The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA), an advisory body for the Minister of Education, is currently tasked with reviewing the 1999 Primary School Curriculum. One of the proposed changes is the almost complete removal of spirituality and religion as an aspect of human existence from the ‘wellbeing’ course. In this blog I will...
The Irish Medical Council recently dropped from its ethical guidelines the prohibition on doctors deliberately killing their patients. It is hard to believe they are not paving the way for euthanasia. However, they made this change without properly consulting their members. However, most of the bodies representing the medical profession in Ireland remain firmly opposed....
Recently, this blog revealed the rapid increase in what might broadly be called ‘New Age’ wedding ceremonies in Ireland presided over by various non-denominational organisations. But wedding services are not all they provide. At least one group offers ceremonies to mark abortion, divorce, and “preparation for dying”. It would have been also unimaginable until very...
While the number of Catholic marriages in Ireland is steeply declining, new data released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) highlights the rise of ceremonies belonging to “other religious denominations”, to use the CSO’s term. Now, you might think this means Muslim ceremonies, or perhaps those that take place in African Pentecostal churches, but these...
The introduction of euthanasia in Ireland could lead to the closure of care homes and have an ill effect on the healthcare system, according to the minority report from the members of the Oireachtas Committee on Assisted Dying. A government seeking savings in the healthcare system could favour assisted suicide over comprehensive end-of-life medical treatments,...
At a time when the government is considering a further liberalisation of our already permissive abortion legislation, RTE Investigates this week aired a documentary on “the realities of Ireland’s current abortion services” which was far from being fair and impartial. In fact, we didn’t get to hear from a single pro-life advocate, and it did...
By David Mullins The Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015 was finally commenced into law last year. It effectively ended what is known as the ‘wardship system’ under which the courts were mandated to make decisions for persons with diminished capacity. The new system puts in other supports for people with diminished capacity but is it...
The Vatican has just released a new document on the topic of human dignity. Among other issues, it addresses the ethical problems of surrogacy—including the commodification of babies and the financial exploitation of low-income women who are contracted to be surrogates. Ireland is in the process of adopting one of the most permissive laws in...
Catholic schools in Ireland are undergoing the same tremendous changes as Irish society itself. They are becoming more secular and less Catholic as the same happens to Ireland. Only a minority of teachers are practising Catholic and pupils and their parents rarely go to Mass. They are struggling to maintain a truly Catholic ethos. In...
As predicted, the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Assisted Dying has recommended the legalisation of assisted suicide and euthanasia in Ireland. It claims they will be allowed under only strict conditions and with proper safeguards, but when you read the actual report, some of the conditions and safeguards seem neither strict nor proper. The main recommendation...
