The state and religion - Any other decision was impossible

YESTERDAY’S ruling that allows doctors to intervene and give blood transfusions to save the lives of two severely anaemic babies immediately after their birth, despite their parents’ objections on religious grounds, is very welcome.

Any other decision by the Supreme Court would have been unimaginable and unacceptable in a society based on values of humanism, tolerance and equality.

Ours is a society where we try, but don’t always succeed, to have respect for the dignity of human life and the wellbeing of all of the individuals who make up this increasingly disparate community.