IRELAND
Irish Times
Patsy McGarry
The Government must show clearly how the new National Maternity Hospital at St Vincent’s in Dublin will not in any way be under the control of its owners the Sisters of Charity or subject to their ethos, Amnesty International Ireland has said.
The organisation’s executive director, Colm O’Gorman, said the State has a clear obligation under international law to ensure it provides access to healthcare “in a manner which fully protects, respects and fulfils the human rights of people living within the State”.
It must ensure that “access to a full range of health services is not denied to people on the basis of the ideological or religious ethos of any healthcare provider that it chooses to partner with”.
It was not enough “to assure the public that this is the case. Instead it must transparently and fully provide evidence that it is, by disclosing the full detail of the agreement it has entered into with the Sisters of Charity and subjecting it to full and open scrutiny,” he said.
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