The right to life
Sir: I am glad that Mrs Scarisbrick of LIFE (26 August) accepts my basic premise that the mode of action of the IUD (`the coil') is a matter of great importance to anti;abortionists. I am glad, too, that she does not seek to evade the implications of her belief that humanity begins at fertilisation. She is wrong in implying that there is no conclusive proof that the IUD works after fertilisation. There is in fact abundant evidence that it works after fertilisation rather than by preventing it, and this evidence is accepted by such prominent anti-abortion gynaecologists as Professor McLaren of Birmingham. That being so, it is surely up to organisations like LIFE to attack the IUD with the same ferocity that they have shown in the case of abortion a little later in pregnancy. They should probably also be attacking the contraceptive pill, some types of which appear to work by preventing implantation rather than by preventing fertilisation.
Even if Mrs Scarisbrick does not accept the evidence about IUD as conclusive (and it would be interesting to know what further proof she requires) the mere possibility that the IUD works by destroying tiny foetuses should be enough to earn her condemnation.
As to whether the process of becoming human is a gradual process, as I maintain, or whether it occcurs at the time of fertilisation, as Mrs Scarisbrick maintains, I fear that she is out of touch with the opinion of everyone but extremists such as herself. The fact that parliament permits abortion at all suggests that it regards the foetus as less than human, and most people really do not give a damn about a foetus which is almost too small to be seen with the naked eye. Unless Mrs Scarisbrick and those like her can overcome this massive public indif ference, to which the lack of correspondence following my article testifies, then she has lost the moral battle for abortion.
Colin Brewer 14A Abercorn Place, St John's Wood, London NW8
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