Madam, - Dermot Sweeney asks (July 2nd): "What more basic human right is there than that of a woman to choose the fate of her own body?" The answer is surely the right to life. Without the right to life, all other rights are meaningless.
The right to terminate a pregnancy comes at the expense of the right to life of the unborn child. While it is undeniable that an unplanned or unwanted pregnancy can severely affect a woman's life, an aborted child's life is taken away completely. The life of one person, born or unborn, must not be sacrificed merely to improve the quality of life of another.
As for Mr Sweeney's call for Amnesty to be concerned with human rights rather than "narrow religious beliefs", surely the lack of belief in a god does not imply a disregard for human life. - Is mise,
OWEN McNESTRY, Myrtle Park, Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin.