Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/516462
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 24 MAY 2015 24 Letters Send your letters to: The Editor, MaltaToday, MediaToday Ltd. Vjal ir-Rihan, San Gwann SGN 9016 | Fax: (356) 21 385075 E-mail: newsroom@mediatoday.com.mt. Letters to the Editor should be concise. No pen names are accepted. Organ donors In my personal opinion, this ultra delicate subject should be tackled as follows: (1) all donors must be mature (16 years of age). (2) donors must be on a 100% voluntary basis. (3) No pressure to persuade, anybody. (4) For such a scheme to succeed I believe a TV programme (e.g. Times Talk, Xarabank, Reporter) should be aired. There would be the follow- ing VIPs as participants : A. Her Excellency The President. B. The Prime Minister. C. The Archbishop and the Gozo Bishop. D. The Leader of The Opposition. E. Professor Emanuel Farrugia and the Nursing Officer in charge of organ transplants at Mater Dei Hospial. I strongly believe that if such a programme is aired, the public will be a great deal wiser, knowing high authori- ties approve the scheme. The end result would be positive. Lino Callus Balzan Government is proposing to enshrine anti-abortion laws in the constitution. The proposal presented to government by the pro-life movement has won cabinet approval. Government's argument is based on the fundamental premise that since there is consensus in the country that abortion should remain an abhorrent crime in our country, government might as well entrench it. The proposal is hailed as a national proposal in favour of life. The corollary is of course that all against this proposal are in favour of death. The high moral ground of the proposal remains protection of the weakest section of so- ciety, the unborn child. Government has sent a ministerial letter to all civil society seeking their support. We editorially disagree with entrenching the proposal in the constitution. It would appear that this sentiment is shared by a fair number of opinion makers, some even close to the Nationalist Party. Government's arguments in favour are far from water-tight. Since when has total approval of a law created a need for its constitutional entrenchment? We all agree to drive on the right side of the road but would not dream entrenching this law constitutionally. On a more seri- ous note and using the minister's line of logic why not also entrench constitution- ally paedophilia, drug trafficking, white slavery and euthanasia? After all there is consensus on these criminal forms of behaviour too. The proposal is unnecessary, a red her- ring and an attempt to distract people from discussing the bread and butter issues of concern to them. Our objection rests on the fundamental premise that it is possible to be against abortion and yet disagree with this constitutional amend- ment. We certainly have no intent of cam- paigning for abortion yet we are perplexed why in the total absence of a pro-abortion lobby in Malta government insists on this entrenchment. We believe there is suffi- cient legal protection and general consen- sus so entrenchment is unnecessary. There are also other compelling dis- senting reasons including the realities of fast growing secularization in our society. The society out of Malta is secular and in synch with the words of the late Ameri- can president John Fitzgerald Kennedy a Catholic, 'I believe in an America where there is an absolute separation between state and church'. Indeed this was the very battle cry of the seventeenth century French revolution and is today the hall- mark of all modern democracies. This embodies the European ethos of secular Europe that same club which we joined only one year ago. When joining, the EU-Malta protocol gave the necessary guarantees about abor- tion not being made legal in Malta. Is this not an iron cast guarantee? The proposal totally ignores and shows careless respect to the existence of a growing number of secularists in our society. The vast major- ity of those who abhor abortion openly question whether it need be a part of the Constitution which belongs to all the people, including non-believers. The Constitution is there to guaran- tee the rights for all, independently of creed or race. It is not the constitution of Catholics in Malta but the highest law for all the Maltese, both Catholics and non- Catholics. The proposal amounts to silencing the issue, an attempt to simply bar discus- sion on this issue by simply putting it under the 'constitutional' carpet. Only a year after enthusiastically welcoming our entry into secular Europe we are faced with a proposal which risks creating un- necessary divisions between secular and religious Malta. Most of us thought that European membership would set the seal to controversies of a secular- religious nature. Cabinet should rethink this political minefield it risks entering particularly with liberal minded Nationalist support- ers and the more enlightened members of society irrespective of political alle- giances. It should take heed of George Borg Olivier's secular declaration that he is both a Christian and a democrat but not a Christian Democrat. This political posi- tioning is shared by a growing number of nationalists. Government must rethink its stance. It risks getting lost in a legal maze too. What is the position of a Maltese woman carrying out an abortion on the European mainland? Will she be pros- ecuted on her returning to Malta? Entrenchment will in no way stop abor- tions being carried out both locally or on Maltese citizens in Europe. It will simply create a backlash. Government is best advised to leave the law as it stands. It already offers sufficient guarantees. A secular society Editorial • 22 May 2005 Illegal dumping in Siggiewi I have a message for Marlene Farrugia, a Member of Parliament representing us. Rather than bickering on Zon- qor Point, she would be giving a much better service to the con- stituents in Siggiewi who elected her to Parliament in the last general election if she just takes a walk in the countryside sur- rounding our village and lobbies all forces for a general clean up. This is a photo showing the pitiful state of our countryside and the total indifference of the Siggiewi local council. The place is the entire road that leads to the quarry area from Karmenu Vassallo Street up to the illegal dumping site that ruins the beau- ty of the valley of Wied Xkora. Joseph Cassar Siggiewi