MPs Question Motive For Call To Debate When Life Begin---Opposition MPs questioned the motives behind a call to study the Criminal Code definition of a human being, suggesting it naturally leads to a debate on criminalizing abortion.
NDP and Liberal MPs raised the question in speeches Friday that called for their colleagues to vote against Conservative MP Stephen Woodworth's motion to study when life begins.
Woodworth's private member's motion would set up a special parliamentary committee to examine the current definition of a human being.
That definition says a child becomes human when it has fully exited its mother's body. MPs spent an hour last April debating the motion. Friday was the second allotted hour of debate, with a vote coming next Wednesday.
Woodworth says the definition, found in section 223 of the Criminal Code, is based on a 400-year-old British law that should be updated to reflect modern medical and scientific knowledge.
Section 223 falls under the homicide provisions of the Criminal Code, which define what constitutes homicide — causing the death of a human being.
Read more: http://news.ca.msn.com/canada/human-being-motion-excuse-to-open-abortion-debate-mps-say
NDP and Liberal MPs raised the question in speeches Friday that called for their colleagues to vote against Conservative MP Stephen Woodworth's motion to study when life begins.
Woodworth's private member's motion would set up a special parliamentary committee to examine the current definition of a human being.
That definition says a child becomes human when it has fully exited its mother's body. MPs spent an hour last April debating the motion. Friday was the second allotted hour of debate, with a vote coming next Wednesday.
Woodworth says the definition, found in section 223 of the Criminal Code, is based on a 400-year-old British law that should be updated to reflect modern medical and scientific knowledge.
Section 223 falls under the homicide provisions of the Criminal Code, which define what constitutes homicide — causing the death of a human being.
Read more: http://news.ca.msn.com/canada/human-being-motion-excuse-to-open-abortion-debate-mps-say
