A parliamentary bill that would unleash medically assisted suicide on England and Wales might not be implemented for another four years amid growing concerns about the proposed system.
It was originally thought that the bill might take two years to implement, but Member of Parliament (MP) Kim Leadbeater, sponsor of the bill, said the delay might be as long as four.
Her spokesperson said the bill now contains even stronger safeguards than when it was first tabled, with a new judge-led voluntary assisted dying commission and multidisciplinary panels to examine every application and this would delay the process.
However, the bill has been mired in controversy with prominent media outlets calling for it to be abandoned.
The Times editorialised: “The thankless task of scrutinising this sinister and half-baked proposal has fallen to a few brave MPs on the committee … Thanks to them its flaws have been fatally exposed. It remains only to administer the coup de grace and kill this bill.”
The natural increase in population in the third quarter of last year, that is births over deaths, was almost half what it had been ten years ago, according to the latest figures from the CSO.
Births exceeded deaths by 5,243 in Q3 2024, which was down by 48.6% when compared with the same period in 2014.
There were 39 fewer births registered in Quarter 3 (Q3) 2024 compared with Q3 2023, or a fall of 0.3% to 13,809 births.
The Total Period Fertility Rate (TPFR) was 1.5 which was below the replacement level of 2.1. That’s down significantly from ten years ago when the TPFR stood at 1.9.
A large cohort of people never returned to regular religious worship since the Covid lockdowns, new figures from the CSO show.
Of those who regularly attended religious ceremonies in person prior to March 2020, more than half (55%) still regularly attend in-person, 8% say they only attend online, while more than one-third (37%) say they no longer frequent religious ceremonies on a regular basis.
Older respondents are most likely to still attend religious ceremonies either in person or online. Nearly seven in ten (69%) respondents aged 70 and over who attended religious ceremonies in person before the onset of the pandemic say they still regularly attend in person while one in eight (12%) of those in this age group opt to attend online instead. Conversely, two-thirds (67%) of younger respondents, i.e. those aged 18-29, say they no longer attend religious ceremonies regularly in any form. Three in ten (31%) say they still attend in person with only 2% saying they attend online.
Two cases alleging that an unborn baby was wrongly diagnosed with a so-called “fatal foetal abnormality” leading to an abortion have been lodged with the State Claims Agency.
The parents allege they received the incorrect pre-natal finding that the foetus had a condition likely to lead to a death in utero or within 28 days of birth. This is because of the inaccuracy of some of the screening tests.
The number of babies wrongly diagnosed and then aborted could be much higher because many parents might not have had their children tested again for a genetic abnormality post-abortion.
Health Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill was responding to a question from Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín who commented that he was not surprised. He said that Aontú was calling on the minister “to examine all notifications of abortions she has received – as mandated under section 20 of the Act – to ensure that the law is being adhered to. It is extremely worrying to learn that there are multiple cases of abortion following misdiagnosis”.
Hungary’s fertility declined starkly last year reaching a low of 1.38, down from a figure of 1.51 in 2023, according to preliminary data from the country’s Central Statistical Office (KSH).
A rate of 2.1 is needed for a population to sustain itself.
Annual births dropped to a historic low of 77,500, a decline of 9.1pc, or 7,725 fewer than the previous year.
Marriages also declined with only 46,550 couples tying the knot in 2024, down 7.2pc or, 3,589 compared with 2023.
The figures come despite years of extensive tax and economic benefits designed to encourage child-bearing.
Despite the apparent failure, the Government has doubled down on the policy by announcing new laws under which mothers with one child will be exempt from income tax until they turn 30, while those with two or more children will pay no income tax for life.
Mothers with four or more children are already totally tax exempt.
Married people are more likely to be happier than their divorced, separated and widowed counterparts, according to the latest figures from the CSO.
The Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC) 2024 measured various indicators of well-being.
Married respondents were more likely to report high overall life satisfaction at 29.6pc, compared with 20.0pc of those who were separated.
Likewise, the separated and divorced were more likely to report low overall life satisfaction, with rates of 22.7pc and 25.4pc respectively, compared with 7.9pc of married respondents.
When it comes to feeling downhearted or depressed, 9.1pc of divorced and 5.3pc of separated respondents and 5.4pc of those who never married said they felt like this always or most of the time in the four-week period prior to interview. The comparable rate for married persons was 1.7pc. The rate for widowed respondents was 4.3pc.
Married respondents were less likely to report feeling lonely with less than one in ten (8.3pc) feeling so at least some of the time. The comparable rates for separated, widowed or divorced respondents was three times higher at approximately 30pc for each of these three groups.
Euthanasia cases in Spain increased 24 percent in 2023, according to the Government’s latest annual report.
Half of the 766 requests for euthanasia were approved, and 334 assisted suicides were completed.
In about 25 percent of the cases, applicants died before their request could be approved, and some patients voluntarily withdrew their applications for medical assistance in dying. The report did not detail why some applications for the procedure were rejected and others were accepted.
Under the euthanasia law, people experiencing “grave, chronic, or impossible suffering” caused by a “chronic and incurable disease” can apply for assistance in dying. Those requests are submitted by the patient’s doctor to a review committee that has the authority to issue a final approval.
Polonia Castellanos, president of Abogados Cristianos, a nonprofit legal defense group, says the 2021 law is “very poorly drafted” and “too ambiguous.” She says it can apply to almost anyone suffering from a chronic medical condition. She fears abuses can occur when a vulnerable patient suffering from a long-term illness is treated by a strongly pro-euthanasia doctor.
Euthanasia cases in the Netherlands rose by 10 per cent in 2024, according to official figures. Almost 10,000 people were euthanised last year compared to 9,068 in 2023. Since its introduction the number of Dutch opting for euthanasia has been rising rapidly, and the grounds under which it is offered have kept expanding.
There has also been a notable increase in the number of people choosing euthanasia for psychiatric reasons, with 219 such cases in 2024, up from 138 in 2023, and a dramatic leap from just two back in 2010.
This has prompted the regulatory body to call on doctors to exercise “great caution” when handling such requests.
Six cases in 2024 were found to have fallen short of due care. One case involved a doctor who granted euthanasia to a woman in her 70s, despite failing to consult a psychiatrist. The woman had suffered a spinal fracture and could no longer meet her obsessive-compulsive urge to clean, leading her to request euthanasia.
Damiaan Denys, professor of psychiatry at Amsterdam University Medical Center, expressed concern over the growing number of young people opting for euthanasia due to mental health issues, “especially in young people under 30”.
Two more priests were kidnapped in Nigeria, as Christian persecution continues in a country that is also experiencing exponential growth in Catholicism.
Rev. Fr. John Ubaechu, of Izombe, southeastern Nigeria, was taken captive on Sunday, March 23, on his way to the Priests’ Annual Retreat.
On the same day, a joint security team consisting of police, army, civil defense, and vigilante groups succeeded in securing the release of Fr. Stephen Echezona, who had been kidnapped earlier in the day.
Fr. Echezona was abducted while refueling his car at a petrol station in Ichida, southern Nigeria.
He was released unharmed after a security team engaged the armed criminals in a gunfight, and successfully overpowered them.
There is a real need for good news, because society is wallowing in despair and meaninglessness, the bishop of Derry Donal McKeown has said.
Speaking to The Irish Catholic, Dr McKeown said Catholics need to participate in cultural life. He urged believers to “get out there and engage in debates about creation, about human life, about AI, about all those things”.
To do this, he said, they need to embrace an intellectual faith that is different from mere piety, adding that the Church is not retreating: “it is actually re-shaping for mission, we’re not downsizing for the sake of downsizing, we’re doing it in order to be better, fitter, leaner and better able to engage with our society at the intellectual level and all other sorts of levels.”
He said that for Derry, he hoped that the opening of the St Paul’s religious bookstore in Derry would help that task.
