Professor William Binchy:

I will speak as quickly as I can. First, the expression has been contested in medical journals on the basis that it is not an accurate medical term. In these circumstances, it is a question of life-limiting conditions where a number of children are born and live for a short period after birth, or for a considerable period in a very much smaller number of cases. As such, we are talking about life-limiting conditions. On the basis of a life-limiting condition, is it right from the standpoint of human rights intentionally to take that life, however short its life prospects are, before he or she has had an opportunity to live his or her life? If one believes in the equal right to life of every human being, one says "No" in those circumstances. One says that in those circumstances, it is appropriate to protect the life of the unborn child.