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THE SALE OF certain flavoured e-cigarettes such as candy floss and bubblegum could be banned next year.
Health Minister Simon Harris today announced that the government will next year ban the sale of e-cigarettes to under 18s and introduce a raft of advertising restrictions similar to those introduced in relation to alcohol this year.
In addition, the minister said he is looking at addressing issues in relation to the sale of certain flavoured e-cigarettes, which he states are deliberately targeting children.
The minister today launched research carried out by IPSOS MRBI among third and fourth year students n relation to e-cigarette flavours and packaging research.
Of the mini-focus group of 16 students, the majority said they do not believe that sweet e-cigarette flavours were designed for adults only.
Instead, they said such flavours are strongly associated with snacks, treats and sweets that appeal to young people.
Speaking this afternoon, Harris said sweet flavours such as candy floss and bubblegum are aimed at adults rather than children.
“I’m about to call a stop to this,” he said.
“What I’m committing to doing today is that in the legislation, we will bring in similar advertising restrictions as to what we did in Public Health Alcohol Act where we banned advertising near schools, creches, playgrounds, and public transport.
“And I’m also committed to, but have yet to find the legal way forward on this, to looking at the whole issue of flavours,” he said.
He acknowledged that such a move is challenging.
“The challenge I have is how you actually legally in a piece of legislation ban flavors, you ban bubblegum and some company calls it something else next week or slightly tweaks the ingredient so I’m working my way through this,” he said.
The minister said he did not believe the industry when it states that candy floss and bubblegum flavoured products are aimed at getting the “60-year-old man who smokes 20 a day” off tobacco.
“Not to be stereotypical. But if it was, why would you be promoting strawberry milkshake if you’re trying to target a 60-year-old smoking 20 a day? These are aimed at our kids. Bubble gum, milkshake, candy, it is all the language to try and make it attractive to children. The packaging is trying to make it attractive to children. The advertising that involves cartoon characters is to try and make this appealing to children.
“So industry we’re on to you. We know what you’re up to. And we’re going to work together in 2020. And to make sure we shut down this dangerous, dangerous situation.”
The minister added that in other jurisdictions when legislation threatened to outlaw some flavoured e-cigarettes, industry preemptively acted and remove the flavours from the market. Harris urged vaping companies to do so in Ireland.
Tim Collins, CEO of the Irish Heart Foundation, said the fact that the only purpose of flavours like strawberry milkshake, cherry crush, chocolate mint and caramel “is to lure a whole new generation of children into nicotine addiction has been endorsed resoundingly by the teenagers who took part in this research”.
Averil Power, CEO of the Irish Cancer Society, said:
“It is crystal clear that long-term smokers represent just a small part of the target market of the big e-cigarette brands. The bigger objective – and the bigger profits – lie in causing children and young people who have never smoked to become addicted to nicotine.”
Vape Business Ireland (VBI) states that it does not support a ban on flavours “as flavours play an important role for adult smokers looking for a less harmful alternative product”.
Our colleagues at Noteworthy.ie have published a proposal to investigate who is behind the phenomenal growth of the vaping industry in Ireland. Click here if you wish to support their work.
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The kangerooo court speaks ,all life is sacred ,all life should be embraced ,the rights of the unborn child must be heard ,children are our future ,those we cannot see ,those we cannot hear, need a voice .the pro abortion lobby refuses them the very same rights which they exercise .no to abortion and no to changing the eighth .
@Anthony Gallagher: an unborn child is a contradictory expression. There is no child until it is born.
@Fiona deFreyne: What about 60 seconds before its born?
@Anthony Gallagher: your wrong ,like a lot of crap you come out with on here ,you know the price of everything and the value of nothing
@Fiona deFreyne: So stillborn baby is an inaccurate term?
Chad In the womb it is either a human embryo or a human foetus. STILLBORN.Born is the clue,,,
@Chris Martin – why do they take it’s fetal heartbeat…
@Anthony Gallagher: would you ever grow up and get out of those nappys ,or maybe you like being mothered
@Anthony Gallagher: you seem to be talking to yourself, bu5 strangely you actually make a valid point in your last post. Is it a “bittie” thing you have, irrespective you are clearly a tit, man.
@Anthony Gallagher: stop being so hard on yourself.
@Chris Martin: At 60 seconds before, it’s on the verge of exiting the vaginal canal. Do you think so little of your fellow women and girls that you’d believe a woman would literally go through 9 months of a pregnancy and decide after hours of labour, when the head is engaged and on the verge of evacuation, she’d demand an abortion? What Youth Defence style batsh!ttery are you involved in?
@Anthony Gallagher: Would that be the 3000 children who are homeless right now?
@Anthony Gallagher: Or the 17,000 thousand dying every week around the world?? Precious when you don’t have to do anything about it but sit on a high horse.
@Fiona deFreyne: I’ve never heard a pregnant woman celebrating her foetus. A child when wanted, dehumanised to a foetus when you want rid of “it”.
@DaisyChainsaw Chris thinks quite little of quite a few people. In the article about ssm being voted for in Australia she seems to relate the passing of ssm to people marrying their children and was questioning why one was wrong and the other isn’t in the minds of those who voted for it. She seems to think that’s where society is heading next. So I really wouldn’t put much weight in Chris’ opinion. Anyone who can go from two non related consenting adults marrying to someone marrying their daughter or son has got some serious issues.
@Anthony Gallagher: anyone who gets an abortion because of money should have any other children they have taking off them,unbelievable.
@Anthony Gallagher: it is a foetus approaching birth or in the course of birth.
@Anthony Gallagher: abortion may be the only way for the rest of the family to survive. An abortion may be an acceptable price to pay so as to avoid penury and homelessness.
Misanthrope ; “I’ve never heard a pregnant woman celebrating her foetus. A child when wanted, dehumanised to a foetus when you want rid of “it”.”
How can you ‘dehumanise’ something by calling it’s correct medical terminology ? Only in anti choice land…
@Fiona deFreyne: tell that to An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar who in an interview to an American newspaper this summer said that as a medical doctor who has studied ultrasounds of the womb during pregnancy he is in no doubt that what is in in the womb is a ‘child’ and referred to the baby as a ‘child in the womb’ throughout the interview. Leave the science Fiona to the experts!
@RónanMullsHisFaith#8: so when you were, or will be, pregnant you will refer to it as a parasite and have no human regard for it until delivery?
@RónanMullsHisFaith#8: yes An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar prefers to use the term, child or baby in the womb. As Minister for Social Protection in November 2016 he questioned the use of the word ‘foetus’ when referring to human life before birth. He said that while he might ask a pregnant friend if she knew the sex of the baby he would never dream of asking ‘what sex the foetus was’! Nor would anyone else except maybe some of the bloggers contributing here.
@Dell: Ah Dell..still feeling sore about that? Poor thing #hugz
@Misanthrope – We will refer it to whatever way we want to .You won’t know anything about it..
@Fiona deFreyne: “The only way for the rest of the family to survive”? Where do you live, Syria?
@DaisyChainsaw: Fiona said..there is no child until its born. Born as in fully delivered. So 60 seconds before its fully delivered is it still just a foetus? And if its head is the only thing out..would you consider it the head of a child and the lower body of a foetus? I didnt mention abortion I merely questioned her terminology.
@Anthony Gallagher: birth is the process which produces a baby. A baby is born. Unborn is not a baby. An unborn baby is a nonsensical notion, a lame attempt at definition by negative attribute.
@RónanMullsHisFaith#8: so it will depend on whether you want it. Interesting and principled way of ascribing status to a pregnancy.
@Misanthrope – you will never know.Get over it.
@Chris Martin: until it emerges fully from the womb a fetus remains unborn. You cannot equate its rights with that of a born person.
@RónanMullsHisFaith#8: Listen to An Taoiseach Dr Varadkar who has said while Minister for Social Protection ‘a foetus is a medical word’ going on to explain ‘it’s like talking of your glossus instead of your tongue. ‘ An Taoiseach has said a pregnant woman would be offended to refer to her baby as a foetus. Women throughout pregnancy are concerned about the welfare of their baby but I don’t expect you Ronan to understand that.
@Fiona deFreyne: Not for An Taoiseach Dr Varadkar who has said that a pregnant women would feel offended if her baby was referred to as a foetus. To quote him ‘a foetus is a medical word. It’s like talking of your glossus instead of your tongue.’ Do you do that Fiona? I thought not.
Those who can afford to have children are fortunate.
The circumstances and lives of many people may make a family impossible and unaffordable.
Real life has a way of trumping religious based dogma, even religious dogma embodied in a Constitution.
@Fiona deFreyne: not terminating human beings in the womb as a form.of contraception is hardly a sign of religious zealotry. Atheist and pro life.
@Misanthrope: form of contraception? Any stats on that?
“not terminating human beings in the womb as a form of contraception”
A) Human beings procure abortions
B) Human embryo/foetus removed from womb
C) Contraception prevents pregnancies
D) Abortion ends them
@Misanthrope: so many new posters claiming to be atheist and pro life, but strangely they are all hiding behind anonymity, odd that.
@Paul Fahey: Russians?
@Misanthrope: An Irish abortion in the UK costs around €1000. Are you so hateful towards women that you believe we would rather spend a grand on a trip to the UK that doesn’t even involve shoe shopping than a few euros on contraception?
@Fiona deFreyne: Money can never equate with life If Adoption agencies need to pay natural parents for children to survive then society must be genourous instead of being forced to pay for killings
@Éamonn ÓGallchobhair: killings? Do you mean termination of a foetus? This not in my back yard approach is ridiculous in this day and age. Four thousand women giving Irish addresses have terminations in the UK each year. Irish women are having terminations and it’s time we stopped exporting the issue.
@Paul Fahey: do you think anybody can be pro life and atheist?
@Fiona deFreyne: If finance is such a concern should the same solution be applied to homeless people?
@Monty donotno: Not russians, They just feel that saying they are religious will harm the “valid” points they are trying to make.
@Tom Burke ; how’s the craic,Tom.Were you away on some anti choice course?Been awhile kiddo..
@Paul Fahey: read my comment on priests needing councilling, unless you believe I planted that to up my athiest credentials.
@Tom Burke: genuinely good to see you back. Yes, I do, but it is indeed very odd how so many have only recently appeared, all with new accounts and recently started Facebook or Twitter accounts too.r
@Tom Burke: and they all identify themselves as Atheist and pro life behind anonymity, again, odd that.
@Deborah Behan: 38% of abortions in England and Wales are repeat abortions “abortion statistics England and Wales”
@Brian Madden: we are not exporting anything. We have our laws other countries have theirs. People are free to travel and are subject to the laws of the state they are in. Nobody forces women abroad, it’s a free choice.
Misanthrope – you wouldn’t mind breaking down that 38% for us
can you tell us ;
how many were carried out on women that are after having multiple diagnosis of FFA
how many were carried out on women that were raped when they were in their teens,and then later on in their 30′s they had a diagnosis of FFA
that information would be great…thanks..
@Fiona deFreyne: homeless people are real peole although often nit treated as such.
A foetus is just that, a foetus. Real living human beings should and must take absolute priority.
We live in a tough society where homelessness is a very real threat to the lives of many.
@Paul Fahey: so why do you think somebody who isn’t religious might be anti abortion?
Why do you think they might form that view?
Also re Facebook or Twitter.
I’ll explain my position.
I don’t use Twitter. I try to limit social media in my life. I won’t use my Facebook because it’s not relevant to my comments.
This is where we make our comments.
I’m not really worried if anybody thinks I’m genuine.
@RónanMullsHisFaith#8: given that we are talking about hundreds of thousands of abortions I doubt many are the rare cases of FFA
@Fiona deFreyne: real living humans you say.
So is a foetus real and is it human?
@Tom Burke: did you actually read my post? I never said you were not genuine and I certainly know you are not an atheist as you have historically made your Catholicism abundantly clear. I also welcomed you back, which is clearly indicative of you having not just opened a new account.
are you sure darlin’ ? Those stats go back how far ?
@Paul Fahey: independent comments section discontinued…you can get meds for paranoia
@Fiona deFreyne: No I mean killings & not in any backyard Our society needs to grow up and meet all tough challenges in life & not go along with killing everthing that gets in our way
@Paul Fahey: very many anti- life bloggers here are, as you say, hiding under anonymity. Most people do not for very good reasons use other than a made-up user name while online.
We have this debate at a time when there are pregant women who are homeless, when there are parents living in emergency accommodation, squeezed into one room, with a few children, when there are families of 2 parents and 3 children living in 2 bedroom apartments, when families are facing evictions from rented accommodation, when letting agents are candidly saying the client landlord does not want tenants with children, when the response of some landlords, if they hear that a tenant is pregant, is a prompt notice to quit, where lone parents on low incomes can’t get social housing, when there is insufficient housing to serve existing and future demographic demand, when zero hours and casual employment render families unaffordable, when crèche and chold care facilities afre unaffordable to many and when the spectre of homelessness beckons to many.
@Fiona deFreyne: whats your point? are you trying to say thats a reason to get rid of a child?
@Fiona deFreyne:
So is that your moral argument for destroying Human life?
@Fiona deFreyne: just keep the children that you have and don’t add to the impossible pressure by adding more pressure. In the case of an unintended pregnancy , an abortion may be necessary for socio-economic reasons.
Remy, not destroying human life, just preventing another human life.
@Fiona deFreyne: are u saying you think it would be alright to have an abortion if you are not finacialy secure
@Christy Pop: When you have no choice but to have an abortion that is not a choice.
@Fiona deFreyne: how about resolving the housing crisis in preference to targeting unborn children.
@Remy: why don’t u just go and have ur children and live ur life why is everyone so consumed in everyone else’s life… get on with your own and let everyone make their own choices it’s that simple it’s none of your business what any woman does with her body
@Misanthrope – “unborn children” .No such medical term..Human embryo or a human foetus is what is inside of the woman’s womb…
@Donnchadh Kurland: It’s the law, simple. Currently, it is an offence to abort an unborn child without a valid reason in this country.
@Christy Pop: i can imagine there are a lot of women who would choose abortion because of financial circumstances. It is a real worry for people. It should be available as an option.
@Misanthrope: “unborn Children” is incorrect terminology . A fetus is not the same as a born sentient human being.
@Fiona deFreyne:
That’s some verbal diarrhea.
Abortion procedures destroy, it’s not prevention.
@Fiona deFreyne: this is were we seperate on this topic fiona. I do not think socioecomic reasons are good enough to have an abortion imo
@Remy – abortion procedures destroy ? You ok Rems ? Lets talk procedures that are happening in the 1st trimester in the UK,shall we ?
The stats will show that the majority of 1st trimester abortions are done via the abortion pills. …Discuss..
And another youtube vids from you…bless
@Mondo – don’t procure one.Sorted.
mark dunne are you for real ,i hope you dont have kids, unbelievable
@Fiona deFreyne: in that instance contraception is necessary for socio economic reasons. Two parties using contraception and not sleeping together in the five or so most fertile days of the month have a chance of pregnancy in the order of 100,000/1
@Mark Dunne: The unborn achieves sentience very early in pregnancy.
@Fiona deFreyne: if a woman or family are facing the threat of destitution or homelessness, it is a compelling reason for an abortion.
@Fiona deFreyne: Scientists and embryologists since the second half of the 20th century are agreed that the life of another human being begins at conception. The fertilised ovum has only to grow develop and mature. This growth and development does not stop at viability, birth, puberty or indeed at any point during the human life cycle. Growth and development stops only at death. Life is a continuum from conception to the moment of death.
@Mark Dunne: according to medical doctor An Taoiseach Varadkar it is a ‘baby in the womb’. Quoting Dr Varadkar ‘ foetus is a medical word. It’s like talking of your glossus instead of your tongue or your digits instead of your fingers.’
@Donnchadh Kurland:
Exactly why we have laws and a society that abides by them.
So let’s say if a woman was to plant a knife into the chest of a week old baby, killing it, wouldn’t she be severely punished by society, face trial and punished by the way of prison?
So in a twisted way your telling me that if the life of that baby is destroyed by abortion a number of weeks or months before birth, it’s somehow a Human right, a Womans right and none of societies business? GTFO
@Mark Dunne:
OK, So if you end up in a coma by they way of an accident you are no longer sentient, does that give anyone the right to terminate you?
@RónanMullsHisFaith#8:
Medication abortion up to ten weeks and Aspiration Abortion(suction) up to 12 weeks, both destroy Human life. I’m grand Robin, now over to you, 2nd and 3rd trimester, c’mon don’t be shy.
@Remy: but the problem is there is no child on the planet to be stabbed in the chest ‘its’ UNBORN and it’s the woman’s body.. it’s her decision to do what she wants albeit it shouldn’t be used as a means of contraception and such rules should be in place but should also be decided by the women of our society… it’s your decision to keep your pregnancy full length and birth a child some women might not feel that option and there should be medical places for them to go safely and without prejudice from anyone… u know your own morals just as Kate and Mary and Sinead do (made up names) so u don’t need to push them into someone else
@Donnchadh Kurland: Sorry it’s not the woman’s body. Only rarely does abortion damage the woman’s body although even legal abortion is not without risk to the woman. What is certain is that it is the baby growing inside the womb of its mother which is always killed during abortion.
@RónanMullsHisFaith#8: Are you seriously suggesting that abortion pills do not kill human life and are you seriously suggesting that women take them for any other purpose than to kill the human being developing inside their womb?
@Mark Dunne: a foetus is sentient from 8 weeks gestation. Why are in utero medical procedures designed to help the health of the baby in utero,carried out while the baby is anaesthetised?
@Remy: different circumstances. Somebody in a coma means they have been born. I believe there is a distinct difference between a fetus and a born person.
@Remy -so no videos from you of a woman swallowing the abortion pills …hahaha..c’mon Rems..over 110,000 abortions are done this way…surely you can find one :)
And,do you have a problem with doctors removing the remains of the foetus from the woman’s womb @ is that it ? Wow! You would like the woman to be poisoned ? Nasty..
Kay – abortion pills are used to end the pregnancy..
@Misanthrope: that’s incorrect.. A fetus has no awareness of itself. It doesn’t even know its alive..
None of the pro-life posters here are even giving a minutes thought as to why women would abort they are just championing that the fetus is born and then they don’t care about it again.
@Deborah Behan: It’s not surprising. They prioritise the fetus over the living, breathing, conscious woman.
@Deborah Behan: None of the pro-choice posters here are even giving a minutes thought as to why women should not abort they are just championing the womans rights and they don’t care about the unborn.
@Makronline: We leave that choice up to the individual woman.
@Markonline: I will absolutely champion a sentient, living woman or girl’s rights over a blastocyte. Would you object if your rights were reduced to that of your sperm?
@Deborah Behan: people are saying its alright to have abortion because they havent enough money,unbelievable,materilistick world
@DaisyChainsaw: I have no doubts what your stance is on the rights of the unborn. I would object if my sperms rights were increased to that of the unborn.
@Deborah Behan: more accurately when there is not enough money to feed or house a family and where giving birth to another child could cause disaster.
@DaisyChainsaw: Your biological knowledge is slightly flawed. Sperm is not and never will be a human being. Neither is an unfertilised egg.
@Christy Pop: I was a 20 year old single mother and let me tell you it’s no picnic and you get very little help from the state. I was lucky I could live with my parents I know other women who weren’t that lucky. Stuck in poverty and social welfare cycle. Then what if you get pregnant again? Why should a woman have to sacrifice her life and the rest of us tax payers pay just because someone somewhere who is not affected can sleep easy? I don’t think I could have an abortion but would I make that decision for another woman? No way.
@Markonline: I didn’t abort.
@meatyslaps: Read the Eighth Amendment and you will see that equal rights for the unborn…. as far as is practicable’ in no sense prioritises the unborn.
let nature take its course, life is beutiful
@Christy Pop: nature takes it’s course when it is removed from the woman’s womb..
david if you were to ask any one would you rather be dead or alive ,i am sure they would say alive
thats not natures way
@Christy Pop: “that’s not natures way” Reminds me of what the Kalahari bushwomen do when times are extremely tough.They will look after the strongest child and leave the weakest behind to die…true story,pops.
@Christy Pop: That story reminds me that they could do with a better adoption agency in Botswana.
@Christy Pop: Grow up and get out of those nappys
@Christy Pop: have you got children? would you get rid of any of them?
@Christy Pop: so “let nature take its course” is your response to denying a women medical care.
We must remember that if you ever need heart surgery…
@Christy Pop:
Why do antis ask such stupid questions?
@Christy Pop: Nature is responsible for ending more pregnancies. Miscarriages are entirely natural.
@Barry Somers: good point there barry why dont they have a public vote everytime someone needs a vital operation let the public vote if they get it or not that would soon change peoples minds bet they wouldnt like to be told what to do or have every person in the country in charge of their bodies just like they think they can take charge of womans
@Deirdre Meredith: Imagine the furore if a man or child were told that if they operated today, they’d have a 90% chance of survival, but under legislation, they have to wait until their life, as opposed to their health, is under threat. No surgery until the chance of death tips over to 51% If it’s not acceptable for men and children, why is it okay for women?
@Christy Pop: let nature take its course! So if you get sick, very sick, don’t seek medical attention. Let nature take its course!! And God forgive anyone who wears a condom, what’s that all about, just let nature take its course. You sound like a mad man. Or a religious freak.
@ProLife=ProSuffering: what is the ‘it’ you are referring to? Scientists and medical doctors like An Taoiseach know that the ‘ it’ is a developing baby. Why do pro-abortionists avoid ever referring to the human life growing so rapidly in the womb? In their heart of hearts they know that if they did not believe it was a baby or without natural death or (abortion i.e. Killing by another) will become another human being just like themselves then there would be no need for abortion.
@ProLife=ProSuffering: or when its heart is stopped by lethal injection
I don’t agree with abortion for non-medical reasons. I’m non-religious so it’s definitely not a religious thing, I consider it more of a human thing. Or maybe a ‘personal thing’ is a better way of putting it. That said, when the referendum comes around I will vote whichever way I feel gives the pregnant woman the most choice. While I feel my thoughts and feelings on abortion are perfectly valid, I’m not so egotistical as to believe they are any more valid than anyone elses. Allowing others to choose what is best for themselves is the only answer I can see.
@Tommy Roche: this would be perfectly ok if it were not for the fact that there is another life involved other than those of the two parents. The UK this year ‘is celebrating’ 50 years of legal abortion by remembering the 8m people who have not been allowed to be born as a result of their abortion laws. Do we want similar statistics here? Whether we like it or not this is a societal issue. The life of the third person is a matter for all of us and unfortunately is very often not even acknowledged especially by those so determined to end that life.
@Tommy Roche: so it’s not a matter of ethics or principle then? You either believe that the unborn is human or it isn’t. If it is “terminating” a pregnancy is murder, if it isn’t it’s merely another medical procedure. Make up your mind.
@Tommy Roche: I have made up my mind. I have no right to tell others what to do with their own bodies, regardless of my own thoughts on this issue.
@Misanthrope, abortion is not murder. You are legally and factually incorrect in asserting that it is.
A foetus does not have legal personality or human status unless or until it is born.
@Tommy Roche: your not the deepest thinker are you lol.
@Misanthrope: if it were not another human being there would be no need for abortion. Abortion has only one purpose killing the human life growing in the womb
@Kay Kehoe: so kay do the women or men in this country tell you what to do with your life or your body so why should you decide to dictate to other people what they do with theirs im a mother to 5 kids but i would never preach to anyone my views every women in this country has a right to decide what they want to do and it is nobody elses buisness but theirs how does it affect your life what they do so what you dont agree dont judge others unless you want to be judged yourself
@Deirdre Meredith: nobody is telling you what to do with your body. Pro life advocates are talking about the babies body
I don’t get why people get so exercised by the loss of a “life” that never happened, yet there are 7+ billion people on the planet, many of them suffering and we don’t really care about them.
Why aren’t the pro life lobby calling for a ban on cigarette sales to pregnant women or for pregnant drug users to be forced into rehab while pregnant? Surely if you truly want to protect the unborn you’ll extend the protection to cover all probable threats.
@Misanthrope: its great the way people are shouting from the rooftops about womem murdering their children through abortion why are these same people not shouting from the rooftops about our goverment killing our children where are they then and what i mean by that is our children killing themselves because the mental health services are not there when children with cancer are denied funding for treatment abroad where children have to wait years on operations where are all these pro lifers then
@Deirdre Meredith: it is another pro abortionist like the pro life advocates care for nothing else other than the abortion issue. Total and utter baseless garbage
why not let the children get to 18yrs old and they can decide if they would like to live or die?
@Christy Pop: once born , they are human beings with human rights.
@Fiona deFreyne: the unborn has rights in this country, those pesky rights you are trying to remove
@Misanthrope – the “unborn” has been given more rights than any born person has been given,which is to use another persons organs for it’s ongoing survival ,without that other persons ongoing permission..,,..Thankfully,she can go to the UK where that “unborn” won’t be given those rights…
@Misanthrope – the “unborn” has been given more rights than any born person has been given,which is to use another persons organs for it’s ongoing survival ,without that other persons ongoing permission..,,..Thankfully,she can go to the UK where that “unborn” won’t be given those rights…
@Ronan: Incorrect.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion_in_the_United_Kingdom
@Markonline – the “unborn” are not given the same rights of protection as the woman.Please show me the protection that an embryo is given…thanks..
@RónanMullsHisFaith#8: Please show me where “the “unborn” has been given more rights than any born person has been given,which is to use another persons organs for it’s ongoing survival ,without that other persons ongoing permission..” is written in irish law…thanks…
@Christy Pop: Why don’t you volunteer to become a surrogate womb?
@Markonline- so you do admit that the embryo in our country is given more rights than the embryo in the UK..good lad..
@RónanMullsHisFaith#8
Your quote below is a bit weird, are you unhappy with the nature of human reproduction? Also, could you name which of the ‘other person’s’ organs the ‘unborn’ uses for survival? would it be all of them or some?
“@Misanthrope – the “unborn” has been given more rights than any born person has been given,which is to use another persons organs for it’s ongoing survival ,without that other persons ongoing permission..,,..Thankfully,she can go to the UK where that “unborn” won’t be given those rights…”
@Christy Pop: I’ve heard 3 year olds come up with better arguments.. There really seems to be a severe lack of intelligence on the “pro life” side. Thankfully it’s a tiny percentage.
@RónanMullsHisFaith#8: so you consider the unborn a parasitic entity, hijacking the poor innocent woman’s body. You make pregnancy sound like an episode of aliens. Funny how pregnant women and their partners don’t paint such a picture when the child is wanted.
Hi Nick – i’m sick of men like you wanting to control another persons life..
please show me where a born person can use another persons organs to sustain their life without the other persons permission thanks..
You didn’t know that the womb is an organ..seriously ? wow!
@RónanMullsHisFaith#8: if pregnancy is such a horrific vista for you have a hysterectomy
@RónanMullsHisFaith#8: I said you were incorrect…good lad..
@Misanthrobe – a pregnancy that is ‘wanted’ is a wonderful occasion for the woman/partner.I should know as I’m a parent to a few ‘planned’ children..And if my partner ever became pregnant again,then it would be an unplanned one.What we would do would be entirely up to us and not some whiney lad/lass on the journal.ie..And as for me getting a hysterectomy,you can shove that idea right up your own ho1e ..
She has a right to go to the UK to end that unwanted pregnancy.She has a right to protect herself against something that can cause her severe physical (death) or mental health issues…
@Misanthrope, a hysterectomy is unnecessarily drastic.
@Fiona deFreyne: less drastic than “terminating” an unborn child
“less drastic than terminating an unborn child” – one terminates a pregnancy…An “unborn child” is something that cannot be terminated..A born child can be terminated..So nice of me to be telling you all of this..
@RónanMullsHisFaith#8: Do you resent or deplore the fact that you in common with the rest of man and womankind since the beginning of time used your mother’s womb in order to grow and develop before birth so that you could become the wonderful person you are today? Like all the contributors to this blog you enjoyed the constitutional protection for the unborn afforded by the Eighth Amendment. How could anyone refuse the same protection we have enjoyed to our future generations.
@RónanMullsHisFaith#8: Scientists would not agree with you that ‘human life growing and developing all the time both before and after birth is ‘something’. If it were ‘something’ there would be no need for abortion (killing) and no debate on this.
@RónanMullsHisFaith#8: termination of pregnancy is a euphemism used by those who refuse to acknowledge publicly the existence of unborn human life. Termination of pregnancy is only undertaken in order to terminate the human life growing and developing rapidly within the womb. One question for you is if you did not believe that this human life is another human being would there be any need to abort (kill) the human life.
Antichoice groups don’t want to appear before the committee because they know they’ll be exposed. They don’t want decent sex ed in schools, they don’t want decent access to contraception and the MAP and they don’t want women to be able to choose what’s right for them. They’re religious, anti woman zealots who don’t care about the health of women or girls, only that they should be saving themselves for sex with their husband for procreation only.
@DaisyChainsaw: Stop making up stories.
@DaisyChainsaw: thank you for telling the actual truth.
“Mullen wants to know if Donlon thinks counsellors should offer women the option of seeing an ultrasound before they make a decision about an abortion, noting this may lead to women deciding to keep the baby.”
It’s a Bay-bee .Rónán
By the way,studies have shown that any woman that is determined to end her pregnancy,that showing her an ultrasound doesn’t stop her..
@RónanMullsHisFaith#8: What would you really see at 9 week’s gestation anyway? A magical homunculus waving at you?
@RónanMullsHisFaith#8: Would hearing the baby’s heart beat have any effect on the mother? If women were not so certain that what they were expecting was a baby there would be no need for abortion. What is truly horrific is that abortion is the killing of that human life.
@KayKehie, a foetus has human potential, it has human characteristics but it does not become a human being or acquire legal personality unless or until it is born alive.
Atheists will frequently say we don’t need religion to have a moral compass and to feel compassion.
I completely agree.
Why then are the pro life people mostly labelled as religious?
If you were to watch an abortion you would witness something that most people would find repugnant. Most would have that feeling regardless of religion.
@Tom Burke: why do you spend so much of your time watching those videos ?Is it the way that you have nothing better to be doing with your time ?
Did you know that out of the 190,000 terminations that were carried out in 2016,over 110,000 were done via the abortion pills..Why not watch those videos if the others upset you ? No need to thank me..
@Tom Burke: Have you watched galbladder surgery? How about having an appendix removed, or a testicle? Here’s testicle surgery for you to watch instead of some fake foetus fetish porn. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaFIEAnjgtE
@Tom Burke: Yes, Dr Nathanson, the obstetrician who started the campaign for legal abortion on demand within the U.S and known as the Abortion King throughout the US was completely turned against abortion after watching an ultrasound recording of an abortion carried out in one of his clinics just two years after the Roe v- Wade federal case. He became one of the most vocal opponents of abortion in the U.S. admitting that the campaign for unrestricted abortion which he had masterminded had used fabricated polls and inflated statistics of illegal abortions in order to deceive the judiciary and the people before the 1973 Roe-v-Wade case.
@RónanMullsHisFaith#8: Perhaps he wishes to educate himself as to what abortion entails. I would recommend that you and all others with a vote do likewise before the referendum. We should at least be informed voters.
@Tom Burke: the origin, genesis and campaign for the 8th Amendment is Roman Catholic dogma pushed by the Roman Catholic Church. It may be that a few atheists support the 8th Amendment does not detract from its religious character and origin.
This committee is a biased farce.
The Irish people will not be duped by this rigged charade.
Save the 8th.
@Emma Murphy: the Irish people will not be duped by the likes of the Matty McGrath’s and the Rónán Mullens..,.poor little darlins’ have been havin’ so many hissy fits between them..
@Emma Murphy: Irish people won’t be convinced by the lies from the pro life side. That I know for sure
@Rob Cahill: what lies would they be Rob?
@Tom Burke: the ‘lies’ are apparently choice is wrong when choice belongs to the individual.
@Emma Murphy: Eamon’s out with his socks on again!
@Rob Cahill: what lies? At least pro-life acknowledge that there is a baby whose life is at stake. They also know and acknowledge that the only purpose of abortion is to end, by killing, human life. There would be no need for abortion if there was no rapidly growing human life in the womb which has to be killed off. They don’t say what seems to be true that non pro-lifers seem to be babyphobic.
@kay Kehoe, a foetus is not a baby and a baby is not a foetus. They are mutually exclusive terms.
@Fiona deFreyne: I and countless others,scientists and An Taoiseach, disagree. Foetus is only a medical word for the baby pre-birth. Have you ever heard any expectant mother refer to her baby in the womb as a foetus? A foetus makes it sound as if it’s not a rapidly growing and developing other human life which suits your pro-abortion argument but is so wrong.
I am getting sick of these euphemisms by the left”we can do what we want with our body”. This isn’t a woman getting a tattoo on her body, cut the euphemisms this is killing a growing baby inside the mother’s womb. The Pro-Life side believe that the first and most fundamental right is the right to life and that no woman nor man on the soil of our fair Ireland may kill their baby. For if we do not have the right to live then we have NOTHING!
@cormacpaddies: what if it’s not your baby because you were rape???? Or you’re too young or too old to be a mother ? What about contraception or the morning after pill, are you also against them?
@cormacpaddies: “no woman nor man on the soil of our fair Ireland may kill their baby. ” Yeah. They can fackoff in their thousands each year to the UK to do it because the 13th amendment lets them and anti choice hypocrites can claim “the soil of our fair Ireland” (begorrah) is abortion free!
@cormacpaddies: yet you want to force these women into raring these children???
@Deborah Behan: it is not the fault or crime of the child that it’s mother was raped. The child of every rapist is as much a victim as the mother and too often pays the supreme price of its own life. I know a rape victim who was lucky enough to be given up by her mother at birth for adoption. Years later when this girl was happily married and had her own children her birth mother sought her out. Fortunately they were reunited and mother and daughter have become very close with the birth mother being ever so grateful that she had allowed her daughter to be born and that she now can enjoy spending time with her daughter and grandchildren who would never have been born had she succumbed to pressure to abort her daughter because of how she had been conceived.
@Kay Kehoe, your error is because you start from the false assumption that a foetus is a baby. A foetus is not a baby.
@Fiona deFreyne: Dr Varadkar An Taoiseach would not agree. He has said that to speak of a mother-to-be’s baby as a foetus would be to offend her. To quote him ‘a foetus is a medical word. It’s like talking of your glossus instead of your tongue or your digits instead of your fingers’.
@Kay Kehoe: as we’ve know of late , Leo knows not what he says and is not to be trusted.
@cormacpaddies: Rape cases only take up a tiny percentage of abortion cases(1-2percent). Lets just imagine I’m okay with abortion with rape(which I’m not) are you okay with a woman killing her baby if she want’s a boy instead of a girl? are you okay with her killing her baby if if it’s assumed he will have a disability? are you okay with a woman killing her baby when it’s heart is already beating inside her womb?
I I believe in the right to life for if we do not have the right to live then we have nothing!
Ronan Mullens thinks counsellors should be required to show a women a scan of her baby in a bid to convince her to keep her baby, and he critisis them in the “non directive” support they provide because he feels they do not provide enough information on what a women needs to do to put her baby up for adoption. Does he not have the capacity to see what is wrong with that statement. Like really Ronan shoe on the other foot for just one second and see what is wrong with that statement. And he calls the committee biased.
@Bee Johnson: I cannot see how providing a woman seeking information on her options with information about adoption can be reprehensible. Unless of course you don’t recognise any option other than abortion. In which case ‘option’ is the wrong word. Option means more than one choice. Family planning agencies who do not provide information about adoption are not providing full information about all options. They are selling women short if not exploring all options available to women who come to them.
@Kay Kehoe, they point out the adoption option if a pregnant woman wishes to go full term.
@Fiona deFreyne: if agencies are supposed to be providing information on options plural then it is their duty to provide information on all options that are available otherwise they are selling the poor woman seeking information from the ‘experts’ short.
@Kay Kehoe: that is my point the guest speaker repeatedly said that they provide information for all options available to women in a non directive manner as this is good counselling practice.
He is saying counsellors should be required to try to convince a woman to keep her baby or put it up for adoption. But in the same breath accuse these counsellors of trying to push as many women as possible into having abortions by withholding information on adoption.
Do you see the hypocrisy now?
@Kay Kehoe: respectfully she repeated several times that they provide information on all options in a non directive manner and if a woman chooses adoption they will provide her with further information and refer her to tusla.
A vote for infanticide, sickening. What next post birth abortions?
Murders travel from all over Ireland to commit their crimes. Just saying.
These pro abortion woman on here are probably phycopaths. Pro murder.
As usual we are only hearing from one side in this rigged debate.
Whatever way they dress it up, an abortion is ending a babies heartbeat and life.
There should be a lot more support services for crisis pregnancy and counselling.
As usual only hearing from one side in this rigged debate.
Whatever way they dress it up, an abortion is still ending a baby’s heartbeat and life. There should be more investment in crisis pregnant services and counselling.
have your say