The Life Institute has said that the recent nomination of Irish High Court judge, Justice Liam McKechnie, to the Supreme Court is of concern to pro-life activists. The Life Institute spokesman  said that the government's decision to nominate McKechnie is particularly worrying given that it comes after the ‘leapfrog’ appointment of barrister Dónal Ó Donnell straight from the Bar on to the Supreme Court.

O'Donnell argued against recognising the right to life of an anecephalic child in the D case in 2007, where barristers argued in the High Court that Baby D deserved no legal protection because his/her condition meant he/she was not an "unborn person".

Curiously, Judge McKechnie heard the D case, and his ruling was widely condemned by pro-life groups and disability activists when he described the baby at the centre of the case as “an aberration of nature”.

Justice McKechnie has made several controversial rulings such as the high-profile case involving the Lydia Foy transsexual case, which came before him twice. He replaces Justice Hugh Hugh Geoghegan, who retired last month.

His nomination came the day after it was announced that the Government was withdrawing its appeal against his 2007 judgment that the Civil Registration Act 2004, which did not permit the issuing of a new birth certificate to Lydia Foy, a transsexual, was incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.

The Life Institute said that given the predilection of the abortion industry to use the courts in attempts to overrule pro-life laws, these most recent government nominees should be a cause of concern.