In his recent article (Bioethics and the family, TMID, 22 April), Professor Pierre Mallia raised a number of ethical issues with regard to some very delicate situations. He stated that “while the doctor can only work within the law, it is appreciated that what is immoral is not necessarily illegal”.

I ask Professor Mallia: What about natural law? Isn’t natural law a sure enough guide to point out to all of us – believers (of whatever creed) and unbelievers – to make the correct decisions which respect human dignity at all stages of life?

The ten commandments are a guide to correct decisions and actions not only for Jews or Christians, but for every human being. This was affirmed by Bishop Mario Grech in an address he delivered at Sannat, on Sunday. He also explained that “one expects that for a human law to be morally good, it is to reflect the natural moral order”.

Although theology is my field of competence, I am not giving an answer from Scripture or from the Church’s Magisterium. I simply wish to reach out to all, without exception. I will just quote the Lankan philosopher of aesthetics (especially Indian arts) and metaphysician Ananda K. Coomaraswamy (1877-1947), also an expert on Indian religions: “There is a universal language, verbal and visual, of the fundamental ideas on which different civilisations are founded. In this commonly accepted axiology or body of first principles there is a common universe of discourse”.

He writes this in his book Transformation of Nature in Art, Harvard University Press 1935, pg.11. (See also the excellent article by Rasoul Sorkhabi on Coomaraswamy in Current Science 94/3 (10 February 2008) pgs.399-400).

This body of first principles guides us to understand that what is immoral always militates against human dignity, whether there are man-made laws which condone or prohibit an action or not.

Rev. Dr Hector Scerri

University of Malta,

Tal-Qroqq