Law needs clarification

Giovanni Bonello (December 16) asserts that therapeutic abortions are excluded by Malta’s blanket ban on abortions because no case has ever been taken to court.

Respectfully, might the fact that nobody has been prosecuted for participating in therapeutic (life-saving) abortion be a self-fulfilling prophecy? Quite simply, if there was an informal understanding (rather than a legal requirement) not to prosecute those involved in therapeutic abortions, then, of course, no abortions that were judged to be therapeutic would have been prosecuted.

By analogy, if corruption is illegal and there is uncertainty as to whether it applies equally to corrupt politicians, that could explain why no corrupt politician has ever been prosecuted.

Just as absence of evidence of uncertainty is not proof of certainty, lack of prosecutions does not mean that those who have to deal with abortions in therapeutic (life-saving) cases in Malta are necessarily certain as to their legality. In my view, informal understandings may well lead to uncertainty, especially in clinical settings.

As a gynaecologist, other questions spring to mind. Has uncertainty over the legal status of therapeutic abortions led to those abortions not being performed when they should have? Have women’s lives and health been put at risk because nobody would perform the abortion out of fear that they would be prosecuted?

Have women been forced to go to dubious practitioners or travel abroad even though they had a life-saving reason for an abortion because Maltese doctors were afraid to do so, due to the wording of the law?

Answering yes to any of these would be an urgent reason why the law should be clarified, regardless of any history of prosecution.

When the law plays out in the clinical setting, the danger to women and girls is real.

Isabel Stabile obo Doctors for Choice – St Julian’s

Political parties should agree on a common educational strategy

Photo: Shutterstock.com

Everybody seems to agree that education is key to a country’s progress. A country with well-educated citizens is definitely a competitive one. Just as a good education teaches us mathematics, languages and sciences, it should also teach us those lessons that are fundamental to living in harmony and social progress such as respect, empathy, equality, solidarity and critical thinking. Without these and other ethical principles that define us as human beings, it will be difficult for us to build a better country irrespective of what politicians preach.

The education of our children, youths and all citizens should be a national priority with short-, medium- and long-term objectives. Do the political parties ever talk about the future of education? Education, unfortunately, is too often treated in a partisan political way with objectives never exceeding five-year election horizons.

I cannot understand why political parties cannot sit down around a table and formulate an educational strategy for Malta which any party elected to form a government will implement.

One of the pillars of any educational system are the teachers and professors who do not enjoy the recognition they deserve. Worse still, the teaching profession is not consulted enough prior to taking important decisions. Before formulating a common educational strategy, one must understand the problems, the aspirations and concerns of the people who spend their time with pupils daily.

The COVID pandemic has also taught us some lessons on how lessons should be delivered at the various levels. Our educational system should prepare citizens for the future. Respect for teachers, as the older generations used to cherish, needs to be restored with families of students understanding the importance of this student-to-teacher respect. The proper ratio of teacher/students needs to be identified at the various levels of the educational journey.

It is obvious to me that an educational pact that improves a fundamental pillar of our society is agreed by political parties, unions, teaching profession, students and families.

It is fundamental that the political parties support such an initiative if they really believe that education is a common good that needs to be continually improved and is the foundation of our future society.

Philip Micallef – Attard

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