'Abortion is not a treatment' - Professor of Paediatrics

Visitation, Mariotto Martinelli, 1503

Family & Life, an Irish pro-life organization, recently carried the story below. I have highlighted some parts.


Abortion Is Not Treatment - Professor

Professor Jim Dundon, Emeritus Professor of Paediatrics at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, has intervened in the ongoing debate on abortion in Ireland to remind people that abortion is not a medical treatment. "In what is termed a 'crisis pregnancy' all of us would feel for the mother to be, but apparently some would go so far as to advise termination of the pregnancy, ie, abortion," he writes.

"Abortion is not a treatment. It kills an innocent defenceless human being. Human life begins at conception and ends at natural death." The professor points out that "Any life-threatening disease or disorder arising during a pregnancy can and should be treated." But "Abortion is not a treatment of any disease or disorder."

Prof Dundon deplores those who, "At a time when such a 'mother to be' needs all the help and support she can be given" would abandon her and offer her "only one option – abortion."

"Apart from the aggressive trauma of abortion, which is considerable," he concludes, "she has to face the rest of her life with the knowledge she has destroyed the life of her own baby". The Irish Times. January 14.

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Family & Life sent out the following alert yesterday, 25 January, to those on its emailing list. The alert is in the context of the election today of a new leader of the ruling Fianna Fáil Party to succeed Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Brian Cowen who resigned from that position in the party last Saturday. It is certain that the party will receive a 'hammering' in the forthcoming general election.

As a Columban priest I must say that Mr Martin was a great help to us when Fr Michael Sinnott was kidnapped in the southern Philippines in October 2009. He went beyond what was required of him as Minister for Foreign Affairs.

Action Alert!

Embryo Research Advocate Leads FF Race

Micheál Martin, the former Minister for Foreign Affairs, is believed to be the front-runner in the race to succeed Taoiseach Brian Cowen as leader of the Fianna Fáil Party. As Minister for Health in 2000 it was Martin who set up the Commission on Assisted Human Reproduction. This body was stacked with representatives of the IVF industry and produced a hugely unbalanced report which ignored most of the submissions made to the Commission. In 2006, when he was Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Micheál Martin spoke out in favour of permitting research in Ireland involving the destruction of human embryos. He voted in favour of EU funding for embryonic stem cell research and said that he would support such research in Ireland once the constitutional status of unimplanted human embryos was clarified. The new leader of Fianna Fáil will be elected tomorrow afternoon. While the party is widely expected to fare badly in the upcoming general election, the prospect of a leader with Micheál Martin’s record on life issues will likely raise additional concerns for many supporters which they may wish to raise urgently with their local Fianna Fáil TDs.