LETTERS: IT'S NOT ABORITION; IT'S INFANTICIDE

To the editor:

In my child development class at school, we are currently studying the development which takes place inside the uterus during the prenatal period. On Tuesday, we watched a video of actual footage inside the mother's body from the point of conception to birth. It was a wondrous thing. Somehow they had, through microscopic photography, filmed the journey of the fertilized egg up the fallopian tube and then the complete development of the baby inside the amniotic sac. As I watched the little child take a definite human shape only weeks after conception, I was completely amazed, but I also began to feel sick at heart as I considered a certain practice which is tolerated in our country. As I continued to watch, I could see the intricate movements of the baby's hand grasping and feeling its way around its small home and its tiny heart beating. At that point, I wanted to weep as I thought of what was being done to innocent babies like this one. I wanted to stand up on my desk, right there, and cry out to my classmates and make sure they realized what the implications of this kind of footage are.

Our society has become so comfortable with this silent slaughter of real, living human beings. They are only smaller versions of humans in exactly the same way as a 4-year-old is the smaller version of an adult. Even as technology has allowed us to see how really human these babies are, we have ignored and continue to ignore such indisputably clear evidence as this. I had long ago discerned that this practice was a definite injustice, but seeing that video drove it home to me in a way that was horrifyingly real. I suppose the more one learns about this subject, the worse one sees it to be and the more one acquires a sense of urgency to stop it.

The word "abortion" must no longer be used. "Infanticide," the killing of babies, is the correct and accurate term to use. More than 35 million babies have been killed. To put this number in some sort of perspective, 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust, and World War II killed a total of 50 million people. There are 4,000 babies killed every day, approximately one every 20 seconds. Can you hear their silent screams for mercy and justice?

We must not allow people the choice of murder. We must stand up and defend these children, for they cannot defend themselves.

SAM FLETCHER, Senior

Central High School

Cape Girardeau