Sir, - Sydney Bernard Smith (November 23rd) takes me to task for suggesting (October 23rd) that the ova and the sperm are both alive long before they join forces to build an embryo. "They don't go anywhere on their own," he says, apparently to cast doubt on my assertion.
Walking or flying may be out (as with most fish). But healthy sperm certainly have strong and useful tails with which they swim from the vagina to the uterus in their search for an egg. And then (according to New Scientist, October 13th, 2001) they use these as battering-rams to gain entrance to the egg. (Not very nice? Perhaps; but such is life, and it is useless to shout "Rape!")
Mr Smith also says that conception is "as convenient \my italics a point as any to reckon as the start of human life". Convenient for anti-abortionists, of course. Most other people find it unsettling to trade truth for convenience.
His most profound statement is: "the process is life" (presumably meaning the procession from conception to death). This brilliant observation is self-evident and therefore meaningless.
It forms the basis of many tricks, mathematical ones (made for fun), and propagandistic or political ones (not made for fun). - Yours, etc.
Kare Breivik, Malahide, Co Dublin.