Letters to the editor: Hold human persons as special; keep humanity from destroying itself

Personhood is the issue, not life

Re: Theresa Schultz’s April 18 letter, “Don’t forget abortion definition”:

This is a letter to the editors of The Star and beyond.

The occasion is the letter, “Don’t forget abortion definition” and, “Knowledgeable people know it’s been proven that life begins at conception.”

No, life doesn’t begin anymore; it began: some 6,000 years ago by Biblical count, over 3.7 billion years ago according to recent biology.

And given the difficulties and dangers of the abortion debate, editors should ask their authors to not confuse things with “When does life start,” it doesn’t, not anymore.

In Genesis 1, God creates vegetation, sea creatures, swarming things, etc., which since then have been fruitful and multiplied, filling the Earth. Since the work of Alfred Russel Wallace and Charles Darwin we’ve known that species evolve — but biology and Bible agree that life started and then is passed on: if Earth develops near-life, some established creature will eat it.

Knowledgeable people know that “Life only comes from life” and theories of “spontaneous generation” were refuted in mid-19th century experiments culminating when Louis Pasteur showed that broth in “swan-neck” flasks remained sterile unless something living could drop in from the air.

At human conception, egg and sperm are alive, as are the zygote, embryo, fetus, and so on to a born baby with “the breath of life.”

The question for abortion is when we have human persons.

Many Americans don’t see a single-cell zygote or a ball of cells as a human person, nor further on before “viability” outside the womb.

And “All life is sacred” isn’t a sentence for anyone eating a bacon burger, or a carrot. We must hold human persons as special, perhaps sacred. Personhood is the issue, not life.

Richard D. Erlich, Port Hueneme

It’s time to focus on our planet

The face on my iPhone is a picture of Earth from space which pretty much is a blue-hued ball in a black background. When viewed from the moon or farther out it gets smaller and smaller. We may feel like humanities home is large but by any cosmic standards we are just a little tiny rock moving through space.

When you put that in perspective and you realize it is home to over 8 billion people and more every day with a world economy and a worldwide web that makes communication possible everywhere on Earth. It is hard to imagine that we are still fighting religious wars and wars to capture territory like it was the 1500s.

It is time to focus on our planet to keep humanity from destroying itself and strive for peace and harmony so we can focus on the real enemy which is climate change and over population which effects not only the atmosphere but also the animals we share it with and all persons whether they contribute to it or not.

Hudson Scoggin, Ventura

This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Letters: Personhood is the issue; keep humanity from destroying itself