Core Issues Trust and the International Foundation for Therapeutic and Counselling Choice (IFTCC) oppose abuse, coercion, degrading treatment and every form of unethical practice, whether therapeutic, pastoral or religious. Such conduct has no place in the care of any person and should never be defended.
The proposed legislation, however, raises a fundamental policy question that deserves careful consideration.
The Bill expressly exempts specified registered healthcare professionals acting in accordance with the standards of their regulatory bodies. In doing so, it recognises only one established professional framework as the legitimate context in which exploratory conversations may continue.
At the same time, the Bill makes no corresponding recognition of lawful pastoral care. This omission is significant.
Across Northern Ireland, churches, ministries and faith communities, parents and friends provide pastoral support to individuals who voluntarily seek help in relation to sexuality, identity and faith. That work is neither healthcare nor psychotherapy. It is a longstanding and lawful expression of religious liberty, freedom of conscience and pastoral ministry. Yet the Bill is silent about its place within the proposed legislative framework.
The Assembly should therefore consider a straightforward question:
If the Bill expressly protects legitimate healthcare provided within recognised professional frameworks, and ignores the role of parents and community workers, why does it make no corresponding recognition of lawful pastoral care and the wider support available in communities?
This is not a request for state regulation of pastoral care, nor for the endorsement of any particular organisation. It is a call for the Assembly to recognise that lawful pastoral care exists outside the healthcare system and that it already operates within ethical standards, safeguarding procedures, supervision, transparency and organisational accountability.
The Bill also relies upon the Memorandum of Understanding on Conversion Therapy as part of its policy foundation. While that Memorandum reflects the position of many healthcare organisations – but not all, it does not represent the full diversity of lawful therapeutic and pastoral practice or professional opinion. One professional framework should not become the only recognised model of lawful support.
This debate should not be confined to what should be criminalised. It should also address what forms of lawful support society wishes to preserve. A legislative framework that expressly recognises one sphere of lawful support while remaining silent about another risks creating uncertainty where clarity is most needed.
Core Issues Trust and the IFTCC respectfully invite Members of the Northern Ireland Assembly to consider this question carefully during scrutiny of the Bill.
Mike Davidson
Chairman
International Foundation for Therapeutic and Counselling Choice.
More information:
Belfast
1 July 2024
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