Euthanasia could become “almost an obligation” for those with a terminal illness, a bishop has claimed.

Last Thursday, the Dáil voted to “take note” of a report by an Oireachtas Committee that called for the practise to be legalised in certain circumstances.

Speaking on Newstalk, Kevin Doran, Bishop of Elphin, said he sympathised with those who fear a protracted and painful death.

“Sometimes they may even say things like, ‘I wish I were dead’ – but I’ve never actually come across anyone who wanted to die.

“What they want is to not have to go on living with physical or emotional pain.”

Bishop Doran said that society should do “much more” to make them comfortable in their final days.

He added that he feared the consequences of a legal regime of ‘assisted dying’.

“The difficulty . . . is that people who are already vulnerable feel under pressure to ‘do the decent thing’ and agree to it,” he said.

“Quite often, we find that legislation that begins by allowing something becomes almost an obligation to make it happen”.

The fertility rate in the UK fell to 1.44 children per woman last year, which is the lowest since records began in 1938.

The measure reflects the average number of children born to a woman over her lifetime and should be at least 2.1 for a population to naturally sustain itself. The Irish fertility rate is around 1.5.
Greg Ceely, from the Office for National Statistics, says the decline is “most dramatic” among women in their twenties.

Research from the UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies found that factors dissuading ‘Millennials’ from having children included not feeling ready, financial pressures and not finding the right partner. The cost-of-living crisis and high housing costs in Britain have also been cited as barriers to having children.

Paul Morland, 59, a demographer and author of the book ‘No One Left: Why the World Needs More Children’, said he expected the UK’s fertility rate to drop further. He said it could even plunge to levels seen in South Korea, which has a 0.78 fertility rate.

Morland said: “I think the Generation Zs, who are coming into the childbearing cohort, are very non-natal. Having children is a very low priority for them”.

Vice President Kamala Harris confirmed that she would oppose any faith-based, conscientious opt-out from participating in abortions if elected president.

The Democratic presidential nominee made the comments in an interview with NBC News.

When asked “what concessions would be on the table” when considering federal laws on abortion and specifically whether she would consider “religious exemptions”, Harris responded: “I don’t think we should be making concessions when we’re talking about a fundamental freedom to make decisions about your own body”. It is not clear exactly what she meant.

Grazie Pozo Christie, a senior fellow at The Catholic Association, said in a statement that Harris “should clarify, and quickly, whether given the chance she would force Americans who object on religious or conscience grounds to participate in abortion.”

Harris has committed to enshrining a legal right to abortion into federal law at least until the point of viability by codifying Roe v. Wade into legislation. She has also refused to disavow late-term abortion, which is legal in several states.

As President she may renew a push to force all maternity hospitals, regardless of ethos, to provide abortions, and mandate all employers, regardless of conscientious convictions, to cover abortifacient drugs in the health care plans they offer their employees.

A leading Catholic member of the UK’s House of Lords is drawing attention to the persecution of the Church in China.

Lord David Alton said in a statement the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in Beijing is targeting ten bishops after they opposed the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, which requires its members to pledge independence from the Holy See and “conform Christian teaching to Chinese communist doctrine.”

Alton said seven of these bishops have been detained without due process, with some of them having been under continuous detention for years or decades, while others have been detained repeatedly, up to six times since the agreement’s signing.

Alton called them the “ten inconvenient bishops the Vatican wants us to forget.”

“Why? because they do not accept the right of the Chinese Communist Party to tell them what to believe, think or what to say,” he wrote.

Scotland’s First Minister has “significant concerns” over 16 and 17-year-olds being given the right to end their lives under proposed laws on ‘assisted dying’.

John Swinney said the minimum age was a “very significant issue” and is two years younger than what is being considered in Westminster.

The Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill is at stage one in the Scottish parliament.

The SNP leader voted against two attempts to legalise assisted dying in Scotland, in 2010 and 2015.

The bill, championed by Liam McArthur, a Liberal Democrat MSP, would allow a terminally-ill person aged 16 or over to ask for their life to be ended. Those who seek an early death would need to have lived in Scotland for at least a year, be registered with a GP in the country and be mentally competent.

The Dáil has voted by to 76 to 53 to “note” the controversial majority opinion of an Oireachtas committee that assisted suicide and euthanasia should be legislated for.

The vote came on the same day as a similar proposal was rejected by the Welsh Parliament.

A number of prominent Government TDs opposed the motion including former minister Simon Coveney and current Ministers Peter Burke and Norma Foley, but Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald and Justice Minister, Helen McEntee, voted in favour.

The vote has no binding effect on either legislation or Government policy, but is seen as the Dail’s acceptance of the committee’s recommendations.

Commenting on the result, Eilís Mulroy of the Pro Life Campaign said it would have been preferable if a majority of TDs had voted to reject the “radical and far-reaching report”.

In addition to reducing the value of human life and undermining anti-suicide campaigns, she said the introduction of euthanasia/assisted suicide in Ireland would undercut investment in palliative care and lead to certain vulnerable groups feeling growing pressure to opt for the practice.

“Significantly the push for euthanasia/ assisted suicide has been opposed by professional bodies such as the College of Psychiatrists of Ireland and the Irish Palliative Medicine Consultants Association”.

Another Fianna Fáil TD has called on his party colleague, Minister Norma Foley, to act on revelations regarding the SPHE course for teachers in DCU, saying that what was being revealed was “abhorrent”, that parents were “aghast” and that what was being proposed for schools could “endanger children”.

Kilkenny TD, John McGuinness, said that it was clear that the DCU course for SPHE teachers – in which attendee, teacher Mary Creedon, said lessons featuring graphic and explicit content – was “not fit for purpose”.

His comments come as fellow Fianna Fáil TD, Junior Minister Seán Fleming, said in the past week that the DCU course should be removed and that the Minister had told him she was “not happy” with it. Other TDs, including, Independent Carol Nolan have also called for the Minister to act, saying that parents had serious concerns with what was being revealed.

The Welsh Parliament, including the country’s First Minister and Health Secretary, have voted against a motion calling for a new law to allow ‘assisted dying’ in Wales and England.

In total, 19 Senedd members voted in favour of the motion, with 26 against and nine abstentions. The vote was symbolic as the Senedd does not have the power to change the law on such issues.

The motion had proposed that adults suffering “intolerably” from an incurable physical condition should have the option of an assisted suicide, with “robust” safeguards in place.

One politician favouring the motion said his grandfather was threatened with a manslaughter charge for wanting to help his own wife die.

Opposing the motion, Plaid Cymru MS, Delyth Jewell, was close to tears as she said: “My fear with this motion, my terror is not so much with how it will begin but how it will end.”

She said safeguards in countries like Canada, the Netherlands and Belgium had been gradually eroded.

“For many disabled people or people who are not close to their family, people who are worried, anxious and lonely it would leave them to feeling they have no choice but to end their life.”

Junior foreign affairs minister Seán Fleming is standing over criticism of a DCU sexual health course for secondary school teachers and said Education Minister Norma Foley told him she was “not happy” with the content of the course.

The two Fianna Fáil TDs spoke after an SPHE teacher, Mary Creedon, gave a video interview to the Natural Women’s Council about “inappropriate” course content for teachers delivering the new junior cycle SPHE programme. The video has been viewed more than 420,000 times on YouTube.

In an email to a member of the public last week, Mr Fleming said he had seen Ms Creedon’s interview and was “totally appalled” by some of the material on the training course.

Speaking to the Sunday Independent, Mr Fleming said Ms Foley had told him that “she was not happy with it either”, but she would not be instructing DCU what should be on its course.

Fianna Fáil TDs will have a free vote on whether to support the recommendations of an Oireachtas Committee to legalise ‘assisted dying’.

Tánaiste Micheál Martin said “it will be a vote of conscience for every individual of the Fianna Fáil party”.

He told People Before Profit TD Gino Kenny that “within the Fianna Fáil party we’ve had a view for close to a decade now that issues to do with life, are an issue of conscience and that will remain the position in respect of this”.

But he said: “I myself don’t agree with this legislation. I have really serious reservations about it.”

Mr Kenny himself has called for all Government parties to allow a free vote on the issue.

The Final Report of the Oireachtas Committee on Assisted Dying, published in March, was debated in the Dáil last Thursday afternoon and will be voted on Wednesday of this week.

It is possible the report could be accepted by the Dáil, but it still leaves it for the next Government to take action, Mr Kenny said.