Most Britons favour allowing a form of gene therapy which would involve the birth of children with three genetic parents, according to a survey of public attitudes carried out by the UK’s IVF watchdog. The consultation, carried out by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), showed widespread support for the therapy, designed to help...
The British Government has been accused of insulting stay-at-home mothers after Downing Street suggested that they will be excluded from receiving child care support because they do not want to “work hard and get on”. The Government announced that working parents earning up to £150,000 each will get up to £1,200 per annum to help...
Some parents could be hit with another reduction in Child Benefit payments in the next 18 months if the Department of Social Protection goes ahead with plans to implement a two-tier system aimed at saving up to €200m a year, the Irish Independent reports. The proposals would give each family a basic payment, with a...
Governments should give more freedom to families to choose whether to care for their children themselves or to put them in childcare, a leading UK think tank has said. Civitas were responding to reports suggesting that the UK’s Coalition Government was to increase support for childcare by up to £2,000 a year. Anastasia de...
Labour has drafted a bill to legalise same-sex marriage with a view to holding a referendum this autumn. The move is being made in order to pressurise Labour’s coalition partners Fine Gael into backing the proposal, the Sunday Times reports. Taoiseach Enda Kenny has repeatedly said that he wants to allow the Constitutional Convention to...
Scottish police are investigating the actions of a GP after he confessed to assisting the suicide of a number of patients. GP Dr Iain Kerr says he prescribed particular drugs and gave advice to some of his patients who wanted to end their own lives. The cases included supplying sleeping pills to an elderly...
Efforts to insert a religious freedom clause into a civil union bill in Colorado were defeated last week with the bill’s senate sponsor, Pat Steadman, telling those backing the clause, “Get thee to a nunnery and live there then. Go live a monastic life away from modern society, away from the people you can’t see...
The US state of Iowa is considering legislation to make divorces more difficult to obtain. A sub-committee of the state’s lower house has approved a bill which would make it harder for couples to end their marriages if those marriages involve children. When the divorce impacts a child, the bill says one of five justifications...
One of the Catholic Church’s leading spokesmen on education has said he has “serious problems” with the recent media coverage of a new Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) survey into religious education. Speaking to the Irish Catholic, Fr Michael Drumm, the head of the Catholic Schools Partnership has said that the suggestion made in media...
The concept of equality is being misused in order to radically redefine the family, a leading Vatican official has said. Bishop Jean Laffitte, Secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Family, spoke to an audience at the Student Union Hall of St. Mary’s University College in Twickenham on “Marriage and the Family in a Culture...
