THE Catholic and Church of Ireland bishops of Raphoe have taken opposite positions on vasectomy services at Letterkenny General Hospital, Co Donegal.
Appointments for the new vasectomy clinic there were stopped by the North Western Health Board on March 20th, following a protest by three doctors outside the clinic on March 14th, the it opened.
Yesterday, Dr Philip Boyce, the Bishop of Raphoe, repeated the Catholic Church's condemnation of vasectomy, as he had done in his Easter message. He said that "anyone who followed Christian, Catholic teaching would find it very difficult to co operate in the provision of such a service".
However, the Bishop of Derry and Raphoe, Dr James Mehaffey, has said that no particular viewpoint "should be allowed interfere with or impede provisions enacted into law by the State". The clinic's closure raised "very grave concerns about the promotion and encouragement of a pluralist society".
Dr Boyce yesterday described vasectomy as "a type of mutilation" - We did not have permission "from the Lord who created it, to destroy life in any way", he told The Irish Times, and pointed out that the organ affected was used in the procreation of life.
Dr Mehaffey said he understood that the Health (Family Planning) Amendment Act 1992 placed a responsibility on health boards to provide a comprehensive family planning service. Since then, the State had made it clear (through guidelines issued by the Department of Health in 1995) that part of that responsibility includes providing vasectomy services, he said.
He continued that "in a modern pluralist society, such as Ireland, there has to be accommodation for different religious and ethical points of view, and there can be no place for the dominance of one point of view to the exclusion of consideration of others."
Dr Boyce agreed the circumstances in Letterkenny provided difficulties for the civil authorities, but he was giving direction, on the matter in response to queries. There was he felt "a great degree of ignorance (as regards Catholic Church teaching) on the matter".
It was his view that alternative family planning methods were available to people, such as "natural family planning, self control, and discipline, none of which makes people unhappy". Fundamentally, the Catholic Church's stance on the issue was due to the very high standing in which it held the dignity of the human person, he said.
Dr Mehaffey explained that in the Church of Ireland decisions arrived at concerning family planning by a husband and wife "should follow serious consideration by the couple and must be mutually acceptable in Christian conscience". Careful thought should be given to the matter, he said "particularly as regards vasectomy, which is irreversible".
