1958 plane crash
I would like to thank Times of Malta very much for the article that was published on December 27 on the plane crash over Italy on October 22, 1958, written by Mark Laurence Zammit. It captured the drama and tragedy that held the world headlines that week and the long-lasting effects it had on the families of those on board.
Since publishing The Flight of the Arctic Fox in September, I am pleased to say we have found the family of Sheila Lane in Dorset, England, and, at last, have a photo of her and solved the mystery of why she was buried in Malta. We are still looking for the relatives of Mary La Vassallo Rosa, but we do know she was buried in Ħamrun.
We are hoping to have a gathering of the families of the relatives at the site in Italy next year.
Many thanks for such help and to the families of Roderick Chalmers and Michael Vella (son of John Vella). I am very pleased to say the book is now available in all the Agenda bookshops in Malta.
RORY O’GRADY – Canterbury, Kent, UK
Not a criminal
John Pace (December 6), in response to my letter where I reiterated the fact that abortion happens every single day in Malta, asked if I am “reporting criminal activity”.
As a volunteer for the Family Planning Advisory Service who hears regularly from women in Malta seeking abortions, the answer is no. This is because I do not consider that a woman who is seeking an abortion because she already has young children to look after, a criminal.
Neither do I consider a criminal that mother who is contacting us on behalf of her 16-year-old daughter who has told her she is pregnant and does not want to be.
People who think women who are seeking abortions or have had abortions should be reported to face prison sentences are either heartless or have no idea of the reality these women face.
If this country truly cares about women, it must decriminalise abortion sooner rather than later, not least to disarm the vengeance of those who wish to see these vulnerable women punished.
CHRISTOPHER BARBARA – Doctors for Choice, St Julian’s
Persisting in error
The correspondent Klaus Vella Bardon (December 22) claimed that, in previous correspondence, Giovanni Bonello had “buried, once for all… (the) dishonest contention that Malta’s law does not safeguard the mother when she faces a difficult pregnancy”.
On the assumption that Vella Bardon’s circumlocution refers to therapeutic abortion (another one was “life-saving treatment that may result in the loss of (a woman’s) child”), his claim is manifestly incorrect.
In previous correspondence, Bonello had argued that, besides the historical record in the courts showing that no prosecution was ever attempted on grounds of therapeutic abortion, the Maltese criminal code also provides for therapeutic abortion in terms of an article in the code relating to self-defence.
Actually, the link between therapeutic abortion and self-defence is tenuous to inexistent.
In further correspondence, he did not repeat this argument but urbanely retreated to the undisputed fact that there has been no prosecution ever over a case of therapeutic abortion.
The fact remains that, on the basis of the existing terms of the law, therapeutic abortion is not cleared of any criminal responsibility.
Two conclusions result from this: future prosecutions may still be attempted in a break with long-held practice; more importantly, perhaps, the law as it stands has a chilling effect on medical professionals when they need to consider therapeutic abortion, an effect that, in the not so distant past, had dismal consequences in Ireland, among others.
ALFRED SANT, MEP – Brussels, Belgium