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DUBLIN, Ireland-Letters containing death threats and shotgun cartridges were mailed to two Irish government ministers and officials at two prominent fertility clinics, the targets of the threats said Monday.The letters from a group calling itself the Irish Citizens Defense Force threatened to kill the ministers and people in the clinics because the government permitted them to store unused embryos.Letters went to Health Minister Mary Harney; her predecessor, Micheal Martin, who is the current minister for trade and employment; a doctor at a south Dublin fertility clinic; and the office of a west Dublin fertility clinic.The threats were received February 29, said statements issued by the four targets.The south Dublin clinic, Sims International, also was the target of a hoax bomb bearing the name of the Irish Citizens Defense Force on February 22.Police said they were investigating both the death threats and the hoax but had made no arrests.Dr. Tony Walsh, director of the Sims clinic, said the hoax bomb was accompanied by "a scribbled note which said we were destroying embryos, and of course we don't do anything of the kind."The Irish government has failed to pass any legislation governing how fertility clinics should operate or how they should handle embryos.In 2006, High Court Justice Brian McGovern ruled that Ireland's guarantee of state protection for "the unborn," under the constitutional ban on abortion, did not cover fertilized embryos outside the womb or unfertilized embryos in cold storage in fertility clinics.McGovern ordered fertility clinics to keep all embryos in their care stored indefinitely until the government passed legislation on embryo storage.Prime Minister Bertie Ahern's government has steered clear of legislating on moral issues in this predominantly Roman Catholic country. The inaction has left obstetricians and fertility clinics fearful of lawsuits from abortion opponents.Voters in 2002 rejected a constitutional amendment that would have legalized abortions in cases where pregnancy threatened a woman's life. An estimated 7,000 Irish women travel annually to neighboring England for abortions.As in the days of Noah....
