Sir, - I am getting tired of the propagandist communications of many anti-abortionists who do not shy from twisting words and even telling lies.
By consistently calling embryos and foetuses "the unborn", "babies" or even "children", they give their contributions a distinct taste of dishonesty.
Worse than that, most anti-abortionists imply - and some insist - that life begins in the womb! If they are innocent of the facts, I must forgive them (and blame the anti-sex brigade who have so much to answer for), and inform them that the sperm and egg are both very much alive long before they join forces to start building a live embryo.
My life did not start in my mother's womb 85 years ago. It probably arose some 3.5 milliard years ago; and it has been flowing through and enlivening trillions of bodies (divided by natural selection into millions of different species) ever since.
Life is a mystery which science will never fathom, because we are only its product, not its maker.
Let me also say that we are all anti-abortionists. But we are not all blinkered to the complexities of the real world, nor to the differences between a person and an embryo. No brain, no consciousness, no independence, and just a growth inside a woman (or a test tube), its death can be nobody's tragedy - except perhaps for a woman unable to produce a replacement. - Yours, etc.,
Kare Breivik, Malahide, Co Dublin.