The principle of bodily autonomy was addressed by two speakers during last weekend’s session of the Citizens’ Assembly, which is still discussing the abortion issue. The two speakers took very different views on the issue. One speaker looked at the person as a pure individual, the other as a person in relationship with others. Dr...
At a packed meeting of The Iona Institute last month, First Things editor, R. R. Reno discussed the topic, ‘American Christians in the Age of Trump’. He set the American election against wider trends, in particular a growing rejection of globalisation and a rejection of the attempts by global elites to detach us from ideas...
If you give birth you are a mother and if you are pregnant you are an expectant mother? Well, not anymore, according to the British Medical Association. Now you are a ‘pregnant person’. A new booklet issued by the BMA and aimed at promoting ‘inclusive’ and non-offensive language in the workplace claims that “A large...
First Things editor, R.R. Reno, was a guest of The Iona Institute this week. Among other things, he appeared on the Pat Kenny Show on Newstalk yesterday where he explained why he converted to Catholicism, what First Things magazine is, and what were the concerns that caused many Americans to vote for Trump, including many...
The European Court of Human Rights has today issued a very important ruling which puts something of a brake on the worst kind of surrogacy. The case involved an Italian couple who used a surrogate mother in Russia to have a child to whom neither of them were biologically related. The Court has ruled that the...
The speech delivered today by Education Minister, Richard Bruton (pictured), signalling changes to the admissions policy of faith schools, is part of a wider pattern of moves against faith schools. It is a pattern that amounts to a hostile attitude. Iona Institute Director, David Quinn, said in a press statement: “There are certainly too many...
Should Muslim schoolgirls be required to attend swimming lessons with boys, against the wishes of their parents? According to the European Court of Human Rights, the answer is yes. Was that the right answer? On balance, I don’t think it was. The case involved two Muslim girls attending school in Switzerland. According to a BBC...
Divorce is a very tricky topic to write about it because those who have experienced divorce have experienced something very painful and feelings can be very raw. This was brought home to me again when I wrote a piece dealing with divorce for The Irish Independent last Friday. The piece was prompted by the release...
In a study reported on in the Daily Mail this week, a researcher finds that women who have had none or only one sexual partner before marriage are the least likely to divorce. Those with ten or more partners are most likely to divorce. Nicholas H. Wolfinger of the US based Institute of Family Studies is...
According to a recent newspaper report, an IVF clinic in the Netherlands may have impregnated up to 26 women with a stranger’s sperm due to a mix-up. The question is, in an age when we are told that the natural ties don’t matter, why we should be concerned about this? As we reported in an...
