The deVeber Institute
for Bioethics and Social Research

The mission statement of the deVeber Institute states that the Institute, “conducts and disseminates research on topics connected to human life in its biological, social and ethical dimensions.” The Institute furthermore carries out the responsibility of communicating the findings of their research to the public. On May 21, 2009, the Institute did just that. Our Lady of Lourdes Roman Catholic Church (Wellesley Street E. & Sherbourne area, Toronto) graciously hosted a symposium conducted by the Institute on the topic of palliative care. The symposium offered a panel of speakers including Lenore McGuire (Palliative Care Coordinator at St. Joseph’s Hospital, Toronto), and Dr. Paul Zeni (a physician and palliative care specialist in Georgetown, Ontario). The symposium concluded with a warm and helpful Q&A period. The propositions and conclusions of both speakers are fundamental as palliative care is widely misunderstood.

Among other topics, deVeber is currently conducting research on the relationship between legalized abortion and crime rates and the effects of legalized abortion on family formation trends. The research that deVeber has begun and continues to do on these topics is invaluable as it exposes evidence that disproves the assumptions made about the ‘positive’ effects of legalized abortion. In the case of the relationship between legalized abortion and crime rates, the argument has often been made that an outcome of legalized abortion has been a reduction in the numbers of potential criminals and, therefore, in crime rates. Although this argument has been given much attention by mainstream media, there is a significant body of evidence from the academic community, including notable economists and criminologists, which shows that no such correlation exists and that the opposite may in fact be true. Similarly, on the topic of the effects of legalized abortion on family formation trends, an assumption has come to be widely accepted that abortion has had either no effect on family formation, or if it has, then it has been a positive one. A problem with this assumption that has become apparent to us is that very little research has been conducted on this specific subject. What research does exist, however, shows significant negative effects of abortion on family formation, such as an increase in divorce rates for women with a history of abortion.

On Validity in Research

Keith Cassidy, a professor of history at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, and board member of the deVeber Institute, had this to say about research on life issues:

“The life issues which have in large measure engaged the attention of the deVeber Institute – abortion and euthanasia – have a particular fascination for an historian. Proponents of abortion rights have stressed the evolution of both religious and secular law’s treatment of abortion and argued that there is no warrant for asserting that there is an unvarying “pro-life” tradition in Western culture. Indeed the pro-choice account of the historical record played an important role in the U.S. Supreme Court’s justification for its decision in Roe v. Wade.

How accurate is that account? Recent scholarship throws it into very serious question. Thus Joseph Dellapenna’s monumental (1283 pages) study, Dispelling the Myths of Abortion History, (2006) demonstrates that the protection of fetal life was in fact a concern of law from the earliest period, and that much of the historical writing relied upon by the Supreme Court is erroneous. As he puts it “the prohibition of abortion was always viewed as the protection of emerging, yet real, human life.”

If a woman has a surgical abortion, does she increase her future risk of a premature delivery or, more importantly, does she boost her later odds of a very preterm birth (under 33 weeks' gestation)?  Preterm newborn children have a higher risk of the 'MACE' disorders (Mental retardation, Autism, Cerebral palsy, Epilepsy) and other risks (blindness, deafness, lung injury, 'gut' problems, serious infections, etc.).

The average doctor can not be expected to keep track of the over 130 published studies of the abortion-preemie risk, but he/she can read abortion-preemie extensive review studies.  In the 21^st century there have been three such studies.