Dear Editor, Greg Daly’s article on the so-called ‘Citizens’ Assembly’ – ‘Unrepresentative advice from an unrepresentative body’ (IC 27/04/2017) – is illustrated by a picture of the gathered group of citizens and a sheet showing the result of one of the ballots conducted by the assembly.
The ballot, considering the question of whether abortion should be allowed in cases where doing otherwise posed a “serious risk to the mental health of the woman”, was passed by 74% of the handful of citizens gathered in Malahide to consider such things.
Even leaving aside moral issues this flies in the face of the best available evidence and clinical advice.
In 2011, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists published The Care of Women Requesting Induced Abortion, a 145-page set of guidelines rooted firmly in extensive and up-to-date evidence, which considers the psychological impact of abortion.
Based on the best existing research, the guidelines advise doctors that “Women with an unintended pregnancy should be informed that the evidence suggests that they are no more or less likely to suffer adverse psychological sequelae whether they have an abortion or continue with the pregnancy and have the baby.”
In other words, there is no evidential basis for arguing that pregnancy ever poses a psychological danger that can be ended by ending a pregnancy prematurely. The assembly’s decision to vote as if the opposite were the case, demonstrates the absurdity of the notion that it was a uniquely well-informed body of citizens.
Yours etc.,
Louise O’Donnell,
Belfast,
Co. Antrim.
We would be collectively responsible for abortion
Dear Editor, In the USA, a jury in the case of a crime carrying the death penalty know that, if they decide on a guilty verdict, the accused is likely to have his human right to life set aside as he is sentenced to death. If there is a referendum on the Eighth Amendment following the Citizens’ Assembly recommendations, voters will be collectively responsible, like American juries, to make decisions with long-lasting life-and-death implications.
These decisions affect not just one or a few, but very many innocent fellow human beings, whose humanity is not suddenly somehow acquired at birth, but is there throughout the stages of pregnancy. It’s been calculated that probably over 100,000 Irish people are alive in Ireland because of the Eighth Amendment, so a possible upcoming referendum vote could impact on tens of thousands of people who are yet to be born – or who will instead be sentenced to death before birth.
A national vote to remove the current text of the Eighth Amendment in the constitution, which protects each unborn child’s human right to life throughout pregnancy, would open the way for doctors to set aside this basic human right and legally end a child’s life for having a disability, being the child of a criminal, or simply not being wanted.
The needs of pregnant mothers in sometimes very difficult situations have no easy answers, and it is vital that they have support, compassion, good medical care and practical help available, but yet ultimately respecting the unique worth of each unborn child and his or her right to life.
Yours etc.,
Ruth Foley,
Clondalkin,
Dublin 22.
A process of ‘deliberative democracy’?
Dear Editor, Any lingering doubts there might have been among those of us who believe that the outcome of the Citizens’ Assembly was pre-ordained were completely removed by the farce of the votes on abortion.
The assembly initially voted against retaining the Eighth Amendment.
A subsequent vote to recommend repealing the Eighth Amendment would have meant that any abortion legislation would have been placed solely in the hands of the Oireachtas, with no explicit protection for the rights of any unborn human beings remaining in the constitution.
This is something which liberal pro-choice activists have been seeking for years.
Somewhat surprisingly perhaps, and much to the tweeted annoyance of champions of a more liberal abortion regime like Amnesty International Ireland’s CEO Colm O’Gorman, the assembly rejected the option to repeal the Eighth in favour of instead amending it.
But the drafters of the motions being put to the assembly had an alternative motion up their sleeves to be deployed in the event that a repeal vote was lost.
And so, in a scene reminiscent of Groundhog Day, shortly after the assembly had voted to reject the repeal of the Eighth Amendment, they voted, by almost the exact same margin, in favour of a ‘different’ motion, the effect of which would be to repeal the existing pro-life article from the constitution and replace it with one which would explicitly give the Oireachtas the power to legislate for abortion.
So in the space of a few noisy, confused hours on the floor of the assembly, the citizens representing us voted both against and for a repeal of the Eighth Amendment.
The Citizens’ Assembly calls this process ‘deliberative democracy’, magicians call it the ‘forced choice’.
Yours etc.,
Brendan Conroy,
Windy Arbour,
Dublin 14.
Citizens’ Assembly was unrepresentative
Dear Editor, On Mercy Sunday, 91 “representatives” of the citizenry of this country voted to recommend that the Government hold a referendum to replace the Eighth Amendment to the constitution to allow it to legislate for abortion on grounds which constitute abortion on demand.
The Sunday Times (Irish edition) reported this on the front page. On page three it reported
“Lobsters ‘feel pain’ when boiled alive”.
Presumably the 91 members of the Citizens’ Assembly (a statistically unrepresentative group) are unaware that the dismemberment of a live unborn baby in the womb causes pain? But of course they will not have to do the necessary. That will be left to doctors and nurses, who will have no jobs if they disagree.
Yours etc.,
Loretto Browne,
Ashbourne,
Co. Meath.
Cherish all the children
Dear Editor, The controversial recommendations of the Citizens’ Assembly that abortion, the direct taking of an innocent human life, should be allowed without restrictions up to the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, and that, amongst other things, it should be permitted up to birth where the child has life limiting conditions, are horrific proposals, which are a blatant denial of the most basic human right, the right to life.
The fact that the assembly made its deadly recommendations virtually 101 years to the day after the Easter Proclamation’s promise to cherish all the children of the nation equally adds irony to the horror.
Yours etc.,
Nicola Gleeson, Athenry, Co. Galway.
From out of the mouth of babes
Dear Editor, I was principal at a school for pupils who had physical disabilities in 1983, when the Eighth Amendment became part of our constitution. One young precocious boy took a keen interest in the debate and continually cross-questioned both his parents and his teacher about its meaning; until he was satisfied that he understood its significance, for himself and possibly others with a disability.
Personalising the issue, he finally declared in class: “So when I was in my Mammy’s tummy, she and Daddy, and may be others, like doctors or nurses, were talking about me and what should happen to me; whether I was to live or to die. And the only thing that would have been on my side if it was in force then, was this thing they have just voted for now, the Eighth Amendment. I’m for it.”
Yours etc.,
Tony Jordan,
Sandymount,
Dublin 4.
We need a papal visit now more than ever before
Dear Editor, Your front page last week (27/04/2017) made for sober reading. I can understand that organisers would not want the Pope’s visit to Ireland to be overshadowed by an abortion referendum, but I would appeal to the Irish bishops to lobby for the visit to go ahead. We need Pope Francis here now more than ever to boost the Catholic populace as we face our biggest challenge – the protection of the right to life.
Yours etc.,
Maureen Hanley,
Swords,
Co. Dublin