Justice Richard Humphreys

Supreme Court case could derail abortion referendum timetable
Ruling on rights of unborn has potential to force Government rethink

Feb 21, 2018
Mary Carolan, Pat Leahy

The Supreme Court will today begin hearing an appeal whose outcome could throw the Government’s plans for an abortion referendum into doubt. Depending on the court’s ruling, the vote could be delayed by months, forcing a fundamental rethink of the proposed wording and approach.

Seven justices will sit this morning to hear the State’s appeal of a High Court decision last summer that ruled for the first time that the unborn has rights in law beyond the constitutionally protected right to life. Lawyers for the State will seek to have the High Court decision overturned. If the State fails in its case, there will be significant implications for the protection of the unborn, not least in relation to the proposed referendum.

Continued: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/supreme-court-case-could-derail-abortion-referendum-timetable-1.3399484

High Court justice finds the rights of the ‘unborn’ extend beyond the right to life

Tue, Aug 2, 2016, 01:00

by Mary Carolan

A High Court judge has said the word “unborn” in the Constitution means an “unborn child” with rights beyond the right to life, which “must be taken seriously” by the State.

The unborn child, including the unborn child of a parent facing deportation, enjoys “significant” rights and legal position at common law, by statute, and under the Constitution, “going well beyond the right to life alone”, Mr Justice Richard Humphreys said.

Many of those rights were “actually effective” rather than merely prospective.

He said article 42a of the Constitution, inserted as a result of the 2012 Children’s Referendum, provides the State must protect “all” children.

Because an “unborn” is “clearly a child”, article 42a means all children “both before and after birth”.

[Continued at link]
Source: Irish Times

Ireland – Supreme Court case could derail abortion referendum timetable

Ireland: ‘Unborn child’ has significant legal rights, judge rules