The pro-life amendment to the Irish constitution produced its share of well-publicised hard cases, such as that of Ms X. More than anything else, these turned public opinion against the eighth amendment. Now, only a year after the referendum which paved the way for legal abortion in this country, the pro-choice side has been presented with a hard case of its own.
It involves a couple who were told at the National Maternity Hospital that the baby they were expecting suffered from a so-called fatal foetal abnormality. In this instance it was Edwards syndrome, which normally entails a life expectancy of days.
According to newspaper reports, the baby was aborted in March at 15 weeks into the pregnancy. The results of a third test, received