‘the Fact the Church Could Still Be Dictating the Medical Welfare of Irish Citizens in 2017 Is Frightful’

By Eoghan McDermott
Irish Sun
April 28, 2017

https://www.thesun.ie/news/925433/national-maternity-hospital-dr-boylan-eoghan-mcdermott-barack-obama-boris-johnson/

DR Peter Boylan resigned from the National Maternity Hospital board yesterday and issued a stinging parting shot that perfectly summarises this most Irish of situations.

He said: “I can’t remain a member of a board which is so blind to the consequences of its decision to transfer sole ownership of the hospital to the religious Sisters of Charity and is so deaf to the concerns of the public which it serves.”

Dr. Boylan has stepped down from the board

In his resignation letter he offered more detail as to why this move would be an utter disaster and fail the very people it is intended to serve.

He wrote: “Hospitals on land owned by the Catholic Church are obliged to follow Catholic teaching and canon law on medical practices and procedures.

“The proposed hospital will be built on land owned by the religious Sisters of Charity, the hospital will be owned outright by the religious Sisters of Charity.

“To believe that the new National Maternity Hospital will be the only hospital in the world owned by a Catholic congregation to permit sterilisation, IVF, abortion, gender reassignment surgery and any other procedures prohibited by the Church is naive and delusional.”

Holles Street Hospital

The fact the Church could still be dictating the medical welfare of Irish citizens in 2017 is frightful.

The idea the Holles Street move was engineered in the assumption there would be exceptions to all the Church’s teaching is unbelievable.

The fact Dr Boylan faced such resistance while being the sole voice of dissent in an obvious clash of interests makes me feel Ireland has not progressed, bounding and evolved, into the 21st century but remains blurry-eyed with head pounding, hungover in the relics of the past.

For too long there has been white noise criticism of anonymous boards who allowed great injustices here.

Dr Boylan broke this mould and was immediately under pressure to quit.

That he ended up resigning should not be viewed as a victory, rather a dazzling spotlight shining on gross dysfunction.