Sir, – One aspect of the tragic death of Savita Halappanavar which has not been adequately discussed is her husband Praveen’s assertion that a doctor told him that “this is a Catholic country”. I would like to hear someone from our Government explain that this is not true.
The Constitution once recognised “the special position of the Holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church” in Article 44 but the people chose to remove those words in a referendum held on December 7th, 1972. The Republic of Ireland is a country in which the majority of people declare themselves to be members of the Roman Catholic Church, but that does not make Ireland a “Catholic Country”.
Our State is not officially allied to any particular denomination and its law should not reflect the moral teaching of any particular religion. Our laws should allow maximum freedom to all citizens to make their own moral choices.
Bunreacht na hÉireann defines Ireland as a Christian country by starting off ”In the name of the Holy Trinity” and by referring to “our Divine Lord, Jesus Christ”. Many people argue that these words should not appear in the Constitution of a 21st-century democracy and I am among them. I am a Christian believer, but I do not believe that my beliefs should be imposed on those of other faiths and those who have no faith affiliation. It remains my conviction that the best way forward for our country is the creation of a secular republic of 32 counties. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin has promised that the Government will act “speedily” to introduce abortion legislation (November 26th). He seems to have forgotten that, 18 years ago, as Minister for Health he said that it was not possible to draft legislation to give effect to the X case judgment because of the “very difficult, complicated political, ethical and legal complications” involved in drafting such legislation (November 25th, 1994).
The ethical difficulties in legislating for a Supreme Court judgment which would impose no time limits on abortion have not gone away you know. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – Dr Patrick Walsh (November 22nd) points out that nobody under the age of 47 has voted on the 1983 abortion issue.
A quick check of the 2011 census shows there are 1,923,991 citizens between 18 and 46 in this category.
971,346 of these are female and of an age that might find themselves pregnant. – Yours, etc,