Never alone in life or in death

[Editor’s note: This is part of a series by Italian contributor Luca Volontè focusing on the signs for hope and optimism in the pro-family movement. We will be bringing this series to our English readers regularly henceforth. Previous installments (in Italian) can be found here.)

LGBT+

• The American College of Pediatricians, or the Pediatric Medical Board of the United States of America, has published a research study, shared by all its internal bodies, where it states that “biological differences of a sexual nature” are a necessary form “of health and equality” in the development of children.

• After the passage of the law preventing transgender persons, i.e. biological men from participating in women’s sports competitions in the North American state of South Dakota and the unexpected veto by Republican Governor Kristi Noem, the International Organization for the Family – the publisher of iFamnews – has launched an important petition asking Governor Noem to reconsider her position and sign the law.

Family

• Research by the Institute for Family Studies in Washington highlights the link between labor policies (including reconciliation tools) and birth rates in many Western countries. Very interesting data emerge on various aspects, but one prevails over all: any policy that disproportionately privileges “work” instead of the family has deleterious effects on the birth rate.

• Scientific research conducted at the Universities of Tel Aviv and Haifa, Israel, shows the positive effects that the presence of a disabled member has on the family. Not only do the personal and civic virtues of responsibility, solidarity and gratuitousness develop more widely, but also empathy, the ability to learn together and share successes are learned to a greater extent from other siblings and family members. Also, in such environment, conflict and rivalry are reduced to zero.

• Thanks to the increase of the economic resources allocated again this year for family policies, Hungary ranks first among all the countries in the world in terms of this kind of investment.

End of life

• An extraordinary initiative of the newly founded English association, End of Life Companions, born from the brilliant idea of the Centre for the Art of Dying Well at St. Mary’s University and the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in London. Online courses, web conferences and other initiatives will be organized to teach people how to stay close to those who are suffering until the end of their life – for now virtually and, as soon as it is possible again, in person as well, to avoid loneliness in life and in death.