LETTERS The meaning of life
Sir: I have seen your article ( 'All you need is life', 17 June) in which you express your love and joy at the birth of your baby, Domenica, and I felt I must express my personal thanks.
I have severe spina bifida and am a full- time wheelchair user. I also run the Handi- cap Division of the Society for the Protec- tion of Unborn Children — a group of dis- abled people, their families and carers who campaign for the equal right to life of all disabled people.
It is difficult for me to express my appre- ciation of your positive, loving attitude towards your daughter, since it means so much to me. I feel that your acceptance embraces all disabled people, and it repre- sents such a radically different view to the one more commonly expressed. Every day I read in the press about 'exciting break- throughs' which mean yet another way to kill people like me before birth, and occa- sionally there are reports of doctors who starve to death born babies with my degree of disability because they think we are 'bet- ter off dead'. They never stop to think of the terrible unhappiness they cause dis- abled people — ironically enough in the name of 'relieving suffering'.
I would like to take this opportunity of congratulating you and your wife on the birth of your baby; and of thanking you because in recognising her infinite value and worth you also recognised mine.
Milborne St Andrew, Blandford Forum, Dorset
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