Paul Keenan“Supporting and sustaining a culture of life is in the interests of every generation and it defines us as a society,” the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference has said in its submission to the Citizens’ Assembly on the Eighth Amendment.
In a lengthy document, entitled ‘Two Lives, One Love’ and issued on December 9, the bishops seek both to explain Catholic Church teaching on the abortion issue and tackle arguments that have been voiced in favour of repealing the amendment.
On the suggestion that abortion is a human ‘right’, the bishops write: “We see this view as being inconsistent with an integral understanding of human rights. We would point out that the European Convention on Human Rights requires that “everyone’s right to life shall be protected by the law”. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child defines a child as meaning “every human being below the age of eighteen years unless, under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier”. No distinction is made between born and unborn children.”
Meanwhile, on the “power of language” employed in the debate, the document points out: “Words like ‘foetus’ and ‘embryo’ and ‘zygote’ have specific technical meanings. We question why, in public discourse, healthy unborn children are always referred to as ‘the baby’ while those who, in the opinion of some, do not measure up to expectations are routinely defined as the ‘foetus’ or the ‘embryo’. We are concerned that language is being used with the intention of depersonalising certain categories of unborn children in a way which seeks to normalise abortion.”
The full text of the bishops’ submission will be distributed to Irish parishes in the coming weeks. It can be read online at: www.catholicbishops.ie