I am writing in response to Brian Shirley’s letter entitled “No More, No Less.” In this letter Mr. Shirley told us a story of a rich man who murders his baby because he is not able to take care of it. He continued the story by saying the man was not brought to trial or even charged with a crime, and he followed this story by making the biased statement that “it happens every day … Unwanted children are murdered every day in the form of legalized abortion.”

I have found problems with this “story.” First, many women who make the difficult decision of having an abortion are doing so because they would not be able to support the child financially and emotionally. The rich man in the story would be able to do both; he would be more than equipped for the financial burden and would be able to hire a nanny for the busy hours in which he personally could not look after the child. Many women would be forced to quit their job because they cannot afford child care and would be forced to try and support their new babies on welfare and WIC.

Second, the rich man killed his child when it was fully sentient of its surroundings, as opposed to a fetus aborted in the first trimester, whose brain is not developed enough for conscious thought or awareness.

This is the major problem with Mr. Shirley’s letter. He uses the court’s definition of genetic identity (DNA), not the most widely accepted scientific definition of life (sentience). A fetus doesn’t have a choice in this early stage of it’s development because it doesn’t possess the ability to make a choice. Before all you pro-life activists send out the hit squad against me, let me just discuss choice for a little bit.

Most of you who are vehemently pro-life are so because of strong religious beliefs. Most of the people in your family didn’t have the choice of what religion you were going to be when you were born, your parents said you were Catholic (or Lutheran, or Muslim, or whatever) … and you pretty much accepted it until your brain was programmed with these beliefs. By the time you did have a choice in the matter, it was too late — you were past the stage when you develop your own moral opinions.

Doesn’t it seem a bit hypocritical to force an entire belief system on a child, without his or her consent, when they have the ability to comprehend and then to condemn others for making a choice for a fetus who cannot possibly make decisions for itself? And since I brought up the topic of religion, isn’t it a Christian belief that the only “person” who can truly make judgments of moral rights and wrongs is God? It is up to God to judge us, not you or any other human being on this earth.

One last thing … the last time I checked, Brian was a male name, Mr. Shirley. How can you, as a male, possibly have the nerve to tell a female what she can and cannot do with her body? Do you go around telling other men what to do with their bodies?

Michael Mischnick

Sophomore

Chemical engineering