[Eace]

Dr,

Your identification of secrecy and shame as the main instigator for abortions in Africa/Nigeria is appreciated. That is indeed true; more women are likely to want abortions for those reasons. However the legalisation of abortion is another issue by which many are unwittingly and some, cunningly, attempting to pass on personal responsibility for private decisions onto the State. Whether abortion is legalised or not, the personal guilt or memory of the act remains with the woman and is never discharged by reference to the legality of the act. There are some things which the law can never effectively legislate and one of them, is personal morality.

You note that the sad truth is that abortions in this part of the world prevent the death or further suffereing of many other persons. And in such situations as we already are, is it not safe to ask that is the life of one not better sacrificed for the lives of many, and the countelss other people that are connected to them?

There are several fallacies with this view point:
1. You represent that children born to poor child mothers will inevitably be miscreants. Wrong! There are several decent persons born to poor child mothers even in Nigeria.
2. You suggest that the most important element of child welfare is material/money hence abortion is unjustifiable in rich countries but justifiable given Africa's many problems. Money is certainly not the most important thing a child needs; many people have managed to become Presidents, Bishops, captains of Industry; sports heroes, artistes, etc, from abject poverty.
3.Following from the above, on what basis do you presume that because someone (in particular, from the West) is wealthy, they ought not to suffer from the same feelings of secrecy and shame that lead to a desire for abortion, just as their African counterparts?
4.Then you present an old argument of the genocidal philosophy: that some people are better off dead so that others may live - is the life of one not better sacrificed for the lives of many? Unwittingly or not, you have resurrected the question of Caiaphas who thought Jesus Christ should be killed on this basis; the argument of Hitler who needed to free the world of Jews in order to make room for the Aryan race; the argument of religious fundametalists who believe it is better to kill off infidels to make room for believers, and the argument of those who think society will be better off without the weak, the sick, the old and the infirm.

Abortion, legal or illegal, is fraught with difficult considerations and is a most painful decision to take even for the health of the mother. What women, including the poor in Africa need is support, access to proper information that will enable them to make a balanced decision the full implications and consequences of which they must understand and, access to alternatives such as adoption.

Granted, one must have the greatest sympathy for those who are driven to tear away from themselves, an innocent life. But our sympathy must never like this article offer patronising, insensitive and fallacious suggestions even to 'poor Africans'.

Dr, I say this with the greatest respect for your opinion.