Abortion rights

Martin Conroy (Letters, 3 May) writes that “disrespect for the 
unborn signals wider disrespect for human life and is morally 
corrosive”.

I think he should consider the following: men cannot, against their will, be harvested of their organs in order to save the lives of desperately ill people who are on the transplant waiting list.

Why not? It is because they are human beings, and, as such, they are protected by human rights legislation. A man’s body and everything in it belongs only to himself. Likewise, women, on account of also being human beings, are also covered by this legislation and consequently enjoy the same protection and rights regarding their bodies and their lives as men.

The fact that women, in 
addition to the living organisms that both men and women 
contain, are also capable of 
sustaining a living organism that can, over time, turn into a baby capable of sustaining its own life outside the womb, does not in any way change the fact that women are first and foremost human beings.

A woman’s body, and everything in it that is incapable of life outside her, belongs only to 
herself. Consequently, abortion, in accordance with the Abortion Act, is a right that women must always have for as long as they are classified as being human beings.

Veronica Wikman

Malleny Avenue

Edinburgh