Letter: Reader offers abortion lesson

In reading “Abortions are safe” (May 8th), it seems the pro-abortion crowd needs a lesson in molecular biology. The splitting of the fertilized ovum initiates a continuum of growth which lasts for approximately 20 years. If we extract the DNA from the cells of that nascent embryo and sequence it, we will find that it is characteristic of a human being.

Furthermore, we can show that the lineup of base pairs in that embryonic DNA is exactly the same as that in the DNA in the fully formed human 20 years later. Picking a milestone along that growth timeline at which to declare the organism to be a human being is scientifically indefensible.

Why should we classify the organism to be human only at the point its brain is functioning? All mammals display such neurological activity. It is the DNA guiding the building of that brain that defines us as human beings, and that DNA is present from the moment of conception.

This is not religious belief, but scientific fact—an inconvenient truth. It can be verify experimentally. The life of the unborn child and the life of its mother are of equal value. Neither should be lost to abortion.