Sir, – Thomas Ryan (February 4th) credits Lucinda Creighton’s suggestion that it is possible to introduce legislation on abortion without addressing the suicide issue. He also states that the Green Paper on abortion in 1999 lists the course of action proposed by Ms Creighton as one of the possible legislative responses to the X case.
I think Ms Creighton’s suggestion could lead to more problems of clarity. If the proposed abortion legislation is silent on psychological or suicidal grounds, these grounds could easily be raised in a common law action as the Supreme Court decision has set a precedent on this matter in the X case. Legislation cannot overule a Supreme Court decision. – Yours, etc,