These groups anticipate that abortion services will be available inthe State, writes Eamon O'Dwyer
The campaign for a Yes vote is spearheaded by the Pro-Life Campaign, with the Bishops' Conference stating that Catholics "should feel free in conscience to support this measure, even if it is viewed as less than might have been desired". Those who advocate a No vote fall into two disparate groups, ideologically poles apart, and yet working for the defeat of the referendum.
The Alliance for a No Vote, the Irish Family Planning Association, Well Woman Centre, the Labour Party and others hope rejection of the referendum will open the door to abortion - the deliberate, intentional destruction of unborn human life. They hope and anticipate that, with a more liberal Medical Council, abortion services will become available within the State. Hence, they are campaigning for retention of the X case judgment, and maintenance of a status quo - for the time being.
Meanwhile, anti-abortion groups, notably the Mother and Child campaign, oppose it on the grounds that the proposed constitutional amendment does not go far enough in protecting unborn human life.
The former group claim that passage of the referendum will place women's lives at risk and that this is particularly so in the case of suicide, as the Act provides only for a medical procedure "necessary to prevent a real and substantial risk of loss of the woman's life other than by self-destruction".
That women's lives will be put at risk could not be further from the truth. With existing medical practice Ireland is one of the safest countries in the world in which to have a baby. Doctors and midwives take justifiable pride in their enviable record in this regard.
The Labour Party's cheap political placard - "Let's Trust Women, Respect Women's right to Life" - is an insult to doctors and midwives alike, where the first principle underlying maternity care is primum non nocere - first do no injury.
The aim of the proposed amendment is to ensure that all women will continue to receive whatever treatment is necessary during pregnancy for the preservation of life and health. There is no question whatsoever of subordinating the mother's right to life to that of her unborn child. The aim of obstetricians and midwives is to promote the fullness of human life, including unborn life, through principles that affirm the sanctity of human life and the dignity of the person. They strive to make pregnancy and childbirth safe for the mother and her unborn child.
What about suicide during pregnancy? Like Profs Casey and Clare I am concerned at "the central position that is being given to psychiatry in the current debate on abortion".
During 40 years as a consultant obstetrician/gynaecologist in teach- ing hospitals in Dublin and Galway I cannot recollect a single case of suicide during pregnancy. I agree with my colleagues in psychiatry that "abortion is not a psychiatric matter".
In addition to post-abortion syndrome, now well documented, abortion is associated with significant morbidity.
A recent survey by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, London, into the results of abortion in England and Wales, found that complications, especially pelvic infection and bleeding, occurred in 34 per cent of cases. Complications, such as infection, may have long-term ill-effects, especially in relation to future fertility.
But while abortion carries a certain risk to the mother, it kills the unborn baby.
What about the concerns of the Mother and Child Campaign? As has been the case in the United Kingdom, it would be impossible in Ireland to sustain a criminal charge involving the use of the morning-after pill because of the difficulty of proving intent.
What about research on human embryos, such as stem cell research or therapeutic cloning?
There is no doubt that the Constitution, by virtue of Article 40, s.3 subs. 3, where the State recognises the right to life of the unborn, protects the pre-implanted (un-implanted) embryo from research.
While this is so, the word "unborn" has, as yet, not been interpreted by the Supreme Court. There is the danger that the court might be attracted to the legal interpretation in the United States and the UK where unborn life is life in the womb, and pregnancy is considered not to have commenced until the embryo has implanted in the womb, rather than at fertilisation (conception).
Because of this danger, however unlikely, it is essential that legislation to protect human embryos, whether surplus to requirements in in vitro-fertilisation programmes, or otherwise brought into being, be enacted.
The Minister of State for Science and Technology, Mr Noel Treacy, is to be complimented for his stand against human embryo stem cell research and therapeutic cloning at a meeting of his European Union colleagues in Brussels last December, where he restated Ireland's total rejection of such activities. He added that while there was no legislation, the Government appreciated the support of the Medical Council which considered research involving human embryos unethical and professional misconduct.
However, while the Medical Council has disciplinary control over doctors, registered in the Register of Medical Practitioners, it has no such control over non-medical scientists. The fact that by a majority of 12 to 7 the council decided some months ago that there was a need for abortion in certain circumstances gives a certain urgency to the need for statutory protection of human embryos from research.
On a more hopeful note - there is increasing evidence that adult stem cells, that is cells derived from adult tissue such as bone marrow, for example, may be just as efficient, if not more efficient, in treating diseases, such as Parkinson's, than stem cells derived from embryos.
The Second Vatican Council declared free choice to be "an exceptional sign of the divine image in man, in accordance with our dignity as persons, that is beings endowed with reason and free will and therefore privileged to bear personal responsibility". (Gaudium et Spes. 12)
Eamon O'Dwyer is Professor emeritus of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the National University of Ireland, Galway