‘Do Not Resuscitate’ requests will get a stronger legal basis when a new law comes into force.
People who declare they do not want CPR, or further medical procedures as they near the end of their lives, will have firmer legal backing for their wishes when the Assisted Decision Making (Capacity) Act 2015 finally commences.
The new law, signed by President Higgins almost four years ago, continues to undergo legislative work. It was reported in the Sunday Independent that it is hoped it will be ready to commence near the end of next year.
People already have the right to make an Advance Healthcare Directive (AHD) indicating what medical treatment they do not want, in the event of them losing their capacity to make such decisions later in their lives. AHDs will be simpler to operate under the new law.
Switzerland’s highest court has ruled that parents do not have a constitutional right to provide school-aged children with private lessons at home. The verdict came after a mother in canton Basel City appealed the Federal Court, after her application to provide homeschooling for her son was rejected by the local school and cantonal justice authorities.
The court also ruled that the cantons – who are in charge of educational matters in Switzerland – could decide whether, and to what extent, homeschooling should be authorised, restricted or banned.
Figures vary but according to a recent Tages-Anzeiger newspaper reportexternal link, there are over 2,000 homeschooled children in Switzerland. And the trend is rising, experts say.
Willi Villiger, president of the Homeschool Association of Switzerland, said he was disappointed by the ruling, He had hoped that attitudes were slowly changing in Switzerland.
Villiger, himself a teacher, taught all his ten children at home with his wife. “Homeschooling allows a family to become a team, to be out and about with the children and learn, and to get on in life together,” he told SRF.
Minister Simon Harris’ rebranding of abortion exclusion zones as ‘safety access zones’ has been dismissed as ‘rhetorical game playing’ that is divisive and unhelpful.
The comments were made by the Pro-life campaign after the Minister announced a progress briefing on his plans to introduce legislation banning peaceful pro-life vigils outside centres that perform of faciliate abortions.
The briefing indicates a continued determination from the Minister to pursue his proposals despite an acknowledgement by An Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, in April that the proposed new law was running into difficulties regarding ‘free speech’ and the right to ‘peacefully protest.’
Pro Life Campaign spokesperson, Maeve O’Hanlon said they entirely reject the premise that an unwillingness to support the Minister’s plans to introduce ‘Safe Access Zones’ implies an indirect support for anything resembling ‘unsafe’ access.
“The fact that the Minister’s preferred description has moved from ‘Exclusion Zones’ to ‘Safe Access Zones’ also serves to highlight the fact that an attempt is being made to present the proposed legislation in more palatable language while the substance remains essentially the same.”
Plans to appoint a State guardian for every child in Scotland have finally been scrapped. It was attacked by campaigners as a huge attack on parental rights and an unacceptable expansion of State power and intrusiveness.
The Scottish Education Minister, John Swinney, said he would repeal the legislation after an expert panel he appointed to try and salvage the plan concluded it was unworkable.
In a statement to MSPs, he said the authorities would instead use “existing voluntary schemes” to identify vulnerable children in need of support, along with further training and guidance.
But he refused an invitation to apologise to parents and teachers, whom the Tories said have endured six years of “endless bureaucracy” as the SNP tried to introduce the policy.
The SNP’s Named Persons scheme had endured withering criticism. The Law Society of Scotland said it could potentially breach European human rights laws on privacy and family life.
The Schoolhouse Home Education Association warned the legislation was “open to abuse and misinterpretation and many parents could fall foul of overzealous agents of the State or people who are just plain busybodies”.
And the Scottish Daily Express warned: “If this sinister aspect of the Bill were to be passed, the guardian could take official action if the child was not being raised in government-approved fashion.”
Pro-life students at a University in Scotland were forced to remove a stall of literature from a university freshers’ fair, in the latest episode of a long running campaign of campus censorship.
Activists had been displaying anti-abortion posters, leaflets and bookmarks, some of which featured a logo of an unborn child with the words “life is precious”, at the University of Strathclyde.
Members of the students’ union argued that the material exhibited by the Strathclyde Students for Life Society was too graphic and breached their safe-space policies.
Last year, after a protracted legal case, the university’s student association lifted a long-running ban on prolife groups affiliating with the union, which had prevented the group accessing funding. Despite that, union officials introduced a policy requiring all affiliated societies to adhere to pro-choice rules.
Catherine Deighan, 18, president of Students for Life, said that the group had no choice but to pack up and leave. “We have been entirely discriminated against and censored,” she said. “Receiving that policy was very intimidating, given that we recognised the names of those who had approved it and they are extremely hostile to our view.”
The Master of the National Maternity Hospital has said the hospital is not an abortion clinic. He was speaking as a voluntary group, 40 Days for Life, are set to begin a focused 40 day campaign of prayer, fasting and peaceful witness from next Wednesday.
Abortions are taking place in the hospital under the terms of the new abortion law. Earlier this year, a healthy baby was aborted late in the second trimester when the parents were wrongly told the child had a fatal abnormality.
Writing in the Irish Catholic, 40 Days for Life member Marie Cummins said the purpose of the vigil is to turn hearts and minds from a culture of death to a culture of life and thus bring an end to abortion.
The campaign is a cross-denominational, faith-based effort involving prayer and fasting, and standing for life through a 40-day peaceful, prayerful, public witness across the road from the National Maternity hospital from 7am until 7pm.
She said that “all participants are asked to sign a statement of peace in which they pledge to conduct themselves in a Christ-like manner. Only signs provided by 40 Days for Life will be permitted during the campaign.”
However, the Master of Holles Street has objected to the planned pro-life witness. “This isn’t an abortion clinic, this is a maternity hospital and the vast, vast majority of patients who are accessing the hospital from one day to the next are giving birth, having joyful occasions,” said Professor Higgins.
The campaign has also sparked renewed calls from the National Women’s Council for exclusion or ‘censorship’ zones outside GP clinics and hospitals facilitating abortion, and a new commitment from Minister for Health Simon Harris to bring forward proposals for ‘safe access zones’.
Very few countries operate such zones on freedom of protest grounds.
The Arizona Supreme Court has ruled that the city of Phoenix cannot use a criminal law to force two Christian artists to design and create custom wedding invitations expressing messages that conflict with their core beliefs, including same-sex weddings. Such coercion, the court held, would violate the fundamental principle that “an individual has autonomy over his or her speech and thus may not be forced to speak a message he or she does not wish to say.” The court ruled in favor of Joanna Duka and Breanna Koski, owners of Brush & Nib Studio, who were under threat of up to six months of jail time, $2,500 in fines, and three years of probation for each day the city would find them in violation of the law.
Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys representing Duka and Koski filed suit against Phoenix because it interprets its law in a way that illegally controls artistic expression and disregards religious liberty. The court agreed and found that the law violates the freedom of Duka and Koski to express messages consistent with their religious beliefs through their custom wedding invitations.
Pro-life groups in New Zealand have made submissions to a parliamentary committee tasked with reviewing a radical abortion bill which has passed the early stages of the legislative process.
Voice for Life said the Bill would enable women to have abortions on demand, with no restriction up to 20 weeks, and from then until birth if a Health Practitioner “reasonably believes the abortion is appropriate in the circumstances, having regard to the woman’s physical health, mental health and well-being”.
Criticising the proposals, the group said the Bill makes abortions only about a mother’s health and “does away with any recognition of the value of the unborn child”. They recommend rejecting the bill entirely, or at least moderating its most egregious elements.
Another pro-life group, Family First, said that abortion is both a health issue and a legal issue involving both mother and unborn child. They added that “New Zealanders don’t want an extreme abortion law – they want a law that works best for women’s health and well-being, and which considers all human beings involved in a pregnancy.”
People could be permitted to choose their own sex on the upcoming census of England and Wales, if a controversial draft wording is approved.
In proposed advice for the “What is your sex?” question, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) allows people to give their preferred option instead of biological reality.
It is trialling the question and advice, along with voluntary questions on sexual orientation and gender identity, in four local authority ‘rehearsals’ this autumn.
The advice has been met with a chorus of criticism. University professor Rosa Freedman described it as “ludicrous”, saying, “if people could just pick a race or disability, we would all be up in arms”.
She added that the purpose of the census is to understand what the population is and plan for those demographics. “The census is not there to validate someone’s gender identity.”
Dr Julie Maxwell, an NHS paediatrician, said the change may affect national statistics and health provision. She added that her “biggest fear” is that children do not get “appropriate health services allocated for their needs because of messing around with statistics”.
In Scotland, there was a recent U-turn on the census with a non-binary option being shelved. It followed criticism from politicians who said the consultation process on the question had “serious deficiencies”.
Two Scottish politicians have spoken out about the existential threats to their careers from their own political party for cleaving to their Christian principles.
Dr. Lisa Cameron, a Scottish Member of Parliament (MP) faced deselection for her vote against legalising abortion in Northern Ireland.
Meanwhile, an SNP councillor, Chris McEleny of Inverclyde, has claimed party bosses told him to “curtail” his Catholicism if he wanted to be a parliamentary candidate, a claim deny by the Scottish National Party.
Ms Cameron, a clinical psychologist and devout Christian, was one of just two SNP MPs to vote against lifting Northern Ireland’s abortion ban in Britain’s House of Commons in July. After that vote, she said, “the local activists and officials who vet and select candidates said I wasn’t suitable to be an MP for the party because of my views. There were two calls to stand down from my position from local officials”.
Until Saturday, she was the SNP’s only sitting member of the Westminster Parliament not to have been approved as a candidate for the forthcoming general election.
