The Private Member’s Bill to legalise assisted suicide and euthanasia, proposed by Deputy Gino Kenny, has been rejected by the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice as it contains serious flaws and it was criticised by the majority of the public submissions, particularly by doctors. The Committee has recommended that a Special Oireachtas Committee should be...
The Oireachtas Justice Committee discussed the topic of assisted suicide/euthanasia in private session during the week. We wonder if the members considered concerns raised by disability rights groups internationally about such laws affect them, the signal it sends that their lives are less worth living than those of fully healthy people. Four United Nations Rapporteurs...
David Quinn of The Iona Institute was on Lunchtime Live on Newstalk to discuss assisted suicide as a Bill intended to legalise the practice discussed by the Oireachtas Justice Committee. David said that permitting it would send some people the signal that their lives are not worth living and therefore assisted suicide is not simply...
Children who are practising Catholics are being targeted for bullying in school, according to the director of Dublin City University’s Anti-Bullying Centre. They are now a minority to be protected. Professor James O’Higgins Norman was speaking last week at the Oireachtas Committee on Education, about the topic of school bullying and the impact on mental...
One of the great taboos in modern Irish debate is pointing out that family structure matters, and makes a difference to the lives of children. Such a declaration is considered to be offensive and judgemental. But suppose it is true, and suppose certain family structures do, on average, benefit children more? Does it really serve...
David Quinn of The Iona Institute was on The Hard Shoulder this week discussing new sex education material published by the bishops for use in Catholic primary schools. His main point? Sex education should be in accord with the wishes of parents. If they want it taught through in school through a Catholic lens, it...
In a new report for the Government, the Special Rapporteur on Child Protection has recommended legal recognition of domestic surrogacy arrangements even where the commissioning couple have no genetic connection the child. This gives the natural ties short shrift indeed. The recommendation would allow a given couple to use the sperm of one donor, the...
In many ways, atheism is based on the big bluff that you can have your cake and eat it too. In the latest paper from The Iona Institute, Dr Gerard Casey, former head of the Department of Philosophy at UCD, calls this bluff. The bluff is that you can deny the existence of God, and...
A constant theme of The Iona Institute, indeed one of the chief reasons it was founded, is to point out that family structure matters, and specifically that when mothers and fathers raise their children together, the children are likely to do better in life. A major new report has just been published in the UK...
David Quinn of The Iona Institute discusses how egg and sperm donation and surrogacy undermine the right of a child to their identity and compares them with the illegal adoption practices of the past, which we are rightly outraged by. He appeared on the ‘Hard Shoulder’ on Newstalk. You can listen to the item here.
