The Minister for Health has invited members of the public and organisations to submit their opinions on how the current abortion law is operating. It is not a review of the law per se but how it is being implemented from day-to-day. Obviously, all pro-life groups would like the law to be reversed completely, but...
A new assisted human reproduction Bill, presented this week by Cabinet, will allow the use of sperm or eggs from a deceased person. The children produced will be deliberate semi-orphans, one of their parents dead before they are even conceived. This is one of several big ethical problems with the legislation. The final text of...
It is now 25 years since the formal introduction of divorce to Ireland. Although we had the referendum in 1995, the law itself was not passed until 1997. The analysis I have read so far of the anniversary has been shallow and self-congratulatory. It is as though there is no downside at all to divorce....
One of the star academics of the present time is Professor Laurie Santos who lectures on the science of happiness at Yale University. Santos investigates what kind of things result in greater happiness, and religious practice is on the list. For example, in an interview this week in the New York Times, she says: “There’s...
Supporters of assisted suicide often say that permitting the procedure would lead to a reduction in non-assisted suicide because it would provide a better alternative. A new study suggests this is not true. In countries where assisted suicide is available, non-assisted suicides do not necessarily reduce in number. The study by David Albert Jones, director...
Exit International, one of the most radical pro-euthanasia organisations in the world, has launched an Irish branch. They want almost no limits on euthanasia/assisted suicide. They believe that any adult who wishes to kill themselves, and is mentally competent, should be facilitated in doing so. The person doesn’t have to be sick, let alone terminally...
There is a mounting pressure in Ireland to have foreign commercial surrogacy arrangements recognised here. Today the matter is being considered by a Special Oireachtas Committee, but ahead of that meeting, the Attorney General’s office produced a document highlighting the ethical pitfalls with commercial surrogacy. It also challenges the recommendations on the matter of the...
The right of parents to choose how to educate their children has been upheld by the Supreme Court in a major ruling published on Monday. It unanimously dismissed the appeal of the Minister of Education against two home-schooled students who were excluded from the Leaving Cert calculated grades scheme. Their exclusion interfered with the constitutional...
The Government has announced the setting up of a special committee on surrogacy to discuss couples (or individuals) who make use of surrogacy arrangements overseas and then have difficulty when they come back home being recognised as the legal parents of the child. At the same time, the Government is passing legislation to make it...
The ‘culture of death’ continues to tighten its grip on Europe. In Austria, a law that went into effect on January 1 allows not simply those who are terminally ill to avail of assisted suicide, but also the chronically sick. In a particularly grisly twist, pharmacies are now authorised to give lethal drugs to those...
