The Mail RESPONSIBILITY TO ABORT

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

Albert Jimson's assertions in the letters column of April 1 represent either the worst form of self-righteous ignorance or a humorless April Fool's joke. The argument that abortion is murder has been proven specious many times before, but another refutation seems to be necessary.

If abortion is murder, then a fetus is a person. The absurdity of this viewpoint is glaring. A human being does not come into existence with conception. The essence of man is his personality and his sentience. There is no comparison between an unconscious fetus and "the mentally deficient, senile people, amputees, and paraplegics." If Jimson cannot see such a distinction, then there can be no arguing.

But, he says, even if a fetus is not human, "to destroy what might be human is to be willing to destroy what is human." In that case, then contraception is equivalent to murder since any pair of ovum and sperm has the potential to be human. Would Jimson recommend that we all burn our Trojans and Enovids and fall into bed precipitously?

Jimson says abortions are committed by persons who, by their own "free will, assumed a responsibility for the baby which might result from the act." No pair of people in love have any obligation whatsoever to take that kind of responsibility. On the contrary, sex carries with it a responsibility to prevent conception, unless a child is desired. If contraception fails, then the responsibility is to have an abortion.

Jimson accuses proponents of the abortion fund of hypocrisy. Let him look into his own heart and mind; he will see that compelling a mother to bring into the world an unwanted child is the greatest sin of all. It is a sin against mother, child, and society. It is appalling to know that there are people in the world who claim to have more compassion for a developing zygote than for a suffering segment of the population. Preacher, chastise thyself!