Dr Sheila Matthews dimissal case

I learn with deep dismay that Dr Sheila Matthews from Kettering has had her appeal on religious discrimination rejected. The Christian community paediatrician had been dismissed last year over her conviction that children should not routinely be placed with same sex couples. Whilst dovetailing with her Christian beliefs, .this belief was based on scientific evidence: she held it was basic common sense, backed up by international studies on childhood development.

Incredibly Judge MacMillan held that Dr Matthews was not discriminated against because anyone who held the same views, of whatever religion or none, would have been treated in the same way. The judge cited his conversation with a Muslim judge who had said that Muslims would have the same concerns as the paediatrician.

It is bizarre that discrimination is fine if you discriminate simultaneously against a number of groups. That you can discriminate against Asians because you would similarly discriminate against Africans, Martians and women. Clearly this is stupid. One may also conjecture that had the Muslim judge been adjudicating, he might have been more sympathetic.

This is not anti-homosexual, she had requested simply not to be involved in such cases. It is sad indictment of our legal process that professional judgment and religious conviction can be trampled underfoot. There are very many of us who affirm that placing the child with a homosexual couple is never in their best interest.



Colin Bricher
Christian Peoples Alliance party