Dignity of the Person

No second class citizens

Every society should be judged on how it treats its most vulnerable members.

In a just society there can be no second-class citizens. Public policy should be geared towards helping disadvantaged members of society to survive and thrive, to flourish and reach their potential.

This can only happen if in our schools, our public advertising campaigns, in the shaping of legislation and the delivery of public services, we emphasise the dignity of each person and the importance of solidarity across the community.

The notion of respect for life is meaningless unless it applies across the board. Whether born or unborn, old or young, able-bodied or coping with disability, Irish or foreign, each human person has a claim on our understanding and support.

If elected to the Seanad, I would like to focus on the following issues in particular:

Trafficking in women and children – protecting the least powerful

Trafficked women and children are some of the least powerful and most unrepresented people in our society. At its worst, trafficking entails a kind of modern slavery. Many women, travelling abroad for legitimate work, are deceived by their traffickers and kept in prostitution through a combination of intimidation, violence and the absence of supports in their new environment.

The United Nations defines trafficking in its ‘Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children’:

“Trafficking in persons shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.”

Although the Government has published the Criminal Justice (Trafficking and Sexual Offences) Bill, 2006, Ireland has not yet outlawed human trafficking. We have ratified the Council of Europe’s convention on Action Against Trafficking in Human Beings, but this needs to be implemented in our legislation.

It is time to:

 

• Criminalise trafficking in human persons;
• Provide protection to trafficked women and children, to enable them come forward and blow the whistle on their captors and traffickers, and to aid their physical, psychological and social recovery;
• Close down the sex industry as far as possible, and extend the protection of the law to adults as well as children by criminalising the organisation, the sale and/or the grooming of adults for sexual exploitation;
• Criminalise the users of sexually exploited women, as has been done in Sweden which prohibits the purchase of sexual services;
• Resource Operation Quest, the Garda vice-squad, to tackle brothels nationwide, not just in Dublin 

 

Ethical research – progress in the right direction

The promise of significant medical breakthroughs using stem cell research is both exciting and challenging. Progress in this area should be characterised by the principle of solidarity. Scientific research conducted at the expense of human dignity would diminish us all. It would divide the scientific community between those who want to conduct certain kinds of research and those who are conscientious objectors. Patients would face similar dilemmas in the event of future medical breakthroughs: to accept or not to accept medical cures which may have been achieved at the expense of human dignity.

Fortunately, we have reason to hope that the cures we hope for may be attained through ethical research. Recently, scientists have discovered a greater potential for adult stem cells than was previously realised. Adult stem cell research involves the use of stem cells from existing body tissues, e.g. bone marrow, blood and liver. This is preferable to embryo stem cell research which is controversial because it entails the destruction of human embryos.

Embryo stem cell research has not yet led to scientific breakthroughs. Now is the time to make the ethical choice. Adult stem cell research is ethically acceptable and scientifically promising. It is in keeping with Ireland’s constitutional tradition of respect for unborn life. Ireland can take a lead in this area by becoming a centre of excellence for adult stem cell research, and our government should provide generous funding accordingly.

Special needs

I believe that as a society we should be generous in the provision of resources and services for people with special needs and their families.

I support the aim of Down Syndrome Ireland to establish a National Medical Resource Centre for the health promotion of all individuals with Down syndrome in Ireland.

Such a centre would act as a source of up-to-date information and education for amilies and health care professionals, leading to an improvement in the clinical care available.

The provision of resource hours should be provided to people with special needs on an equitable, inclusive basis, within mainstream education.