US President Donald Trump has named a pro-life defender of religious freedom as his nomination for the Supreme Court. The man chosen to fill the vacant seat in the court is Neil Gorsuch, 49, a judge of the 10^th Circuit Court of Appeals. During his tenure with that court, Gorsuch sided with the Christians owners of a crafts store that opposed being required by government to provide certain contraceptives through its health plan. In a similar case, he also sided with the Little Sisters of the Poor when they argued on conscience grounds that they would not supply contraception or abortifacients. Gorsuch is also the author of a 2009 book, The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia, in which he argued that human life has intrinsic value and “that intentional killing is always wrong”. In that book he also wrote of Roe v. Wade, that there is “no constitutional basis” for giving a mother more rights than her unborn child.

The Irish Bishops have welcomed an announcement by Minister for Education Richard Bruton that a system of surveys and consultations with parents and patrons will precede future divestment of faith schools. Under the new two-stage plan, Education and Training Boards will first work to identify areas where there is likely to be demand from families for diversity in schooling. Secondly, where such demand is demonstrated justifying transfer of at least one school from denominational status, a process will be set in train to realise this. “Where the need for a transfer to a multi-denominational patron is identified by surveys, the existing landowner, in cooperation with the local school community, will decide what multi-denominational patron to transfer to. The transfer will be by way of a live school transfer, with existing staff remaining in place, where this is the wish of the parties involved. In most cases the new patron will lease the building from the landowner,” Minister Bruton said. He added: “I believe that we should acknowledge the role of religious organisations in providing a system of national education for nearly two centuries. I also believe that a desire on behalf of many parents to have their children educated within their faith is welcome and should be respected.”

A Bill on children and the family currently before legislators in Ontario, Canada, could bar people from adopting if they are found to oppose gender ideology. The ‘Supporting Children, Youth and Families Act’ has been criticised for its potential to rule out anyone seeking to adopt on the grounds that failing to accept gender ideology means that they cannot provide a home “in the best interests of the child”. Jeff Gunnarson, Vice President of Campaign Life Coalition, said: “The premise that banning traditionally principled Canadians from becoming parents is in the children’s best interests is a lie that must be exposed. This Liberal government is actually telling Canadians who don’t believe in the theory of gender identity or the gay lifestyle: ‘You are unfit to be parents. You are second class citizens who must be banned from adopting children.’”

A doctor in The Netherlands has been cleared of any wrongdoing after she euthanised a dementia patient without permission. The unnamed doctor first drugged the coffee of the female patient before beginning to administer a lethal injection. However, the patient woke during this phase and began to fight the doctor so that it became necessary for family members to restrain her until the procedure was complete. It subsequently emerged in paperwork that the patient had stated beforehand on several occasions “I don’t want to die”. Despite all of these considerations, a review board ruled that the doctor had acted in good faith, accepting that she had not informed the patient of her plan so as to avoid causing distress. Jacob Kohnstamm, chair of the Regional euthanasia Review Committee, now wants the case brought to court to examine the future implicatuons of the case. He said he was in favour of a trial “Not to punish the doctor, who acted in good faith and did what she had to do, but to get judicial clarity over what powers a doctor has when it comes to the euthanasia of patients suffering from severe dementia.”

The Government has been called upon to arrange for Pope Francis to address the joint Houses of the Oireachtas during his visit to Ireland in 2018. Fianna Fáil Senator Aidan Davitt said during a radio interview that the Pope’s visit to attend the World Meeting of Families would present “an ideal opportunity” for the Pontiff to meet with legislators and address them as he had done in the United States in 2015 during the last Families gathering. Senator Davitt that Pope Francis “has a natural connection to Dublin as he lived here for over three months. Pope Francis spent a number of weeks studying English at the Jesuit Milltown Institute in Ranelagh, south Dublin over 30 years ago.” The World Meeting of Families will take place across three days in Dublin from 22 to 26 August 2018.

The Irish Girls Guides organisation is considering new guidelines to allow boys who self-identify as girls to become Guides. The revelation came after a move by Britain’s Girl–guiding body to accept biological males who identify as female into its ranks. Linda Peters, chief executive officer of the Irish Girl Guides said, “Our policy is that anyone who lives their life as a female is welcome to join our organisation.” She added that the Irish body is currently taking guidance from the Girl Guides in Canada towards a full set of guidelines. “We asked their permission to adopt their guidelines if it suited us, but ours may be slightly different,” she said. Seeking to reassure parents, Peters said that any future move on transgender Guides would involve input from parents, unlike in Britain where the Guides do not consider it “best practice” to inform parents that their daughters may be sharing facilities with biological males who identify as female.

The Catholic Primary Schools Management Association (CPSMA) has said that the real barrier to school access is often lack of places and not religious difference. Responding to the ongoing debate around the so-called ‘baptism barrier’, the CPSMA conducted a survey of Catholic primary schools in the Dublin area and found that just 17 of 384 schools (4.4%) responding had denied admission based on grounds relating to a baptismal certificate. Overall, the survey found that just 96 of 7,750 failed enrolments were related to issues around baptism certificates. Unveiling the finding, the CPSMA’s general secretary Seamus Mulconry said: “It is striking that the overwhelming focus of public comment in the media on the issue of schools admission policy… has focused on an issue that affects only 1.2% of the applications that do not result in enrolment.” Pointing out that oversubscription of school places was a far bigger issue, Mr Mulconry said, “The real issue is one of resources and the need to create school places through the opening of new schools, or the expansion of existing ones.”

A baby has been born in Ukraine through a controversial genetic modification technique involving three parents. The procedure known as Pronuclear Transfer, mooted as a treatment for maternally carried mitochondrial DNA sees the healthy nuclear material from a fertilised egg of two parents removed and placed into a donor egg from a second woman which has healthy mitochondria.

The procedure to deliver the child was led by Dr Valery Zukin, who said afterwards of this world first that the successful birth “opens up the possibility of augmenting embryos”. However, reacting to the birth announcement, Professor Adam Balen, chairman of the British Fertility Society, described it as “highly experimental” and also said it has not “been properly evaluated or scientifically proven”. The world’s first three-parent baby was born to US parents in Mexico last September, using a similar technique known as Maternal Spindle Transfer.

Two leading divinity schools in the United States have introduced gender-neutral language for staff and students when referring to God. The Divinity School of Duke University has issued new guidelines which call for ‘he’ and ‘him’ to be avoided in reference to God, suggesting instead that ‘God’ and ‘Godself’ be used. The guidelines also offer an example of gender-neutral metaphors such as “God is the father who welcomes his son, but she is also the woman searching for the lost coin”. Meanwhile, at Vanderbilt University, professors in the divinity school have been urged to give “consistent attention to the use of inclusive language, especially in relation to the Divine,” because campus policy “commits continuously and explicitly to include gender as an analysed category and to mitigate sexism”.