Dear Editor
Over the last week, Jamaicans have once again seen the very face of evil and have been rightly shocked and enraged by the savage and barbaric killing of our innocent children.
We once again hear strident calls for “protection of our children” and “no mercy for child killers.”
Understandably, the revulsion and rage at the murder of a child increases as the age of the child decreases. The younger and more vulnerable the child, the more horrific the act of deliberate destruction seems to be.
Strangely and illogically, this inverse relationship only goes as far as birth.
In other words, while the savage dismemberment or decapitation of a newborn baby would be considered unthinkably evil, the same action perpetrated against the same baby four or five months before in the act of abortion is championed as a “right” by some persons in high places.
Jamaicans for Justice publicly opposed the death penalty for the young man recently convicted of slashing the throats of five relatives, the youngest being a mere infant.
Their stated basis for this position was “the right to life”.
However this organisation has shown a long-term commitment to legalising the deliberate killing of innocent and vulnerable unborn children.
What about their right to life?
The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child states that “the child, by reason of his physical and mental immaturity, needs special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection, before as well as after birth.”
We cannot not know that it is wrong to deliberately kill an innocent human being.
The lives of all children must be protected by the law, not just those who have passed through the birth canal.
Dr. Doreen Brady West