Sir, – The letter from Barry Walsh (December 16th) warrants a response to ensure correct information is being relayed. In his letter, he takes some information from a paper called Fatally Flawed? A Review and Ethical Analysis of Lethal Congenital Malformations, by DJC Wilkinson, P Thiele, A Watkins and L De Crespigny.
First, Mr Walsh asserts that the study states that babies born with anencephaly “experience awareness of those around them, hear and respond to sound, and to learn and remember”. The study does not make this statement. In the same sentence quoted, it explicitly says that this only applies to some cases of holoprosencephaly, hydranencephaly, and trisomy 13 and 18; not anencephaly. Indeed, due to the lack of cerebrum in cases of anencephaly, it’s not possible for a baby with it to ever have awareness of their surroundings.
Second, Mr Walsh gives only part of “the damning conclusion” from the paper. In the study, the authors outline the reasons why the term “lethal malformation” may be used. Aside from those Mr Walsh outlined, the other reasons are: 1) “practitioners may mistakenly believe that conditions like those listed . . . are not compatible with survival beyond the newborn period”; 2) “it may be that the term ‘lethal’ is believed to be an effective way of communicating the grave nature of the fetus’ prognosis”.
The actual conclusion of the paper is this: the authors do not suggest that the term “lethal malformation” (or what we refer to as fatal foetal abnormality) not be used at all, as clearly such conditions are real and are experienced by people every day; instead the authors strongly recommend that it be used only with full clarity as to what it means.
I fear that by not taking the paper as a whole, some people may be led to believe that it suggests that fatal abnormalities do not exist. The simple fact is that they do, and the paper itself mentions that in cases of renal agenesis [failure of the kidneys to develop] the median survival period is under one day, and there have been no cases of survivors beyond one week. For anencephaly, the median survival period is much less than a day, with 3 to 5 per cent surviving beyond a week. – Yours, etc,
CONOR FARRELL,
Beaumont,
Dublin 9.
Sir, – I find it highly ironic, given Amnesty International’s current opposition to the Eighth (Life Equality) Amendment of the Irish Constitution, that it continues to name its office in Ireland after a person, Seán MacBride, who supported the proposal in 1983.
Amnesty’s controversial campaign against the human rights of the most vulnerable section in society is not only a betrayal of the right to life of unborn babies, it is also a gross betrayal of the vision of pioneering human rights activists such as Seán MacBride. – Yours, etc,
ELAINE NOONAN,
Glenageary,Co Dublin.
Sir, – Thomas Ryan (December 17th) makes the offensive charge that my using the term "severe and fatal foetal impairment" is designed to "use the genuine sympathy of Irish people for parents whose child has been diagnosed with fatal foetal abnormalities . . . to usher in the introduction of abortion for much less serious and non-fatal conditions". He says severe fatal impairment is a term I and Amnesty International appear to have made up.
Had he searched more widely than just this paper’s archives, Mr Ryan would have found that it is a term the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women uses. This is a body created by states, including Ireland, to monitor states’ compliance with a UN human rights treaty that Ireland has ratified. It has advised that access to abortion on the ground of “severe foetal impairment” is required of states under that treaty. The distinction is that “severe foetal impairment” refers to serious medical conditions that may not be deemed “fatal” in the literal or narrow sense of the word, in that survival beyond birth may be possible – for hours or days, and in some cases longer.
So, conscious that the term “fatal” does not fully reflect the reality that these impairments cannot be medically diagnosed as inevitably leading to stillbirth or death immediately after birth, Amnesty International uses the term “severe and fatal foetal impairment”.
Had he looked at our website, he would have found a detailed page clarifying this (among other aspects of our global position on abortion).
Rather than a strategy to mislead people or to slip into the debate some additional grounds for abortion, our using this term is an effort to be very clear and precise about what the more commonly used term “fatal foetal impairment” actually means, and therefore what is demanded of Ireland by the international human rights framework it (not Amnesty International) created. – Yours, etc,
COLM O’GORMAN,
Executive Director,
Amnesty International
Ireland,
Seán MacBride House,
Fleet Street,Dublin 2.