S t 1 , 1(,--- I fear Mr. de la Bedoyere is trying an old
hr`ck. It just isn't any good to argue, as he does, that :'Ccause it is impossible to draw the line between awhat counts as a human being and what counts as h c°mPlex of cells which will in time become a
uman being, without making an apparently arbi- strn'trY decision about exactly where to draw the line,
ll a distinction is therefore impossible. Of course 1'1_1- is difficult to see what characteristics essential to exuMan nature are lacking to an embryo' if you ord•Minc at eight months. But what about one month s, mle week after conception? Why, after all, start savticonception? Perhaps the spermatozoon and the atint ought to be regarded as being in some sense c_tvhe cSelf-abuse is murder' declares prominent rti laYman). Clearly a distinction must be and I don't see why we shouldn't make a
satisfactory one at the stage where the embryo could survive after premature birth. After that stage I will call it murder to destroy the unborn baby; but before that it seems merely confusing to talk about human life. When you eat an egg you eat an egg, not a chicken—otherwise Mr. de la Bedoycre would not, I think, be allowed to eat eggs on Friday.
St. Catherine's Society. Oxford MICHAEL W. D. WHITE
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