Sir, , - With reference to the submission of the Adelaide Hospital Society to the Working Group on Abortion, Cllr Richard Greene (July 9th) charges the Society with deliberate "obscurity" in the wording of their document. That the paragraphs he quotes will seem perfectly lucid to most readers does not appear to shake Cllr Greene's conviction that the true intentions of the Society are veiled by circumlocution and dissimulation. In his interpretation of the putative subtext, the Society is "effectively calling for abortion on demand".
If the Society's ultimate objective is, as is implicit in the phrase "on demand", to provide terminations without criteria or qualifications of any kind, then a document which is at great pains to specify the precise circumstances under which it considers the procedure warranted would seem a rather perplexing tactical decision.
In its use of cautious and considered language, the Adelaide Hospital Society acknowledges that the ethical issues surrounding terminations are as complex and heterogeneous as society itself. In dismissing these necessary nuances as mere obfuscation, Cllr Greene aligns himself with the rhetorical strategy that has come to characterise anti-abortion campaigns worldwide.
This strategy depends on pointedly unequivocal and inflammatory language. Engagement with sophisticated ethical questions is avoided. Instead, straw men are erected which are designed to deflect the attention of the public from the issues as they face medical authorities and policy-makers to the issues as characterised by the campaigners.
The term "pro-life", a ridiculous designation under any serious consideration, is itself a succinct encapsulation of the continuing determination of the organisations which so describe themselves to shift the focus of debate to the stark dualities favoured in debate by their representatives. The unreflecting zealotry and disgusting belligerence of organisations like Youth Defence are a reminder of the intellectual bankruptcy that lies at the end of this road.
Until medical experts and legislators are permitted to raise the level of debate above crude aphorisms and grim rehearsals of doctrine, the public will continue to be misled regarding what is really at issue and democracy will once again be thwarted by disinformation. - Yours, etc., Paraic O'Donnell,
Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin.