Withdrawing the Right to Life

A Radical Change of Principle.

"The deletion or amendment of Article 40.3.3 would serve no purpose other than to withdraw the right to life from some categories of unborn children.

To do so would radically change the principle, for "all" unborn children and indeed for all of us, that the right to life is a fundamental human right.

During the current debate some have argued that abortion itself is a human right. We see this view as being inconsistent with an integral understanding of human rights.

We would point out that the European Convention on Human Rights requires that "everyone's right to life shall be protected by the law". The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child defines a child as meaning "every human being below the age of eighteen years unless, under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier". No distinction is made between born and unborn children."

(Extract from a Statement of the Irish Bishops, March 2018)