Washington DC has become the 7^th jurisdiction in the United States to permit assisted suicide after a last-minute challenge to legislation failed. Despite a 22-14 vote by members of the House Oversight Committee to overturn the Death with Dignity Act under existing legislation allowing for such action within a specified time period, Congress did not subsequently call a vote on the measure – the final necessary step – meaning that assisted suicide passed into law. Washington DC now joins the states of California, Colorado, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, and Montana in legislating for assisted suicide. Pro-life groups have lamented the Act’s passage despite control of Congress by the Republican party, normally more well disposed to life issues.

Pro-life advocates in France who seek to influence pregnant women on the issue of abortion could face two years in prison under a new law. Passed by the National Assembly, the new legislation bans pro-life websites which seek to dissuade women from termination if the sites do not proclaim themselves to be pro-life. Sanctions for breaching the law include prison time or a fine of €30,000. According to Minister for women’s rights, Laurence Rossignol, pro-life individuals and groups may still voice opposition to abortion but this is “under the condition they openly state who they are, what they do and what they want”. The law had drawn fierce opposition from pro-lifers, who took to the streets for a mass demonstration at the end of January as the law was being discussed. On behalf of France’s Catholic bishops, Archbishop Georges Pontier of Marseille, president of the French bishops’ conference, had written to President Francois Hollande to call for a halt to the law, describing it as a “serious infringement of democratic principles”.

The Iona Institute has received an invitation to address the Citizens’ Assembly. Director David Quinn has confirmed that the institute has been invited to attend the Assembly on March 5, the penultimate sitting of the body, and to present the case for retaining Ireland’s constitutional protection for the unborn. Iona member Maria Steen is expected to make the 10-minute presentation. Iona’s oral submission will be based around its written submission, which asks questions such as: Do we have a right to take the life of other human beings? Would we even consider holding a referendum to remove the right to life of any other category of human being? If we tried, we might first strive to convince ourselves that they are not human or that it is a matter of opinion whether they are human.

RTÉ has argued that a talk show guest’s description of the Eucharist as “haunted bread” was not sacrilegious. In a response to a complaint made to the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland by Kerry-based Fr Kevin McNamara in relation to an edition of The Late Late Show, RTÉ stated that the description of the Eucharist offered by comedian Blindboy Boatclub was “provocative” but not “sacrilegious”. Late Late producer Larry Masterson, in an email sent to Fr McNamara said: “The phrase ‘haunted bread’ was certainly provocative. [Blindboy] used it to get a reaction, and indeed it did. I do not believe, however, that it was sacrilegious. It was, in my view, a linguistic phrase that encapsulates the Holy Ghost and Holy Communion.” For his part, Fr McNamara rejected the statement and said: “From my viewing of our national channels the Catholic faith is not afforded sufficient respect or fair play. After all, RTÉ is funded by all licence payers.”

The Pro Life Campaign (PLC) has urged the Government to present the “positive side of the Eighth Amendment” to the United Nations. As Government representatives in Geneva faced the UN’s Committee on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) – the PLC stressed the necessity of a voice to balance those of the National Women’s Council and the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHRC), both of which have argued from a pro-abortion stance against Ireland’s constitutional protection for the unborn. Speaking in Geneva, the PLC’s Sinead Slattery said, “It is imperative that the Government present this very positive side of the Eighth Amendment, and that they highlight the families who say that their children are alive as a direct result of our life-saving laws… “Abortion is, by its very nature, discriminatory as it allows some human beings to be given lesser protection under the law. The practice of sex-selection abortions has also led to widespread discrimination against baby girls in particular and efforts to outlaw this practice have been opposed by abortion providers such as the British Pregnancy Advisory Service.”

A new study has found that people in the United States have more positive feelings today towards religious groups than four years ago. In a survey undertaken by the Pew Research Centre, people were asked to rate groups on a ‘feeling thermometer’ ranging from 0 to 100. The results showed nearly all religious communities receiving better feedback than in 2014. Catholics and Jews received the most positive ratings, at 66 and 67 respectively, both showing a 4-point increase. Buddhists gained a rating of 60, followed by Mormons and Hindus, at 54 and 58. Only the rating for Evangelical Christians, at 61, remained unchanged since 2014. Significant increase in positivity was shown for both Muslim and atheist communities, with Muslims moving from 40 to 48, and atheists growing from 41 to 50. The survey also found wide variation in the ratings that U.S. religious groups give one another. While for the most part Jews and Christians tend to rate each other warmly, atheists and Evangelicals continue to view each other in a negative light.

Fathers should be recognised as a “crucial pillar” in the life of children, a think-tank has warned. The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) blamed the “throwaway culture” for causing people to give up on relationships quickly in the face of problems, relegating fathers to the status of a “dispensable extra”. According to Andy Cook, CSJ chief executive, the “relationship children have with their father affects their self-esteem, how well they do at school, even whether they are able to form happy, long-lasting relationships as adults”. He added that, in the face of the ‘throwaway culture’, “We need a societal shift in perspective from regarding fathers as a dispensable extra to recognising their value as a crucial pillar in a child’s life…Over the last 40 years, the meteoric rise in family breakdown has blighted the lives of the poorest children the most.”