The Catholic bishops are set to challenge the Government’s abortion legislation if it is enacted, it has been confirmed. Yesterday, the bishops published a briefing document which said that the Bill did not vindicate the equal right to life of the unborn which “provides grounds for a viable challenge to the Constitutionality of the Bill”....
A number of Fine Gael politicians are beginning to get cold feet as regards a commitment to holding a referendum on same-sex marriage in the wake of the abortion legislation. While Labour have said they expect a referendum to be held on the issue after the Constitutional Convention recommended that a vote be held on...
Master of the Rotunda Sam Coulter-Smith has told Newstalk radio that he would prefer if the suicide clause in the abortion Bill was removed from it. He said: “There is no evidence that the termination of pregnancy assists in that situation” and that removing the clause “would be my preference”. He acknowledged that only about...
A new private Member’s Bill to allow people to have their birth certificates changed to recognise their preferred gender has been launched by Senator Katherine Zappone. The Bill if it became law would allow people to apply to the Civil Registrar to have their birth certificates changed. They would not have to undergo an operation or...
Switzerland is to appeal a ruling made by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in May that its law on who can and can’t take a life-ending drug is insufficiently clear. The original ruling held that, although there was no “right” to assisted suicide under the European Court of Human Rights, Switerland’s law permitting...
An independent review has slammed the HSE for the standard of care provided to children experiencing extreme neglect. The report said that such children who have come to the attention of child protection services, often see little or no improvement in their circumstances. The report, an independent review of the management of child neglect case...
A clear majority of voters are opposed to abortion as a response to the threat of suicide, according to a new poll The poll, carried out by Amárach Research on behalf of the Pro Life Campaign (PLC), asked respondents to scale their support or opposition to abortion “if it were clearly shown that abortion is...
The Minister for European Affairs, Lucinda Creighton, has said she will vote according to her conscience on the abortion Bill and said she was “deeply concerned” about the suicide clause in the legislation. Speaking in the Dáil debate on the issue yesterday, she also criticised the “groupthink” which she said dominated the abortion issue in...
Only 17 percent of people see creches as the best way to look after children younger than five, according to a new survey commissioned by the Iona Institute. The poll, carried out by Amárach Research and published yesterday, found that just under half of Irish people, 49pc, think the preferred option for children in this...
Pro marriage groups and politicians have blasted the UK Government’s plan to redefine the words “husband” and “wife” to refer to either sex. Under the wording of the Coalition’s same-sex marriage legislation “wives” could be men and “husbands” could be women. The redefinition of marriage means old laws which gave protections or benefits to husbands...
