Courtney McGrailDear Editor, If one approaches the issue of abortion purely on a scientific and sociological basis, the answers seem to validate the religious approach.
For example, the life that begins in the woman’s womb is a human life. That said, l object to capital punishment, a view shared by most liberal thinkers. If the human life arises because the male has committed the act of rape, his punishment in most liberal societies is a term of years in prison, assuming he is caught and found guilty
The child in the womb is, however, entirely innocent of any crime yet she, and let’s face it, the child might well be female, could be subject to capital punishment. In other words the liberal feminist could reserve capital punishment for an innocent female.
Equally the child in the womb could be a disabled female. Where stands the liberal in the light of the following quote from page 60 of the English translation of the history of Auschwitz by assistant professor Sybille Steinbacher: “The victims included … children, pregnant women, old people, sick people and the handicapped.” Is it the case that the modern liberal shares the views of early 20th-Century Nazis?
Yours etc.,
Gerald Murphy,
Rathfarnham,
Dublin 16.