary

Michael McHugh sent out a call on Wednesday night for a woman to replace him on the High Court. The Chief Justice, Murray Gleeson, has given the impression he’s not so sure about that. SMH 19 Aug 05

Marriage

It will be a measure of progress when the new wedding night ritual is to flourish a condom for the last time, writes Adele Horin. SMH 20 Aug 05

Online affairs are increasingly leading to divorce. The president of the Australian Association of Relationship Counsellors, Eric Hudson, said there had been a significant rise in the number of couples separating as a result of cyber infidelity. SMH 20 Aug 05

Infidelity in cyberspace is breaking up marriages, writes Jordan Baker.
SMH 21 Aug 05

Pharmaceuticals

Australian compensation claims against the makers of the once-popular pain-killer Vioxx have been given a boost by a multimillion-dollar payout to an American women whose husband died after taking the drug.
Sun-Herald 21 Aug 05

Philanthropy

Sir John Templeton’s born-again son takes control of the famous foundation—but there are strings attached. More…

Policing

The “underworld consultant” handpicked by Victorian police chief Christine Nixon to help fight burgeoning gang crime has been charged with serious corruption offences. Aust 23 Aug 05

Politics – Australia

American power is supportive of our core values, writes Peter Costello.
The Age 22 Aug 05

The country is suffering because of the narrowness of debate under John Howard, writes Martin Flanagan. The Age 22 Aug 05

John Hewson has left the board of the new political campaign organisation, GetUp! less than a month after its launch. The group was designed to be a non-partisan political organisation focusing on issues such as industrial relations, media ownership and immigration detention. SMH 25 Aug 05

Poverty

It’s exciting to see many celebrities banding together with faith-based aid organizations and ordinary citizens to communicate to the world’s richest nations that they can do something to help end poverty, writes CT. More…

ACOSS believes poverty still exists according to contemporary definitions of what poverty is, writes Andrew McCallum. More…

A recent article “Defining Poverty” from the Centre for Independent Studies contains a mix of sensible reflections, mis-reading of the evidence and muddle-headed thinking, neatly wrapped in CIS pro-market ideology, writes Peter Saunders. More…

Reduce poverty and sustainability will follow, argues Eric Claus. More…

Refugees & asylum seekers

The Government’s practice of charging detainees for the cost of their imprisonment is a cruel joke, writes Mike Steketee.
Aust 25 Aug 05

Roman Catholic Church

Pope Benedict has long called for a renewal of Europe’s sense of its Christian roots, and that is expected to be the central theme of his first trip abroad as pontiff, to a festival of young Catholics in his native Germany.
SMH 19 Aug 05

Sex

Telling underage kids not to have sex is surprisingly controversial, writes Ted Olsen. More…

Social change

It has been asserted recently in the quality press that sexist attitudes are on the rise in society, young women are retreating from feminist values, and a study finding that one-third of Australians consider homosexuality “immoral” is evidence of an anti-queer backlash driven by the Federal Government’s family values agenda. More…

Social justice

The National Council of Churches in Australia has a range of resources for Social Justice Sunday on 25 September 2005. More…

The Edmund Rice Centre offers resources on peace, justice and ecology. More…

Geraldine Doogue profiles ‘troublesome’ Jesuit priest Frank Brennan, prominent and outspoken advocate for peace and social justice on ABC’s Compass. More…

Taxation

John Maynard Keynes once famously stated: “It would be counterproductive if government were ever allowed to absorb more than 25 per cent of GDP.” That’s what has happened in Australia. Aust 22 Aug 05

Transsexualism

A man who claims he was misdiagnosed as a transsexual can sue the medical team that advised him to have a sex change, the Victorian Court of Appeal has ruled. More…

Vilification – religious

There has been an active campaign of misinformation run against the Victorian Racial and Religious Tolerance Act, particularly in Victoria’s religious communities, writes Mark Zirnzac. More…

Violence

The violent assassination of Brother Roger Schutz, founder of the Taiz © Community, on Tuesday 16 August, was all the more ironic in that he was such a man of peace, an artisan of reconciliation. More…

Conservative US evangelist Pat Robertson called for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, saying the leftist leader wanted to turn his country into “the launching pad for communist infiltration and Muslim extremism”. SMH 24 Aug 05

Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson suggested on-air that American operatives assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to stop his country from becoming “a launching pad for communist infiltration and Muslim extremism.” More… Also…

War

The PM’s attempts to rewrite history say much about the country, writes Marilyn Lake. The Age 20 Aug 05

With anti-war protesters continuing their vigil outside his Texas ranch, President George W. Bush began a five-day push on Saturday to tell Americans why he thinks US troops must continue the fight in Iraq. SMH 21 Aug 05

The US will not withdraw until George Bush gains the victory he needs, writes Michael Gawenda. SMH 22 Aug 05

As Iraq’s security deteriorates, George W. Bush and John Howard should be held to account, writes Paul Kelly. Aust 24 Aug 05

Work & leisure

Bored by meaningless work, management jargon, memos and meetings, a new type of professional slacker has emerged – the actively disengaged. SMH 20 Aug 05

The industrial changes might be a chance to pad the wallet, but at a price, writes Ross Gittins. SMH 24 Aug 05

Other items of interest

As the Right’s popularity has grown, its intellectual challenge to the Left has diminished, writes Austin Bramwell. More…

Successive Australian federal governments have used public money to fund organisations whose brief is to manipulate the media to partisan advantage. Propaganda has always been a central element of representative politics, so does it really matter? More…

Religion & Ethics Australia Digest is published by the Centre for Christian Ethics, Morling College, 120 Herring Rd, Eastwood NSW 2122 AUSTRALIA. Telephone (02) 9878 0201. Back issues are available at http://www.baptistsocialissues.org.au/review.htm. Views expressed in articles do not necessarily represent the views of the Centre for Christian Ethics, Morling College or the Baptist Churches of NSW & ACT. To view the original article or transcript, click on the blue underlined text at the end of the summary. Abbreviations: AFR=The Australian Financial Review; Aust=The Australian; SMH=The Sydney Morning Herald. For a free copy of READ by email each week, email and type “subscribe to READ” in the subject line.