Sir, - Both Fintan O'Toole (Opinion, October 16th) and Dr Kevin McCormack (18 October, 2001) address the question of the beginning of life - usually considered to be the moment of conception - and how early life is treated.
This question has also been raised many times in the past few years in your Letters column, most recently on June 21st last.
This question is at the crux of the debate on abortion, yet it has never been fully answered. If life does begin at the moment of conception, then we should treat that life with full respect if something happens to it.
But we don't. We irreverently dispose of embryos and we do not have formal Church or State procedures in the case of early miscarriages.
If we are serious about our regard for life from its very beginnings, why are we so casual in our approach when it ends naturally? Are we subconsciously admitting that it is not really life and that we can do what we like with it? Why do we only become concerned with early life when it ends in abortion?
The debate on abortion cannot realistically proceed until we finally agree on how to treat early life. We either accept early life fully and give it proper treatment or finally accept that it is indeed different and allow for abortion. - Yours, etc.,
Kathleen Kelleher, Rathdown Park, Greystones, Co. Wicklow.