Dershowitz on Infanticide

In the article “Infanticide and Baby-Killing Aren’t the Same” (Commentary, Nov. 27), Alan Dershowitz states, “. . . no rational legal system would ever tolerate the death penalty for abortion.” Not true. Abortion is simply the deliberate taking of the life of a fetus. In law, the intent in the taking of that life is paramount. If a man kills a pregnant woman and kills the child she is carrying, he may very well be exposed to those “special circumstances” that could call for the death penalty under California law.

Oddly, while Dershowitz is sure execution is not the appropriate punishment for a mother who kills her newborn child, he does not say what he thinks an appropriate maximum punishment for her might be. Or for the child’s presumed father who was also present.

CHARLES W. CONNELL

Redondo Beach

* The thing that is bothering Dershowitz is the consistency of the right-to-life “zealots.” They have taken a principled stand on the right to life based on absolutes. People like Dershowitz (relativists) think this is extremist because they reject absolutes. By basing my life on absolutes, I have an assurance that the winds (and occasionally gales) of public opinion will not be cause for concern.

There may have been some distinction drawn in the past between life before birth and after. I think a solid case could be made that those distinctions were based on incomplete knowledge. Though our knowledge of human biology is still far from complete, it is obvious that conception creates a unique entity that, genetically, cannot be taken for anything but a human being. Now that we know this, how can we justify, for any cause except to save the physical life of the mother, putting that human being to death?

DAVID L. REBER

Whittier