Friday 23 September 2011

Defending parental rights in Northern Ireland

An SPUC Northern Ireland conference entitled Defending Parental Rights will take place on Saturday 10th March 2012 at Belfast Castle in the north of the city.

Speakers will include Pat Ramsey (SDLP MLA and deputy chairman of the Stormont All-party Pro-life Group) and Jim Wells (DUP MLA, deputy chairman of the Assembly’s health committee).

Prof David Paton (Nottingham University School of Business) and Dr Patrick Fagan* (Director of the Marriage and Religion Research Institute, Washington DC), pictured, will also address the conference. It will look at the current practice of providing birth control to children under the age of consent without the knowledge of their parents and the impact of this policy on family life.
*Patrick F. Fagan
Senior Fellow and Director, Center for Research on Marriage and Religion


Patrick F. Fagan is Senior Fellow and Director of the Marriage and Religion Research Institute (MARRI), which examines the relationships among family, marriage, religion, community, and America's social problems, as illustrated in the social science data. The Center has a particular emphasis on the relationship between marital stability coupled with the practice of religion and their joint impacts on our social infrastructure (issues such as happiness, health, mental health and general well being, income and savings, educational attainment and family stability as well as such negative outcomes as poverty, crime, abuse, and drug addiction).

A native of Ireland, Patrick Fagan earned his Bachelor of Social Science degree with a double major in sociology and social administration, and a professional graduate degree in psychology (Dip. Psych.) as well as a Ph.D. from University College Dublin.

Patrick Fagan started his career as a grade school teacher in Cork, Ireland, then returned to college to become a psychologist, going to Canada to practice then to Washington, D.C. to pursue a doctorate in clinical psychology. In 1984, Fagan moved from the clinical world into the public policy arena, to work on family issues at the Free Congress Foundation. After that he worked for Senator Dan Coats of Indiana, then was appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary for Family and Community Policy at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services by President George H.W. Bush, before spending the next thirteen years at the Heritage Foundation where he was a senior fellow.
Contact Liam Gibson for further information at liamgibson@spuc.org.uk

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