Thalidomide Babies William Empson. Michael W. D. White,
R. M. Blom field British Voluntary- Service Lionel Melville,
M. M. Elliott, David Stanton The Earl of Sandwich's Crew John Paul
The Comnton Market R. Thompson
The Last Trains David Norris Don't Bank On It Alan Fox, G. W. Heath, H. Barnett Selby After Blond Gods J. T. Davis Spare Parts B. Duncan 'Public Odium,' the Press, and PROs Monica Furlong
Yettushenko J. M. Co/ten What, Indeed: John Percival THALIDOMIDE BABIES SK—The mother who demands to abort a thalido- mide baby will nearly always have decided on the number of children she can afford, so that if allowed to avoid producing a monster she will produce a healthy child instead. If a State or a Church, as a Matter of duty, allows the light of day to the mon- strous embryo, it thereby refuses the light of day t° a healthy child not yet conceived. Many oPrionents of this argument would answer that they do indeed object to all forms of birth control, and in logic they should object to moral abstinence as well; but the effects of the population explosion will soon become so obviously appalling, and so likely tbo trigger off the end of the race of man, that it has ecome a duty however disagreeable to speak up against such-opinions. Also, the opponent speaks in terins of moral suasion, as if he is merely trying to Persuade the mother; but he wants to continue ifriv°king the law against her, often involving pro- tonal ruin as well as heavy penalties. Christians nave always demanded to impose mortifications which their own consciences demand upon all other Persons, eveti those whose consciences were bitterly oPPosed to submitting; and they used much worse Pe.nalties until decent opinion prevented them. r hope that the painful thalidomide affair may aave one good effect, in making some people realise the horror which is always latent in the apparently noble structure of Christianity.
Studio HOUSC, Hampstead
WILLIAM EMPSON
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