Sir, – Colm O'Gorman of Amnesty International (December 15th) objects to the use of the term "life-limiting disability" in respect of terminal conditions diagnosed in the womb, and insists that they be described as "fatal" foetal impairments. He goes on to object to the use of "materially incorrect terms . . . which confuse and mislead" and demands that the "accepted language" be used.
Since Mr O'Gorman seems to be such an authority on the use of correct terminology, I would have expected that he would be familiar with a 2012 study published in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology on this very topic. The authors examined 75 separate studies in this area and compiled a comprehensive list of 26 distinct disorders which are commonly termed as being "fatal" or "lethal" in common parlance.
In their conclusions, they found that “none of the malformations that are commonly described as being ‘lethal’ are in fact lethal in the strict sense. Prolonged survival has been described in all of the conditions listed”. They also found that in their short lives, babies born with several of these so-called “fatal” conditions such as anencephaly and trisomy 13 have gone on to “experience awareness of those around them, hear and respond to sound, and to learn and remember”.
So why are these conditions so often referred to as being "fatal", and why has this come to be viewed as the "accepted language" by Mr O'Gorman and others? The damning conclusion of the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology study is that, apart from cases of misdiagnosis, such terminology is often used "to make it easier for women to come to terms with termination of the pregnancy" and, shockingly, where "practitioners are aware that death is not inevitable, but believe that survivors will not have a life that is worth living".
In other words, a condition is referred to as “fatal” in order to make the option of abortion more palatable to parents who find themselves plunged into this tragic situation.
These are not the conclusions of some pro-life group or religious evangelical society. They are the findings of the internationally respected, editorially independent and peer-reviewed journal of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in London.
They have based their use of terminology on medical and scientific fact, whereas Mr O’Gorman bases his on a pro-choice political ideology. – Yours, etc,
BARRY WALSH,
Clontarf, Dublin 3.