Letter: A life cut short

Sir: What a piece of work is a man] According to you (leading article, 7 December), he starts life as something else - something that is fair game for a mother who wants to get rid of him - and becomes human only by little and little.

But surely that which is begotten by human beings must be human, even though a great many of its powers are still in potency; and, if a foetus is killed, it is a human life, not something else, that is cut short.

Yours faithfully,

G. B. BENTLEY

College of St George

Windsor Castle

Berkshire