Madam, - I think it is very important that Justice Adrian Hardiman's comment on the Baby Ann case be made widely known:
"It would be quite untrue to say that the Constitution puts the rights of parents first and those of children second. It fully acknowledges 'the natural and imprescriptible rights' and the human dignity of children but equally recognises the inescapable fact that a young child cannot exercise his or her own rights.
"The Constitution does not prefer parents to children. The preference the Constitution gives is this: it prefers parents to third parties, official or private, priest or social worker, as the enablers and guardians of the child's rights. . . Both according to the natural order, and according to the constitutional order, the rights and duties necessary [ for securing a child's welfare] are vested in the child's parents."
In view of the above, why is it proposed to have a referendum for the protection of children? - Yours, etc,
Mrs MARY STEWART,
Ardeskin,
Donegal Town.