Consistent life ethic

* Lucille Oliver in her letter about Rosemary Radford Ruether's column (NCR, Dec. 15) is right on target. If we are indeed created in the image of God, surely this has nothing to do with tissue, bone or DNA, but rather with some "God-like" characteristic such as possession of consciousness and will. As the science of neurobiology shows, these characteristics are not possible until the cerebral cortex is up and running, sometime after 28 to 32 weeks. Thus, "personhood" before that time makes no sense. The term for person in the Old Testament refers to something that breathes, that is born. Of course, under the 14th Amendment legal personhood begins at birth, even of preemies at 25 weeks. It is painfully obvious to many that the prime motive for proscribing abortion is to maintain male dominance over women.

EDD DOERR

Silver Spring, Md.

* I share the praise and gratitude for Rosemary Radford Ruether's discussion of the so-called "consistent life ethic" and abortion expressed by Lucine Oliver in her letter. I don't recall ever before reading as clear and convincing a statement as Ms. Ruether's on an issue that surely cries. out for reasoned discussion. Unfortunately, I do not find Ms. Oliver's arguments helpful or persuasive. I doubt that a 6-month-old baby of human parents "knows right from wrong" much better than an egg in a Petri dish, but ought we not consider her/him a human being? A fertilized egg in a dish may need more time and more sophisticated devices and people, but it is reasonable to assume that the day will come, if it's not here already, when that egg, too, will be able to develop into a self-functioning human being. Whether we should go down that road or not is another question.

I suspect I may share Ms. Oliver's basic position, and I certainly share her disgust for the ignorance--and yes, cruelty--of the church patriarchy, but I think we have to be so careful when we speak of things we don't really understand. Things such as ... well, life.

DAVID J. WALKER

Wilmette, Ill.

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