“This totally undermines the whole concept of freedom of conscience which was guaranteed in the recent legislation.”

“Laws which permit people to give suicide assistance are dangerous" warns disability campaigner and founder of Hope Ireland, Dr Kevin Fitzpatrick.

“Are we happy to sacrifice two early human lives to make a third?” MP asks of the process involved in creating an embryo with biological material from three people.

Judge rules doctors may end life support treatments to a pregnant woman who has been clinically dead for a number of weeks.

"From the point of view of Catholic teaching on general medical ethics, there is no obligation to use extraordinary means to maintain a life," Archbishop Diarmuid Martin.