TONY O'BRIEN,
Sir, - I read Tánaiste Mary Harney's justification (February 5th) of her U-turn on the suicide and abortion question with a growing sense of incredulity.
Ms Harney seeks to justify her support for the referendum by reference to what she characterises as the positive aspects of the legislative package. Whether there are any genuinely positive aspects is in itself debatable. I would say that there are not. The PDs' persistent attempts to use emergency contraception as their life-raft in this debate relies upon a misrepresentation of their own proposals. Ms Harney's reliance on a publicity stunt legal action taken by one of the many desperate and increasingly fractious wings of the hopelessly split so-called Pro-Life movement as justification for her actions, smacks of desperation.
What is clear is that she makes no attempt, in her letter, to justify the removal of the limited protections currently afforded in the context of suicide risk. Her avoidance of this issue is noteworthy. Not just because what is now proposed flies in the face of her earlier policies and pronouncements, and those of her friend the Attorney General, but because it is precisely this issue which results in the necessity to submit the package of measures to the people in referendum. Without this attack on the rights of pregnant women who may be suicidal, the requirement for a referendum would not have arisen. All the other measures, those Ms Harney feels able to promote and justify, could and should have been dealt with by straightforward legislation.
I am sorry to say that Ms Harney and her party cannot escape responsibility for this referendum and its effects on any future Miss X or C. A No vote may help them to escape responsibility for the consequences which will otherwise flow from these appalling proposals. It's still not too late for them to join the No campaign and they should do so forthwith. - Yours, etc.,
TONY O'BRIEN,
Chief Executive,
Irish Family Planning
Association,
Pearse Street,
Dublin 2.
... ... * ... * ... * ... ...
Sir, - I am always struck by what I perceive to be a contradiction in the abortion debate. The people who support the pro-life position invariably argue that abortion is the taking of life. However, the referendum proposes that abortion be permitted when the life of the mother is in jeopardy.
Doesn't this mean that what is really at stake here is not whether or not we should be taking innocent lives, but when can we take innocent lives, and more importantly, who decides when an innocent life can be taken, the individual or the govenment? - Yours, etc.,
JOE BOYLE,
Edgewood Avenue,
San Francisco.