A jump of 20pc in the number of low weight births in Ireland is mainly due to the use of IVF. That’s according to obstetrician Michael Turner, director of the UCD Centre for Human Reproduction at the Coombe Hospital.
While low weight births are decreasing across the world, a study just published in the Lancet shows Ireland has had a 20% increase since the year 2000, which is the second highest increase among higher income countries.
The increase comes despite a worldwide commitment to reduce such births by 30pc by the year 2025.
Professor Turner attributes the Irish increase to a 30pc rise in the birth of twins and triplets from IVF.
Pro-life groups say the HSE’s advice on disposing the remains of aborted babies is “deeply disturbing”.
The HSE website tells women who have had an abortion before 9 weeks of pregnancy that the remains “can be flushed down the toilet”, or wrapped in tissue and disposed of as they wish.
Niamh Uí Bhriain of the Life Institute said the HSE’s advice exposed the cruel indifference of Simon Harris’s abortion regime.
She added that the HSE’s advice is particularly appalling given the two years of fraught discussion about the possibility that babies were buried in a septic tank.
There should be increased dialogue between religious organisations and MEPs dealing with legislation proposed by the European Commission.
That’s according to a leaked report compiled by Fine Gael MEP and vice-president of the European Parliament Mairéad McGuinness.
“This would allow for individual partners to flag up dossiers where they feel they could make a particular contribution. The religious representatives expressed the view that such consultations would help ensure that policy considerations were not limited to narrow sectoral interests, but also took account of broader societal implications of policy and legislation and the need for the legislator to seek the common good,” the report states.
Ms McGuinness, who is vice-president of the European Parliament, insisted that the proposed changes would apply to “all stakeholders” and are “not limited to any one group, so there would not be different levels of access for churches compared to secular groups”.
However, MEPs who are part of the European Parliament Platform for Secularism in Politics expressed “deep concerns”, saying the report appears “to endorse” the views of the churches. Saying that the recommendations would be “a severe violation” of the principle of separation between religions and politics, if implemented, French MEP Virginie Rozière told OpenDemocracy that they are “completely crazy”.
A greater involvement of parishes and parents in preparing children for the sacraments has been expressed by a Sacraments Review Group in the Archdiocese of Dublin.
The Review Group carried out an online survey, with 1800 responses from parents, parishioners, clergy and parish workers, school principals and teachers.
According to a spokesperson for the Archdiocese all the voices in the survey said passing on the faith is primarily the responsibility of the home, with the help of the parish, rather than a total reliance on the school.
This would entail a significant shift of focus, from the current set-up where schools engage with children to a new set-up where parishes engage with parents.
The survey highlights the challenge of engaging with parents with different levels of faith: those who are churchgoers, others who are not churchgoers but profess to have faith, others again who see the sacraments as family milestones with no faith dimension.
While Asia Bibi is free, another Christian woman faces the same fate as her, sentenced to death for alleged blasaphemy.
Bibi’s lawyer, Saif-ul Malook, has taken up the case of Shagufta Kausar, a 45-year-old mother of four, and her husband.
Kausar is locked in the same prison cell in Multan Women’s Jail where Bibi had been incarcerated for many years. Kausar and her husband Shafqat Masih, 48, were condemned to death by a trial court in February 2014. Muhammad Hussein, a prayer leader at a local mosque, accused Masih of texting blasphemous text messages from Kausar’s cell phone with her “connivance.”
The people of the area surrounded the Gojra Police Station after Kausar and Masih were arrested. The mob demanded that the couple be handed to them so that they could be killed. The police resorted to including the harshest charges in order to disperse the protestors.
The Christian couple hails from the infamous town of Gojra, where in 2009 more than 100 houses were set on fire and 7 Christians killed by a violent mob over blasphemy allegations. Since then, tensions between Christians and Muslims have regularly flared.
The European People’s Party (EPP) has included in its European election manifesto a staunch defence of the continent’s Christian values and heritage saying we must preserve our “Christian values and fundamental principles”.
The text reads: “While Europe is diverse and nuanced, we have one thing in common: in every town and city there is a Christian church. Christmas, Easter and Pentecost are holidays we all share. We have to protect our European way of life by preserving our Christian values and fundamental principles.”
The EPP is the largest party in the European Parliament since 1999 and it is the grouping that Fine Gael belong to. Fine Gael’s election manifesto makes no mention of Christianity.
Gunmen have killed six people including a priest as Mass was being celebrated in a church in Dablo in northern Burkina Faso, officials say.
The attackers, said to number between 20 and 30, then burned down the church.
The town’s mayor, Ousmane Zongo, said that armed individuals burst into the Catholic church during mass and started firing as the congregation tried to flee. He added that there was panic as other buildings were burned down and a health centre looted.
Security sources told AFP that reinforcements were being sent from Barsalogho, some 45km (30 miles) to the south.
A local journalist told the BBC those killed included church elders and that residents were angry that soldiers in a nearby base did not respond promptly.
Jihadist violence has flared in Burkina Faso since 2016, and this is the third attack on a church in five weeks.
One IVF clinic has lashed out at another for offering a “baby or your money back” package.
The offer from Sims is for clients to pay in advance for two or three rounds of IVF, and they would receive a full refund if a successful pregnancy does ensue. However, if the client achieves pregnancy at the first go, there is no refund for the subsequent rounds of IVF they have already paid for but now will not use.
Merrion Fertility Clinic (MFC), an operation linked to the National Maternity Hospital, has questioned the offer from its rival, Sims IVF, on the basis that some women will end up paying more money unnecessarily.
“It is our considered opinion that such schemes do not reduce costs overall for the majority of patients and that they may even be unethical,” said MFC.
The Tanaiste has declined to place any emphasis on tackling the persecution of Christians in Ireland’s Foreign Policy.
He was responding to a question from Mattie McGrath, TD, who asked Mr Coveney, who is also the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if an interdepartmental committee will be established to oversee and monitor Ireland’s response to Christian persecution. The British Government has just issued an interim report on the matter. Ireland’s official overseas aid agency, Irish Aid, makes ‘gender equality’ one of its priorities, meaning it is willing to single out certain issues.
The Tanaiste said Ireland condemns “all forms of persecution on the basis of religion or belief, irrespective of where they occur or who the victims are”, and added that the Government is committed to promoting freedom of thought, conscience and religion, as well as the rights of persons “belonging to religious minorities”.
He also added that, within the EU, “Ireland works with partners to address the persecution of Christians and other religious minorities”.
The British Government report found that 80% of religious persecution worldwide is committed against Christians making them, by far, the most persecuted religious grouping in the world.
More than three-quarters of respondents to a poll said they would vote Yes in the upcoming divorce referendum, with just 8 per cent saying they would oppose the measure according to the latest Irish Times/Ipsos MRBI opinion poll. Eleven per cent said they did not know how they would vote and 4 per cent said they would not vote.
The referendum is aimed at removing from the Constitution the requirement that a couple must wait for four years out of the last five before filing for divorce.
The poll was taken among 500 voters in each of the three European Parliament constituencies, a total of 1,500 voters across 150 sampling points in all constituencies. The accuracy is estimated at plus or minus 2.5 per cent at the national level.
Stripping out the undecided voters and those unlikely to vote, the proposal enjoys the support of 91 per cent of respondents to the poll, with just 9 per cent ready to vote against it.
