The term fatal foetal abnormality is a euphemism. That simply means another way of saying the child in the womb is terminally ill.
The child is going to die – either in the womb or very shortly after birth. Parents are devastated and their grief is immense and understood by all.
Recently it was announced that surgeons had carried out procedures on babies in the womb. It is sometimes said that an unborn baby is suffering greatly and would be better dead. Surely now, doctors can provide the same pain relief as they would to an adult. Killing the child can never be an option whether born or unborn.
When a horse breaks a leg on the race course and has to be put down the spectators are appalled and tears flow abundantly.
When, in a US correctional facility a murderer is put to death, we in the civilised world are sick in our stomachs.
When Daesh in Syria beheaded a hostage; when the Nazis deemed any of their citizens not valuable to society, they gassed them, how horrific that is to us.
Ireland must respect and take best care of all its citizens – born or unborn.
The eighth amendment must be protected.
S FLANAGAN
Carrickmore, Co Tyrone
Still waiting for a proposed solution to BRT’s parking chaos
Since the upheaval and disruption caused by the Belfast Rapid Transit (BRT) system started I have been trying to find out from BRT the alternative parking facilities that are being made.
The road works, as I have pointed out, could have encompassed resident, trader and customer parking but they are not interested. BRT want to have a 12-hour clearway on half the main road through west Belfast – at present it is only morning and afternoon .
BRT like to say there will be nice new buses with internet connection. But if, as they say, you will get from Belfast to Poleglass faster who will have time to use the internet link? Maybe the internet link is for when users find out the truth and they are stuck in traffic. If travellers wait until then to Google how BRT’s mess came about it will be too late.
Here are a few facts about the new system. (1) At Iveagh more and more drivers are taking short cuts to avoid the Falls Road traffic jam putting children’s lives at risk.
(2) I have also noticed drivers using Blacks Road/Ladybrook as a shortcut while work was at its worst at Glengoland.
(3) Many drivers will naturally use the housing estates as shortcuts to get from A to B.
(4) Drivers using shortcuts is a worry for Fruithill residents due to the plans for the Kennedy Way roundabout. But don’t worry as I am informed that no-one is complaining and everyone is in favour of the new system. This is contrary to the opinions of local residents and traders. As far as they were concerned all that was needed was to enforce the pre-existing clearway times to allow traffic to move.
(5) The removal of parking along the road has caused major parking problems around Beechmount/Iveagh for residents, traders , customers and tourists. Wait until the chaos reaches the Andersonstown Road. BRT will tell those who complain that the majority support the system but the majority do not live along the BRT route.
There are many other points I could make and I have directly to BRT. They do not care.
BRT have made no replacement parking facilities along the route and while they talk of consultation with relevant people about a 12-hour bus lane they have not in communications with me talked of when it starts. Consultation implies negotiation – as yet after five e-mails I still await a proposed solution to the local parking chaos instead of their continued ignoring the question.
After lengthy communication both print wise and time wise I have come to the conclusion that BRT have no interest in accommodating the public. They just wish to dictate.
They have not answered my questions on the danger of forcing drivers to use estates as shortcuts or on alternative parking facilities. I can provide e-mail copies of my communications them.
FINTAN HEATLEY
Belfast BT12
Act of fulsome contrition needed for First World War
Tony Blair apologised for the Famine and David Cameron for Bloody Sunday. How long do we have to wait for a similar retrospective apology for the First World War?
In the reported ‘commemorations’ to date, all official representatives seem to be sidestepping the most glaring truth of all – that no event since the dawn of history was more violent or more barbaric; no ‘civilisation’, anywhere, had delved to such a depth of disrespect for human life, of diabolic blood lust; that this descent into hell was actively and consciously promoted by the entire establishment of the time, military, political and religious – in all of the contending empires.
We know that in one day alone, July 1 1916, the French and German empires offered up 50,000 and 55,000 young casualties respectively, and the British empire a whopping 60,000 young men and boys. (It is estimated that there were 250,000 child-soldiers in the latter army, the youngest of whom has been identified, by the BBC, as Sidney Lewis – aged 12 when he was thrown into the Somme).
Harry Patch, the last surviving soldier of this pointless, counterproductive catastrophe, described it simply as ‘legalised mass murder’. For him, talk of ‘bravery’ and ‘sacrifice’ in this context is, arguably, conspiring in the greatest abuse of young men and boys ever perpetrated. It is killing them all over again.
Henceforth, may the ghosts of brave Harry Patch, and the approximately 15 million dead he believed he represented, haunt all commemorations that do not include an apology and an act of fulsome contrition, for the ‘mass murder’ facilitated by civil society 100 years ago.
BILLY FITZPATRICK
Terenure, Dublin 6
We’ve come full circle
The Parliamentary Labour Party voted almost unanimously for the illegal invasion of Iraq, so roundly criticised in the belated Chilcot Report. One of the very few opposed to the so-called ‘war’ was Jeremy Corbyn, in agreement with the million and a half protesters outside the House of Commons who realised that the invasion would be unjust, illegal and calamitous. Blair, whether he knew it or not (and he should have), allowed the UK to be sucked into regime change which was the motive of the US neo-cons (to be followed by the removal of Assad of Syria and Gaddafi of Libya) on behalf of the Likud Party of Israel.
One of the first files on the desk of George W Bush, after his appointment to the presidency by the US Supreme Court, was a plan for the invasion of Iraq. The plan had been prepared by the neo-cons who had infiltrated the Pentagon and the invasion was part one of their design for the rearrangement of the Middle East as outlined in their Project for the New American Century (PNAC).
It was understood that the invasion would be opposed by the American people “bar the occurrence of a new Pearl Harbor” which of course came along on 9/11. This, in addition to blanket media coverage of the ‘monster’ Saddam Hussein, allowed Bush and his pal Blair to plan the illegal invasion of Iraq ‘to bring freedom and democracy to the people of that country’.
Now the Parliamentary Labour Party, which voted for the disastrous war, wants to depose its leader who had the decency to oppose it, despite the massive support for him from party members.
What have we learned? One year ago PM Cameron asked (and got) permission from parliament to bomb Syria in support of the 70,000 ‘good’ terrorists who oppose the elected government of Assad.
We have come full circle.
EUGENE F PARTE
Belfast BT9
