Mother and Child Scheme

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The Mother and Child Scheme was a

Roman Catholic Church
in the early 1950s.

The scheme was referred to as the Mother and Child Service in legislation. A brochure, "What the new service means to every family", was prepared. It explained the new service but was not issued to the public. The scheme was engulfed in crisis before this could happen.

Background

Since the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922 responsibility in the government for healthcare had lain with the Minister for Local Government and Public Health. No significant reform of healthcare occurred in this time and the Catholic Church still retained effective control through the ownership of hospitals and schools, while family doctors still largely practised in isolation of other medical professionals.

The

Second World War there was renewed optimism after the depression of the preceding decades. Once the Emergency was over the political agenda started to shift from Irish Civil War politics, which had dominated politics, to the domestic agenda and social issues. In particular issues like employment, health and housing came to the fore and this manifested itself in a move away from Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael
.

Regarding healthcare, international trends such as in the

First Inter-Party Government
would be left with the responsibility of implementing the scheme.

The scheme

In 1948 Dr. Noël Browne, a new T.D. for Clann na Poblachta, and a socialist, became Minister for Health in a coalition government. Browne was an admirer of Fianna Fáil's 1947 Health Act[4] and intended to implement its provisions as part of a plan to reduce the alarmingly high rate of child mortality (especially from tuberculosis) in Ireland,[5][6][7] modernise the Irish healthcare system and make it free and without means-testing for mothers and their children up to the age of 16.[4] He was impressed with the National Health Service in the United Kingdom[8] and successful medical procedural reforms in Denmark which reduced child mortality.[9] He tackled the domestic health issues and was acclaimed for the results.[10]

In July 1950, Browne's department formally submitted the scheme to the

Irish Medical Association.[11] The Association had originally opposed the 1947 bill, mentioning the "socialisation of medicine."[4][10] In this opposition it was supported by at least one member of the coalition cabinet: Fine Gael T.D. Dr. Thomas F. O'Higgins, the Minister for Defence
and a former member of the executive of the Association.

More important was the opposition of the

Archbishop of Dublin, John Charles McQuaid, who summoned Browne to his palace[8] and read out a letter to be sent to the Taoiseach, John A. Costello, penned by Dr. James Staunton, Bishop of Ferns, which included the words "...they [the Archbishops and bishops] feel bound by their office to consider whether the proposals are in accordance with Catholic moral teaching," and, "Doctors trained in institutions in which we have no confidence may be appointed as medical officers ... and may give gynaecological care not in accordance with Catholic principles".[12][13] The letter stated that health provision and physical education for children were solely the right of parents and not the State's concern. Archbishop McQuaid was the chairman of some boards of directors of Dublin hospitals. He exercised considerable influence concerning medical appointments and control over the religious orders whose members made up much of the administrative and management staff in hospitals, sanatoria etc.[14][15] Concerning the term "moral teaching" in the letter to the Taoiseach, Browne received supportive advice – in secret – from Francis Cremin, a Maynooth professor of theology and canon law.[8]

Several bishops, McQuaid included, feared that the scheme could pave the way for abortion and birth control. Though some clergy might have been privately sympathetic to Browne and wished to reach an accommodation, what was viewed as Browne's tactless handling of the Catholic Church forced the moderates into silence, allowing the anti-Mother and Child Scheme members of the hierarchy under McQuaid to set the agenda.[16]

Many in the Anglican Church of Ireland community also disagreed with the scheme. The Church of Ireland Gazette saw it as 'communist' interference in the family.[citation needed]

Numerous doctors disapproved of the scheme, some on principle, others because they feared a loss of income and a fear of becoming a kind of

socialised medicine". Browne refused to back down on the issue but received little support even from his cabinet colleagues, most of whom he had alienated on other matters, notably his failure to attend many cabinet meetings and the lack of support which he had shown them in other crises. Isolated in cabinet as a 'loner' who did not consult with his more experienced cabinet colleagues,[17] he also faced the hostility of his own party leader, Seán MacBride, with whom he had also fallen out, as he had with most members of the Clann na Poblachta Parliamentary Party, who resented his appointment to cabinet over the heads of more senior colleagues, and who were also offended by his treatment of them.[18]

In April 1951, MacBride demanded Browne's resignation as a minister. Browne duly submitted his resignation to the Taoiseach John A. Costello for submission to President O'Kelly.[19] The resignation took effect from 11 April 1951. In his resignation statement, Browne told the House:

I had been led to believe that my insistence on the exclusion of a means test had the full support of my colleagues in the Government. I now know that it had not. Furthermore, the Hierarchy has informed the Government that they must regard the mother and child scheme proposed by me as opposed to Catholic social teaching. This decision I, as a Catholic, immediately accepted without hesitation.[20]

During the subsequent Dáil debate on the resignation, Tánaiste and Labour Party leader William Norton claimed:

...if this matter had been handled with tact, with understanding and with forbearance by the Minister responsible, I believe we would not have had the situation which has been brought about to-day.[21]

Browne explained his approach to the Dáil by saying:

I might say that my question to their Lordships was: Is this contrary to Catholic moral teaching? The reply, as you all know, was that it is contrary to Catholic social teaching. I was not aware — the Taoiseach can verify this — until I had asked each member of the Cabinet separately what he proposed to do, what he had been given to understand by Dr. McQuaid when that decision was taken. He then told us that that morning he had been informed by Dr. McQuaid that Catholic social teaching and Catholic moral teaching were one and the same thing.[22]

Aftermath

The following month a general election was called and in June 1951 a new government was formed as a result.

A derivative of the scheme was implemented subsequently by the

Voluntary Health Insurance Board in 1957. Although a single-payer system emerged in Ireland, the 1957 Act ended immediate attempts to implement a National Health Service-style healthcare model. Thus the private and public systems existing side-by-side, later reinforced by the 1970 Health Act, which changed healthcare from the responsibility of the county to a smaller number of regional health boards.[24][25] The transfer of responsibility from local authority to state led to the introduction of the Unmarried Mother's Allowance in 1973, the first direct State payment to assist an unmarried woman to rear her child in the community.[26]

References

Citations

  1. ^ Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Act, 1946 Archived 30 November 2005 at the Wayback Machine
  2. ^ Health Act, 1947 Archived 28 November 2005 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ Kelly; Hogan; Whyte (2003). The Irish Constitution (4th ed.). LexisNexis Butterworth. §4.5.110.
  4. ^ a b c (Browne 1986, p. 149)
  5. ^ Kelly, S. (2011). "Stigma and silence: oral histories of tuberculosis" (PDF). Retrieved 2 January 2015.
  6. ^ Condon, D. (2008). "Pre-immunisation — Ireland in the bad old days". Irish Health. Retrieved 2 January 2015.
  7. ^ Hunter, N (2013). "Record low TB rate in Ireland". Irish Health. Retrieved 2 January 2015.
  8. ^ a b c (Browne 1986, p. 157)
  9. ^ (Browne 1986, p. 111)
  10. ^ a b O'Brien, M.; O'Brien, C.C. (1977). A Concise History of Ireland. London: Thames & Hudson. p. 161.
  11. ^ (Browne 1986, p. 156)
  12. ^ [letter quoted from] O'Dowd, M. (ed.) (2002) The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing Volume V: Irish Women's writing and traditions. New York: New York University Press, p170
  13. ^ (Browne 1986, p. 158)
  14. ^ A medical stalwart now happy in exile. Irish Health [online] http://www.irishhealth.com/clin/sexual_health/features2.html?artid=18437. [accessed 2 January 2015]
  15. ^ (Browne 1986, p. 142)
  16. ^ According to James Dillon, Browne's cabinet colleague, he (Dillon) had a quiet word with the moderate Archbishop of Tuam, Dr Walsh, in an attempt to defuse the row. Walsh agreed to try to calm down the controversy and secretly meet Browne. When Dillon told Browne of this development, Browne went down to Walsh's residence without first arranging an appointment. Walsh was away on Church business. In what Dillon saw as a disastrous error, Browne travelled to meet the neighbouring bishop, Dr. Dignan, a "lunatic" in Dillon's view and one of Browne's most trenchant critics. They had an argument that inflamed the situation. In revealing that he had originally gone down to see Walsh, Browne compromised the position of the potential go-between, who was forced to accede to the demands of his more hardline colleagues.
  17. ^ Gabriel Kelly et al. (eds), Irish Social Policy in Context (UCD Press, 1999) p. 29.
  18. ^ Maurice Manning, James Dillon: A Biography (Wolfhound Press, 2000) p. 228.
  19. ^ Dáil Debates: 11 April 1951 Vol. 125 Col. 641.
  20. ^ Dáil Debates: 12 April 1951 Vol 125 Col 667.
  21. ^ Dáil Debates: 17 April 1951 Vol 125 Col 954.
  22. ^ Dáil Debates: 17 April 1951 Vol 125 Col 947–948.
  23. ^ Health Act, 1954
  24. ^ Health Act, 1970
  25. ^ Corbett, Teresa (27 January 2015). "A brief history of healthcare in Ireland". NUIG Health Psychology Blog. Retrieved 17 July 2021.
  26. Independent.ie
    . The Argus. 1973. Retrieved 17 July 2021.

Sources

  • Browne, Noel (1986). Against The Tide. Dublin: Gill & McMillan.
  • Counihan, H. E. (2002). "The Medical Association and the Mother and Child Scheme". Irish Journal of Medical Science. 171 (2): 110–115.
    ISSN 0021-1265
    .
  • Department of Health (July 1952). Proposals for improved and extended health services July, 1952 (PDF). Official publications. Vol. Pr.1333. Dublin: Stationery Office. Retrieved 13 November 2016.
  • McKee, Eamonn (November 1986). "Church-State Relations and the Development of Irish Health Policy: The Mother-and-Child Scheme, 1944-53". Irish Historical Studies. 25 (98): 159–194.
    JSTOR 30008527
    .
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