GESTIÓN EN SALUD PÚBLICA: BioEdge: What will happen with Northern Ireland’s abortion law?

domingo, 10 de junio de 2018

BioEdge: What will happen with Northern Ireland’s abortion law?

BioEdge: What will happen with Northern Ireland’s abortion law?

Bioedge

What will happen with Northern Ireland’s abortion law?

by Michael Cook | 9 Jun 2018 |

Northern Ireland has one of the world’s most restrictive laws on abortion. But its days could be numbered.

Although Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom, the UK’s Abortion Act 1967 does not extend across the Irish Sea. Abortion there is only permitted to save the life of the mother. Now that abortion has been legalised in the Republic, south of the border, abortion campaigners are calling for change.

The political situation there is tense and complex. Socially conservative Northern Ireland has been without a working government since January 2017, when Sinn Fein withdrew from the governing coalition. If abortion were put to the vote in its Assembly, it is not certain that it would pass – but in any case the corridors of Stormont are empty nowadays. So the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission (NIHRC) brought the current law to the UK’s Supreme Court in an effort to overturn it.

The judgement, handed down this week, is unusual. By a 4 to 3 vote, the justices concluded that they could not rule in the case because the NIHRC had no standing to file it. Nothing daunted by their incapacity, they proceeded to explain why a legitimate challenger ought to succeed. Of the seven justices, five agreed that the law violated Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights which protects privacy and family life; two thought that it was incompatible with Article 3, which prohibits torture.

“This is a victory, a historic landmark for women’s rights in Northern Ireland,” David Russell, chief executive of the NIHRC. “It has been clear that Northern Ireland’s laws are incompatible with human rights and there needs to be a political solution.”

The situation leaves UK Prime Minister Teresa May in a quandary. After the referendum in the Republic, she is under pressure to see that Northern Ireland liberalises its law on abortion. However, her majority in Parliament depends on the support of Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party and its leaders have declared that the North “should not be bullied into accepting abortion on demand.”

Sunday, June 10, 2018

The deaths this week of fashion designer Kate Spade and celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain (see below) focused the media once again on explanations for America’s rising suicide rates. The short answer is: nobody knows. The more nuanced long answer is: nobody knows for sure. But something is driving it. Here are a few paragraphs from the New York Times which suggest that suicide is becoming culturally more acceptable:

The rise of suicide turns a dark mirror on modern American society: its racing, fractured culture; its flimsy mental health system; and the desperation of so many individual souls, hidden behind the waves of smiling social media photos and cute emoticons.

Some experts fear that suicide is simply becoming more acceptable. “It’s a hard idea to test, but it’s possible that a cultural script may be developing among some segments of our population,” said Julie Phillips, a sociologist at Rutgers.

Prohibitions are apparently loosening in some quarters, she said. Particularly among younger people, Dr. Phillips said, “We are seeing somewhat more tolerant attitudes toward suicide.”

In surveys, younger respondents are more likely than older ones “to believe we have the right to die under certain circumstances, like incurable disease, bankruptcy, or being tired of living,” she said.

If this is the case, why, O why, is there a movement for assisted suicide? Yes, it’s hard to prove, but it makes sense: if assisted suicide is a triumph of compassion and autonomy, how can unassisted suicide possibly be a tragedy?