What the false linkage of choice to rights leads to

SIR – I wish to make a point about the vote by the Oireachtas this week on the repeal of the 8th Amendment. We have the consistent use of exceptionally rare cases to justify what we are deciding on, to humanise the argument, so to speak, to appeal all the more to our emotions. 

However, when you consider that more babies’ lives have been taken in the womb through abortion in the US since 1967 than the total number of people estimated to have been killed in World War II, you can see how dehumanising it really is. Similarly, in the UK, twice as many unborn children have been terminated as soldiers killed in World War I.

In any other setting but the womb, this would be seen as pathological, genocidal. It is a silent slaughter of the unwanted, with one baby dying for every five born being the reality for countries which have legalised the procedure. This is what the single-minded focus that the false linkage of choice to rights leads to. Once you dehumanise the infant in the womb, once you don’t even mention him or her, then the slaughter can begin.

The world will come to its senses some day and we will be looking back with shame at our time, incredulous that we allowed this to happen. They will wonder what were we thinking, why couldn’t we see it and why on earth did we agree to it. 

So, when it comes to your choice, don’t vote to spread the culture of death, vote to preserve the value of human life. 

That’s our future and it’s one we can truly be proud of.

Yours,

Catherine Treacy,

Castletroy,

Co Limerick.