Sir, – I read with interest the letter by a group of academics (August 13th) calling on the Government to legislate for the X case.
In their contribution, one encounters a distortion of language (“life-saving abortions”) that conceals the deadly effects of abortion for the unborn.
The writers are clearly unaware of the fact, proclaimed for years, that Ireland is the safest place in the world both for expectant mothers and for their unborn children.
They also seem to be ignorant of, or choose to ignore, the distinction between the direct and intentional taking of the life of the unborn – which is what the term “abortion” refers to – and the indirect and unintended death of the unborn which occurs during procedures carried out to save an expectant mother.
It is precisely because Irish doctors do make this distinction that Ireland continues to be the safest place both for expectant mothers and for their unborn children.
“Twenty-five teachers and researchers from a range of Ireland’s third-level institutions” the writers may well be. Appeal to authority, they might well know, is the weakest form of argument. Appeal to their own authority when their case is supported by such flawed argumentation is risible. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – The Supreme Court came to a conclusion in the X case that psychiatric grounds (essentially the possibility of suicide) overrode the protection afforded by the Constitution to the unborn.
Astonishingly, this decision was reached without consulting any psychiatric advice. Rather than legislating on the basis of a perhaps ill-advised judgment, we should first re-run the X case with the necessary professional inputs. – Yours, etc,