LETTERS Eating babies
Sir: How reassuring to see that the 'How many angels dance on the head of a pin?' level of disputation is still alive at New Col- lege, Oxford, from which Richard Dawkins writes (Letters, 15 April): 'An independent case can be made that it [the killing of a foetus] is a lesser crime than the ritual skewering of an adult bull for the entertain- ment of good Catholics. We must learn to think quantitatively. Absolutes are an inad- equate substitute for thought.'
A question for Dr Dawkins: would he or would he not eat an aborted foetus? They are, according to news reports, being sold for human consumption for each in Shenzen, China. But leaving economics aside, I assume — perhaps naively — that Dr Dawkins would refuse to eat a foetus, although it is 'quantitatively' only meat. I look forward to his quantitative justifica- tion for not doing so, in the hope that it will help me eliminate one more tiresome abso- lute from my mind, and free at least a small area for future thought.
Sean Haldane
105 Chapel Lane, Great Barr, Birmingham
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