A new law will allow all couples, gay and straight, to record themselves on birth certs as the ‘parents’ of their child rather than as the mother and father. Thus, is another giant step taken towards de-gendering parenthood and the family, and without a peep of protest from the opposition parties. The new measure is...
The diagnosis of a life-limiting condition in an unborn baby is always devastating. These hard cases played a big part in last year’s referendum and moved many people to vote to repeal the 8th amendment. However, new studies show that the vast majority of couples who carry these babies to term are glad that they...
By David Mullins During the abortion debate, the Government was happy to leave terms like ‘mental health’ vague and ill-defined. In a debate about a new Bill this week, it insisted on a strict definition. The double standard was striking, to say the least. On Thursday, the government was defeated in its attempts to block...
By Margaret Hickey In its magazine section at the weekend, The Sunday Independent published an article entitled ‘A letter to the first woman to have a legal abortion in Ireland’. The writer was novelist, Mary O’Donnell. The letter acknowledges how difficult it can be to decide to have a termination but nonetheless presents abortion as profoundly...
The primary function of religion isn’t to make you happy. It is to draw you closer to God and make you a better person. In addition, every spiritual writer, every great novelist, every thinker worth their salt knows that sometimes we only become better people through suffering, which anyone who has ever cared about someone...
Earlier this week the Joint Committee on Education presented a report on Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE). This report has two main flaws: it undermines the role of the school ethos in RSE and it fails to address the question of what the purpose of RSE should be. Both of those flaws are based on...
The Oireachtas Education Committee has published a report on Relationships and Sexuality Education recommending big changes to how it is taught. One recommendation is that religious ethos be barred from exercising any influence over the teaching of RSE, even in religious schools. David Quinn discussed the matter with Dr Ciara Kelly on Newstalk this week...
In a foretaste of the next big right-to-life debate in this country, a major conference was held in Dublin last week on end-of-life issues. Many of the speakers present had no qualms about defending the so-called “right to die”, often on very broad grounds. The conference was called “Medical Ethics and Law at the End...
A case has come to light from the Coombe hospital involving a woman who was told she could have not an abortion – not yet at any rate – because her unborn baby’s abnormality did not appear to fall within the definition of ‘fatal’ that is contained in the new abortion law. The reaction of...
The American Psychological Association released a report in the last few days which criticised ‘traditional masculinity’ saying it contributed to mental health problems among men. But the same report nonetheless had a fair amount to say about the value of fathers to their children, something rarely acknowledged here in this country. The report said that...
