To the editor:

According to the March 21 Journal-World, the Kansas House of Representatives wants the Kansas Supreme Court to declare that life begins at conception. It is true that human fetuses are (typically) alive. However, human sperm and unfertilized ova (at least, the ones capable of the biological process of fertilization) are also alive. Therefore, life does not begin at conception. Surely it is a bad idea for the Kansas Supreme Court to make a false declaration.

Supporters of choice should gain no comfort from this argument, for a similar line of thought can be used to show that life does not begin at any time after birth either. In addition, it’s not, as supporters of choice like to say with a sigh, that we just don’t know when life begins. What is known is that it doesn’t begin at any time that supports either side of the abortion issue.

If we frame the issue of abortion in terms of claims about when human life begins, and all such claims are demonstrably false, we are (to say the least) unlikely to arrive at an answer that seems true to all reasonable people. It’s no wonder that the abortion issue seems unresolvable. Happily, there are better ways of framing the dispute.

Don Marquis,

Lawrence