Good news as the House of Commons votes against ‘assisted dying’

 

In some excellent news, the House of Commons has today voted against a new attempt to legalise assisted suicide. This is a huge victory for right-to-life campaigners, and interestingly lots of Labour MPs, who ardently believe in a ‘right’ to abortion, voted against recognising a ‘right to die’, mostly because they fear such a law would discriminate against vulnerable people, in practice. The vote was 286 against, and 270 in favour.

Sponsored by Labour MP Lauren Edwards, the bill would have allowed terminally-ill adults to avail of assisted suicide, with the approval of two doctors and a multidisciplinary review panel. The patient would have to administer the substance themselves, after a 14-day reflection period.

In June last year, the exact same bill passed its final Commons vote by a majority of 23. It then went to the House of Lords, where it underwent lengthy scrutiny but failed to complete all its parliamentary stages before the 2024–26 session ended in April this year.

Under the Parliament Acts, if the Commons passes essentially the same Bill in two successive parliamentary sessions, and the Lords rejects it or fails to pass it on both occasions, the Bill can ultimately become law without the Lords’ consent. Fortunately it does not have to go before the Lords now given what happens in the Commons.

The Government was officially neutral, but many members of the Labour party voted against it.

Ashley Dalton, a Labour MP, is herself terminally ill with cancer and said that “assisted dying” crossed her own mind after her diagnosis, but she intends to vote against the Bill: “There can be no meaningful choice if people’s [only] options are continued suffering or an assisted death.”

Dr Zubir Ahmed, another Labour MP, as well as a transplant and vascular surgeon and former health minister also voted against the Bill, arguing that Parliament should first improve palliative and social care.  “A choice between death without adequate care and a death prematurely self-induced is not a real choice.”

The new Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, was officially neutral on the matter and abstained in today’s vote. Personally, he has supported assisted suicide in principle but lately he expressed reservations, if palliative care is not improved.

The previous Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, instead, voted in favour of the bill last year, even if his Government was officially neutral.

Opposed to the Bill were also prominent medical organisations such as the Royal College of Psychiatrists, The British Geriatrics Society and the Association of Palliative Medicine of Great Britain and Ireland.

The British Geriatrics Society warned that older people will constitute the population most affected but that the Bill contained insufficient protection against abuse, coercion and the feeling of being a burden. It said: “The bill also lacked specific provisions to recognise the complex health and social care needs of older people living with multiple long-term conditions, frailty or dementia, nor did it include requirements for a comprehensive needs assessment”, they said.

This issue has gone on to the backburner in Ireland for now, and hopefully what happened today in the House of Commons will keep it here for longer.

Citazioni dei miei lavori

Questo è un elenco di citazioni dei miei lavori accademici (pubblicazioni, presentazioni, ecc.) 

1998

Newman e Wittgenstein sulla certezza, Napoli, CUEN, 1998.

Riferimenti:

Conoscere il beato John Henry Newman ed il suo pensiero su fede e ragione, Fidenza-luoghi blog post, 2011.

2001

The fideism of the wittgensteinians, Methalogicon, n.1 (2001).

Riferimenti:

Belief as an Evaluative and Affective Attitude: Some Implications on Religious Belief, Social Science Diliman, 2014.

Wittgenstein's fideism in opponents and follower's view, UCT Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities Research, 2015.

Il bicentenario della nascita di Newman. L’ascolto della verità. Studium, n. 6 (2001)

Riferimenti:

Studium numero 6, novembre/dicembre 2001 contents notice, Studium, 2001.

2003

“Newman and Wittgenstein after Foundationalism”, Work in Progress Seminar, University College Dublin, febbraio 2003.

Riferimenti:

An Investigation into the relevance of JH Newman's Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent for the practice and development of Key Stage Three Religious Education in a Catholic School, Maryvale Institute / Open University, 2006.

Wittgenstein and John Henry Newman on Certainty, Grazer Philosophische Studien, 2006.

Usum non tollit abusus: las certezas religiosas segun J. H. Newman y L. Wittgenstein, Estudios Filosoficos, 2012.

Indrukken bij de eerste druk II: John Henry Newmans Grammar of Assent uit 1870 in de hand, Stephan Wetzels, Denken en Zijn, 2013.

2004

“Translation as Ethical Paradigm in Ricoeur”, Work in Progress Seminar, University College Dublin, febbraio 2004.

Riferimenti:

Beyond Epistemological Religious Truth: A Reflection of The Other Outside True-False Category, Jurnal Kawistara, 2012.

Melampaui Sisi Epistemologis Kebenaran Agama: Perspektif Paul Ricoeur, Transformasi: Kumpulan Orasi Akademik, 2015.

“Paul Ricoeur on translation and ethics as a paradigm of the encounter between cultures”, Contemporary Cultures Conference, University of Edinburgh, marzo 2004.

Riferimenti:

Negotiating Fictions: Contemporary Cultures, an interdisciplinary postgraduate conference, Scope conference reports, University of Nottingham, 2004.

2005

Newman and Wittgenstein after Foundationalism, New Blackfriars, n. 1001 (2005). 

Riferimenti:

Newman and Wittgenstein on Certainty and Faith, MPhil thesis, Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick, 2013.

Wittgenstein on Faith and Reason: The Influence of Newman, God, Truth, and other Enigmas, ed. Miroslaw Szatkowski, De Gruyter, Philosophische Analyse / Philosophical Analysis, 2015.

To Be in Dialogue: A 'Therapeutic' Approach and the Example of the Council of Chalcedon, University of Toronto / TSpace, 2018.

Wittgenstein's Later Philosophy as Foundation of Comparative Theology, Interpreting Interreligious Relations with Wittgenstein: Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies, Brill, 2019.

Wittgenstein's Religious Epistemology and Interfaith Dialogue, Interpreting Interreligious Relations with Wittgenstein: Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies, Brill, 2019.

"H Newman" and Ludwig Wittgenstein: Re-evaluating the History of John Henry Newman's Philosophical Reception, New Blackfriars, 2020.

Brentano's Concept of Descriptive Psychology, Franz Brentano and Austrian Philosophy, ed. Denis Fisette, Guillaume Frechette and Friedrich Stadler, Springer / Vienna Circle Institute Yearbook, 2020.

The Pragmatism of J. H. Newman: His Contributions for a Commitment to Truth in Contemporary Times, Universidad de Navarra, Facultad de Filosofia y Letras, Departamento de Filosofia, 2020.

Religious Hinges: Some Historical Precursors, Topoi, 2022.

Newman et l'arbre doxastique, Transversalites, 2023.

The Philosophy of John Henry Newman and Pragmatism: A Comparison, Catholic University of America Press, 2023.

Sulla nozione di certezza in Wittgenstein e Newman, Scienze Religiose e Formazione / SReF, 2024.

Le savoir des charnieres, Klesis 57: Philosophie et sens commun, 2025.

Newman and Wittgenstein on the Will to Believe: Quasi-Fideism and the Ground of Religious Certainty, Religions 16(2):174, 2025.

On Certainty and Religion: A Prolegomenon, Wittgenstein and the Epistemology of Religion, Wiley, 2025.

Hidden grounds of religious hinge commitments, Religious Studies 62:3 (September 2026), Cambridge University Press, 2026.

Wittgenstein on Belief Formation, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Elements in the Philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein, 2026.

Traduzione di John Henry Newman, The Idea of a University, Roma, Studium.

Riferimenti:

Introduction to John Henry Newman, Scritti filosofici, John Henry Newman, Scritti filosofici: testo inglese a fronte, edited by Michele Marchetto, Bompiani, Il pensiero occidentale, 2005.

Monografia introduttiva to John Henry Newman, Scritti sull'universita, John Henry Newman, Scritti sull'universita: L'idea di universita, 2008.

In viaggio con il beato Newman. La visita di Papa Benedetto XVI in Gran Bretagna, Cristianita, 2010.

John Henry Newman: per un'etica della professione universitaria, L'idea di Universita tra passato e futuro, ed. Roberto Celada Ballanti and Letterio Mauro, Genova University Press / De Ferrari Editore, 2011.

L'Universita comunita educante in una societa complessa (Terza parte), ZENIT - Italiano, 2012.

Socializzazione Politica in Africa, ZENIT - Italiano, 2013.

Nuova Evangelizzazione e impegno culturale nella Vita Consacrata, Claretianum ITVC, 2014.

Intervento in occasione del conferimento dell'Ordine della Minerva, Archdiocese of Chieti-Vasto, 2017.

La terza missione dell'universita: contenuti, obiettivi e percorsi /1, Note di Pastorale Giovanile, 2020.

Cio che e vivo e cio che e morto dell'universita. Prime riflessioni pedagogiche nel mezzo della pandemia globale, CQIA Rivista, Anno XI, 2021.

L intuizione come forma di conoscenza / In search of roots: Intuition as a form of knowledge, Conoscere per costruire. Atti del VI Forum internazionale del Gran Sasso, 2023.

L'universita verso terre inesplorate: crisi, sfide, problemi, proposte, Nuova Secondaria n., 2025.

Newman, Nilalienum.com Newman page, section Scritti, undated.

2007

Translation as an Ethical Paradigm in the Work of Paul Ricoeur in Stephen Kelly and David Johnston (a cura di) Betwixt and Between: place and cultural translation, Cambridge, Cambridge Scholar Press, 2007.

Riferimenti:

The Island that is Nowhere; or, Cultural Translation: A Utopian Project?, Betwixt and Between: Place and Cultural Translation, ed. David Johnston and Stephen Kelly, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2007.

Etigin Ceviri Alanindaki Yeri ve Onemi, Sakarya Universitesi, Sosyal Bilimler Enstitusu, Ceviribilim, 2017.

Ricoeur and the wager of interreligious ritual participation, International Journal of Philosophy and Theology, 2017.

The ethics of reciprocity in translation: the development of a cross-cultural approach, Hong Kong Baptist University, 2017.

The ethics of linguistic hospitality and untranslatability in Derrida and Ricoeur, The Routledge Handbook of Translation and Ethics, ed. Kaisa Koskinen and Nike K. Pokorn, Routledge, 2021.

Hospitality in the sphere of Communication, ENU / Gumilev Eurasian National University.

Newman and Dublin in Philippe Lefebvre and Colin Mason (a cura di) John Henry Newman: In his time, Oxford, Family Publications, 2007.

Riferimenti:

Book review of John Henry Newman In his Time, Faith Magazine, 2008.

Monografia introduttiva to John Henry Newman, Scritti sull'universita, John Henry Newman, Scritti sull'universita: L'idea di universita, 2008.

Review of Philippe Lefebvre and Colin Mason, John Henry Newman in his Time, Religious Studies Review, 2009.

Review of Philippe Lefebvre and Colin Mason, John Henry Newman in his Time, Irish Theological Quarterly, 2010.

La influencia de John Henry Newman en la reflexion educativa del ultimo medio siglo, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 2016.

Johna Henryego Newmana teoria edukacji katolickiej, local PDF, 2021.

“Translation and ethics in the philosophy of Paul Ricoeur”, Centre for Translation and Intercultural Studies, University of Manchester, febbraio 2007.

Riferimenti:

Translation section: notice of Paul Ricoeur, On Translation, TIC Talk 64, United Bible Societies, 2007.

Locke on Education. Essay for the Certificate in Adult Education.

Riferimenti:

Graecum est; non legitur? English interlinear translations of classical texts during the 19th century, 4th Colloquium of Doctoral and Postgraduate Students, proceedings, 2022.

2008

The Ethical Task of the Translator in Paul Ricoeur in Paschalis Nikolau and Maria-Venetia Kyritsi (a cura di) Translating Selves: Experience and Identity between Languages and Literatures, Londra e New York, Continuum Books, 2008.

Riferimenti:

Review of Translating Selves: Experience and Identity between Languages and Literatures, Cadernos de Traducao, 2009.

Diasporic Aesthetics of Gao Xingjian's Exilic Discourse, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Division of Humanities, 2010.

Originary Translation in Cormac McCarthy's The Road, Literature Interpretation Theory, 2014.

La representacion transnacional de John Reed en la cronica y el cine: Insurgent Mexico (1914) ante Reed, Mexico Insurgente (1970), Revista docuCaribe, 2019.

Philosophical approaches, The Routledge Handbook of Translation Theory and Concepts, ed. Reine Meylaerts and Kobus Marais, Routledge, 2023.

“John Henry Newman and Translation”, Hopkins Summer School, Monasterevin, luglio 2008.

Riferimenti:

Star-crossed Lovers: Newman and the Bible, Australian eJournal of Theology 12.18 (2012), local PDF, 2012.

2009

Knowledge and Morality in Newman’s Idea of a University in Jean Ehret and Erwin Moede (a cura di) Una Sancta Catholica et Apostolica, Francoforte, Herder, 2009.

Riferimenti:

The Catholic Intellectual Tradition and its Dynamics, The Challenge of the Catholic Intellectual Tradition: Making a Difference in Contemporary Academic Settings, ed. Jean Ehret and Erwin Moede, LIT Verlag, 2011.

2010

John Henry Newman e l’abito mentale filosofico: retorica e persona negli scritti dublinesi, Roma, Studium, 2010.

Riferimenti:

Il cardinal Newman e l'abito mentale filosofico, Luigi Walt's Lab, Recensiones, 2010.

In ateneo con Aristotele, Avvenire, 2010.

Rassegna newmaniana 2010, Lineatempo: Rivista online di ricerca storica letteratura e arte, 2010.

Recensiamo il libro di Angelo Bottone sul card. John Henry Newman, Il blog dell'Uomo Vivo / Societa Chestertoniana Italiana, 2010.

LETTURE/ Per John Henry Newman la ragione non è roba da gentleman..., Il Sussidiario.net, 2011.

Religious Education and John Henry Newman's Idea of a University, Italian Journal of Sociology of Education, 2015.

John Henry Newman, Philosophica: Enciclopedia filosofica on line, 2016.

John Henry Newman e l'abito mentale..., La voce del popolo, 2019.

La canonizzazione di John Henry Newman e la sua portata umana, religiosa e intellettuale. Protagonista del suo tempo, La Difesa del Popolo, 2019.

John Henry Newman's University Concept and Religious Education, American Research Journal of Humanities & Social Science (ARJHSS), 2023.

Review of Angelo Bottone, John Henry Newman e l'abito mentale filosofico, Asprenas / Verbum ferens copyright notice in local PDF, unknown.

The philosophical habit of mind: rhetoric and person in Newman’s Dublin Writings, Bucarest, Zeta Books, 2010.

Riferimenti:

Newman in Dublin, The Irish Catholic, 2010.

Book Review and Q&A Session with Angelo Bottone, Dublin Business School Library Newsletter, 2011.

Ripartenza cattolica?, Il Nuovo Tempo, 2011.

The Newman-Louvain (Leuven) Connection, Louvain Newman Society, 2011.

The Philosophical Habit of Mind by Angelo Bottone (review), Newman Studies Journal, 2011.

The philosophical habit of mind: rhetoric and person in John Henry Newman's Dublin Writings, by Angelo Bottone, Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review, 2011.

The Philosophical Habit of Mind by Angelo Bottone, and Newman and His Contemporaries by Edward Short (review), Christianity & Literature, 2012.

John Henry Newman and Ludwig Wittgenstein: On Certainty and Faith, Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick, 2013.

John Henry Newman educador. Los escritos universitarios de Newman en el contexto de la actual 'emergencia educativa', Anthologica Annua, 2013.

Review of The Philosophical Habit of Mind, New Blackfriars, 2013.

The Influence of Aristotelian Rhetoric on J.H. Newman's Epistemology, Journal for the History of Modern Theology / Zeitschrift fur Neuere Theologiegeschichte, 2013.

The 'Making of Men': The Idea and Reality of Newman's University in Oxford and Dublin, Gracewing, Leominster, 2014.

Introduction and editorial apparatus to Patrick Augustine Sheehan, Mr. Aubrey de Vere's New Volume: A Study, CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts, University College Cork, 2015.

John Henry Newman o uzitocnosti slobodneho vzdelania alebo preco citat Ideu univerzity, In John Henry Newman: Idea univerzity: 1. cast, ed. Juraj Sust, Ivanka pri Dunaji: Kolegium Antona Neuwirtha, 2015.

God, the University, and Human Flourishing, Nova et Vetera, 2016.

La influencia de John Henry Newman en la reflexion educativa del ultimo medio siglo, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Facultad de Educacion, Departamento de Teoria e Historia de la Educacion, 2016.

Metaforas de la educacion universitaria, Teoria de la Educacion, 2018.

Newman, MacIntyre y nosotros: agonia y universidades en el siglo XXI, Bordon. Revista de Pedagogia 70(4): 89-101, 2018.

Philosophy of Education, The Oxford Handbook of John Henry Newman, ed. Frederick D. Aquino and Benjamin J. King, Oxford University Press, 2018.

The Formation of Moral Conscience in Colleges: An Educational Proposal according to John Henry Newman, Newman Studies Journal, 2018.

The Literary Stylist, The Oxford Handbook of John Henry Newman, ed. Frederick D. Aquino and Benjamin J. King, Oxford University Press, 2018.

The University, The Oxford Handbook of John Henry Newman, ed. Frederick D. Aquino and Benjamin J. King, Oxford University Press, 2018.

A via antropológica de Newman para a imagem de Deus Uno e Trino, Pontificia Università della Santa Croce, Facoltà di Teologia, Roma, 2019.

La unidad en las teorias de la educacion catolicas del siglo XIX: en torno a Antonio Rosmini y John Henry Newman, Revista Espanola de Teologia, 2019.

More Poet than Policeman: Newman and Education 'in a Large Sense of the Word', Scripta Theologica, 2019.

Newman's Philosophy and Illative Sense as Tools for Contemporary Dialogue, conference paper preview on ResearchGate, 2019.

Knowledge and Truth in John Henry Newman, 'Science and Truth' session, 22nd International Interdisciplinary Seminar, Clarendon Laboratory, Oxford, 2020.

Moulding War's Thinking: Using Wargaming to Broaden Military Minds, Australian Army Journal, 2020.

The Pragmatism of J. H. Newman: His Contributions for a Commitment to Truth in Contemporary Times, Universidad de Navarra, Facultad de Filosofia y Letras, Departamento de Filosofia, 2020.

A Philosophical Habit of Mind: Newman and the University, Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture, 2021.

La pregunta como camino para el dialogo, Estudios 138, vol. XIX, otono, 2021.

Newman the Educator, "From First to Last", A Guide to John Henry Newman: His Life and Thought, Catholic University of America Press, 2022.

Newman: A Student and Tutor of Classics, A Guide to John Henry Newman: His Life and Thought, Catholic University of America Press, 2022.

A Mind Habits Based Program to Develop Al-Azhar Model Secondary Institutes Students' EFL Critical Reading Skills, Egyptian Association for Reading and Knowledge / ILA-associated journal, local PDF, 2023.

Las apologias de la educacion cristiana. Los argumentos de John Henry Newman, G. K. Chesterton y C. S. Lewis sobre la educacion de naturaleza religiosa, Pensar una universidad para el siglo XXI, ed. Rosario Neuman Lorenzini and David Torrijos Castrillejo, 2023.

Newman et l'arbre doxastique, Transversalites, 2023.

The Philosophy of John Henry Newman and Pragmatism: A Comparison, Catholic University of America Press, 2023.

Praktyka naukovo-doslidnytskoho usamitnennia, Humanitarnyi Korpus, issue 52, Ukrainian State Dragomanov University, Kyiv, 2024.

Praktyka naukovo-doslidnytskoho usamitnennia / Практика науково-дослідницького усамітнення, Humanitarnyi korpus / Гуманітарний корпус 52, Ukrainian State University named after Mykhailo Drahomanov, Kyiv, 2024.

The influence of Cicero on Newman’s Idea of a Liberal Education, in Cyril McDonnell (a cura di) 2009 Yearbook of the Irish Philosophical Society, Dublino, Irish Philosophical Society, 2010. 

Riferimenti:

La influencia de John Henry Newman en la reflexion educativa del ultimo medio siglo, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Facultad de Educacion, Departamento de Teoria e Historia de la Educacion, 2016.

Orchestrating encounters: teaching law at a liberal arts and sciences college in the Netherlands, Academic Learning in Law: Theoretical Positions, Teaching Experiments and Learning Experiences, 2016.

Newman: A Student and Tutor of Classics, A Guide to John Henry Newman: His Life and Thought, Catholic University of America Press, 2022.

La comunicazione verbale tra uomo e animale, in Marco Castagna (a cura di) Lo spazio del discorso, Napoli, EDI, 2010.

Riferimenti:

Recensione: Marco Castagna and Sara De Carlo (eds.), Lo spazio della parola. Studi in onore di Michele Malatesta, local review PDF, 2010.

Review of Ricoeur P., On Translation, Routledge, 2006 in Translation Studies, n. 3 (2010).

Riferimenti:

Hermeneutics and Translation Newsletter 4-2010, Hermeneutics and Translation Newsletter 4-2010, 2010.

Review of Jervolino D., Per una filosofia della traduzione, Morcelliana, 2008 in Translation Studies, n. 3 (2010).

Riferimenti:

Hermeneutics and Translation Newsletter 4-2010, Hermeneutics and Translation Newsletter 4-2010, 2010.

Review of Jervolino D. (edit), La traduzione: incontro fra le culture, Studium, 2005 in Translation Studies, n. 3 (2010).

Riferimenti:

Hermeneutics and Translation Newsletter 4-2010, Hermeneutics and Translation Newsletter 4-2010, 2010.

The vanishing mediator and linguistic hospitality, Kritike, vol. 4, n. 2 (2010). 

Riferimenti:

In this Issue of KRITIKE: An Online Journal of Philosophy, Kritike, 2010.

L'avenir d'Europa. Una lectura des del darrer Balibar, In G. Mayos & J. Morro (eds.), Hi ha una nova politica?, Barcelona: La Busca, 2014.

Xenophobia among young Christians with special reference to the youth of the Fourways Circuit Methodist Church of South Africa: an empirical exploration, University of South Africa, Pretoria, 2014.

Cultural Diversity, Linguistic Hospitality and Ethical Reflection in Paul Ricoeur's Hermeneutics of Translation, Manisa Celal Bayar Universitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, 2017.

Diaspora as Vanishing Mediator: Emancipation of Identity for the Mamanuas of Basey, Samar, Philippines and Asian Studies: Expositions, Explorations, and Expectations, Word Prints Publishing Services, 2018.

Developing the Vanishing Mediator as Theoretical Framework: Synthesis and Application, The Journal of International Social Research, 2019.

2011

Translation and Justice in Paul Ricoeur, in Lisa Foran (a cura di) Translation and Philosophy, New York, Peter Lang, 2011. 

Riferimenti:

What is the Relation between Translation and Philosophy?, Translation and Philosophy, ed. Lisa Foran, Peter Lang, 2012.

Review of Translation and Philosophy, International Journal of Philosophical Studies, 2013.

Review of Lisa Foran (ed.), Translation and Philosophy, Translation Ireland, 2014.

Text in Philosophy: Word Creation and Translation, Valoda 2015. Language in Various Cultural Contexts. Collection of scientific articles XXV, Daugavpils University Academic Press Saule, 2015.

Cultural Diversity, Linguistic Hospitality and Ethical Reflection in Paul Ricoeur's Hermeneutics of Translation, Manisa Celal Bayar Universitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, 2017.

Translation, Justice and Memory in Paul Ricoeur's Ethical Thinking, International Journal of Language Academy, 2017.

Return as Restoration and Restitution: Analysing Cultural Translation in Diasporic Writing, Italian-Canadian Narratives of Return: Analysing Cultural Translation in Diasporic Writing, Palgrave Macmillan, 2019.

The ethics of linguistic hospitality and untranslatability in Derrida and Ricoeur, The Routledge Handbook of Translation and Ethics, ed. Kaisa Koskinen and Nike K. Pokorn, Routledge, 2021.

"God" and "Logos" in Context: Paradox of Ricoeur's Linguistic Hospitality and Chinese Bible Translation, Fudan Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences, 2022.

Prolegomenon to Contemporary Ethics of Machine Translation, Towards Responsible Machine Translation: Ethical and Legal Considerations in Machine Translation, Springer Cham, 2023.

Ricoeur’de Bir Ethos Olarak Çeviri: Teorik-Bilişsel Temellerden Etik-Pragmatik Temellere, Beytulhikme An International Journal of Philosophy, 2025.

Traduzione ed introduzione di Lester Embree, Analisi riflessiva. Una prima introduzione all’investigazione fenomenologica, Roma, Studium.

Riferimenti:

Embree, Lester, Analisi riflessiva. Una prima introduzione all'investigazione fenomenologica, Recensioni Filosofiche / local DOCX capture, 2012.

Some Phenomenology of Not Retiring, In Chung-chi Yu and Kwok-ying Lau (eds.), *Phenomenology and Human Experience*, Traugott Bautz Verlag / libri nigri, 2012.

Es pot aprendre a fer fenomenologia?, Anuari de la Societat Catalana de Filosofia XXVII (2016), 2016.

Per una didattica della fenomenologia. L'Analisi riflessiva di Lester Embree, Metodo. International Studies in Phenomenology and Philosophy, 2023.

2017

When Brentano met Newman, in Yearbook of the Irish Philosophical Society, Dublin, Irish Philosophical Society, 2017. 

Riferimenti:

Brentano's Concept of Descriptive Psychology, Franz Brentano and Austrian Philosophy, ed. Denis Fisette, Guillaume Frechette and Friedrich Stadler, Springer / Vienna Circle Institute Yearbook, 2020.

L'esperienza di Dio secondo la fenomenologia di Edmund Husserl, Segni e Comprensione a. XXXVIII n.s., 2024.

2018

“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights”, Botblog.

Riferimenti:

Comparative Human Rights Diplomacy, Springer Nature Switzerland, 2022.

Refusing to engage with the ethical harms of surrogacy and donor-conception, Botblog.

Riferimenti:

Becoming Donor-Conceived: The Transformation of Anonymity in Gamete Donation, transcript Verlag, Bielefeld, 2021.

2019

Newman pensatore europeo?, in Francesco Maceri (edit.) Il Cristianesimo e l’Europa: studi su Pavel Florenskij, Romano Guardini e John Henry Newman, Cagliari, PFTS University Press 2019. 

Riferimenti:

Review of Francesco Maceri (ed.), Il cristianesimo e l'Europa. Studi su Pavel Florenskij, Romano Guardini e John Henry Newman, Recensioni, local PDF, unknown.

UN report warns against all forms of surrogacy, Botblog.

Riferimenti:

WHA Background Guide NHSMUN 2021, National High School Model United Nations / IMUNA, World Health Assembly background guide, 2021.

2021

Una nuova interpretazione del pensiero di Capitini: oltre la dialettica hegeliana, in Giovanna Scocozza (ed.) Dialoghi di pace. Dalla nonviolenza alla sostenibilità, Roma, Rubettino, 2021.

Riferimenti:

Il ruolo della comunicazione nelle teorie della soluzione nonviolenta del conflitto, Comunicazione e Nonviolenza. Dai problemi di comunicazione alla comunicazione come risorsa, ed. Giovanni Bechelloni and Enrico Cheli, Mediascape Edizioni / Working Papers Online, 2004.

La noviolencia como liberación y apertura en el pensamiento de Aldo Capitini, Revista de Paz y Conflictos, 2018.

2022

The Birth of the Catholic University in a Secularised World. From Newman’s The Idea of a University to Ex Corde Ecclesiae and Beyond, in Helen Alford e Marina Russo (eds.) Catholic Universities of Central, Eastern and Western Europe in a Secularizing World, Roma, Angelicum University Press. 

Riferimenti:

Review of Catholic Universities of Central, Eastern and Western Europe in a Secularizing World: Experiences and Challenges, LOGOS, 2023.

In Austria pharmacies are now allowed to sell suicide drugs, Botblog.

Riferimenti:

An Inquiry on Legalizing Euthanasia: "The Mercy Killing", Journal of Multi-Disciplinary Legal Research, 2023.

2023

Review of Storr V. H. and Choi G. S., Do Markets Corrupt our Morals?, Palgrave Macmillan, 2019 in Journal of Moral Philosophy, n. 20, July 2023.

Riferimenti:

Introduction: Setting the Stage by Exploring Different Perspectives on Sustainable Consumption, Collective Sustainable Consumption: The Case of Poland, eds. Anna Horodecka and Alina Szypulewska-Porczynska, chapter 1, Routledge, New York, 2024.

2025

John Henry Newman: Doctor of the classroom and of the soul, The Irish Catholic (30 October 2025), pp. 14-15.

Riferimenti:

Newman's Vision of Education and Leadership, Saint Cardinal John Henry Newman website, 2025.

Newman, il dottore della Chiesa che si è arreso alla verità, Tempi, 18 August 2025, interview

Riferimenti:

Newman non si converti per reazione ma per fedelta alla verita, Tempi, 2025.

Newman, o Doutor da Igreja que se rendeu a verdade, PadrePauloRicardo.org / Christo Nihil Praeponere, 2025.

Introducing organ donation euthanasia, Botblog

Riferimenti:

Ireland is automatically putting adults on the organ donor list: 'Perilous path', LifeSiteNews, 2025.

Study Praises Canadian Euthanasia's 'Real Impact' on Organ Harvesting, Slay News, 2025.

Why Catholic Baptisms in Ireland Have Fallen by About 30% in a Decade

The number of Catholic baptisms taking place in Ireland has fallen dramatically over the past decade. In research I have carried out for The Iona Institute, we bring together figures supplied directly by Catholic dioceses, official birth statistics from the Central Statistics Office and the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, Census data on religious identification, and longer-term figures derived from the Vatican’s Statistical Yearbook of the Church.

The central result is clear: Catholic baptisms have fallen by approximately 30% in ten years.

In the 23 dioceses for which we have comparable figures for both 2015 and 2025, baptisms declined from 60,110 to 42,260. That is a fall of 17,850 baptisms, or 29.7%.

The decline is unquestionably connected to the falling number of births. But births alone do not tell the whole story. Religious identification has also changed, particularly in the Republic and especially among the youngest children. The balance between these factors varies significantly between Dublin, the rest of the Republic and Northern Ireland.

A large and representative sample

Ireland has 26 Catholic dioceses. My exact comparison currently covers 23 of them. Those dioceses account for approximately 87.6% to 88.1% of the Catholic population of the island, depending on the population source used for Dromore. They also represented 88.9% of the all-Ireland baptism total recorded in the Vatican figures for 2015.

The exact sample therefore covers the great majority of Catholic Ireland.

There are three dioceses not fully represented in the exact 2015–2025 comparison:

·      Cork and Ross has supplied exact figures for 2013, 2023 and 2025, but not for 2015.

·      Clogher has supplied a partial 2025 return covering 35 of its 37 parishes, but not a 2015 total.

·      Ossory has not yet supplied substantive figures.

I tested whether plausible estimates for these missing figures would substantially alter the national result. They do not.

The updated central full-coverage estimate gives approximately 67,601 baptisms in 2015 and 47,825 in 2025, a decline of 29.3%. Even under deliberately wide assumptions, the estimated decline remains between 29.0% and 29.8%.

Cork and Ross provides a particularly useful test. Its exact 2025 figure is 2,660 baptisms. Using an estimated 2015 figure of 3,541 produces a decline of approximately 24.9% for that diocese. When Cork and Ross is added to the updated exact sample, the combined decline changes only slightly, from 29.7% to 29.4%.

The reasonable public conclusion is therefore that Catholic baptisms in Ireland have fallen by about 30% over ten years.

Births have fallen—but not as quickly as baptisms

The most obvious explanation for fewer baptisms is that fewer children are being born.

Between 2015 and 2025:

·      Republic of Ireland births fell from 65,909 to 54,125, a decline of 17.9%.

·      Northern Ireland births fell from 24,215 to 19,062, a decline of approximately 21.3%.

·      Across the island, births fell from 90,124 to 73,187, a decline of approximately 18.8%.

A fall of almost one-fifth in the number of births is clearly a major demographic event. Even if the proportion of children being baptised had remained unchanged, baptisms would have fallen substantially.

But the baptism decline in the diocesan sample was 29.7%, compared with an island-wide birth decline of 18.8%.

In other words, the fall in baptisms was about 11 percentage points greater than the fall in births.

This gap is too large to ignore. It tells us that the decline cannot be explained simply by saying that fewer babies were born.

Figure 1. Baptisms in the exact diocesan sample declined more sharply than births in either jurisdiction. Northern Ireland's 2025 birth total is provisional.

The changing Catholic birth pool

The more relevant demographic question is not merely how many children were born, but how many were likely to have been born into Catholic-identifying families.

There is no official annual count of births classified by the mother’s religion. I therefore constructed a demographic proxy using:

·      official birth totals;

·      the age distribution of mothers;

·      the Catholic share of women in the corresponding age groups.

This does not tell us whether an individual child was baptised. Nor does it prove that one particular factor caused the baptism decline. It estimates how the population from which Catholic baptisms are most likely to come has changed.

For the Republic, the estimated Catholic birth pool declined from approximately 48,113 in 2015 to 32,119 in 2025. That is a fall of about 33.2%.

The Republic’s total births fell by 17.9%, but its estimated Catholic birth pool fell by roughly one-third. The difference reflects the fact that the Catholic share of the relevant population also declined.

An accounting decomposition divides the estimated Republic contraction approximately as follows:

·      48.8% is associated with the general fall in births.

·      52.1% is associated with lower Catholic identification within the relevant age groups.

·      Small changes in the age distribution partly offset the decline.

The same exercise for the whole island produces an estimated Catholic birth pool of 58,957 in 2015 and 40,608 in 2025, a decline of 31.1%.

At all-Ireland level:

·      lower birth volume accounts for approximately 55.9% of the estimated contraction;

·      lower Catholic identification accounts for approximately 45.8%;

·      small compositional effects offset about 1.7% of the decline.

The percentages associated with the two main downward forces add to slightly more than 100% because the smaller compositional effects work in the opposite direction.

This is not a direct causal decomposition of the baptism decline itself. It is an accounting analysis of the estimated Catholic birth pool. Nevertheless, it gives us a much better explanation than a rough comparison between the percentage decline in births and the percentage decline in baptisms.

It suggests that falling births are the largest single all-Ireland demographic factor, but declining Catholic identification is almost as important.

Figure 2. In the all-Ireland accounting model, falling birth volume is the largest single factor, while lower Catholic shares also make a substantial contribution.

Dublin is the most important regional case

Dublin has had the largest absolute decline in baptisms of any diocese in the sample. Baptisms in the Archdiocese of Dublin fell from 15,759 in 2015 to 9,465 in 2025. That is a decline of 6,294 baptisms, or 39.9%.  Dublin alone accounts for approximately 35.2% of the total decline recorded in the clean diocesan sample.

If Dublin is removed, baptisms in the remaining respondent dioceses still fell by 26.1%. The national trend is therefore not merely a Dublin phenomenon. But Dublin’s size and unusually steep decline have a major effect on the overall figures. Births also fell more quickly in Dublin than in the rest of the Republic.

Across Dublin City, Fingal, South Dublin and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, registered births declined from 19,688 in 2015 to 15,386 in 2025, a fall of 21.9%. Across the Republic excluding those four Dublin local authorities, births fell by 16.3%.

Dublin therefore experienced both a sharper birth decline and a much sharper baptism decline. Even so, the fall in Dublin baptisms (39.9%) was still considerably greater than the 21.9% fall in Dublin births.

The religious composition of Dublin’s youngest children helps to explain the difference.

According to the 2022 Census special tabulation, among children aged 0–4 in the four Dublin local authorities:

·      52.3% were recorded as Roman Catholic;

·      21.9% were recorded as having no religion;

·      approximately 14.3% belonged to other stated religions;

·      11.5% had no religion stated.

In the Republic outside Dublin, 70.4% of children aged 0–4 were recorded as Catholic, while 13.3% were recorded as having no religion.

The Catholic share among Dublin’s youngest children was therefore about 18 percentage points lower than in the rest of the Republic.

This makes Dublin central to the national story. It combines a rapid fall in births with a much smaller Catholic-identifying share among young children.

Figure 3. Dublin is the largest contributor to the clean-sample decline; Meath is the second largest. Contribution shares are not local decline rates.

Meath shows that births cannot explain every local decline

Meath presents an even sharper contrast between births and baptisms. The Diocese of Meath reported 4,675 baptisms in 2015 and 2,768 in 2025, a decline of 1,907, or 40.8%. Over the same period, registered births in civil County Meath declined from 2,799 to 2,535, a fall of only 9.4%.

The Diocese of Meath and civil County Meath do not cover exactly the same territory, so these figures must not be presented as a precise baptism rate. The diocese includes areas outside County Meath, while parts of the civil county may relate differently to diocesan boundaries.

Even with that caveat, the difference is striking. A 9.4% fall in births cannot, by itself, account for a 40.8% fall in baptisms.

Dublin and Meath together account for approximately 45.9% of the total baptism decline in the clean sample. They are not the whole national story, but they are exceptionally important parts of it.

The youngest children are less Catholic-identifying

Census data provide another way of looking at the change. In 2016, there were 258,559 Catholic children aged 0–4 in the Republic. By 2022, that number had fallen to 191,571. That was a decline of almost 67,000 Catholic children aged 0–4 in only six years.

The total number of children aged 0–4 fell from 330,012 to 292,797, a decline of about 37,000. The decline in Catholic children was therefore much larger than the decline in the overall number of young children.

The composition of the group changed substantially:

·      The Catholic share fell from approximately 78.3% in 2016 to 65.4% in 2022.

·      The no-religion share rose from approximately 9.2% to 15.6%.

·      The not-stated share rose from approximately 3.1% to 8.4%.

·      The share belonging to other religions changed comparatively little.

The detailed age profile reinforces this point.

Within a comparison limited to Catholic children and children with no religion, no religion accounted for:

·      22.4% of children under one;

·      19.3% of children aged 0–4;

·      13% of children aged 5–9;

·      11.2% of children aged 10–14.

These are not shares of all children, because that particular table contains only the Catholic and no-religion categories. But the age pattern is informative: the youngest cohorts are considerably less Catholic-identifying than the middle-child cohorts.

The Census also allows us to follow broad cohorts over time. The cohort aged 0–4 in 2011 was aged 10–14 in 2022. Its Catholic share fell from 83.7% to 74.2%. The cohort aged 0–4 in 2016 was aged 5–9 in 2022; its Catholic share fell from 78.3% to 71.8%.

These movements should not be interpreted as pure individual religious switching. Migration, differences in parental reporting, Census wording and an increase in the not-stated category all play a role. Nevertheless, they indicate that Catholic identification is not being fully retained as some child cohorts grow older.

Northern Ireland follows a different pattern

The Republic and Northern Ireland should not be treated as if they were undergoing exactly the same religious-demographic change.

In Northern Ireland, the Catholic share of women aged 25–39 was 44.7% in both 2011 and 2021. It was essentially unchanged. Over the same period, the Catholic share of children aged 0–4 increased from 44.3% to 46.5%. The Northern Ireland Catholic demographic base therefore appears considerably more stable than the Republic’s.

My estimated Northern Ireland Catholic birth pool fell by approximately 21.7% between 2015 and 2025. That is close to the 21.3% decline in total Northern Ireland births.

This suggests that the contraction in Northern Ireland’s Catholic birth pool was driven mainly by the general decline in births, rather than by a major fall in Catholic identification among the relevant population.

The northern and cross-border dioceses in the clean sample nevertheless recorded a baptism decline of approximately 27.6%.

The difference between the estimated Catholic birth-pool decline and the baptism decline requires further investigation. Possible factors include changing baptismal practice, delayed baptism, differences in diocesan reporting and the complications created by diocesan boundaries crossing the border.

The important point is that Northern Ireland’s baptism decline cannot simply be explained using the same religious-demographic mechanism as the Republic.

Later baptism is becoming more visible

Comparing baptisms with births is complicated by the fact that not every child is baptised during the year of birth.

Some are baptised between the ages of one and seven. Others are baptised after the age of seven. If later baptism becomes more common, annual baptism totals become more spread across different birth cohorts.

I have sufficiently comparable age-banded information for a small group consisting of Tuam, Ferns, Dromore and Armagh. Meath has been excluded from this calculation because of concerns about the consistency of its age classifications.

Across these few dioceses:

·      infant or under-one baptisms fell from 8,644 in 2015 to 6,342 in 2025, a decline of 26.6%;

·      non-infant baptisms increased from 544 to 902, an increase of 65.8%;

·      the non-infant share rose from 5.9% to 12.5%.

The increase in later baptisms offset approximately 15.6% of the decline in infant baptisms.

This is significant. It indicates that baptism is becoming more delayed and that a simple comparison between births in one calendar year and baptisms in that same year will not capture every child who is eventually baptised. But it does not overturn the main result. Most of the decline in infant baptisms was not recovered through later baptism.

A separate timing analysis, which compared baptisms with weighted earlier birth cohorts, found that the relevant birth pool declined by approximately 18%, with plausible scenarios between 17.9% and 19.4%. That remains far below the 29.7% decline in baptisms.

Later baptism changes the timing of the comparison. It does not eliminate the underlying gap.

The Vatican figures show that the decline began before COVID

The longer-term Vatican series helps place the diocesan returns in context.

According to figures derived from the Statistical Yearbook of the Church, total Catholic baptisms on the island were:

·      72,900 in 2012;

·      67,601 in 2015;

·      63,943 in 2017;

·      57,813 in 2019;

·      43,234 in 2020;

·      55,468 in 2022;

·      50,874 in 2023.

The broad direction is unmistakable, baptisms were already declining well before the pandemic. Between 2012 and 2017, they fell by 12.3%. The dramatic fall in 2020 was therefore a pandemic interruption superimposed on an existing downward trend. There was a recovery after the restrictions ended, but it was incomplete. The 2022 total remained below the probable 2019 level, and baptisms fell again in 2023.

Scaling the exact 2025 diocesan sample against its share of the Vatican’s 2015 total gives an estimated 47,500 baptisms across Ireland in 2025. This is my estimate, not an official Vatican figure.

A separate diocese-by-diocese sensitivity gives approximately 47,825. The fact that the two different approaches produce very similar results strengthens confidence in the rounded estimate.

The longer series also supports the finding that later baptism has become somewhat more prominent. Baptisms of those aged over seven represented 1.19% of the total in 2012 and 1.56% in 2023. But they remained a very small proportion of all baptisms and could not compensate for the wider decline.

Figure 4. The Vatican-derived series confirms a pre-pandemic decline. The open 2025 point is the project's estimate, not an official Vatican observation.

Further findings will be released later

Other sections of our research will be released later. One of them show, within each religious group, how many women aged 25–44 are recorded in Census families as female parents of a child aged 0–4 or aged 0–9, per 1,000 women of the same age and religion.

The results are striking. Among the three broad headline groups—Roman Catholic, religious non-Catholic combined, and no religion—Catholic women have the highest ratios. At State level, there are 302.1 Catholic female parents with a child aged 0–4 per 1,000 Catholic women aged 25–44. The corresponding ratios are 287.6 for religious non-Catholic women and 211.5 for women with no religion.

For the wider child-aged-0–9 measure, the ratios are 481.5 per 1,000 for Catholic women, 458.7 for religious non-Catholic women and 322.9 for women with no religion. The differences are especially pronounced at ages 25–34, which suggests a difference in the timing of family formation as well as in the overall presence of young children.

Some smaller individual religious categories (Islam, in particular) have higher ratios than the broad Catholic category, so the detailed tables must retain those distinctions. The broad comparison is nevertheless clear: Catholic women are substantially more likely than women with no religion to be recorded as female parents of young children.

I will present and explain these figures more fully in a separate article in the future.

Figure 5. Female-parent-to-woman ratios are Census family measures per 1,000 women aged 25–44; they are not fertility rates.

What the evidence does—and does not—show

The research now supports several strong conclusions.

First, Catholic baptisms have fallen by approximately 30% in a decade. That result is robust whether I use the exact 23-diocese sample or estimate the incomplete dioceses.

Second, fewer births are a major part of the explanation. Island-wide births fell by 18.8%, and the all-Ireland accounting model identifies falling birth volume as the largest single demographic factor.

Third, births are not the whole explanation. The decline in baptisms was much greater than the decline in births, especially in Dublin and Meath.

Fourth, the Catholic-identifying birth pool has contracted substantially, particularly in the Republic. The number and share of young children recorded as Catholic have fallen, while the no-religion and not-stated categories have increased.

Fifth, Northern Ireland is different. Its Catholic demographic base remained comparatively stable, meaning that its baptism decline requires a greater emphasis on falling births and possible changes in baptismal practice.

Finally, later baptism has become more common within the limited diocesan evidence, but the increase is not large enough to offset the fall in infant baptisms.

There are also important limits.

Diocesan boundaries do not align neatly with counties or local authorities. Some 2025 birth figures are provisional. The Catholic birth-pool calculation is a demographic proxy rather than an official count of births by religion. Census religion measures self-identification, not religious observance. The age-banded baptism sample remains too small and self-selecting to support a national estimate of delayed baptism.

These cautions affect the precision of individual comparisons. They do not overturn the central trend.

A demographic and religious change

The decline in Catholic baptisms is sometimes presented as a choice between two explanations. One account says that baptisms are falling mainly because fewer children are being born. Another says that the decline is principally the result of secularisation. The evidence suggests that this is a false choice as both processes are occurring.

Ireland experienced a major decline in births over the decade. That alone would have produced a substantial decline in baptisms. At the same time, the Catholic share of the youngest population fell sharply in the Republic, particularly in Dublin.

The national decline therefore reflects the interaction of fewer births, a smaller Catholic-identifying population among young families and children, regional differences, and changes in when or whether baptism takes place.

Falling births are the largest single factor in the all-Ireland demographic model, but they are not a complete explanation.

The most accurate summary is also the simplest: Ireland has fewer children than it did ten years ago, and a smaller proportion of those children are being identified and baptised as Catholic.

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A shorter version of this research was released by The Iona Institute on 18th August 2026: Catholic baptisms in Ireland drop 30pc in ten years

OpenAI Codex was used to assist with collecting, processing and checking data. Responsibility for the analysis and conclusions remains with the author.

How marriage helps combat poverty

 

Family stability should be recognised as a core component of any child poverty strategy, according to a new report from the UK Centre for Social Justice. The reason? Stable relationships provide a platform for economic progress.

Governments usually approach child poverty as a problem of insufficient income, the report by Dr Harry Benson argues. The standard responses are higher benefits, better childcare, employment programmes and greater investment in education. All of these may have a role, but the report, titled The Stability Advantage: Marriage, Family Breakdown and Poverty in the UK, argues that one crucial factor is too often ignored: whether a child’s parents remain together.

The report draws on the Millennium Cohort Study, following more than 3,000 couples through the first fourteen years of parenthood. Its most interesting finding is that married parents in the poorest fifth of households were less likely to separate than unmarried parents in the richest fifth, even after the research controlled for a wide range of social, economic and demographic differences.

This challenges the common argument that married couples are more stable only because they tend to be richer, older or better educated. Those selection effects certainly matter, but the report maintains that they do not explain most of the difference.

Earlier studies, it argues, often excluded respondents with missing information. Because missing data were especially common among unmarried couples and those who later separated, this approach may have understated instability among unmarried parents. When the full sample is analysed, marriage remained strongly associated with a lower risk of separation across income groups.

The economic consequences are substantial. Parents who stayed together throughout the fourteen-year period under examination were twice as likely to move up the income distribution as those who separated. Those who broke up were twice as likely to move down. Among families who began in the lowest income group, 53 pc of intact couples moved upwards, compared with only 29 pc of those who separated.

This should not surprise us. Couples who remain together can share their earnings, housing and childcare costs, support one another through unemployment or illness. Separation divides resources and often creates additional housing and childcare costs. Family breakdown is therefore not merely a consequence of poverty; it can be one of its causes.

Marriage matters because it turns commitment into something explicit and public. Through marriage, couples align their long-term intentions, accept responsibilities before family and community, and separation becomes more difficult legally, socially and psychologically. The wedding ceremony is not simply a celebration of affection. It is a solemn promise that encourages spouses to hold themselves accountable to one another.

Public policy should stop pretending that all family structures produce identical outcomes, the report argues. It recommends that the tax and social welfare system should not penalise low-income couples for marrying because it can push them off benefits. For example, if a lone mother on benefits marries a man earning say, £20,000, she would lose her welfare payment and is therefore better off not marrying him.

The report also proposes financial support during the first three years of a child’s life, when families face intense pressures and relationships are particularly vulnerable.

The main message of the report is that strengthening marriage helps in numerous ways, including financially. Any child-poverty strategy that ignores family stability addresses the symptoms while neglecting one of the most important causes.

Another report confirms a rise in unplanned childlessness

 

In many parts of the world today, people are having few children than they want. A new report from Canada confirms this phenomenon. A report from The Iona Institute last week predicts that one in four members of Gen Z will never have a child. An Amarach poll we commissioned finds that average person still wants two or three children and almost no-one wants none.

The Canadian report is from the pro-family think tank, Cardus.

Canada’s fertility rate has fallen to a historic low of 1.25 children per woman, even lower than Ireland’s rate of 1.5. But this is not simply the result of people freely choosing not to have children. When Canadian women are asked about their ideal family size, they say two children on average. Men desire slightly larger families again, with an ideal family size of 2.13 children. This means the fertility crisis is also a crisis of frustrated hopes.

Similarly, in the UK, a report by the Centre for Social Justice, Baby Bust, says that nine in ten young British women still hope to have children, but that the total childlessness rate could rise as high as 30 pc under current fertility patterns. England’s fertility rate is now below 1.5. Again, the issue is not simply that people no longer want children. It is that many are not achieving the family life they hoped for.

The Canadian report also shows significant differences by religion. Non-religious Canadian women tend to desire 1.55 children, while non-religious men desire 1.83. By contrast, Protestant Christian women desire 2.91 children, and Protestant men 2.96. Catholics and Orthodox Christians are also above the non-religious average, with women desiring 2.16 children and men 2.24. Those belonging to other religious traditions report above-average desired family sizes too: 2.28 children for women and 2.23 for men.

An Iona report from last year called ‘Shall the Religious Inherit Ireland?’ also notes that religious people in Ireland want more children than the non-religious. The figures are three children versus two.

Women with conservative views are also more likely to want larger families. Ethnic background matters as well. Canadians of East Asian ancestry have appreciably lower desired family sizes. By contrast, Canadians of African or Middle Eastern ancestry tend to desire more children than the average, at 2.76 and 2.63 children respectively.

Some of the findings challenge common assumptions. Better educated women tend to want more children, according to the survey. This is important because public debate often assumes that education naturally leads women to reject larger families. The reality is more complex.

The obstacles are also revealing. More than half of Canadian women under 35 who would ideally like a bigger family report some kind of financial barrier, but money is not the only issue. Men are more likely than women to identify financial worries, while women report a wider range of concerns connected with childcare, support, and the practical burden of raising children.

This points to a broader lesson. If countries such as Canada, Ireland and Britain want to address falling fertility, they must begin by taking seriously what people themselves say they want and why their desires to have a larger family are not fulfilled.