Abortion
From Lord Barrington
Sir: I was interested, but puzzled,'
by Madeline Simms' questidn to Mr Collis in her letter of May 12. She asked him to explain what advantage he supposed could accrue to this country " by adding to an already dense population, each year, an additional population of unwanted persons equivalent to the population of York."
Presumably, from the context, what she really meant was what advantage he supposed would accrue to this country by not subtracting from its population (or, more crudely, not killing) each year an existing number of "unwanted persons" (meaning persons not wanted, at that particular prenatal moment, by one of their parents) equal to the population of York.
The two questions are different; and the difference, surely, is important.
If, for example, Dr Goebbels, defending his Party's anti-Jewish activities to me or Mrs Simms, had asked what possible advantage could accrue to Germany from adding to its population, every year, an " additional population" of " unwanted" German citizens equivalent to the population of (say) Dortmund, Dusseldorf, Uachau, or whatever the comparable figure may have been. I think she would have agreed with me that the Doctor's question was either illogical or disingenuous. I am sure that Mrs Simms' question: was not disingenuous; but was it logical?
Barrington House ia■ Lords, London SW1.
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