Madam, – I was surprised that little or no attention was paid to two particular sets of responses in the Sex, Sin and Society survey (Home News, September 15th-17th) that were somewhat at odds with the other findings in the survey.
I refer to the fact that 50 per cent of respondents said that virginity was a quality they would value in a potential partner while 36 per cent said that it was not. Also that a staggering 84 per cent of respondents – the highest score for any opinion in the survey so far – agreed that current fashions in clothes and media sexualise young girls at an early age.
These responses seem to suggest that Irish public opinion is not entirely consistent in its embrace of liberal attitudes to sexual behaviour and that many are uneasy about the impact of at least one aspect of modern culture.
I would have thought these were issues which warranted consideration and further exploration.
So I ask, why the silence? – Yours, etc,
Madam, – A whole page has been devoted to identifying “sins” (September 16th) without a single reference to God’s own definition in the 10 Commandments. Any chance we might get back to basics? – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Online piracy ranked bottom of a list of unethical actions reported as part of the recent Behaviour Attitudes survey. If, for most people, there’s no ethical roadblock to stealing music or films, then why don’t they just take them from the stores? If the only impediment to this is the fear of getting caught, then who deserves more of our respect, the petty shoplifter or the petty online thief? – Yours, etc,
Madam, — While I appreciate the difficulty in framing a question thoroughly objectively, and without any hint of bias whatsoever, I believe at the very least an attempt be made to do so for the sake of accuracy of findings.
And so I was surprised at just how farcically weighted the assisted-suicide question was in your poll. A good way to ascertain views on assisted suicide would be to ask the question, “Should doctor-assisted suicide be legalised in certain circumstances in Ireland?” This isn’t a perfect construction but it has the benefit of being short, simple, clear and objective.
Instead, the actual question posed contained a preambular ode to the virtue and necessity of assisted suicide. The respondents were told that in other countries assisted suicide is allowed under “strict circumstances” for “terminally ill patients who are in intense pain” and only after the patient “repeatedly expresses the desire to end their own lives”.
These claims are in themselves highly dubious – not only are they not theoretically true for all jurisdictions which permit assisted-suicide, but in actual practice they are even less accurate (one only has to look at the current controversy involving the so-called Dignitas clinic in Switzerland).
The fact the question mentioned “intense pain”, without also mentioning the exceptional ability of modern medicine to alleviate and control that pain, further points to its bias.
I wonder what the response would have been if the question was asked, “Bearing in mind that modern medicine has gone a long way towards eliminating pain for terminally ill patients, and that in practice assisted suicide is abused in countries where it is legal, and that the role of a doctor is to heal and not to kill, would you like to see assisted suicide legalised in Ireland?” – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Fascinating how Hazel Cullen (September 17th) chooses her words.
Marriage is “stone-set”. Cohabitation is “mature”, “adult” and to do with being “in love” and “getting to know each other”.
She does not address the objective evidence to which David Quinn refers (September 15th), namely that statistics show that people who get married after trial cohabitation are more likely, not less likely, to split up. That the majority of those interviewed did not know this fact merely highlights that what the majority believe is not necessarily true.
For the sake of stability in society we need to encourage the maturity that is willing to get to know someone deeply without having to cohabit, and then is willing to commit to them for life, for better for worse.
That kind of loyalty is the love which makes a marriage last and is the best route to adult, and children’s, happiness within marriage. – Yours, etc,