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"Draft
on law protecting health reproductive right"
|
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| |
| Forum
organized by the Catholic Commission for Health Pastoral Care
on 30 June 2005 at the CBCT meeting room |
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The
forum was led by Rev. Banjong Santisuknirand, Prof. Dr. Anek
Ariphak and Ms. Surirat Trimarakha with 27 participants
from the various Church institutions. |
| This
forum was first organized on 1 April 2005 with the intention
of studying the aforesaid draft and it was found that several
wordings of the draft should be changed or improved in order
to really be clear and protecting the health reproductive right.
At the mean time, the government subcommittee responsible for
the said draft has renewed the original text after having been
checked and pushed by several sectors before it would be legalized.
Hence, the Catholic Commission for Health Pastoral Care and
the Pro-life Office deem it appropriate to reconvene the forum
to further discuss the latest revision of the text. |
| Objectives
of the study: |
| 1. |
To
study the foundation of the above-mentioned draft. |
| 2. |
To
scrutinize each of the already improved draft law. |
| 3. |
To
collect opinions of the forum in order to submit them to the
CBCT. |
|
| Miss
Surirat Trimarakha, one of the drafters, explained the "why"
of this law saying that most of the problems which occur in
Thailand be it on health, violence, lack of information, etc.,
all point to the fact that women are the victims. Women lack
the opportunity and choice and they are finally led to abortion.
But eventually, women alone are to blame by society. Because
of these reasons the committee are forced to draft such a law
in order to have a master plan on health. Then Rev. Banjong
Santisuknirand went through the draft article by article with
the hint that society must prudently follow the issue. The forum
was then open to the participants to make comment and ask questions.
The key issue was that the Catholic Church and the general public
should have a hand in the law drafting in order that the teaching
of the Church and opinion that will be beneficial to the public
good can have a say in the aforesaid law promulgation. The following
actions have been collected: |
|
|
Submit
our opinions to the law drafting committee to be further forwarded
to the health committee of the House of Representatives. |
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Submit
a petition letter to the committee responsible for the "complaint
box". |
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Attend
and participate in every forum on this issue. |
|
Lobby
through the MPs to send our opinion to the ministers and prime
minister. |
|
Secure
50,000 names (popular votes that the government must listen
to). |
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Thailand
still has several legal drafts that the citizens must closely
follow, such as the legal draft on the elderly, on health insurance,
and on child protection, because at the present time a good
number of children are being abused in several sectors of the
society inclusive of the law on education that permits private
sectors to manage by themselves. This means that in the future
the Thai education will be more expensive resulting in the poor
children being left out. |
|
| There
was an observation from the floor that the Catholic Church has
a clear pastoral plan with a strong position and yet it is found
that the Church is always delayed in catching up with the social
problems. So, the Church must make hurry in the formation of
personnel to follow up all the negative and positive social
trends on behalf of the CBCT in order to timely cope up with
all the problems. As believing Christians in faith that life
is the gift of God that must be nurtured and protected by every
human being on this earth and from the social trend it is found
that the draft of this law has several sentences with loopholes
for a free life destruction. It is, therefore, the obligation
of every Christian to follow and scrutinize such legal draft
with the Thai society. |
|
| After
the seminar the Catholic Commission for Health Pastoral Care
and the Pro-life Office submitted minutes of the meeting to
the CBCT for their information and further action. |
