Personal choice should apply to our own bodies

Glorious Gloucestershire June Tremlett took this picture at the junction of Hewlett Road and London Road in Cheltenham

I WOULD say that Dr Adam Moliver (Letters, October 22) is right in his view that it should be an individual’s choice what they do with their own bodies, and this should apply to other aspects, not just abortion.

If a person is of sound mind and what they intend to do to themselves will not hurt, or place an undue burden on, others, apart from perhaps another person’s sensitivities.

However, his/this argument is probably ineffective because Veronica Lowe and Geoffrey Brooking (Letters, October 15/October 22), and others like them, believe that they are not imposing their own views but God’s views (will) on other people.

With regard to Veronica Lowe’s “fact” about the unborn child, I would say that, as Brian Cox and others have said, “People are entitled to their own opinions but not their own facts”, and I would suggest the “fact” is in reality, based on evidence, that a handful of human cells cannot be considered as a complete human.

However, the point during pregnancy where this becomes true, I would suggest, is very difficult to define precisely.

With regard to Geoffrey Brooking’s belief that every word in the Bible is true then I assume that he must believe that God is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent, and that “He” (?) created life, the universe and everything.

If this is the case and God created the world and everything in/on it, then “She” (?) is obviously responsible for all the natural disasters that occur, which of course would in effect make these “acts of God”, not natural disasters.

This includes the 1556 Shaanxi earthquake in which about 830,000 people, men, women and children perished, many buried alive.

This, together with all the other catastrophic “acts of God”, leads me to the conclusion that if God really did “so love the world” then “He” certainly does not love the people “He” apparently created to live on it.

If God really is this all-knowing, allpowerful, ever-present creator then I would suggest “He” operates double standards.

Over the centuries “She” has caused millions to die through poor workmanship and/or failure to inform those in danger when “She” obviously must know they are.

A company director who operated in this way would probably be looking at a lengthy spell in prison, or possibly the death penalty in some countries.

Even a private citizen with a dangerous construction in their own garden has to take appropriate safety measures, or they can be held accountable.

I, for one, much prefer the narrative of natural disasters and lack of human understanding.

However, if I am wrong and God really does exist, I really wouldn’t want anything to do with “it”, this isn’t the type of role model I feel I can look up to, at least, not until he takes responsibility for his past actions and comes to Earth in person and uses some of his infinite wisdom and power to sort “His” mess out. Needless to say, I’m not going to hold my breath.

If people wish to believe in the veracity of a book that was conceived some 2,000 years ago, when people thought the Earth was flat, was at the centre of the universe and only a few thousand years old, that is their prerogative.

However, humanity has learned a tremendous amount about life, the universe and everything since then so I, personally, prefer to base my opinions on more recent evidence, rather than some, often dubious, observations in ancient books.

Nick Cook Cheltenham