LIFE IS PRECIOUS

Re: “Abortion law sparks mass protests,” (BP, Oct 4).

Generally I consider myself a liberal. But on the issue of abortion I feel compelled to side with the conservatives.

I base my position on religious grounds. I believe that the God of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam would consider abortion to be an abomination. To rip an unborn child untimely from its mother’s womb, or to end its potential existence by other means — is that not a terrible act unworthy of a species that professes to be civilised?

The golden rule — do unto others as you would have others do unto you — sets the standard. Would you want to have been aborted when you were a foetus in the womb? No? I didn’t think so. So what you would not desire for yourself, why inflict upon others?

Women cry out that they have a right to control their own bodies. But none of us have complete control over our own bodies. Which of us can determine the time and circumstances of our own birth or death?

Which of us can save ourselves from diseases like cancer, or from strokes or heart attacks when they come calling?

But who would justify cutting off a potential life merely because it would cause inconvenience? If a baby is not wanted, it can always be put up for adoption.

Nature does not care about life, spawning billions of life-forms and consuming them with equal indifference. But if we who have life do not hold all life sacred, how shall any life be held sacred at all?

Ye Olde Theologian