Madam, – The cancellation of the lecture on euthanasia in Cork University Hospital last week is to be welcomed. A society which has lost its sense of outrage is effectively morally dead.
Thankfully, as was demonstrated on Thursday, Irish people still possess a moral compass and an instinct for when the most fundamental values in society are under threat.
The HSE defended its invitation by arguing that it is only interested in stimulating debate. Evidently then the HSE believes that euthanasia may have some merit: otherwise, why bother to debate it?
We don’t generally debate the merits of ideas which we wholeheartedly reject as a society, such as, for example, child abuse or infanticide. So it is disingenuous of the HSE to state that it does not support euthanasia. If it does not support euthanasia, then why is it spending taxpayers’ money bringing over one of its most vocal proponents?
It was also an act of grotesque insensitivity to hold this lecture on hospital grounds and during Easter week. As well as cancelling the lecture, the HSE needs now to make known its opposition to all forms of euthanasia in absolute and unequivocal terms. – Yours, etc,