Roe vs. Wade Exposes a Philosophical Gulf

Re your Jan. 21 editorial and Patt Morrison’s column on Roe vs. Wade: There is no mention, let alone seeming concern, about right or wrong in either article, only “practicality” and women’s rights. When this country wakes up to a concern for the common good instead of the individualism (selfishness) it has developed legally and otherwise, our society will improve.

Adoption is still available and in demand for unwanted children. Nor was any mention made of this option in either article. Is it better to give life, however mistakenly come by, or to take it away and deny it to an innocent being? It might well be considered as simple as that.

Nod Mulville

Pacific Palisades

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As I read “Bush Opens Way for Counties and States to Claim Wilderness Roads” and “As Roe vs. Wade Turns 30, Ruling’s Future Is Unsure” (Jan. 21), I noticed a disturbing theme. Whether it’s drilling in the Arctic, eliminating a woman’s right to choose, opening pristine wilderness to vehicles, opposing affirmative action, pushing for an unjust war or undermining dolphin-safe tuna labeling, President Bush is single-handedly attempting to dismantle all that we and our predecessors have worked hard to establish over the last few decades. Life as we know it is not likely to survive under this man’s profit-driven, socially irresponsible leadership. He is right about one thing, though -- it’s definitely time for a regime change!

Christina Johnson

Long Beach

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Re “Abortion Foes Attack Roe on New Research,” Jan. 19: The Christian Legal Society wants the courts to “acknowledge that human beings at any stage of development deserve protection,” even if it means forcing a woman to continue a pregnancy she wants to terminate. “Human beings”? An ovum and a sperm are gametes. Conception occurs when two gametes form a zygote. When the microscopic zygote exits the Fallopian tube and attaches to the uterine wall, it becomes an embryo. After two months of gestation, the embryo -- about the size of a walnut -- becomes a fetus. Almost all abortions occur during the zygotic and embryonic stages; but, appealing to emotion and ignorance, anti-abortionists depict a full-term baby in a womb.

Zygotes and embryos are “babies” only in the minds of those driven by religious beliefs. Opponents of abortion are free to believe anything they wish. They are not free to impose their superstitions on everyone else.

Forrest G. Wood

Bakersfield