Sinnott says the main question for voters in the Irish referendum is whether the current Nice Treaty and Irish Constitution are "more conducive to the clarity" that the bishops call for in their letter than the proposed Lisbon Treaty and Charter of Fundamental Rights (CFR).
While she accepts that the CFR prohibits the practice of reproductive cloning for human beings, she believes this is only to "allow so-called therapeutic cloning," which is permitted under a 1998 Commission Directive on the legal protection of biotechnological inventions.
Sinnott believes that "there is no difference between therapeutic and reproductive cloning" because in both cases the embryo dies, adding that more and more embryos in therapeutic cloning "are created in order to be destroyed".
She describes the current law in Ireland, which protects babies before birth by effectively outlawing abortion. The Treaty of Maastricht has a protocol that protects this constitutional safeguard, she explains. But a 'yes' vote in the Lisbon Treaty would mean signing a "blank cheque", leaving Ireland open to "various risks in relation to abortion," she argues.
"We will have set aside the various constitutional protections en masse should we be challenged in EU law," Sinnott writes. She is worried that EU law could override national law, which she points out already happened with the 1991 Grogan ruling, whereby a decision by EU judges ruled that "abortion is a service entitled to free movement like any other service".
Sinnott believes that the uncertainty surrounding decisions made by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) on competing rights is a worrying issue. "In the life and death of our smallest human beings, I, for one, am not willing to take the risk."
At a recent event in Parliament on ageing populations, Sinnott noted that the issue of euthanasia came up. Several speakers welcomed the CFR, claiming the ECJ would interpret it in a way that would "lead to the legalisation of euthanasia across Europe," according to her.
"I hope they are wrong," she says.
Sinnott reiterates the uncertainty surrounding ECJ decisions on competing rights, and stresses that euthanasia is a bigger gamble than abortion in EU versus national law, because Ireland does not have any protective protocol covering euthanasia.
She concludes by echoing the "bishops' call for greater unity in Europe," but adds that it is hard to understand the Treaty's contents and all its "consequences and surprises".
