Carbon tax on babies panned

PERTH, Australia -- Australian Cardinal George Pell of Sydney has criticized the Australian Medical Association for publishing a letter by a professor of obstetrics advocating a tax on children for their carbon footprints.

"I am not sure what is more extraordinary--that an obstetrician could hold such a view or that a leading medical journal could publish such a view," Pell said.

He said the concern "for the physical ecology of the world is not always matched by a similar concern for the moral ecology of our societies."

"This is a striking illustration of where a minority, Neo-Pagan, antihuman mentality wants to take us," he said in South Korea in mid-January, where he accepted an award for his antiabortion work from the Seoul archdiocese.

Pell said such "extreme environmental proposals are expressions of modern society's deep confusion about the place and value of the human person in the world."

Dr. Barry Walters had recommended the federal government's $2,200 "baby bonus" be replaced with a $4,400 tax on third and subsequent children.

COPYRIGHT 2008 National Catholic Reporter
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning