Pope’s Encyclical

* Once again, Pope John Paul II has declared contraception, sterilization and abortion to regulate childbirth “morally unacceptable” (March 30-31). This entreaty disregards the fact that we share the planet with other species who require our goodwill. Indeed, biodiversity is one of the great manifestations of God on Earth.

Meanwhile, unregulated childbirth contributes to an expanding human population that must inevitably exert its territorial imperative and thereby upset the planet’s biological balance. Are we behaving morally if we allow this to happen? Do we not have responsibilities to tend to more than just our own species?

I disagree with the Pope’s position, and I stand morally tall in my own conviction that voluntary contraception, sterilization and abortion represent a blameless solution for the individuals involved and the biosphere’s health.

MICHAEL ROSOVE

Santa Monica

* While George Weigel (“John Paul II reinforces the First Human Right: to Live,” Commentary, March 31) waxes lyrical about the Pope’s “love of life,” women are dying. While he debates the “ethics” of abortion, living children are starving. No where in Weigel’s article are women’s voices heard. No where does he mention the Pope’s continuing stance against family planning and contraception. Both of which, would, if used properly, eliminate the need for abortion.

Around the world, every minute of every day women are mutilated, tortured, sold into marriage to the highest bidder, die in childbirth, have children they must watch starve to death, die early and horribly thanks to religion. That is the real holocaust of the late 20th Century.

APRIL O’HARA

Anaheim