Sir, - Under the heading "C of I clergyman says law should permit abortion in exceptional circumstances", Canon Kenneth Kearon, a governor of the Adelaide Hospital and a lecturer in ethics at Trinity College, Dublin, addressing the recent "Voice of Reason" Conference at Trinity College, is reported, I presume correctly (The Irish Times, November 2nd), to have stated that the Church of Ireland was opposed to the use of abortion in anything but serious medical crises or cases of pregnancy after sexual assault and that this view arose from a deep Christian respect for human life at all stages, but also from an unwillingness to attribute the status of person-hood to the early stages of an embryo.
May I ask Canon Kearon, for what reason does the Church of Ireland withhold person-hood from a human embryo, and how is one to reconcile "deep Christian respect for human life at all stages" and "unwillingness to attribute the status of person-hood to the early stages of an embryo"?
Is it contended that person-hood is a status to be conferred by others or is an attribute which can only be attained by development as, for example, when the child reaches an awareness of her own being? In fact, person-hood of a human embryo is not a scientific, biological or ethical issue but rather a political one.
There can be no argument but that human life begins at conception, and from conception every human is a person - "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you" (Jer. 1.4). During a homily in the Philippines in 1981 Pope John Paul II stated: "From the moment of conception and through all subsequent stages, all human life is sacred, for it is created in the image and likeness of God. Human life is precious because it is a gift from God... Whoever attempts to destroy human life in the womb of the mother, not only violates the sacredness of a living, growing and developing human being, and thus opposes God, but also attacks society by undermining respect for all human life."
Is there anything in that statement with which a Christian, lay or ordained, would not agree?
Turning to the old canard of abortion being necessary in "medical crises", it surprises me that a governor of a teaching hospital would not be better informed. There are no circumstances where the life of a mother can only be protected by induced (procured) abortion. Women need to be reassured that pregnancy poses no threat to the mother, that there is no conflict between the life of a mother and that of her unborn child. In Ireland during 1996 there were 50,390 births and one maternal death (Central Statistics Office, Cork).
Is it not true that almost all abortions carried out in the United Kingdom are for quasi-social indications? Replying to a question in the House of Commons in 1992, the Secretary of State for Health reported that of 3,688,096 abortions carried out in England, Scotland and Wales 151 (0.004 per cent) were performed to save the life of the mother. He was unable to provide a breakdown of the indications for the 151 abortions.
Surely it is time to acknowledge that there really are no medical indications for abortion, and for those who may favour abortion for social reasons openly to say so. - Yours, etc., Eamon O' Dwyer,
(Professor Emeritus), Cluain Mhuire, Lower Taylor's Hill, Galway.