Let science help with definitions

To the editor:

Concerning the abortion controversy: People often use "murder" and "killing," which is a disservice to the discussion, in my opinion. Grisly pictures and descriptions of rare, surely necessary, late-term abortions, which anyone finds revolting, also do not promote understanding. It implies that the definition given by a church or religious organization as to when a human life or a soul begins -- the instant a woman's egg is fertilized by a male sperm -- is legally true. So far this has not been established.

Since science has given us the knowledge of the details in the reproductive process, surely scientists should have some input into the legal definitions involved, even though concepts such as the soul are outside science's purview. Scientists look at all of life, including other species, to ascertain when the embryonic stage is complete and an individual life begins. In matters relating to science such as astronomy and evolution, the church has often been in error, and its teachings about the special status that humans have in all of creation may need some revision.

HARLAN E. FIEHLER, Thebes, Ill.