Sir, - I am saddened by the tone of Prof Eamon O'Dywer's criticism of me and by inference of the Church of Ireland and its attitude to abortion (November 11th). Let me clarify as best I can the Church of Ireland approach.
It is a biological fact that there is life in the embryo from the earliest stages for it is a living organism, but this is not the same as it being a person, as Prof O'Dwyer accepts, and as is also stated in the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith's document on procured abortion (1974): ". . . it is not up to the biological sciences to make a definitive judgment on questions which are properly philosophical and moral, such as the moment when a human person is constituted or the legitimacy of abortion."
Fr Bernard Haring, the renowned Catholic authority on medical ethics, also admits the validity of doubts about the status of the embryo in the early stages. "Can it be said that at least before the 25th to 40th day, the embryo cannot yet (with certainty) be considered as a human person? Or to put it differently, that only about that time the embryo becomes a being with all the basic rights of a human person? At the present moment, however, this is no more than an opinion which deserves serious consideration and further discussion."
My purpose is not to trade quotations, but to emphasise the point that there is widespread agreement that personhood is not a biological fact, beginning at a certain time; it is something which is realised as development proceeds. The Anglican Archbishop Habgood summarised it thus:
"Biological processes are not amenable to the sharp distinctions that lawyers like to make. It seems to me that the conceptus is neither simply a thing nor simply a person. It is an organism on its way to becoming a person."
Any interference with this process is a serious matter, but not to be equated with the murder of a person, as the more hysterical argue. For this reason the Church of Ireland is opposed to abortion because it ends this process, but also admits that exceptional cases can and do arise, where a termination has to be an option. In the public reaction to the "X" and "C" cases, it is clear we are not alone in that belief. How many more letters of the alphabet do we have to use before it is admitted publicly that such situations can and do arise and should be addressed within this State?
Also, his contention that such situations do not arise is at variance with the opinion of many in his profession. In a survey of 43 out of the 75 obstetricians/ gynaecologists working in public hospitals published in the Sunday Tribune (December 7th, 1997), 76 per cent said they would abort a pregnancy if the life of the mother was in danger and if the rules allowed.
One fact Prof O'Dwyer doesn't mention is that Ireland now has one of the highest abortion rates in Europe, facilitated by our proximity to Britain. In our shared concern for that statistic, perhaps he would accept that he and I have more in common than he might wish to admit. - Yours, etc., Kenneth Kearon,
Dublin 18.