According to Irish High Court Justice Richard Humphries, unborn children are clearly human, and have all the same rights as children who have been born, under the Irish constitution.
Wow! Now if only we could get all the Supreme Court justices in the United States to realize the same!
Humphries made the ruling during a tangled deportation case made more complex by the unborn child fathered by the Nigerian man whom the Irish government is seeking to expel.
The state secured a deportation order in 2008, but the Nigerian, who was claiming refugee status, delayed implementation with various appeals and then sought a judicial review of the original order on the basis of having fathered the child, unborn at the time of his application, by an Irish woman with whom he is still partnered.
Patrick Buckley with the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children said, “The ruling is vitally important at a time when the status of unborn babies in Ireland is once again under grave threat from pro-abortion organizations and the media."
The Nigerian wanted the child to be factored into the request for a judicial hearing because the baby’s rights would strengthen his case to stay in the country. But the government resisted on the grounds the child was unborn and had only one right — to be born.
Humphries ruled that the Eighth Amendment to the Irish constitution protects the "unborn." Therefore, a child who had not been born is still a human child, whose full rights "must be taken seriously."
The Irish government, the judge found, had a duty to consider the best interests of the Nigerian’s unborn child while deliberating on his deportation. The judge, therefore, ordered the government to give the case a judicial review.
“In the light of the High Court’s ruling, we call upon the Government to move to repeal the pro-abortion Protection of Life during Pregnancy Act 2013,” SPUC’s Buckley added, “and to oppose any moves to repeal the Eighth Amendment. The killing of unborn children is both unconstitutional and unethical and therefore must not be allowed in Ireland.”
Regardless of the case or reasoning of the ruling, I believe this sends a strong message. Even the unborn are still human and deserve the most basic of human rights: to be born.
