LETTERS: MEMORY DEVELOPS EARLY IN GESTATION

To the editor:

Interesting news from the London Times: According to research by behavioral psychologists Stephen Evans from Keele University and Richard Parncutt from Bath University, we now have proof that babies at 20 weeks gestation are able to hear and remember music played by their mothers. In the past, it was assumed that fetal awareness depended on the development of the cortex, or upper part, of the brain. Now we know that memory and perception can develop in the thalamus, or lower part of the brain, which previously had been thought to be too primitive to store memory.

Meanwhile in Texas, Catherine Maury, a lawyer from Austin, and Simon Heller of the New York-based Center for Reproductive Law and Policy are appealing a district court's ruling that denies tax funding for elective abortions. The appeal seeks to overturn the state's policy of limiting abortions to cases of rape, incest and endangerment to the mother's life. This amounts to fewer than two dozen a year. A friend-of-the-court brief was filed by the Greater Austin Right to Life organization and was joined by 66 state senators and representatives who view the Texas Constitution as permitting the funding limits. This is sweet music to the ears of all those fetuses. Even in Texas there is still a ways to go to protect the innocent lives of babies conceived by rape or incest. A baby is a baby. No baby should ever be sentenced to death for the sins of the father.

Microsoft's chairman, Bill Gates, gave $1.7 million in a three-year grant to the U.N. Population Fund, which seeks to limit population growth in poor nations through abortions. Mr. Gates joins with many other big-name, wealthy donors, including tycoon Ted Turner, who gave the same fund $1 billion last October. Did anyone ever wonder why these very wealthy men, who have the ability to do so much for mankind, are so interested in limiting the population of the poor? I say to you that heaven itself will be filled to overflowing with the poor, and they will be happy for eternity. I don't think there will be too many country clubs in hell.

April 25 marks the day that Deborah Anderson became the proud mother of two adopted sisters during what is believed to be the largest adoption hearing ever. More than 130 children were official united with loving adoptive families. Attorneys, judges, social workers and court staffers volunteered their time to hold the hearings on a day when court is usually closed. Ms. Anderson is a single waitress who has been a foster parent and guardian to 34 children in Monterey Park, Calif. She adopted Jasmine, 7, and her sister, Venus, 4. Their brother, who is 2 and not yet ready for adoption, also lives with them. Venus came to Ms. Anderson when she was 6 months old. She had been found in a trash can with a bottle full of alcohol. The child had been going through withdrawal at the time she was found. God bless you, Ms. Anderson, and all of the 130 other families. For once, the words Planned Parenthood don't leave a sour taste in my moth. God bless the good citizens, including all of the court personnel and social workers in Monterey Park who made all of these families and me so happy.

CHRISTINE E. STEPHENS

Cape Girardeau