The Oireachtas Joint Committee on the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution is hearing from experts and witnesses. A disproportionate number of them favour repealing the pro-life amendment. In fact, the pro-repeal witnesses outnumber pro-retain witnesses by a massive six-to-one. It is any wonder that Mattie McGrath TD, and Senator Ronan Mullen are considering resigning from the...
The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC) is a statutory body of some importance. In terms of framing the public debate on what constitutes human rights, it has achieved a remarkable level of ‘market share’ and influence. It has now decided that there is a ‘human right’ to an abortion and the human rights...
Professor William Binchy appeared before the Oireachtas Committee on abortion yesterday. Professor Binchy, an expert in constitutional law, is one of the main architects of the pro-life clause of our Constitution. In his testimony to the committee, he defended the right to life of the unborn and challenged the idea that under our international law...
The most horrific surrogacy case is making its way to the US Supreme Court. It is a perfect storm of practically all of the terrible ethical violations that bedevil the practice, even when it is non-commercial. Health Minister, Simon Harris (pictured), should study the case carefully as he prepares legislation to regulate the whole area...
It is increasingly forbidden to suggest that there are real differences between men and women and that these differences are not merely the result of our upbringing and society’s expectations. But suppose there are real differences, and suppose denying them has real effects, harmful effects, in the real world? Suppose one of those differences is...
“Is it time we talked about euthanasia?”, an Irish Time article asks. Yes, it is and it is also time to show what happens when a country legalises euthanasia or assisted suicide. We can see, for example, how the number of deaths by assisted suicide has been rapidly escalating in Belgium and the Netherlands. We...
A delegation from the Irish State’s foreign aid organisation, Irish Aid, is currently in Vietnam promoting gay rights. Interestingly, Irish Aid seems to have nothing to say about the suppression of religious freedom in the Communist dictatorship, never mind other crucial freedoms. Why? The Socialist Republic of Vietnam controls all aspects of the lives of...
In a speech she delivered recently in Wexford, Children’s Minister Katherine Zappone highlighted what she termed ‘reproductive justice’. In her hands, ‘reproductive justice’ renders the rights of the unborn child completely null and void. Interestingly, however, other advocates of ‘reproductive justice’ while they are certainly pro-choice, nonetheless have misgivings about aspects of abortion that Minister...
Recently both the Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, and the Minister for Children, Katherine Zappone, said an unborn child should not be considered equal to its mother. The Taoiseach affirmed that the unborn child did, nonetheless, enjoy some rights, whereas Ms Zappone said that unless women have unrestricted access to abortion, meaning no rights for the unborn...
I was on Prime Time on Thursday night discussing 25 years of social change in Ireland. Prime Time has been in existence now since 1992. The video before the panel discussion took us from that year to the present and basically invited us to consider how much progress Ireland has made in that time. But...
