Readers React: Personhood for embryos takes away personhood for women

To the editor: There is a very simple answer to one letter writer’s question, “Why shouldn’t personhood rights be granted to embryos?” The answer: Because that would strip personhood rights from women. (“Right to life should apply to the unborn,” Readers React, Dec. 3)

At that point, any woman with the misfortune of an unplanned pregnancy would legally be no better than an incubator. On this basis, it is no stretch to imagine laws regulating what a woman can eat or drink or what activities she may engage in while pregnant.

M.A. Steinberger, Tujunga

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To the editor: A letter writer states, “Adding rights is something the courts have been doing for decades on race, same-sex marriage, contraception, privacy, free speech and more.”

Wrong. The courts have not been “adding” anything; they have merely been recognizing those rights.

Richard W. Nagle, Los Angeles

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