We have been having an almighty, confused, almost incomprehensible, debate on abortion, accompanying the debate in the House.

People have been having their say. And then some. There have been some notable contributions to the debate such as by Marie Louise Coleiro Preca and Joe Brincat on one side but also some notable contributions from the other side.

Whether any of these convinced someone to change opinions is rather unclear. So it was more a case of expressing in writing one’s conviction and rebutting the arguments of the other side. Nevertheless, a useful exercise of popular democracy.

Beyond all this, we have been faced once again with many examples of the callous disregard for life that is coming over our people.

We have had another death caused in the construction sector. A young man, much praised by those who knew him, who apparently was just delivering some tools when the whole building collapsed on top of him.

This young man is only the latest in a whole series of deaths in the construction sector, some Maltese and some foreigners. In each case the victim left for work but did not return home. In each case, a family here or abroad has been left weeping at this untimely death.

What makes each case more tragic is the slowness of our judicial system to investigate what exactly happened to cause the death and who is to blame, if there is blame to be apportioned. Popular opinion in most cases would have already reached a conclusion and named who is guilty but that is not how things are done in a country of law and order.

Then we also had a murder of a foreigner. The media has investigated and seems to have found a background to this murder. Two persons from the same foreign country have now been charged with the murder providing an alleged background to the murder which was carried out in broad daylight and in a principal street in the district of Paceville.

And then there was the usual collection of traffic accidents with people ending up in hospital (though this week thankfully not in the morgue – so far). In a small island with a car density at world championship levels where one more often finds traffic jams rather than open space where vehicles can open up and speed.

Before this past week we have had a very bad murder which seems to have had a domestic violence background to it. And once again we have been reminded about the amount of domestic violence cases in this small island of ours.

The conclusion to which we are brought to declare is that life is very cheap in this country of ours, in whatever age we find ourselves in. The abortion debate, such as it has been, shows that for some people the disregard towards life begins even before birth (though some people object that there may be attenuating circumstances).

This need not be so. There is so much that could be done to create a wonderful country here even though we are too many to live together in close proximity. We have our disagreements of course but even there we could perhaps live and disagree.

But unless we change our approach to life in general and start seeing life as sacred, any life, we are doomed to continue turning this fair isle to hell on earth. So has happened to other countries and now they cannot climb back from the hell they’ve fallen into.

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