Sir: I am sorry to trouble you again on abortion,
but, in your editorial today (26 May), even you misstate a fact to support a point (inadvertently, I have no doubt).
You say that 'there is no question of either the law or public opinion condoning the murder of one fully developed human being to protect the health—or indeed the life—of another.' This is literally true (in the sense that killing in self- defence, for example, is not called murder), but the point you make is false.
If I see a thug threatening the life, health, or sanity of some old lady and kill him in rescuing her, I am regarded as a hero, not a villain, both by the law and by public opinion, provided it is clear that I was not moved by malevolence to- wards my victim so much as by benevolence towards his.
Precisely the same criterion applies, surely, in deciding to protect a mother's life by eliminating the being that threatens it? The foetus is not a special case. Trevenen Peters 69 Renters Avenue, Hendon, London NW4
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