DONAL O'DRISCOLL,
Sir, - In opening its High Court case concerning the deportation order on a pregnant Nigerian woman, the State is reported to have said in its statement that "it denied that the first named Applicant is a person or has a right to legal personality" (The Irish Times, January 9th and 10th).
Despite the apparent abandonment of this line, it is appalling that representatives of the Irish State should have even contemplated such an approach in the first instance.
The Constitution places a duty on the State to acknowledge, defend and vindicate the right to life of the unborn child. The Government's original intention of arguing that the unborn child is a non-person has chilling resonances, and would have been in total contradiction of its constitutional obligations. - Yours, etc.,
DONAL O'DRISCOLL, Dargle Road, Blackrock, Co Dublin.