A draft [of proposed international sex-ed guidelines] issued in June has been attacked by conservative and religious groups, mainly in the United States, for recommending discussions of homosexuality, describing sexual abstinence as “only one of a range of choices available to young people” to prevent disease and unwanted pregnancy, and suggesting a discussion of masturbation with children as young as 5.
“If you ever have a situation where kids need to be taught earlier than their adolescence, this is not the way to do it,” said Colin Mason of the Population Research Institute, an anti-abortion organization based in Virginia. “It’s very graphic and encourages practices like masturbation, which conservative Christians and others feel are wrong.”
The diversity of views around the world on these issues renders any universal approach “culturally insensitive,” Mr. Mason said. “We think it’s a kind of one-size-fits-all approach that’s damaging to cultures, religions and to children,” he said.
Steven Erlanger, “U.N. Guide for Sex Ed Generates Opposition,” The New York Times, September 2, 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/03/world/03unesco.html
Amid a projected demographic collapse that will see Japan’s population shrink from 127.6 million in 2006 to under 100 million in 2050, Prime Minister elect Yukio Hatoyama has pledged to encourage births through government payments of $3,300 per year per child from birth to junior high school — in addition to the $3,700 that Japanese parents are already given upon the birth of a child.
Steven Mosher, president of the Population Research Institute, told Vatican Radio that for Japan to halt its population collapse, the average couple would need to wed in their early twenties and have four children. Recounting a recent conversation with a Japanese archbishop, Mosher said that the brightest spot in the Japanese demographic picture is Catholic couples, who have an average of three children. Only 0.4% of the nation’s people are Catholic.
“Amid Demographic Collapse, Japan to Increase Cash Incentives for Children,” Catholic Culture, September 3, 2009, http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?toryid=3926
China has launched an organ donation program because of criticism over harvesting organs from executed prisoners.
The Associated Press reports that well over two-thirds of the organs for transplant in China come from executed prisoners, though only with prior consent. Steven Mosher of the Population Research Institute tells OneNewsNow the Red Cross Society of China is going to start a national organ donation system.
“The problem is that there is no history, there is no tradition of organ donation in China, and very few people are willing to allow their organs to be donated,” he explains.
So Mosher doubts there will be a strong public reaction to the news, even though some Chinese are willing to sell organs. At the same time, the Bureau of Prisons in China makes millions of dollars from organs from executed prisoners. “And I believe the practice will continue because it’s such a money-making venture, despite the passage of a law in Beijing forbidding it,” he adds. “There’s simply too much money at stake here.”
Mosher adds that in most instances the prisoners were not scheduled for execution. He contends their sentences are changed by the Bureau of Prisons to immediate execution to supply the demand for organs.
According to Mosher, China does respond to pressure — and that, he says, is the one remaining remedy to bring about change.
Charlie Butts, “Beijing bans organ harvesting — will prisoners abide?” OneNewsNow, September 4, 2009, http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=662134
