In his letter of May 4, Mr. Leon Jameson Suseran made the histrionic claim that hardly anyone speaks out on the xunlawful murdering of babiesx through hundreds and thousands of abortions.

Not everyone has the time or patience of Mr. Justin de Freitas to contest the exaggerated pronouncements made in the newspapers everyday by the annoyingly over-pious. Does Mr. Suseran, the devout Catholic, thinks anyone takes him seriously when he talks melodramatically of xchildrenx being murdered in their motherxs wombs?

Mr. Suseran is guilty of mis-educating readers. First off, abortions at certain stages of development are not xunlawfulx in many parts of world therefore it is not murder, as Mr. Suseran claims.

Secondly, a group of dividing cells is not a child. These cells have no nervous system or any of the sense organs required to process the environment. A zygote is not a child, neither is a blastocyte. Mr. Suseran may think that an egg and sperm cell is a child because his religion tells him so. Well then, he should preface his letters by saying that this is his religious belief instead of recklessly accusing people of committing wholesale murder.

The foetal stage of human development begins about eight weeks after fertilisation. Many experts agree that abortion after this period is immoral as at this stage, the foetus has a beating heart.

It is estimated that two million babies worldwide die annually within 24 hours of birth. Perhaps Mr. Suseran can ask his God about these poor souls and tell us why God has allowed these real xchildrenx to die.
ARNOLD CHANCE