The High Court has adjourned a case centred on the legal status of a child born through surrogacy who was later discovered to have no genetic link to the commissioning adults. The case involves an Irish couple who sought surrogacy outside the State and subsequently applied to bring the child back to Ireland. Needing to prove a genetic link to the child in order to secure necessary documentation, the test showed no such link exists. The child was admitted to Ireland on humanitarian grounds. The High Court has now declared it requires more time to gain further statements from the State on its position on a most unique case and adjourned until January.

An Australian proposal to hold a national referendum on legalising same-sex marriage has been defeated in the nation’s senate. Despite a preference for such a vote on the issue by the government of Prime Minister Malcom Turnbull, opposition parties and supporters of same-sex marriage have argued that a referendum would be ‘deeply divisive’ and the issue of gay marriage should be decided by parliament alone. The defeat of the proposal means same-sex marriage is now set aside as a topic for the next parliamentary term.

The rate of assisted suicide in Switzerland surged by over a quarter in a single year, latest figures in the country show. With 742 cases of assisted suicide for the year 2014, this was a 26% increase on the previous year. At least 20 of the latest number sought assisted suicide due to depression. Assisted suicide has been legal in Switzerland since 1942, but since 2009, the rate of this means of death has grown by 250%.

A new study on faith in Britain has found that people of faith who regularly attend their church services are most likely to want to pass on their faith beliefs to their children. Conducted by the religion and society think tank Theos, in conjunction with pollsters ComRes, Passing on Faith discovered that while 60% of parents overall think that children should make up their own minds on faith “independently of their parents”, when categorised by belief or lack of, some 77% of people who believe and attend church saw it as important to pass on their beliefs. By comparison, just 59% those who believe but do not attend worship regularly saw this faith communication as important. “The more engaged Christians were with their faith, the more likely they were to want to pass it on to their children,” the study concluded.

The British Broadcasting Company (BBC) is under fire from parents and politicians for airing a children’s show for six to twelve-year-olds in which transsexualism is a central theme. In the show, Just a Girl, the central character Amy is portrayed as a boy now living as a girl who is taking hormone blockers and engages in conversation with a friend who is a girl living as a boy. Politicians Julian Brazier and Peter Bone leballed the show “inappropriate”, with Brazier saying: “Children are very impressionable and this is going to confuse and worry them.” Child psychotherapist Dr Dilys Daws branded the BBC irresponsible for exposing children as young as six to the idea of ‘changing sex’, while Norman Wells, Director of the Family Education Trust, said the BBC was irresponsible for introducing “impressionable children as young as six to the idea that they can choose to be something other than their biological sex”.

A Catholic prelate in the United States has called on Catholic voters preparing for the November 8 elections to base their decision on “the principles of Catholic conscience”.  Amid the most fractious presidential campaign in living memory, Archbishop Alexander Sample of Portland, Oregon said: “I think we need to get behind the façade of…two very flawed individuals and look at what is likely to happen during the potential presidency of these two and let that be our guide. He added: “As Catholic citizens look at these two candidates, my advice would be: get beyond the face and get beyond the people themselves and look behind them…Look at what their stand is in the issues of greatest importance: what is their stance on the protection of life? Especially on the protection of the lives of the unborn, the elderly.”

A legal challenge to allow women in Northern Ireland to procure abortions funded by the National Health Service (NHS) has been taken to Britain’s Supreme Court. The case was launched by a mother and daughter who travelled to Britain to allow the daughter to have her pregnancy terminated. The brought the case after the Court of Appeal ruled that health services in England and Wales have no obligation to provide publicly funded abortions in Northern Ireland. The Supreme Court has allowed for submissions from six pro-abortion groups in the case. Reacting to the case, the Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child (SPUC) said: “A bad decision in this case would not only lead to more children being killed by abortion, it will also have serious implications for the rule of law and the value of Northern Ireland’s devolved institutions.”

A court in the US state of Louisiana has ruled that a priest is not compelled to report information of a criminal nature received during confession. The judgement, handed down by the state’s Supreme Court, arose from a case in the Catholic Diocese of Baton Rouge in which Fr Jeff Bayhi became the subject of a lawsuit from Rebecca Mayeux who claimed she was being abused by a parishioner but that the priest did nothing to stop the abuse and did not report it to the police. In its ruling the court stated it was not “conclusively determined” whether a priest in confession is a mandatory reporter of child abuse under provisions of the existing legislation. Thus, “any communication made to a priest privately in the sacrament of confession for the purposes of confession, repentance, and absolution is a confidential communication … and the priest is exempt from mandatory reporter status,” the court ruled.

A court in the Canadian province of British Columbia has confirmed the accreditation status of a faith-run university which had been threatened with sanction for imposing a covenant on students to abstain from sex until marriage. The British Columbia Court of Appeal ruled that Trinity Western University (TWU) Law School had no case to answer after the local law society alleged discrimination against the LGBT community and said the law society’s decision to deny accreditation limits the university’s right to freedom of religion in a disproportionate way. A spokesperson for TWU said after the judgement: “Everyone, religious or not, should celebrate this decision as a protection of our Canadian identity.”