The 50th anniversary of the passage of the 1967 Abortion Act in the UK came and went last week. Since then, almost 9 million abortions have taken place. A number of programmes were aired to mark the event. One was ‘Abortion on Trial’, presented by Anne Robinson. In fact, abortion wasn’t on trial at all....
Two doctors, one of them being Peter Boylan, told the Oireachtas Committee on the Eighth Amendment last week that when a country’s abortion law is liberalised, abortion rates decline. This is not true. Abortion rates and trends vary considerably by geographic region. In discussing Ireland, we should look at countries that are socially and culturally...
A conference on the topic of ‘Abortion, Disability and the Law’ was held in Athlone last Friday. It was jointly hosted by the Anscombe Bioethics Centre in Britain, and the Consultative Group on Bioethics of the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference. The subject matter could hardly have been more topical because it is precisely the lives of...
The Masters of the two biggest maternity hospitals in the country have both declared their support for abortion where a child suffers either from a fatal or a non-fatal foetal abnormality. If implemented, this would mean that unborn children suffering from conditions such as Down Syndrome could be aborted in Irish hospitals. In the UK,...
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...
