Dear Editor, Last Thursday, I happened to hear Ray D’Arcy interview Sinead McBreen on his afternoon radio show on Radio One. While it was a pleasant surprise to hear Ray giving voice to the pro-life side of the abortion debate, I was disappointed at how the discussion played out. By the end of the interview – despite Sinead’s protestations – Ray was confirming for her that in fact she was really pro-choice.
Sinead chose to carry her baby to full term despite the fact that all medical opinion gave the child practically no chance of survival after birth. Her complaint was that she and women like her are not being informed of the perinatal hospice supports that are available. In the absence of such information, abortion is presented as the only reasonable option, and hence the choice not to abort is made more difficult.
I salute Sinead for her courage and willingness to tell her story on the Ray Darcy Show but because she emphasised the subjective nature of her decision without appealing to any objective reason why she would choose not to abort her baby, she left herself open to Ray’s accusation that she too is pro-choice and should join him in urging the Government to legislate for abortion in these difficult cases. Then let people choose.
It seems to me that our vision can become clouded by these difficult emotional situations that motivate people on both sides of the debate. Instead we need to focus on the crucial and more fundamental question: Is the baby in the womb a human being? The weight of scientific evidence now available answers this question in the affirmative.
As a result, many who currently argue for abortion do so not on the basis that the foetus is not a human being but rather that it is not a fully-fledged person. But most people don’t make the distinction between a human being and a person.
If the baby in the womb is a human being/person, then surely no ‘right to choose’ can trump the right to life. Can the people of Ireland acknowledge the objective truth that the baby in the womb is in fact one of us?
Yours etc.,
Pat Seery,
Navan, Co. Meath.