Potentially adult
Sir: Dame Mary Warnock, in a Channel 4 discussion of her Committee's report, re- jected Professor Scarisbrick's statement that a human embryo is a human being. Will she or her supporters tell us when, in their view, an embryo becomes a human being? It will not be true to say that this change happens gradually, during gesta- tion. A living organism either is, or is not, the body of a human person. It is a unit; the same life is in all its parts. The Professor's view is consistent with genuine science. A fertilised ovum is an individual life with its genetic constitution complete. If it is not sacred, not a person, why do we need a Warnock Committee and legislation to clarify our duty to it?
Another doctor recently told us that an embryo is only a potential human being. He was inaccurate: an embryo is a poten- tial adult human being. That potentiality is not at the disposal of doctors or even parents: it belongs to the future adult, and ultimately to its Creator.
Mary A. Lynch
St Joseph's Nursing Home, 15 Church Street, London N9
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