Missing the point about embryos
Christopher Barbara (May 6) completely misses the point made by Ivan Padovani’s note which highlighted the incontestable fact that every human adult was at one point a zygote.
Whether we should casually call the early embryo a “miniature baby” or not, no biologist could, or would, deny that she was a zygote at the earliest instant of her life.
I was once a zygote, even you, the reader of this letter was once a zygote. The argument for abortion is not a scientific one but an ideological one which is why Barbara rapidly shifts the line of thought away from science to one of social policy and women’s health.
That would need another kind of philosophical debate. Which is why all rational and well-meaning citizens should prefer to stick to the science. Nor could religion deny that the zygote constitutes the earliest stage of human life.
So, I suggest we leave religion out of the debate too.
Stick to the science and you will have no doubt about when the life of a human being begins.
To insist that “life just continues” is to miss the whole point, scientifically speaking.
It is clear here that we are not discussing any kind of life, such us the life of somatic cells, or the life of bodily organs which are instrumental to higher systems, such as the heart is to blood circulation or the intestines to digestion, etc.
What is being discussed here is the life of a distinct individual member of the homo sapiens species, the developmental journey of whose life cannot be confused with nor reduced to that of its progenitor gametes, which are haploid and whose life expectancy is relatively short when compared to that of a human individual, etc.
Does this even need to be spelt out?
Christopher Caruana – Rabat
Simply a farce
Despite all the constructive criticism put forward by different organisations and groups within society with regard to the proposed cannabis reform law, the government chooses to ignore all!
What’s the use of publishing a white paper for public consultation if the proposed law remains unchanged, no matter what? In my opinion this is simply a farce.
Phyllis Sammut Smith – Gżira
SVPR contract
The prime minister, ministers Michael Farrugia, Michael Falzon and Justyne Caruana all declared that the St Vincent de Paul Residence project contract was ‘good’ despite the many significant irregularities flagged down by the NAO.
Another case of ‘the end justifies the means’?
Carmel Sciberras – Naxxar
Enjoying cruelty
The back page pictures of the Times of Malta have always been a source of much admiration for me, both theme-wise and artistically.
Not so the one of May 6: a small bird, hardly longer than three inches from edge of beak to end of tail, closed up forever in a cage not big enough for it to open its wings, shall we say five inches?
Is this the world that God created for that bird to live in? How cruel can we humans be!
John Consiglio – Birkirkara
What was that?
Jacqueline Calleja (May 11) quotes Matthew 19:4-5 as the exact words of Jesus and uses them to condemn partnerships between people of the same sex.
However, Jesus was not making any comment on such partnerships but on the question of marriage and divorce. And Matthew’s gospel differs here from Mark and Luke. In Matthew (19:9 and 5:32), Jesus permits divorce in the case of fornication, an exception which does not appear in either Mark (10:1-12) or Luke (16:18).
It really is very dodgy to claim to know exactly what Jesus said on any subject when the four gospels themselves cannot agree on what He said.
Alan Cooke – Sliema
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