PADRAIC O BROLCHAIN,
Sir, - Your edition of February 4th reported the Attorney General as saying, when referring to the proposed amendment to the Constitution: "The middle 80 per cent of Irish people, I believe, are the potential market for this particular proposal." A very disturbing comment.
Are we to infer from this that laws are being made on the basis of what the market wants? Have we got to a situation where proposed legislation is being designed and "sold" in the same manner as breakfast cereals and cleansing agents?. - Yours, etc.,
PADRAIC Ó BROLCHAIN, Monkstown, Co Dublin.
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Sir, - In relation to the debate on the abortion referendum, may I suggest to your correspondents that the use of the term "conception" should be avoided or, if used, clearly defined. I have consulted six major medical dictionaries and found that they were equally divided as to whether conception occurs at "implantation of the blastocyst" or "fertilisation of the ovum." This is one area of English language confusion that does not appear to arise from the Atlantic divide. - Yours, etc.,
JOHN A. SMYTH, LRCPSI, FRCPC, Department of Paediatrics, Children's & Women's Health Centre of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.