Several letter-writers in the August 6 edition confused a fertilized ovum with a child. This could well be compared with an acorn that will grow into a tree. In time and under proper conditions, both the fertilized ovum - a blastocyst of a few cells - and the acorn have the potential to become an infant and the acorn to become a tree.
The fertilized egg needs a minimum of 21 weeks of development to grow the circulation system, nerves, digestive system, and all the other parts necessary to survive outside the womb. Even then, while it may be an individual, it is still not a sentient person. That requires much more development.
To call a fetus an "unborn child," while emotionally satisfying, is not accurate. It is quite similar to the seed of the oak that has all the potential to become a tree. But as the acorn is not a tree, the fetus is not a child. To abort a fetus is no more the killing of a child than the crushing of acorns is deforestation.
WILLIAM L. PEET, ROCHESTER
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