Earlier this week, the UK Supreme Court ruled that a Christian couple, Peter and Hazelmary Bull running a bed and breakfast were not entitled to deny a gay couple the use of a double room because such an action amounted to discrimination. In this blog, British barrister, Jon Holbrook argues that the ruling is draconian...
On Tuesday night the issue of adoption by same-sex couples was debated on Prime Time in front of a studio audience. Dr John Murray representing The Iona Institute was one of the panellists. A key moment came when Dr Murray directly challenged Grainne Healy of Marriage Equality to say...
Prior to the last General Election in Britain, then Tory leader, and now Prime Minister, David Cameron made great play out of being pro-family and pro-marriage. He boasted that bolstering families would be one of his priorities in fixing what he called “Broken Britain” and, specifically, he promised that he would, if elected, deliver a...
In practically every sphere from gender equality to poverty reduction, Sweden seems to top the world league. But there is growing evidence that all is not well in the Secular Paradise. For example, a 2006 investigation by the Swedish government reveals that in regard to mental health problems among teenagers, Sweden fares more poorly than...
Justice Minister Alan Shatter’s planned reform of family law is about as far-reaching and radical as it is possible to get. Out goes any notion that the natural ties are important. Out goes any notion that having a loving mother and a father has any special value. In comes the notion of the ‘intentional’ parent....
China’s One Child Policy, which often involves forcing women to have abortions against their will, must rank as one of the most barbaric social policies anywhere in the world. Even if you support abortion it is an appalling attack on women’s genuine reproductive rights. Chinese writer Ma Jian, in this piece in the Guardian, points...
This week The Irish Independent has been publishing the results of a survey of the attitudes of Ireland’s thirty- somethings. One of the more interesting things it reveals is that only 60pc of them are happy with their love lives. In his column in this week’s Irish Independent David Quinn wonders if part of the...
Last Friday, RTÉ Radio One aired a programme, Pregnant on My Lunchbreak, about a woman, ‘Angela’, who decided to become pregnant using donor sperm from a Danish clinic, Cryos. In Denmark, sperm donors are allowed anonymity, so Angela’s little boy or little girl will grow up without a father, by design, and without any knowledge...
The Government have refused to recognise an Irish couple’s adoption of a young Mexican girl, because it did not meet the strict requirements of the Hague Convention on international adoption. But when a similar case arose where the parents obtained a child through surrogacy in India, the State took a very different approach. In both...
David Quinn, in his column in the Irish Independent this week, poses the question, “Does the ‘right’ of two men to have a child trump the child’s natural right to be raised by a mother?” He points out that the answer virtually the entire political establishment now gives to this question is an emphatic ‘yes’....
