Dear Editor, Many years ago I asked a group of boys to name their favourite television show. The vast majority named The Incredible Hulk as the one that most took their fancy. In order to satisfy my curiosity I had to sit and watch a programme. The essence of what was to come was spoken in the introduction when a voice stated that an “incredible metamorphosis” would occur to the principal actor during the showing.
On the numerous occasions since that evening, when the subject of legalising abortion is raised, I recall those words. I think of them when pro-choice advocates state that human life is not present during the early months of pregnancy. They speak of a clump of cells that have no real existence and most certainly have no claim to being called human.
The obvious conclusion from what those people say is that at some indeterminate time during pregnancy an incredible metamorphosis occurs whereby the cells, as if by magic, transform into a human being.
None of those people have ever, to my knowledge, stated definitively when that dramatic event happens. No one has said that a human being exists only from the 12th, 26th or the 31st week of pregnancy.
I respectfully suggest that they have not done so because such arbitrary language would have neither medical nor logical import.
As we await the arrival of spring, the principal planting season, those who garden know full well that from the time the seed takes root in the warming soil, that essence and existence are present.
There is not a ‘twinkling of the eye’ moment of metamorphosis from inert object to actual plant.
Just as the seed in the garden goes from implantation, to maturity to ultimate decay, so, in the irresistible logic of nature, does the human being, in all its fullness, proceed from conception to adulthood to death.
Yours etc.
Michael Gleeson,
Killarney,
Co. Kerry
