SIR,—May I offer a few comments on the latest
batch of letters?
First, Mr. White, there is an obvious and precise difference between a fertilised and an unfertilised egg: one has life and the other has not. And if it is a human one it is human life.
Second, Mr. Empson, we can take away life but we cannot give it: a woman who aborted a baby which might prove deformed (remember, for pity's sake, that only a proportion of 'thalidomide' mothers have produced deformed children) could not be certain of producing another to take its place. And it is really too much to blame State or Church for the non-birth of a hypothetical healthy child. The parents must bear the responsibility for their own decision. As to the 'population explosion,' I believe the earth is capable of supporting many times its present population if its resources are properly exploited. Finally, in general reference to the pro-abortion case, what horrifies me above all is the complete dis- regard of everything but the body. Physical disability has never ruled out mental achievement often it is a spur to an active mind. HELENA BROUN 3 Magdala Crescent, Edinburgh, 12
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