News Roundup

Family breakdown leaves some parents of surrogate babies ‘in limbo’

The Seanad has heard that at least ten families in the State have broken up, leaving mothers or a second father with no legal rights to a child born through commercial surrogacy, a practice that is not permitted in almost every European country because critics say it commodifies babies and exploits low income women.

Fine Gael Senator Mary Seery Kearney called for speeding up legislation in the area, because she said women and second parents are ending up “in a very abusive, coercive situation” where children are being “weaponised”.

A bill going through the Oireachtas would provide for future surrogate babies and address those already born through surrogacy where one parent has no standing in law. Italy is currently planned to heavily fine adults who go abroad to use commercial surrogacy. Ireland is on course to have one of the most permissive regimes in Europe.

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“Not guilty” verdict for silent prayer near abortion clinic

A charity volunteer and a Priest on trial for praying in an abortion exclusion zone have both been acquitted of all charges in a ruling handed down by Birmingham Magistrates’ Court this morning.

In a viral video in December, Isabel Vaughan-Spruce was seen being searched and arrested by three police officers after saying that she “might be” praying inside her head while standing near an abortion clinic.

The area surrounding the facility is subject to an order which prohibits prayer, distributing information about pregnancy help services, and other activities deemed “protest”.

Reacting to the verdict this morning, Vaughan-Spruce said she was glad she’d been vindicated of any wrongdoing, but added: “I should never have been arrested for my thoughts and treated like a criminal simply for silently praying on a public street”.

“When it comes to censorship zones, peaceful prayer and attempts to offer help to women in crisis pregnancies are now being described as either “criminal” or “anti-social”. But what is profoundly anti-social are the steps now being taken to censor freedom of speech, freedom to offer help, freedom to pray and even freedom to think. We must stand firm against this and ensure that these most fundamental freedoms are protected, and that all our laws reflect this.”

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‘Binary terms’ male and female should be banned, says group

The terms ‘male’ and ‘female’ should not be used in science because they assume sex is binary, a group of researchers has suggested.

The recommendation is one of many made by the EEB (Ecology and Evolutionary Biology) Language Project, which includes scientists in the United States and Canada.

“Much of western science is rooted in colonialism, white supremacy and patriarchy, and these power structures continue to permeate our scientific culture,” some of its members wrote in a paper published in the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution. In their view, the language used by researchers often bolsters a discriminatory status quo and should change.

Instead of male and female they recommended that biologists use terms such as “sperm-producing” or “egg-producing” to avoid reinforcing “heteronormative views”.

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Dublin Archdiocese challenges attempt to tax parishes

The Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin has made dozens of submissions to the city council seeking to delist as many as 32 churches and parish centres from a new tax. The tax is intended to free unused land for housing purposes, but many of the parish properties listed for the tax are being fully used.

Last year the archdiocese sought the rezoning of more than 30 churches in the city and their surrounding lands so they could be used for housing, but Dublin City Council, chief executive, Owen Keegan opposed the rezonings.

The properties on the council’s list include a large number of chapels in the city and suburbs such as the Church of St John the Baptist on Clontarf Road, the Church of St Agnes in Crumlin and Our Lady Queen of Peace on Merrion Road in Dublin 4.

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Late-term abortion law likened to State infanticide

The British state is perpetuating infanticide by allowing late-term abortions, one of Scotland’s most high profile businessmen has claimed.

Sir Brian Souter, the multimillionaire co-founder of the Stagecoach transport empire, was delivering a guest sermon at a Glasgow evangelical church where he cited the biblical slaughter of the innocents by Herod.

“Some may think and say; ‘What relevance has this Brian, this story of infanticide in a modern Britain?’, he said. “In this modern Britain you can terminate the life of a child at 39 weeks if that child has a disability and that disability can be something as insignificant as a hare lip.”

“In 21st century Britain, evil is never far away”, he added.

Souter, a member of the Church of the Nazarene, continued: “There is an epidemic of suicide and self harm happening in Scotland among our young people. It’s like Satan has put a spirit of despair on our youth and our young men in particular.

“Those of us who believe in the power of God’s spirit need to pray against this because it’s running through our nation and destroying the lives of our young people.”

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Mass suicide suggested as ‘solution’ to Japan’s ageing population

A controversy has raged over an Ivy League academic suggesting ‘mass suicide’ as a solution to Japan’s rapidly ageing society with him now claiming his remarks were “taken out of context”. However, his remark has struck a chord with many younger Japanese who do not want older people to become a ‘burdens’ as their numbers continue to grow fast. Japan has the world’s oldest population. Thirty percent are already over 65 versus 15pc in Ireland.

During one online news program in late 2021, Yusuke Narita, an assistant professor of economics at Yale, said “I feel like the only solution is pretty clear, . . . In the end, isn’t it mass suicide and mass ‘seppuku’ of the elderly?”

Last year, when asked to elaborate, Dr. Narita graphically described a scene from “Midsommar,” a 2019 horror film in which a Swedish cult sends one of its oldest members to commit suicide by jumping off a cliff.

Now however, Dr. Narita, 37, said that his statements had been “taken out of context,” and that he was mainly addressing a growing effort to push the most senior people out of leadership positions in business and politics — to make room for younger generations.

But critics worry that his comments could summon the kinds of sentiments that led Japan to pass a eugenics law in 1948, under which doctors forcibly sterilized thousands of people with intellectual disabilities, mental illness or genetic disorders. In 2016, a man who believed those with disabilities should be euthanized murdered 19 people at a care home outside Tokyo.

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Record levels of sadness and suicide risk among teenage girls, says new study

Nearly three out of five high-school girls in the U.S. who were surveyed reported feelings of persistent sadness or hopelessness in 2021, a roughly 60% increase over the past decade, new research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found. The trend accelerated during the Covid lockdowns.

Though both high-school girls and boys reported experiencing mental-health challenges, girls reported record high levels of sexual violence, sadness and suicide risk, the CDC said. In 2021, 57% of high-school girls reported experiencing persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness in the past year, compared with 36% in 2011. Thirty percent reported they seriously considered attempting suicide in 2021, up from 19% in 2011.

The CDC found that 29% of high-school boys reported experiences of persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness in 2021 compared with 21% in 2011. Meanwhile, 14% of high-school boys reported to have seriously considered attempting suicide, up from 13% in 2011.

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Target single women to raise the birth rate, says columnist

Government could solve falling birth-rates by encouraging single women to have children, according to a UK political correspondent.

Writing in the Guardian, Martha Gill said falling birthrates are frequently blamed on a shortage of childcare and housing plus income problems, but the evidence for this is lacking.

Rather, she says it is ‘female empowerment’ that tracks with declining births as many financially independent women have not found the right person to have a child with.

“Surveys of childless women tell us that a top reason is not career, lifestyle or financially related: it’s that they just haven’t found the right partner. This was the second most common reason given in a representative UK study of 42-year-old childless women – right behind not wanting children. (Focusing on career was way down the list.)”.

She then offers a “radical solution”. She notes that single women may not want to pair up, but they can still have children alone. Yet single motherhood is still offputtingly tough and to some extent socially penalised.

“Policymakers would do well to think about how they could better support single mothers. Target them and watch birthrates rise,”, she concludes.

However, countries like Sweden have very high numbers of unmarried mothers but its fertility rate is still well below replacement level.

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Nicaragua sentences Bishop to 26 years in prison for ‘treason’

Bishop Rolando José Álvarez Lagos of Matagalpa was sentenced to more than 26 years in prison during a court hearing in Managua on Friday in the far-left ruled country where the regime has been cracking down on the Church and other critics. Pope Francis has expressed his ‘grief’ at the development.

The Catholic bishop, was convicted of ‘treason, undermining national integrity and spreading false news’, among other charges. The judge of the Appeals Court of Managua also announced that he would be fined and stripped of his Nicaraguan citizenship.

The sentence came the day after Bishop Álvarez refused exile to the United States along with another 222 detained opponents to President Manuel Ortega The group also included five priests, a deacon and two seminarians condemned to 10 years imprisonment on charges of conspiring against the government.

A vocal critic of President Daniel Ortega’s Sandinista regime is the first bishop to be imprisoned since Ortega returned to power in 2007.

The sentence comes as the crackdown on the Church in Nicaragua intensifies, with ongoing arrests of priests and closures of Church charities and agencies. In televised remarks following the verdict, President Ortega reiterated his accusations of “terrorism” against Bishop Álvarez.

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‘Satanic Temple’ group to open abortion clinic in New Mexico

A new abortion clinic of the Massachusetts-based “The Satanic Temple” ‘reproductive rights’ organisation is set to open in New Mexico.

Recognised as a tax-exempt religious organisation, it seeks to expand access to medical abortions and conducts its own abortion ritual with each procedure.

Donations to the organistion are tax-deductible, and may be made in amounts up to $666 in an obvious political gimmick. In the Book of Revelations, ‘666’ is the number of the Devil.

Anyone in New Mexico seeking free abortions from the organisation must go through the religious rite though what that entails is not clear.

The response from local church leaders has been unequivocal.

“The last thing we need in our state is a satanic temple from Massachusetts to offer free ‘reproductive health’ services,” New Mexico’s bishops said in a joint statement. “We shudder to think what the ‘Religious Abortion Ritual’ that they require is all about.”

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