To the editor:

Bill Skepnek’s letter of June 5 appropriately focuses on some key points. The first is that the killing of another human being is murder whether it is a child in the womb or a doctor that performs abortions. Second, no one on earth knows the extent of God’s grace and mercy. To make a judgment about repentance or the state of another’s soul at the moment of death is to tread into very dangerous spiritual ground indeed.

The reason we choose the words that we do is to frame the argument into proper context. To say we care more for words than the world is untrue. It is because we care about the world that we choose the words we use. Words have meaning. Take the word “choice.” What exactly are we choosing?

When our elderly reach a point where their quality of life is “poor” and their financial drain becomes “inconvenient,” do we have a right to “choose” for them? How about a “mass of cells and tissues”? Each of us is a mass of cells and tissue when you look at it logically. So why does a mass of cells and tissue in the womb that has its own DNA, heartbeat and autonomic nervous system, that allows it to feel pain, have less of a right to exist than you or I?

We have freedom of speech in this country, for now. We should not be afraid to call things as they are. We should also be prudent to refrain from labeling things that they are not.