Ethics of stem-cell research

Madam, - In response to Dr James Murphy's letter of July 12th, may I please make a plea for correspondents to refrain from using…

Madam, - In response to Dr James Murphy's letter of July 12th, may I please make a plea for correspondents to refrain from using terms such as "ensoulment" and "personhood" when writing about human life at the moment of conception?

What you have after conception is alive and it is human. It is human life. It is either one unique human life, or more than one as in the case of multiple births. If these human lives are allowed to grow, they will develop into unique adult humans such as Dr Murphy or myself. Each of our lives began at our moment of conception. Being pro-life does not require religious belief. Such belief can help, but being truly pro-life means that you respect all human lives at all their stages of development.

Valuable stem cells can be harvested without killing embryos. Let's focus on such harvesting methods and stop linking the production of stem cells exclusively with the killing of embryos. - Yours, etc,

DICK HUMPHREYS, Mount Merrion, Co Dublin.