The origin of life.Cathleen Kaveny's March 24 column ("When Does Life Begin?") contains a sentence that some of my friends have interpreted to mean that I agree with Paul Ramsey's reservations about the fact that human life begins at fertilization fertilization, in biology, process in the reproduction of both plants and animals, involving the union of two unlike sex cells (gametes), the sperm and the ovum, followed by the joining of their nuclei. . I do not believe this is what Kaveny intended. She knows that I have consistently maintained that human life exists from the very first moments of conception and that from that moment the embryo has an inalienable Not subject to sale or transfer; inseparable. That which is inalienable cannot be bought, sold, or transferred from one individual to another. The personal rights to life and liberty guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States are inalienable. claim to life and to protection against deliberate destruction. This claim does not depend on the time of individuation--a view I take to be untenable logically, ontologically, and biologically. I hope this clarification will erase any doubts about my position. EDMUND D. PELLEGRINO Edmund D. Pellegrino, M.D., was the 11th president of The Catholic University of America and the last layman to hold the position. He is now the Chairman of the President's Council on Bioethics. , MD Washington, D.C. The writer is chair of the President's Council on Bioethics bioethics, in philosophy, a branch of ethics concerned with issues surrounding health care and the biological sciences. These issues include the morality of abortion, euthanasia, in vitro fertilization, and organ transplants (see transplantation, medical). . |
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