British PM, Theresa May, stood up in the House of Commons this week and told MPs, “our Christian heritage is something we can all be proud of”. It is very hard to imagine any senior Irish politician saying that, never mind Taoiseach, Enda Kenny. May was responding to a question from MP Fiona Bruce about...
David Quinn of The Iona Institute appeared on the Last Word yesterday to debate the question, ‘Has political correctness gone too far?’ It was prompted by a column he wrote recently for The Irish Independent. He said that while the basic aim of political correctness can be correct, that is, to combat racism, sexism etc, it...
Hear a fascinating and in-depth talk by Jennifer Lahl on the history of surrogacy, the industry that services it, and the victims it has left in its wake. The talk was hosted by The Iona Institute. Jennifer is the founder and president of The Center for Bioethics and Culture Network(CBC) in California. She has 25...
A conference was held in Dublin last week called ‘Safe Ireland’. The intention was to draw attention to, and find ways of reducing, violence against women and children. One issue it appears not to have gone near is whether there is a link to family structure. That was a big oversight. Broadcaster Olivia O’Leary warned...
How can the promotion of marriage help reverse economic and social inequality in Irish society? This was a topic broached in the Iona Institute’s Mind the Gap briefing note which showed that marriage and family differ hugely by social class, with the best-off far more likely to marry and reap its benefits than the worst off. That same...
New technologies are changing the nature of medicine from a form of therapy aimed at restoring health to a kind of perfectionism aimed at individual enhancement. Speaking at the Anscombe Bioethics Centre in Oxford, Cardinal Willem Jacobus Eijk, Archbishop of Utrecht, said that the classical understanding of medicine was summed up by the Latin phrase...
Would a ban on surrogacy in Ireland be futile because people would simply travel abroad for it instead? This seems to be the argument of UCG law lecturer, Haley Mulligan, in a letter to the Irish Times. She was responding to Jennifer Lahl who addressed an Iona Institute meeting on surrogacy last week and called for...
Iona Institute spokeswoman, Maria Steen, was on ‘The Cutting Edge’ last night. Among the topics discussed; raising children, sex education, attitudes towards religion, and the gender pay gap. The other panellists were radio presenter, Sean Moncrieff, and comedian, Deirdre O’Kane. The show is presented by Brendan O’Connor. You can watch the item by clicking here.
The case favouring public daycare at the expense of homecare is based on the contention that children fare better, both educationally and otherwise, in settings under the care and supervision of trained educationalists. This is certainly what Children’s Minister, Katherine Zappone, would have us believe. However, Dr Catherine Hakim, British social scientist and herself a feminist,...
This week, The Iona Institute hosted Jennifer Lahl (pictured) of ‘Stop Surrogacy Now‘, and the Centre for Bioethics and Culture in California. ‘Stop Surrogacy Now’ aims to bring a halt to all forms of surrogacy on the grounds that it exploits women and commodifies children. It is a broad-based coalition involving feminists, conservatives, religious and...
