Letters

From the May 2008 Print Edition

Rejecting modern revisions

Ms. Alisa Farenzena:

I’ve been a Patriot reader long before I started attending UC Berkeley, so I was taken a bit off guard by your latest writings.

Not only were the stances you took in your “conservative” case for abortion reprehensible, you apparently didn’t even take two minutes to pull up the Wikipedia article on the Hippocratic oath. If you had, you would have known that the Hippocratic oath prescribes that doctors must “not give a woman an abortive remedy.” If you think Wikipedia unreliable, pull up the esteemed PBS NOVA Web page.

Admittedly, doctors sometimes take modern revisions of the oath, or other creeds altogether. Perhaps this satiates the desire for a more nuanced interpretation of the issues facing doctors in this politically and socially turbid time. This doesn’t mitigate the fact that your article makes you look like a tool.

I’m disappointed. This is supposed to be the conservative voice on campus, and better stewardship would be appreciated.

Dominic Beard

undergraduate

Reader suggests that it takes only $84,000 to raise a child

Dear Alisa,

After reading your article in the Patriot, I was prompted to contact you. I am a 79-year-old father of a 57-year-old daughter who was conceived out of wedlock. When her mother made that phone call to me, I was 22 years old. I had two part-time jobs and was living at home. The last thing on my mind was getting married and becoming a father. I was raised a Catholic and attended Catholic elementary and high schools. I was a virgin, but in a moment of weakness, I traded what I was taught to be sinful and against rules of God for a moment of pleasure. My immediate response was, would you like to get married? Her response was yes. That weekend at 3:45 a.m. we were married in Las Vegas. I tell you this because life is so precious. It’s interesting that so many people only cry out to God when they think they are going to lose their life. They somehow make the decision to take a life with no thought about the consequences of the child’s life they are about to abort. The infant cries out, I am a baby, not a choice. Alisa, your parents had to make a decision to accept the gift of God, when you came into their life.

I would like you to look at two Web sites. AbortionsUsa.com and PriestsforLife.com. All of the information you will find ugly. Death can be beautiful, especially if you expect to live with God forever. Abortion is ugly, and to witness a procedure is a lot to bare. When you consider that we commit murder, another sin we are taught not to commit. 25,000 abortions per week in just the U.S. is 25,000 too many. How do we change that? We start by electing to office pro-life candidates. We need more strict constructionist members on the Supreme Court. Roe v. Wade if overturned will return us to the rules that states make on abortion as it was prior Roe v. Wade. Many states did not allow abortion. John McCain is the only candidate who is pro-life.

I live in Marin County, where we have an organization called Pregnancy Resources, which is an all-volunteer self-funded group. They are just waiting for that phone call from a woman who needs information and help. They offer all of the services you will need, including adoption services if needed. In eight years they have saved 704 lives. And, it’s free. There is a national network of comparable facilities.

The information you gave about the cost of raising a child at $250,000 is actually $84,000. What price would you put on your life? We have to take more steps in the right direction. That lovely baby I said yes to has made me a very proud grandfather.

John Rogers

Marin County, CA

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