Sir, – Attempts are often made by those opposed to any loosening of the severe restrictiveness of our abortion law under any circumstance to blur the lines between fatal and non-fatal foetal diagnoses. Barry Walsh (October 15th) lapses into this error.
Anencephaly is untreatable and always fatal. Appealing to the statistically remote chance of an anencephalic surviving for up to one or two years rather than days, hours or not at all, and invoking such anomalous cases to justify denying women the option of termination of an often longed-for pregnancy, while perhaps well-intentioned by some, is ultimately cruel to those women who cannot bear to bring a fatally malformed pregnancy to term.
I do agree with Mr Walsh that framing a constitutional amendment or legislation around this issue would be problematic.
Certainly, adding another constitutional clause to the mess of Article 40.3.3 would merely be shovelling more detritus onto this legislative midden. Consider the onerous and demeaning barriers placed before pregnant women and girls at risk of suicide in the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act 2013. Are devastated women with fatal foetal diagnoses to be subjected to a panel (or two) of up to seven doctors?
The question asked by your poll, of course, is not misleading. Independent, unbiased opinion polling means asking the questions and letting the respondents think for themselves.
It is quite amazing to see anti-abortion campaigners shooting the messengers of all the opinion polls showing their position to be a minority one. The bogeyman of a perceived liberal media bias ("Pro Life Campaign criticises 'extremely biased' media", October 12th) is invariably invoked by some – the poll is "biased" because the questions are not prefaced by their own Newspeak definitions of "abortion", "fatal foetal abnormality", etc. – Yours, etc,
WILSON JOYCE,
Chapelizod,
Dublin 20.