A Department of Health ethical framework for operating during a pandemic makes clear doctors may have to make decisions on which patients should be prioritised for treatment.

Drawn up last March and updated in September, it says that under normal circumstances, all individuals have an equal claim to healthcare. However during a pandemic, healthcare resources, particularly critical care resources, are likely to become limited over time.

“Decisions should be principally based on the health-related benefits of allocation mechanisms. Thus, the starting point for any rationing decision is to consider which patients are most likely to benefit from the intervention.”

It says that “categorical exclusion, e.g. on the basis of age, should be avoided as this can imply that some groups are worth saving more than others and creates a perception of unfairness”.

“It is not appropriate to prioritise based on social status or other social value considerations, eg income, ethnicity, [or] gender. However, it may be ethical to prioritise certain at-risk groups and those essential to managing a pandemic for treatment.”

Northern Ireland’s Human Rights Commission (NIHRC) has launched a legal action against the UK government for not having commissioned a regime of abortion-on-request more than a year after the procedure was made legal in the region.

Northern Ireland secretary, Brandon Lewis, is accused of unlawfully denying the rights of women, who experts warn are being forced to use “unregulated services” and to travel to high-risk areas during the pandemic, the Guardian reports. The NIHRC is also taking action against the Northern Ireland Executive and the region’s Department of Health.

Les Allamby, the head of the NIHRC, said the body was taking legal action after the secretary of state, the Northern Ireland Executive and the Department of Health had not taken responsibility for creating the regime.

In the absence of a Government run regime, the region’s five health trusts have established unfunded services led by a group of fewer than a dozen committed medics. Nonetheless, between April and the end of November 2020 they facilitated 719 terminations according to DoH figures.

The HSE has paused a pilot scheme to send out free home sexual health test kits after receiving almost 5,000 orders in less than a day.

Tests for chlamydia, gonorrhoea, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, syphilis and HIV were being offered to people in Dublin, Cork and Kerry in a partnership between the HSE and the UK-based SH:24, a free online sexual health service.

A spokeswoman for the HSE said 4,923 tests had been ordered between the service going live at 5pm on Tuesday and the temporary suspension the following day. SH:24 said that similar-sized areas elsewhere had received around 700 orders in the first month, whereas the Irish scheme’s uptake had been “unprecedented”.

Meanwhile, new research from Johns Hopkins University suggests oral sex with more than 10 partners raises a person’s risk of developing throat cancer by over four times.

The scientists also found having oral sex for the first time at under 18 was linked to an 80% higher risk of a later diagnosis, compared to those who became intimate when aged over 20.

In a new interview, Pope Francis included abortion in a condemnation of a culture of waste in which “people who are not useful are discarded.”

Speaking to Italian television channel Tg5 in an interview that aired Sunday night, Francis said even children “are discarded if they have some disease or if they are unwanted, as are the elderly, the sick and migrants”.

Speaking of abortion, he said it is a problem of human ethics, where religion enters later, and one “that even the atheist must resolve in their conscience.”

Whenever the issue of abortion comes up, the pope said a question comes to mind: “Do I have the right to do this?” the scientific answer to which, he said, is that “in the third week, almost the fourth, there are all the organs of the new human being in the womb of the mother, it’s a human life.”

“Is it right to eliminate a human life to solve a problem, any problem? No, it’s not right. Is it okay to hire a hitman solve a problem? Someone who kills human life? This is the problem of abortion. Scientifically and humanly,” he said.

The main churches in Northern Ireland have voluntarily closed their doors to public worship in view of the worsening public health crisis.

In a statement on Thursday, the North’s Catholic bishops said that for a limited period (7 January to 6 February), the celebration of the Eucharist should take place without the physical presence of the faithful – with the exception of marriages, funerals, and baptisms.

Drive-in services will however continue.

The Catholic Church was joined by the Church of Ireland, Presbyterian Church, and Methodist Church in making the move.

Meanwhile, the Diocese of Westminster insists Catholic churches are safe in the British capital after the Mayor of London called for the closure of places of worship in the city.

Bishop John Sherrington, an auxiliary in Westminster, issued a letter on Friday explaining why churches in England should remain open.

“This decision is based on two factors: The recognition that our churches are safe, and that the service they offer is essential. The safety of our churches has been affirmed by Public Health England (PHE) in its current advice to the Government,” the bishop wrote.

A post by China’s US embassy that described measures against Uigher women in progressive political terms has been removed by Twitter.

The post linked to an article by state mouthpiece China Daily denying allegations of forced sterilisation in Xinjiang. It said: “Study shows that in the process of eradicating extremism, the minds of Uygur women in Xinjiang were emancipated and gender equality and reproductive health were promoted, making them no longer baby-making machines. They are more confident and independent.”

Twitter said the post had “violated the Twitter rules” but did not provide further details.

In recent years, China has escalated its crackdown on ethnic Muslim minorities in the Xinjiang region, including the mass internment of an estimated one million people, intense human and digital surveillance, re-education programs, suppression of religious activity and destruction of religious sites, forced labour, and enforced sterilisation of women. Experts have said the policies amount to cultural genocide. China rejects the accusations, and says the camps are vocational training centres necessary to combat religious extremism and terrorism.

The positive contributions of religious sisters and priests in helping women in unplanned pregnancies has been “largely forgotten”, according to a retired teacher who specialised in Relationships and Sexuality Education.

Stephanie Walsh and her husband gave refuge to many pregnant girls and women in the 1970s at the request of Limerick Diocesan social services.

Writing in the Irish Times, she said it was her experience that “church women and men provided more assistance to women in need in the ’70s than did the secular community. Most of the social workers who contacted our family were religious Sisters; many of the women in trouble were referred by priests”.

“Is it counter cultural to feel sympathy for those who provided a service in an area of life that then was unpopular only to find their work so little appreciated and frequently reviled now?,” she concluded.

In a statement, RTÉ said the review found that the sketch did not comply with several provisions.

These included Section 39 (1) (d) of the Broadcasting Act 2009 and the BAI Code of Programme Standards in relation to material that causes “undue offence”.

It also did not comply with provision of Principle 5 in the above Code (Respect for Persons and Groups in Society) regarding “due respect” for religious beliefs.

RTÉ Director General, Dee Forbes, accepted the findings and offered a full apology.

The station will report itself to the BAI and has taken down the clip from the RTE player.

Minister Josepha Madigan has repeated her call for a referendum to remove Article 41.2 on protecting mothers working at home.

The Article states: “In particular, the State recognises that by her life within the home, woman gives to the State a support without which the common good cannot be achieved. The State shall, therefore, endeavour to ensure that mothers shall not be obliged by economic necessity to engage in labour to the neglect of their duties in the home.”

Minister Madigan said the article, “which refers to a woman’s life within the home, is wholly discriminatory. It is also completely at odds with this Government’s policy regarding equality of opportunity and gender equality.”

She continued: “The Constitution does not seek to define the place of men. It therefore follows that it should not seek to define the place of women. Our Constitution should not narrowly define our roles in society.

“In today’s modern Ireland, both mothers and fathers carry out important family duties in the home, as well as grandparents, siblings, carers, and others. While many parents do choose to stay at home to raise their families, we should not discriminate against working parents, and working mothers in particular, who make an invaluable contribution to Irish society. Therefore, I would like to see this anachronistic Article consigned to history. It does not represent the values and lives of modern Irish women and modern Irish families.

The chair of the Oireachtas Committee on Media Niamh Smyth has called on RTÉ to remove a controversial sketch from its media player that portrayed God as having raped Mary, the mother of Jesus.

Ms Smyth, who is also Fianna Fail’s party’s spokeperson for Arts and Culture, described the sketch which has prompted almost 6,000 complaints to RTÉ as “deeply offensive and blasphemous”.

She acknowledged that RTÉ had apologised but she said the apology did not go far enough.

“An apology is meaningless while the clip remains available. I implore the RTÉ Editorial Standards Board who are due to make recommendations this Friday after reviewing the broadcast to remove the offending clip immediately,” she said.