YOU quote (June 12) Nicholas Coote, Assistant General Secretary to the Bishops' Conference as saying that the issue as to whether a mentally handicapped young woman should have an abortion "should not only be a clinical or medical judgment, but an ethical one, too."
This is not. I fear, the first time that Mr Coote has stated the Catholic position in terms that are less than clear, less than absolute.
The issue is neither a clinical nor a medical one. Indeed, it is not really an ethical one. The issue is a clear-cut moral issue: it is no more justified to destroy the life of a child born to a handicapped mother than to destroy any other innocent life. The fifth commandment says it all: "Thou shalt not kill."
Angela Mason