The genetic selection of human embryos is reaching new levels of sophistication with the development of a technique called ‘polygenic screening’. Eugenics, which is breeding out the ‘defective’, is deepening its grip on our societies. The new method is a step above current screening processes that can detect conditions like Down Syndrome. Polygenic screening looks...
WHEN Charlie McCreevy unveiled Budget 2000 at the turn of the century there was uproar over a measure he introduced called ‘tax individualisation’. Henceforth, one-income married couples would pay more tax than two-income married couples once they earned above a certain level. It was widely condemned as discriminatory. But after the uproar, the matter was...
A Bill to introduce assisted suicide in the UK will be debated in the House of Lords this month. Prime Minister Boris Johnson will not support it, while doctors and disability rights campaigners have also criticised the Bill. Last May, Baroness Meacher introduced the Assisted Suicide Bill in the House of Lords. The Bill, which...
State restrictions on religion are at the highest level ever, according to a new world-wide study. The Pew Research Center, a non-partisan social science institute, has monitored religious freedom since 2007. Their latest report found that the interference of government in religious activities is at a new peak. In 2019, the last year for which...
Historically speaking, the fertility industry has often been like the Wild West, totally unregulated with doctors often abusing their power and the hopes of people to bring children into the world with little or no knowledge of their natural origins. The Guardian newspaper has a long article which lists many of the abuses. It is...
All around the Western world, people are marrying later or not at all. The average Irish couple is now well into their 30s by the time they tie the knot, and marriage rates in Ireland have plunged since the 1970s. A similar pattern exists in Canada, where a new study from pro-family think tank, Cardus...
The High Court of Justice in London has rejected a legal challenge against the law that allows babies with Down Syndrome or other disabilities to be aborted up to birth. The applicants will take the case onto the Court of Appeal. Twenty-six-year-old Heidi Crowter (pictured), an advocate for people with Down Syndrome like herself, and...
A new law in Queensland, Australia, will force hospitals and hospices to facilitate euthanasia even when it is contrary to their ethos. This is a very dramatic development and a clear example of how the ‘culture of death’, with the backing of the State, is eroding not only the right to life, but the ability...
Anyone who developed a liking for Korean dramas during the lockdowns will be familiar with the term ‘higher-ups’. South Korea is still quite a deferential society, and ‘higher-ups’ are the people who make the key decisions by which we live our lives. There probably was a time when higher-ups were sure-footed individuals who made ideology-free...
Eugenics is generally associated with Nazi Germany, but while the Nazis took the practice to its absolute extreme, eugenics was also carried out in other countries, including ones governed by Social Democrats. Protecting a population against its more ‘defective’ members was once simply seen as the ‘scientific’ and ‘rational’ thing to do. Social democrats like...
