Madam, - A lot of the criticism in your letters pages regarding the recent ruling on frozen embryos Mr Justice McGovern has come from Roman Catholic priests. This included an attack on science by the professor of moral theology in Maynooth, to which you were recently good enough to publish my response.
It is important, at this stage, to remind ourselves about the situation that existed when the Catholic Church had the ability to influence legislation in this State. We had laws against divorce and contraception, not to mention censorship laws which were applied in an outrageous fashion. If they could have been policed, I have little doubt we would have had laws against masturbation and extra-marital sex. The effect the church had on people's minds certainly engendered great feelings of guilt in relation to those activities.
We still have an absolute ban on abortion, though the people have overwhelmingly stopped short of preventing travel to obtain one and we seem to have no difficulty in publicising abortion services abroad. This must mean that a majority believes that abortion is justified in certain circumstances.
Issues such as the treatment of frozen embryos and, indeed, abortion, cannot be seen in the simplistic, ban-everything terms that existed in the past. They have to be subject to sensible decision-making based on compassionate ethics, as opposed to the blind application of a "revealed" moral code.
The good news is that, as in the case of the reproductive and sexual matters referred to above, Irish people have shown themselves to be capable of this.
On the question of abortion, the slogan adopted by the Clintons, Hillary and Bill, to the effect that it should be "safe, legal and rare" seems to me to be a good place to make a start. - Yours, etc,
SEAMUS McKENNA, Farrenboley Park, Windy Arbour, Dublin 14.