“Choice consists of the mental process of judging the merits of multiple options.”
WE all make choices, some good and some
bad. We choose to do things that are right and wrong. The choices we, as individuals
make are those we must live with, and bear the consequences.
The ending
of a life is one such choice, people often times must choose, so what are the
choices Irish citizens have?
The right to
end one’s own life was decriminalised in Ireland in 1993. Before the Suicide
Act 1961, it was a crime to commit suicide and anyone who attempted and failed
could be prosecuted and imprisoned. In part, that reflected religious and moral
objections to suicide as self-murder.
In 2013, a
former lecturer took a high court case challenging the right to assisted
suicide in Ireland. The
submission was made by counsel for Wicklow woman Marie Fleming, 58, who was
taking a landmark case to establish a right to end her life with assistance.
The Supreme
Court was been told there is no constitutional right to suicide and that the
ban on assisted suicide applies equally to everyone. Suicide was described by
state lawyers as a severe social problem in Ireland.
They said “its
decriminalisation [suicide] in 1993 doesn't mean there is now a constitutional
right to take one's own life.” The case continues with a Supreme Court appeal.
This is
where the choice to end one’s own life lies. Where does Ireland sit on the
right to end a child’s life? Where do we stand on abortion we hear so much of
Pro-Choice vs. Pro- Life? We have seen the images of the beautiful Savita
Halappanavar played out across ever media outlet in Ireland in recent months.
Ms
Halappanavar presented herself at Galway University hospital, in October 2012.
She was 17 weeks pregnant and suffering from a miscarriage. Ms Halappanavar and
her husband Praveen were told that the foetus was not viable, not their child
but the foetus.
The Indian
couple were told by doctors at Galway University hospital that they could not
perform an abortion under Irish Law as the foetus heart was still beating.
During the next several days, Halappanavar was diagnosed with septicaemias,
which lead to multiple organ failure and her death.
Her death
reignited a twenty year debate in Irish society and one which brought the younger
and less afraid Irish women’s voices to this reigniting of a twenty year debate.
In 1983 The
Constitution of Ireland was amended to add the Eight Amendment, which asserted
that the unborn had an explicit right to life from the time of conception.
Speaking in NUI Galway last week Dr Nata Duvvury a Women’s
right activist who lectures at the University, spoke of Ireland and the
abortion debate in a different perspective, a development angle.
It comes back to the simple word, ‘Choice’. An investigation
has proven that if Savita Hallapannavar had been allowed the choice to have an
abortion, her life may have been saved. She requested but was denied because of
Irish law.
The infamous ‘X’ case was dragged back from the 1980’s and put
into a 21st century context in recent months.
In the ‘X’case a young teenage Irish girl had been raped by
a neighbour and became pregnant. X told her mother of suicidal thoughts because
of the unwanted pregnancy, and as abortion was illegal in Ireland (in both
Northern Ireland and the Republic), the family planned to travel to England for
an abortion.
Before the abortion was carried out, the family asked the
Garda Síochána if DNA from the aborted foetus would be admissible as evidence
in the courts, as the neighbour was denying responsibility. Hearing that X
planned to have an abortion, the Attorney General, Harry Whelehan, sought an
injunction under Article 40.3.3 of the Constitution of Ireland preventing her
from having the procedure carried out.
The ruling was later overturned by a Supreme Court ruling of
four to one, but again the right of the mother to choose was almost denied in
this case.
Once abortion becomes permissible in a country “any limits
to its availability become eroded over time”, Irish Catholic bishops have
claimed.
The issue was discussed at the general meeting of the Irish
Catholic Bishops Conference, which ended on Wednesday March 6th at St Patrick’s
College in Maynooth.
The bishops said in a statement they were “deeply concerned”
about “any intention” to legislate for abortion in Ireland.
So is the choice to end’s one own life and for women to
choose to have an abortion, still about Catholic Ireland and how Catholic
Ireland governs the moral decisions of citizens?
For 20 years, the Centre for Reproductive Rights in America has
used the law to advance reproductive freedom as a fundamental human right that
all governments are legally obligated to protect, respect, and fulfil.
The American centre believes that re-productive freedom lies
at the heart of the promise of human dignity, self- determination and equality
embodied in both the U.S Constitution and The Universal Declaration of human
rights.
Pro-Life abortion campaigners say life is the greatest human
right. “It’s not a choice”. Is it just another human right?
If life is our right, then we should have the right to
decide what is best for our body and our life.
Strolling through NUI Galway on a Thursday afternoon, the
campus is alive with students campaigning to become the next governing body of
The Students Union and others campaigning for a ‘No’ vote in the NUIG abortion
referendum.
It made me wonder, Why, Why do we campaign? Does anyone really care
about abortion and student politics?
Then it hit my shoe, this leaflet had blown across the quad,
but what was it? A leaflet that stated ‘ABORTION? VOTE NO?
It read “One ’CHOICE’ of abortion robs someone else of a
lifetime of choices,” was one of the striking statistics staring back at me. In a sea of words and legislation and even
media coverage it’s hard to have an opinion. Yes there is the black and white
version of everyone taking the moral high ground.
We are always going to have the situation of ‘could have’,
‘would have’ in Ireland. In the end, none of us know what it feels like to have
to make that choice to end a pregnancy unless we are personally thrust into
this agonising position.
From the male perspective this is a choice, none of us will
ever have to make, while the child could be ours genetically it is foremost a woman’s
choice to end a pregnancy or carry a pregnancy to term. No one has the right to
tell a woman to give birth or to terminate her child. It truly comes back to
“Our body, our choice” and this is why I am a pro-choice supporter.
The Irish Government announced this weekend that they intend
to enact its abortion legislation by the end of July, according to information
it has supplied to the Council of Europe.
In an update to the Strasbourg-based body, the Government
said it planned to publish the Bill by April and enact the legislation by the
end of July.
Despite the fact abortion has been legal in circumstances
where there is a substantial risk to the life of the mother since a 1992
Supreme Court ruling, successive governments have failed to enact legislation
to give full effect to the ruling.
Perhaps now, it is finally time to write the concluding
chapter to the book and close the door on debate, once and for all. Is Ireland
ready to move forward into a liberal pro-choice 21st century?
Time
will tell...
Pregnancy, whether it brings the joy of life or the dreaded
anguish all mothers make choices. So before we get on our pedestals and moral
high ground, just think for a moment; t could happen to your sister, girlfriend
or best friend. Then what are the ‘Choices’?
Choices, we make them every single day, the good, the bad,
and the ugly ones.
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