Madam, - Human life begins at conception (the egg fertilised by the sperm), wherever that occurs, and ends at natural death. Referred to now as the embryo, she or he is already an existing human being, an individual, not a potential human being. A new life has now begun and we have present a potential infant, child and adult. The suggestion that we must await the development of a spinal cord, brain, heart or any other organ before life is acknowledged to be present is obviously unrealistic; at conception we have a new life, a new human individual being with all the respect, dignity, and right that that entails.
The right to life is the most important and the foundation to all other rights. The possible future occurrence of some congenital abnormality which might indeed be incompatible with future life in no way takes from the individual human embryo's rights. - Yours, etc,
JAMES DUNDON MD,
Professor of Paediatrics
Emeritus, RCSI,
Dublin 6.