Kathryn Hogg’s column “Government, ‘anti-choice’ activists fail to recognize women’s rights” in the Kernel yesterday is thoughtful and well-written, but it blithely brushes aside the key issue in the abortion argument. “Serious debate on the issue” may have “moved past” the criteria for life, but that does not mean they are no longer relevant. Ms. Hogg’s thinly veiled attempt to compare unborn children to cancer and chickens furthers the idea that in order to rationalize abortion, you must reduce fetuses to something less than human.

Every person’s right to life should be absolute, and Ms. Hogg is on target in pointing out the blatant hypocrisy among some pro-life activists. Iraqi civilians, death-row inmates, people of all religions and backgrounds, and workers at abortion clinics all deserve that unalienable right. We cannot parcel it out; we cannot argue about “who has more rights.” We cannot echo the discriminatory policies of our past by elevating one human life over another. The point is that we are all equal, and true equality can be born only out of a deep respect for the intrinsic value of life and of every individual.

Tony Cox

UK alumnus