Repeal offers simple, brutal choice
■ One thing is becoming quite clear in the debate on the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution: if the amendment is repealed, we will not simply be returning to the position that existed prior to the amendment, where rights for the unborn could be construed by the courts. The repeal of the Eighth Amendment would be a decisive statement that under our Constitution there will be no protection for the unborn, right up to birth.
Following repeal there would be a radical change that would give the legislature and the courts, even if they should wish to offer some protection for the child in the womb, very little, if any, scope to do so.
At the moment, there is no evidence that the legislature has any meaningful commitment to offering any protection to the unborn, except as a stepping stone to gain the acceptance of the electorate for the repeal of the Eighth Amendment.
Nor can we have any confidence that the courts would wish, in the face of repeal, to discover any implied rights for the unborn. In 1983, such rights were made explicit by the amendment. By the repeal of the amendment, they would be unequivocally extinguished.
The Government will probably propose to replace the Eighth Amendment with a provision in the Constitution allowing the Oireachtas to legislate for abortion. It may even publish proposed legislation to limit abortion in certain respects, but as we know, legislation can be changed without reference to the people in a referendum or challenged in the courts,
including liberal international courts.
With the Eighth Amendment gone, there would be nothing to prevent a regime of abortion on demand, without reason, right up to birth.
The central question to be considered by the people in the referendum will be: do we wish to strip the unborn, from conception to birth, of any rights or protection whatsoever? Do we want to deny their humanity? Because that is what we will decide to do if we vote to repeal the Eighth Amendment. It really is that simple.
Peter Carvill
Sandymount, Dublin 4