History: 2007

Projects undertaken in 2007

Some of the projects undertake n in 2007

Meeting Brian Lenihan

Parents for Children met with Minister for Children, Brian Lenihan, TD, to put parents’ concerns and views to him in the light of a proposed Children’s Rights referendum. According to the minister Parents for Children were the only group he had met representing parents/the family.

In as few words as possible, M&CC put it to the minister that proposals to dilute parental and family rights will merely rob children of their rights to have their parents protect them. These proposals, they said, were not about giving children rights but about giving the State power.

Parents For Children were busy throughout the year with meetings, leafleting, and canvassing large parts of the country.

Putting the Family First

Submissions are being delivered to the Minister's Office.

M&CC continued to raise concerns about the draconian effects of tax individualisation on families. Research on childcare and family support was undertaken and detailed Budget submissions made to the Minister in 2006 and 2007.

30 members of M&CC from across the country met with Minister Seamus Brennan to discuss the status of the family and to propose that the Minister provide funding for a pro-family agency.

Read our submission to the Minister here

Rally for Life

An amazing Rally for Life was held by Youth Defence and Mother and Child Campaign in Dublin in August. The sun shone down on a huge crowd that gathered in the largest numbers in 15 years to stand together against abortion. It was an inspirational day.

YD and M&CC attend World Congress of Families

Members of Mother & Child Campaign and Youth Defence attended the World Congress of Families in Warsaw. They were amongst 3,300 delegates from around the world, who had plenty of interest in the affairs of Ireland.

Big breakthrough for Just Life

2007 saw a major breakthrough for the Just Life schools program. Following three years in producing a brand-new, cutting-edge DVD for schools was launched – the only one of its kind in any program in Ireland.

The new Just Life DVD has some truly amazing footage of unborn babies developing in utero which takes viewers on an amazing guide through the first nine months of their lives. It uses the most up-to-date footage in the field of medical embryology, including 4D scans. Improvements in fetoscopy and the latest advances in neonatal technology allows us to view the unborn child as we’ve never done before. We managed to cram it all into an educational and inspiring 15-minute production that will leave viewers awed and amazed at the miracle of human life -and let them out of class half an hour before the bell rings. As you can imagine it’s very popular.

Just Life reached its 10th year this year and in truth, the demand for it is as strong as ever. Hundreds of school presentations have been completed and millions of hits have been recorded on the Just Life website.

The new DVD was posted to every secondary school in the country.

Review of medical council ethics guidelines

The Medical Council declared that its ethical guidelines would be under review in 2007 and were accepting submissions from all concerned on the matter. The Medical Council's ethical guidelines are the rules by which all doctors and medical professionals must abide in their practice and the Council’s pro-life ethics had been the subject of many attacks from political appointees and rogue doctors in the past.

As well as making our own detailed submission we informed the wider pro-life community that the Council was seeking submissions. The Medical Council later reported that up to 90% of submissions received in relation to medical ethics supported a pro-life stance.

M&CC’s submission outlined the ethical need to protect human life and protect patients against abortion and euthanasia while retaining a ban on embryo research.

Significantly, Deirdre Madden, UCC law lecturer and supporter of embryo research, was appointed by Mary Harney onto the Medical Council before this review.

Mary Harney, whose appointees onto the Medical Council have mostly not been pro-life, now proposed major changes to the structure of the Medical Council – changes which would give her the right to place a political majority on the Council and to force through changes to medical ethics by political dominance.

Read our submission to the Medical Council here