23 July 2019.
Minister of Justice,
Dear Minister,
The Labour Party of Michael Joseph Savage has an admirable record of defending the weakest and most defenceless members of our community. I am writing to you in defence of the weakest and most defenceless members of our human family, our precious unborn who are victims of a relentless and violent genocide. Today the most dangerous place for a New Zealander is in the mother’s womb.
As the Minister of Justice you have the profound privilege and authority to extend justice to our precious unborn. I earnestly request that you give consideration to amending the Crimes Act to recognise that the unborn child from implantation is a human being endowed by its Creator with an inalienable right to life.
You have previously acknowledged that the Crimes Act section 159 states that an unborn child does not become a human being until it is born. This of course is a legal fiction that is accepted for the purposes of this Act to differentiate between homicide and the killing of an unborn child.
It is contended that it was never the intention of Parliament to deny that the unborn child was a human being and the bearer of human rights.
It is accepted by medical science that human life begins at conception. This is the moment when the ovum of the mother is fertilised by the sperm of the father. Today with ultra sound scans, the wonderful miracle of the development of the child in the womb is made visible Each child is indeed a wonderful unique miracle of God’s loving creation that deserves our respect and protection.
There is a scientific consensus that the human embryo is a genetically human, discrete and alive, organically single and individual, with a self-contained power to organise his or her own growth, multiplication and differentiation in a way that ordinarily leads to a human adult. The child has its own unique DNA, its own heart and blood supply and is in control of its pregnancy that is focused on birth.
I believe that there is considerable support in the community for my proposed law change. A poll conducted by AC Nielsen in 2004 on behalf of Right to Life found considerable support for recognising the humanity of the unborn child, The poll of 1000 persons found that 36% believed that the unborn child became a human being at conception, 14% at the time of implantation and 28 % at a point between implantation and birth. There were therefore a total of 78% who believed that the unborn child was a human being before birth. A poll of a 1,000 persons conducted by Curia Market Research in April, 2019 on behalf of Family First found 47 % believed that the human rights of the unborn child should be legally protected from about six weeks once a heartbeat can be detected.
The United Nations declaration of Human Rights 1948, Article 3 begins the articulation of the human values to be defended in terms of human rights. “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and the security of person.” It is contended that everyone includes children waiting to be born. Thus, the right to life is held to be both inviolable and inalienable. It is noteworthy that the order of the rights articulated – life first, then freedom [liberty], and then security of person. Unless the State can guarantee the right to life, then there are no meaningful rights to freedom or to security of person. The right to life is logically prior to considerations of the quality of the individual’s life.
The Convention on the Rights of the Child, the pre-eminent international treaty on children’s rights, leaves no room for ambiguity in its preamble. “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,” it states.
Other international treaties unequivocally reference the right to life of the unborn, such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In this treaty, the death penalty is prohibited for pregnant women to “save the life of an innocent unborn child.”
In conclusion, I believe that adoption of my proposal would be pro –women and would enhance the dignity of women as the bearers of new life. As such it would have considerable support with women in New Zealand.
Thank you for all that you are doing to promote the common good.
Yours sincerely
Ken Orr
Secretary
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