Sir: Mr W. K. Ritter's letter (November 24) depends essentially
on two errors in logic: "one reason for opposing abortion is bad, therefore all reasons for opposing abortion are bad" and "one society that prohibited abortion was Nazi, therefore all societies that prohibit abortion are Nazi." The common link between the pro-abortionists and the Nazis is their lack of respect for the intrinsic value of an individual human life, whether or not that person is wanted by other, more powerful members of society or is useful to the State.
I am not sure what Mr Philip Kestelman (Letters, November 24) means by "an actual person, as distinct from a potential person." Presumably, an actual person refers to the genetically-determined human organism from the moment of conception onwards whereas a potential person refers to an unfertilised egg surrounded by "a million million spermatozoa."
Alternatively, It one regards a human being as a person with certain inalienable rights one must either offer some proof that at a stage in its lifecycle the organism acquired a personality that it did not have before or else assume that the organism has always been a person. In the absence of any evidence whatsoever that a human organism changes from being a nonperson to being a person, rational people must conclude that a human organism is a person from the moment of conception.
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