`Fair City' missed opportunity on abortion

Given the cut-throat battle for TV ratings, it was probably inevitable that sooner or later the scriptwriters of RTE's Fair City…

Given the cut-throat battle for TV ratings, it was probably inevitable that sooner or later the scriptwriters of RTE's Fair City would focus on abortion. They flirted with it before, but the current plot concerns two of the soap's most popular characters, ex-priest Malachy, played by Gerard Byrne, and his wife, the pub-owning Kay, played by Sheila McWade.

It is obvious that the scriptwriters chose with care the condition, trisomy thirteen or Patau's syndrome, from which Kay's and Malachy's child suffers. Tragically, a baby with this condition will either die in the womb, or if it survives will have multiple handicaps and is unlikely to live very long. So the scriptwriters probably believed that such a condition would maximise viewer sympathy for Kay, who chooses to have an abortion because she feels it wrong to bring such a child into the world.

But perhaps the producers reckoned without the fact that no matter how rare a condition is, it is almost inevitable that it has affected families here in Ireland. So one group of families watched Fair City with great attention this week - those who have experienced the reality of having a baby with trisomy thirteen.

The Martins are one of those families. Their little girl, Christina, was born with a vestigial extra digit on each hand, a cleft palate, was blind and deaf and had severe internal defects which intermittently caused her great pain during her 14 short weeks of life.

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Moira believed she had given birth to a perfect little girl until she counted her fingers and toes. When she said to her husband that the baby had six fingers on each hand, a hush fell in the delivery room, and an experienced nurse ran her finger inside Christina' s mouth, thereby discovering the cleft palate.

Full marks to Sheila McWade for conveying the kind of anguish which parents feel when they receive such a diagnosis. The Martins were shattered. Given that, when I heard Moira Martin being interviewed on Today With Pat Kenny, I was intrigued when she started to talk about her passionate love for her child. Unfortunately, Pat Kenny interrupted her at that point, and so I was left wondering what she had intended to say.

So I rang her, and she was happy to elaborate. She told me that she was besotted with her child, that she had an overwhelming urge to cherish her and to protect her. It was their burning desire to bring their baby home. She and her husband, Jim, had to overcome their fear of tube-feeding, a terrifying experience for any parent as it involves inserting a tube into the baby's tiny nose and down the throat. They learned how to do it, and it was one of the happiest days of her life when the baby came home from hospital.

Their other three children adored Christina from the start, even though they knew that her time with them would be short. Moira loved people visiting her baby because, aside from the tube, she looked as beautiful as any new baby. Christina began to gain weight and was much more settled and contented at home.

The Martins found SOFT, the Support Organisation for Trisomy Thirteen, invaluable. Parents rang them to share their experience, and to pass on all the knowledge which they had so painfully acquired. Jim and Moira Martin are now the trisomy thirteen co-ordinators of SOFT. Like many other families affected by this condition, they are saddened that the picture given in Fair City is so unrelentingly bleak. At one point, Kay is asked whether there is any hope. She replies that there is none, that the baby will not be able to do anything except suffer.

Moira Martin describes in harrowing terms the spasms of pain Christina suffered, which often lasted an hour or more, but also the way the baby snuggled into loving arms, and responded to the tender touch of her family. She says sadly that she wishes that people could have been shown that is possible to love and cherish such a baby.

During an interview in the RTE Guide, Sheila McWade, who plays Kay, expresses a hope that the way that the issue of abortion is dealt with will show people that it is not black and white. A great pity, then, that the reality of life for trisomy thirteen babies is painted as so black and white when, in fact, it is much more complex.

Equally, it is sad that Malachy's opposition to abortion is portrayed solely in terms of his history as a priest. His rights as a father and parent are completely sidelined which, unfortunately, may reflect reality but is hardly a helpful stereotype to perpetuate.

It is also far from black and white that abortion is the best outcome for women. Moira Martin speaks of her depth of grief when Christina died, but also of the way in which an entire community mobilised, from the guard of honour provided by her elder daughter's school at the funeral, with each child holding a white carnation, to the way food mysteriously appeared in the house after the baby died. None of that will be available to the fictional Kay.

Moira Martin wishes that the scriptwriters had seen fit to have Kay and Malachy meet a family affected by trisomy thirteen, or even to see a picture of such a baby. It might have shown them that what Kay says in the heat of emotion, that the baby will be a monster, is completely inaccurate.

Moira points out how helpful it would be to parents of children with such syndromes if this fictional child had been allowed to live out its natural span, no matter how brief. Imagine also, if instead of offering to accompany her to Britain, her friends had offered Kay the practical help she would need to deal with such a situation.

Because the sad thing is that parents of children with disabilities, particularly ones with longer life-spans than those of trisomy thirteen babies, are often left to struggle alone. That is to our shame. Fair City could have pushed out the boundaries by exploring and challenging that reality. Sadly, it chose another route.

The SOFT Patau's syndrome co-ordinators can be contacted at 01-286 6374.

bobrien@irish-times.ie