Because of stories like this one:

A man who encouraged his teenage son to marry and rape his 12-year-old cousin has been jailed.

The 54-year-old organised a sham Muslim ceremony between his son, then 16, and the girl at his home in Woolwich, south-east London, in March last year.

At Wood Green Crown Court the boy got an 18-month supervision order for rape.

The fathers of the boy and girl were both jailed for three years for inciting a child to engage in sexual activity following an illegal marriage.

The boy’s mother, 54, was given a 12-month jail term, suspended for two years, for the same offence.

She was also ordered to do 200 hours of community service.

I don’t care why these people behave this way – culture, religion, voices in their head. What I care about is that there be only one law that applies to everyone equally. Raping a 12-year-old (who, in many countries including Canada, could not legally give consent to sexual relations) is always wrong and should be punished severely. Marrying a 12-year-old is, likewise, illegal. And it is extremely dangerous to allow a parallel system of “justice” to exist, especially one that is renowned for the often atrocious way it treats girls and women.

It’s not very complicated. You’d think even politicians would understand that.

[h/t]

ProWomanProLife came in fifth position at the Canadian Blog Awards – Political category. Thanks to all who voted for us!

Here’s a breakthrough: A simple blood test can reveal the gender of a developing fetus. Accurately. And as early as five weeks. It’s extremely cool, but a bit daunting, too.

University of Pennsylvania bioethicist and msnbc.com contributor Arthur Caplan, Ph.D., calls the techonology “very useful,” but points out that for most inherited disorders there are few therapies, which means “elective abortion is just about the only option in response to fetal testing.” While most doctors would discourage its use merely to select gender, its increasing availability “puts physicians in the position of offering testing that may lead to abortions for non-medical reasons,” making the test “fraught with ethical problems.”

There’s no stopping science. There’s only stopping ourselves from using it for the wrong purposes.

Peter Stockland has a fine piece on euthanasia, and the “need” to debate whether it should become “part of standard medical practice”.

As a defender of free speech, I would never oppose such debate. I would argue only that the ordained answer must be short and sweet: No. Or, for those who want a more prolonged response: Never.

Thanks to the People’s Cube folks for this one:

I love it! Women from mainland China flock to Hong Kong to have their babies. Why?

HONG KONG — Roger Huang is a happy, healthy baby boy, born in mid-September. But as far as the Chinese government is concerned, he doesn’t exist — not officially, anyway.

The baby was born in Hong Kong, after his mother, Huang Rui, a 31-year-old Beijing-based freelance journalist, moved here in June to join her husband, who is from Shanghai and works at a bank. The move was strategic; Huang plans to have a second child soon, and under China’s “one child” family planning policy, Roger’s Hong Kong birth doesn’t count. (In recent years, China has softened its stance on the policy, with federal officials now debating even more radical changes.)

“My plan is to have two babies in three years, while I’m still not very old,” Huang said. “Having the baby in Hong Kong is good — we can have another child.”

That loophole in China’s one-child policy is one reason mothers from mainland China have deluged the maternity wards of Hong Kong’s hospitals in recent years. Many women also come here for what they consider better medical facilities, which often have Western-trained doctors and nurses.

OK, that’s a pretty good heart-warming story. Enjoy!

It was Sept. 6, 1989. They discovered the newborn wrapped in towels at the front door of a townhouse in their Fairfax County complex and took the infant to Emily’s, where her stepfather called police.

The whole thing was over pretty quickly. The authorities took the baby girl, who was later adopted. Chris and Emily, both 15, went on with their lives, although Emily often cried when she told people the story, and the two called each other every Sept. 6.

Twenty years passed.

Then, on Dec. 2, a college student named Mia Fleming sent them both a message via Facebook: Might they be the same Chris and Emily who had once found a baby left at a stranger’s door?

If so, she just wanted to say thanks.

You know, even if I can’t understand how a woman could abandon a baby she’d just given birth to, I’m still glad she did have the baby instead of going to a clinic to get rid of her “problem”.

This is what happens when MPs have too much time on their hands. (Be very afraid.) There is apparently an urgent need to regulate sex toys. And MP Dr. Carolyn Bennett is coming to the rescue!

‘These unbelievably committed young women sent me this letter,” recalls Dr. Bennett. “I thought, ‘well I know nothing about this’…I went to meet with them at their store.”…

“I frankly didn’t know about international orgasm day,” says Dr. Bennett. (The small, relatively unknown celebration falls this Monday, one day after the MP’s birthday).

Dr. Bennett thinks it’s an important issue as more and more Canadians purchase sex toys….

“Sex is a pretty common activity, and these sexual toys are certainly a growing market, and I really do feel at the moment we’ve got a bit of a double standard in terms of what we allow and don’t allow,” in terms of chemicals, she says.

“I wanted to help them, because they had a good cause, in spite of the fact that it is unfortunately still a topic that makes some people uncomfortable.”

Sex is a pretty common activity and it’s important to take on good causes, particularly at Christmas time. Thank you, thank you…

Born baby not considered “separate life” if still attached to the mother. It is therefore not a crime for a mother to kill her (born, alive) baby as long as they are still connected. At least in Virginia:

Investigators told WSLS the baby’s airway was blocked. They said the baby was under bedding and had been suffocated by her mother. Investigators said because the mother and baby were still connected by the umbilical cord and placenta, state law does not consider the baby to be a separate life. Therefore, the mother cannot be charged.

“In the state of Virginia as long as the umbilical cord is attached and the placenta is still in the mother, if the baby comes out alive the mother can do whatever she wants to with that baby to kill it,“ said Investigator Tracy Emerson. “She could shoot the baby, stab the baby. As long as it’s still attached to her in some form by umbilical cord or something it’s no crime in the state of Virginia.“

The Campbell County Sheriff’s Office and Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office worked unsuccessfully to get the law changed after another baby died in the county in a similar case. Emerson said they asked two delegates and one state senator to take the issue up in the General Assembly. He says the three lawmakers refused because they felt the issue was too close to the abortion issue.

Emerson said there is a double standard with the law. If someone other than the mother harms a baby still attached to the mother, that person can be charged.

Well, I guess that’s logical. My body my choice, right?

[h/t]