Sir, – Colm O'Gorman of Amnesty International Ireland tells us that some people oppose abortion "based on an unshakable belief that human life begins at the point of conception" ("Head to head: Colm O'Gorman argues in favour of repealing the eighth amendment", Opinion & Analysis, July 9th). He says he respects this as a principled position, but he clearly disagrees with the substance of the position. That human life begins at conception is not just a principled position, it is a biological fact. There can be no valid reason to disbelieve the fact that human life begins at conception which means that Mr O'Gorman has no foundation on which to build his case for allowing abortion in certain cases, although I grant that these particular cases, such as rape, incest and fatal fetal abnormality, are difficult and very challenging.
Two human lives are involved in every abortion scenario, one born and one unborn. Mr O’Gorman proposes that, in certain difficult cases, in addition to the clear-cut case where the pregnancy puts the life of the mother at risk, we should allow the unborn life to be killed in order to ameliorate circumstances for the born life.
This is a very odd position for Amnesty International to advocate, dedicated as it is to promoting and protecting human rights – for example Amnesty International is completely opposed, and rightly so, to capital punishment in all circumstances. The unborn human life is entirely innocent of any wrongdoing, is entirely helpless and unable to advocate for himself or herself and depends on society for protection. But amazingly Mr O’Gorman vigorously advocates, on behalf of Amnesty International Ireland, for the right to deny amnesty to certain unborn lives. – Yours, etc,
WILLIAM REVILLE,
Cork.