Greg DalyThe voices of medical professionals who believe Ireland’s constitutional protections for the unborn should be retained need to be heard, a leading member of the Irish Medical Council (IMC) has said.
Writing in The Irish Medical Times, Drogheda-based GP Dr Ruairi Hanley says: “A new, dogmatic liberal consensus seems to be dominating all discourse, as many colleagues eagerly campaign to ‘Repeal the Eighth’.”
He added that while everyone is entitled to an opinion on the subject, he is “growing weary of those doctors who appear to think they have a monopoly on wisdom and thus can speak for the entire profession on such a divisive issue”.
Medical card
Dr Hanley, who has served as a medical officer in the Defence Forces and subsequently led a campaign for all qualified GPs to be permitted to treat medical card holders, described the phrase “fatal foetal abnormality” as “a medically inaccurate but politically convenient term used by pro-abortion activists”.
Arguing that the central issue in the current debate is whether we are entitled to say that it is better for another human being to be denied even a short life, he said these are “difficult and emotive issues”, and that all sides of the argument should be heard, and called on pro-life colleagues to “stand up and be counted”.