MEPs included “commercial surrogacy” among a list of increasing violations of human rights and democratic values in their 2023 annual report. Ireland is about to adopt one of the most permissive regimes in Europe concerning the practice. The law will be against commercial surrogacy on paper but will allow surrogate mothers to be paid “reasonable expenses” which can to tens of thousands of euro.

The report was adopted on Wednesday by 377 votes for, 90 against and 68 abstentions.

Under the heading of “Rights of women, including sexual and reproductive health and rights, and gender equality”, the Parliament, “Reiterates its condemnation of the commercial practice of surrogacy, a global phenomenon that exposes women worldwide to exploitation and human trafficking, while targeting financially and socially vulnerable women in particular; highlights its severe impact on women, women’s rights, and women’s health, and underlines its crossborder implications”.

The rapporteur Nacho Sánchez Amor (S&D, ES), said after the vote: “One of the humanity’s most fundamental achievements has been to embrace that every human being has a set of inherent, inalienable, individual and indivisible rights. However, in recent decades illiberal and authoritarian regimes have called these onto question. It is therefore crucial, now more than ever, that the EU and like-minded partners invest all efforts and resources in their defence.”

A new report from the UK Parliament’s Health and Social Care committee has not recommended any change to country’s law against assisted suicide. It heard about a litany of problems in jurisdictions that have legalised the practice as well as claims in favour of it.

The report notes that, among members of the British Medical Association, those more likely to be opposed to a change were those who worked in specialities that dealt directly with patients at the end of their lives.

The report quotes from a number of witnesses who discuss the manner in which the legalisation of assisted suicide distorts the doctor-patient relationship.

It noted financial concerns that can lead people to want to end their lives prematurely as well as other non-medical concerns such as loneliness, which can influence a person’s decision.

The report noted concerns from disability rights groups and people with disabilities who suggested assisted suicide “reinforce[s] the damaging notion that disabled lives are not worth living.”

Adults who are married report being far happier than those in any other relationship status, according to a new Gallup Poll.

“Any way you analyze those data, we see a fairly large and notable advantage to being married in terms of how people evaluate their life,” said poll author Jonathan Rothwell, principal economist at Gallup.

From 2009 to 2023, more than 2.5 million adults in the United States were asked how they would rate their current life, with zero being the worst possible rating and 10 being the highest. Then the researchers asked respondents what they anticipated their happiness level would be in five years.

To be considered thriving, a person had to rank their current life as a seven or higher and their anticipated future as an eight or higher, according to the survey.

Over the survey period, married people consistently reported their happiness levels higher than their unmarried counterparts, ranging from 12% to 24% higher depending on the year, according to the data.

A UK Police Force have conceded their attempt to impose speech restrictions on a Christian preacher were “disproportionate”.

The Avon & Somerset police force had issued an order to Dia Moodley, a Bristol-based pastor, who has engaged in occasional street evangelism for the past five years. The order forbade him from “passing comments on any other religion or comparing them to Christianity” and “passing comments on beliefs held by Atheists or those who believe in evolution”.

Ironically, Moodley had initially reached out to the police after being the victim of several incidents of racial abuse. However, at a subsequent meeting, the pastor was served with the warning notice, which he refused to sign.

Commenting on the case, Bryn Harris of the Free Speech Union, said: “The state does not hold a monopoly on truth and the ability to discuss and debate ideas, including religious ideas, is the lifeblood of any genuinely free society. Yet, repeatedly, we see this principle violated by unaccountable police officers and local councils who aggressively pursue their own ideological causes rather than using scarce public resources to tackle real crime.”

One in two people in Northern Ireland describe themselves as “practising Christians”, according to a survey of over 1,000 people by the polling company Savanta which was commissioned by the Evangelical Alliance (EA).

While the UK’s 2021 census found that 80% of the NI population identified as Christian, the new research asked people whether they are “practising” their Christian faith.

The resulting report – ‘Northern Ireland: Who are the Good News People?’ – concludes that 50% of people in NI regard themselves as “practising Christians”, with 35% praying, 23% going to church and 13% reading the Bible every week.

The report also found that 38% of “practising” Catholics also consider themselves to be evangelical Christians.

David Smyth, head of EA in NI, said: “We always suspected that the Christian faith continued to play an important role in life here and this research confirms high levels of religious identification and practice. The findings in this report have challenged, surprised and encouraged us”.

Almost 200,000 women availed of ‘free’ contraception, paid for by the State, in the first 10 months of last year.

A 2019 Working Group on Access to Contraception, under the then Health Minister, Simon Harris, said the proposal would probably be a waste of public funds.

The State scheme is available for women aged 17-31 and, Health Minister Stephen Donnell said that latest figures show over 198,000 women availed of it between January and October last.

He also reported that 17 of 19 maternity hospitals are providing abortion.

He said the final two maternity hospitals, Cavan General Hospital and South Tipperary General Hospital, are expected to provide abortion by the year’s end.

The total number of abortions carried out in the State is expected to exceed 10,000 for last year, having numbered 8,156 in 2022. There were 4,577 in 2021, although the numbers that year were affected by the pandemic.

A bill that would slightly liberalise Poland’s strict law against abortion has been submitted by the Third Way party, the more conservative wing of the coalition Government.

The group wants to restore abortion in cases where an ultimately terminal condition is diagnosed in the foetus. Such abortions were banned by a court decision during the former conservative Law and Justice (PiS) administration.

Currently, abortions can only be performed if a pregnancy threatens the life or health of the mother, strictly understood, or in cases of rape. In practice, this results in very few terminations.

The other two parties of the ruling coalition have submitted their own bills that would legalise abortion on request up to the 12th week of pregnancy.

As there is no consensus, the Third Way wants to organise a referendum to ask the public for their view.

However, another Govt partner, The Left, has criticised the idea of a referendum, arguing that access to abortion is a ‘human right’ and as such should not be put on a ballot.

One of its MPs, Katarzyna Kotula, said the proposal is not a liberalisation, and would continue a “near-total ban on abortion.”

Mr Drennan said farmers contacting him about the upcoming referendum were expressing serious misgivings about the Government’s inability or unwillingness to present voters with a practical definition of a ‘durable relationship’.

He said that all types of scenarios were easily imagined where, in the absence of a strict and workable definition, estates could be undermined or even wiped out through legal contests brought by individuals against the estate of the deceased individual all based on ‘durable relationships’ with the deceased individual, with potentially the same constitutional standing as his or her marriage.

Drennan said that ICMSA was most concerned with viable and successful farm succession, but the questions were no less valid and pressing for any individual with an asset or property.

Meanwhile, Ireland’s largest farming organisation, the Irish Farmers Association, has confirmed it will not take a position on the upcoming family referendum.

A majority of attendees at a debate at South East Technological University (SETU) indicated they would vote No No in the upcoming family and care referenda.

Over 100 people, mostly students, listened as Councillor Mary Roche (Social Democrats) and Senior Lecturer in Management at SETU Ray Griffin were on the side of the ‘Yes, Yes’ vote. Lecturer in Religious Studies and Social Ethics at SETU Colette Colfer and Wicklow woman Catherine Monaghan were on the ‘No, No’ side.

Colette Colfer said a “gender neutral Constitution is a neutered constitution, robbed of vitality, maturity and wisdom.”

Stay at home mother Catherine Monaghan said she faced judgement, and endless questions when she decided to stay at home to raise her first child.

“Our constitution says that I was doing work without which the common good cannot be achieved. Yet everybody around me, even strangers would ask, ‘When was I going back to work?’”

A show of hands at the end of the event showed a majority in favour of a ‘No, No’ vote.

A newly formed group of academics says a requirement for university staff to pledge their commitment to “gender ideology” is a threat to freedom of speech.

Universities in Ireland are required to participate in the Athena Swan charter to become eligible for State research funding, under rules overseen by the Higher Education Authority.

Dr Tim Crowley, a lecturer at UCD’s school of philosophy and member of the group, said the principles of the charter were “politically and philosophically contentious”.

“Every single participant in the Athena Swan scheme in Ireland has thus committed, or has been committed, to embracing and promoting gender ideology,” he said.

Yet, he said, the Universities Act states that academic staff shall have the freedom to question received wisdom, put forward new ideas and state controversial or unpopular opinions, without suffering any disadvantage.

Dr Crowley said the issue was less about the politics of the principles, but rather the “demand for commitment and pledging is itself the problem”.

Dr Crowley said Athena Swan “boasted” in its literature that the decision of funding bodies to tie eligibility for research grants to holding one of its awards was “an effective ‘stick’” to force universities to apply for such awards.