THE EDITOR, Sir:

The battle lines are being drawn in a very important debate which has at its core - concerns related to the sanctity of life. Over the last seven months, there has been a very obvious effort to jolt the nation into a lively discussion on abortion.

A philosophical analysis of the debate reveals compassion for vulnerable mothers on both sides but equal concern for the unborn only on the pro-life half of the debate. And that is to be expected as pro-lifers believe that both mother and foetus are human beings of inherent value and, therefore, should be protected.

Pro-choicers value the life of the mother but find themselves needing to remove the humanity or personhood of the foetus, even up to a certain, many times arbitrary, point. This is so because there is a term for terminating human life. It is called murder.

There are several fields of thought with respect to when life actually begins. The least arbitrary moment is conception - when sperm and egg fuse and become the full complement of the human DNA, which will determine how one will look at age seven and age 70.

Pro-life supporters hold to this as the only thing that makes sense, the point when development starts and is only complete when the person naturally dies. The most common view among pro-choicers is that life begins when the foetus can survive outside of the womb. But that point will depend heavily on the quality of available medical care and will naturally decrease with advances in medical technologies and understanding.

Far left pro-choice activists have been known to hold the point of birth as the moment that life begins, but clearly, location, i.e., being inside or outside of the womb, does not suddenly confer the right to life, which should not be violated. So science fails the pro-choice individual and will do so with increasing splendour as knowledge increases.

The enthused abortion activist reeling from scientific rebuke then turns to worn emotional tools, sharing real-life accounts of girls who have been raped and who attempted unsafe abortions. These stories are matched by true accounts of rape victims who have received the necessary support, who now adore their newborn babies, who have also avoided the psychological trauma of abortion.

The discussion rages on, the lines are drawn, in a nation filled with bloodshed and gruesome killings. May we choose to respect life in every single way we can.

DANIEL THOMAS

President, Love March Movement

danielthomaschristian