Sir, - The Government's decision to hold an abortion referendum is to be welcomed. There is however some confusion about the definition of abortion which needs clarification. I quote an extract from the proposed Bill:
"In this Act 'abortion' means the intentional destruction by any means of unborn human life after implantation in the womb of a woman".
Is destruction of the fertilised ovum before implantation to be legal and destruction after implantation illegal?
No biologist will accept that there is any difference in the embryo immediately before and after implantation. To simplify the terminology, conception is the fertilisation of the ovum with the sperm, which then becomes an embryo. At conception many hundreds of genetic characteristics of both parents combine to form the genetic profile of the developing human being, some of the characteristics are, the colour of the hair, the colour of the eye, the colour of the skin, the way a person walks, the way they talk, etc. These genetic qualities may be altered by environment factors later in life. This is a profound event, which is often trivialised and even destroyed.
People who deny that human life does not begin at conception should state when life begins. It is certainly not at implantation, which is only the addition of nutrition to an already living and very complex organism. - Yours, etc.,
Joe Sorensen, Douglas Road, Cork.