Embryo ruling ‘a betrayal of the Irish people’

THE recent Supreme Court decision that the smallest and youngest members of the human family are not protected by Article 40.3.3 of the constitution is a betrayal of these most defenceless humans and of the Irish people.

In court the argument was made, unfortunately successfully, that the electorate of 1983, in voting to protect human life, did not include the embryo in vitro.

However, as someone who canvassed for the amendment I can assure the judges it was meant to protect all human beings “from conception to natural death”. This phrase was continuously repeated throughout the campaign.

Louise Brown, the first test tube baby, was well known and almost five years old at the time of the referendum.

Because of the publicity that surrounded scientific developments like her conception in vitro, people were very aware of the possibility of human life conceived in a lab.

In fact in my experience of canvassing hundreds of doors, I can also assure the court that such developments only increased the electorate’s determination to protect all human life before birth.

Even the Irish words chosen to provide this protection in our constitution describe the child before birth inclusively so no life would be left unprotected. It is a matter of concern that the High Court and Supreme Court seemed to ignore the Irish terminology and based their decisions on the English word “unborn” which is at best a poor translation of the official Irish formula.

Further when the people in the referendum of 2002 were asked to exclude the embryo before implantation from constitutional protection they voted no, yet the courts have excluded the embryo despite this.

It is sad to think that as we go into Christmas, the Supreme Court has unanimously withdrawn our protection from our tiniest humans. In doing so our judges have relegated them to the realm of objects, even commodities. Embryos are you and me and every person in the first few weeks of life. Physically we are at our most vibrantly energetic stage, growing and developing at a rate we will never repeat again.

Today’s embryos face huge threats especially from commercially-driven scientific research. This is not the time to leave them to fend for themselves – something they clearly cannot do.

Kathy Sinnott

Chair

Hope Project

‘St Joseph’

Ballinabearna

Ballinhassig

Co Cork