Sir, – Reading the extensive interview ("It's a story we shouldn't have to tell", October 24th) with Helen and Graham Linehan, it seems that the gloves are off when it comes to pushing for abortion to be legalised here.
Any thought of the hurt to all those women who continued with their pregnancies [in the case of fatal foetal abnormality] and cherished the short lives that their babies enjoyed, some of hours, months and even years?
I am glad that at least the Linehans referred to a baby. When did any woman state she was expecting a foetus?
Is it possible to get this debate in perspective? We are talking of a life being extinguished, no matter how short or long it is.
Where are we going when we start to decide who should live and who should die, especially the most vulnerable of all, the baby in the womb?
It is very hard to understand how doctors, trained to protect and save lives, can carry out abortions.
It is no harm to point out that Britain with 200,000 abortions annually is a much less safe place [than the Republic] for maternal care and the aim for everyone should be the most up-to-date and secure care for all women and babies, not the increasing effort to extinguish the weakest and most vulnerable.
If we follow the latter course, surely we are on the way to promoting the survival of the fittest and the abandonment of those we consider unfit for life.
– Yours, etc,
MARY STEWART,
Ardeskin,
Donegal.