Sir, – It would seem, at face value, that the majority of the oral submissions to the Oireachtas Committee on Health over the past few days have fallen somewhere between the extreme views of the so-called “pro-life” and “pro-choice” camps. Perhaps this reasoned and more reasonable middle ground could be best labelled “pro-compassion”; those who recognise the difficult ethical dilemmas and medical diagnoses that some in the medical profession have to face and the truly heartbreaking situations in which some women find themselves as a result of pregnancy and its potential (if mercifully rare) life-threatening complications. – Yours, etc,
A chara, – Senator Ivana Bacik has accused the Catholic bishops of “misogyny towards women” (Breaking News, January 11th). It’s easy to take a swipe at the Catholic bishops as a bunch of aged male misogynists but I would like to hear some serious discussion of the terrifying consequences for humanity of what’s actually happening in many countries as a direct result of freely available legalised abortion. The sad reality is that people pursuing their own individual choices in matters of life and death can end up creating a disastrous situation for human society and the future of civilisation as a whole. – Yours, etc,