Cathal BarryA new organisation is demanding reform of the Children and Family Relationships Bill
The chairman of Mothers and Fathers Matter, a new organisation demanding reform of the Children and Family Relationships Bill, has warned that the legislation in its current form ìseriously undermines the rights of children.
Commenting on the Bill, Professor Ray Kinsella said: "It is extraordinary that a Government, which professes to be pro-child, would seek to push legislation through the D·il that treats the natural tie, and by extension the complementarity of motherhood and fatherhood, in such a dismissive fashion."
According to Prof. Kinsella, the Bill in its current form undermines the right of a child to a mother and father, intentionally disrupts the natural ties between parents and children, weakens the special status of marriage in the Constitution and commodifies children.
"We should have learnt the lessons of the past by now"Professor Kinsella told The Irish Catholic.
"We know the pain it can cause to children when they do not know their natural parents. The Government should do what it can to spare children this pain, rather than inflicting it on them," he said.
Mothers and Fathers Matter is calling on the Government to amend the Bill to take proper account of the natural ties and to protect childrenís right to a relationship with their natural parents which, in every case, will be their mother and their father.